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I would love to put up pictures of the cool stuff that Brad and I have been working on, but unfortunately, much of it is super-duper top secret Christmas stuff, so we’ll have to wait to show off.  After Christmas, I will be sure to do a post on how surprisingly artsy my computer geek husband is.

Meanwhile, what with the terrible, icy-cold weather we’ve been having, Brad and I have had several “dates” where we don’t leave the house, but rather huddle in the basement doing our various art projects in tandem.  He’s doing something very cool and impressive.  I am making cows.  Well, one cow, to be exact, and various other things (that I can’t show).

A couple years ago, I became obsessed with having the coolest nativity scene.  My family had a really original one, full of hand-made animals by various members of the family.  In among the doves and barn animals were elephants with snakes on their backs (one of us made that as a young child), a lop-sided donkey, very anorexic looking wise men, and a brown bear.  Animals by my mother were beautiful and balanced, with expressions of wonder on their sweet faces.  My dad tends more towards stocky animals with prominent genitals, but that is another story…

Anyway, putting together the nativity scene was quite an event in our family, but of course, we never called it a “Nativity Scene”.  As an adult, I realized that sometimes my family has our own vocabulary for some things.  We called it “The Crib Set”, and frankly I don’t know why.  I guess because Jesus was laid in “the crib”?  I don’t know.

I decided this last week that I needed to make more animals for my crib set.  The Holy family are all from Peru and they came with two llamas with delicate legs that promptly broke.  No matter.  I face them towards the family and you would never know.  Of course, when I dropped an angel on the wise men and took off one of their heads, that was more of an obstacle to overcome.  

Here is my cow.  I guess it is a bull.

 

 You know how you work on something and keep changing little pieces to try to get it right?  Sometimes a little sculpture will just defy you… and it never feels right.  That is sort of how I felt with the front of this guy.  I’m not sure what it is- the tilt of his head?  The heft or the way his weight doesn’t seem to rest anywhere?  Something is wrong.  The back, however, was just right.  Something about the spine really looks like the county fair to me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t let the blizzard go by without making something!  Happy Crafty time!

In: Projects That I Do With My Clever Little Fingers | | #