She's Off Her Rocker: February 2011

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Bunnies and Moons Galore!

I have been working all month on my pieces for my first ESC Trading Company deadline and here they are! I just love the spring like palette. I think turquoise is the most delicious color and I went wild with it. I found I really enjoyed working with the rabbit as a subject! I believe that is because I have always loved them, and have so many memories of them and experiences with them woven into my own childhood experience. For one, my father used to read me nightly tales from a large red hardback book called Uncle Wiggly. Inside the book, there were a very few black and white illustrations of him as an upright walking rabbit with cane and top hat. He was so dapper and dashing and always saved children from their own follies!

Of course I loved The Easter Bunny, too, and I pictured him a REAL bunny, but a magical one, and in my mind he was male. When I was very small, starting at about three years old, I was able to feed the wild rabbits in the woods behind our home! I would take lettuce and carrots and they would eat right from my hand. I would sit patiently at the end of the big back yard, right by the edge of the woods on a huge low sitting railroad tie bench my father made, and wait for them to come. And they did! I also discovered and loved the book Watership Down, with its own rabbit mythology and language (all gently clothed in rabbit spirituality!) All of these things combined made it very fun to work with the rabbit as a subject!

This is my version of Uncle Wiggly, but I gave him a dappled and spotted coat instead of brown.

My sister was a huge help and she crafted this pole we designed from an old postcard image of an Easter Rabbit carrying such a toy. It is meant to spin and wind the ribbons around and round the pole! The ring at the top is real metal. It really works, although the little eggs don't weigh enough to weight it into a proper spin.

I loved sculpting his top hat, and just look how dashing he became!!

Here is one of my favorites! I love the rabbit jumping over the moon and would like to do more variations and sizes of this one! The rabbit has a real tiny bell around his neck!

Here is a 12" tall brown Brown Bunny Candy Bucket,...maybe it will become a child's easter basket!

Another rabbit, this piece is large, 22 inches high total!

I just love a flying rabbit and in the carousel/weathervane type feel! maybe I will try a fancier carousel one next. I toyed with the idea of a bridle and reins,...but time was an issue!!

I wanted to try a very cartoonish, retro type bunny and here she is,...another candy container/bucket....I don't know why but she reminds me of that cartoon penguin Chilly Willy.

One of my favorites was the Jack in the Box Bunny,...also a large piece...

Here is a bunny,... in a cone! He could be hung on your door as an easter Greeting. I wish I had made a small banner for it, but was cutting it close for time!

Here is a Blue and pink bunny on a pole! I wanted to make it a Maypole type pole but then loved the collar with him,...so left off the ribbonry,..

Next one I make I am hanging jingle bells from each ear,... like a jester!

I tried my hand at a little duckling, but traditional yellow seemed too predictable.

Moons with bunny ears!!

What finery!!

An Easter Moon!

A detailed shot of my Bedtime Moon and Mouse piece,..

Bunnies sitting atop egg characters,...

Their tiny collars are perfect and cute and made of ribbon, (thanks to my fabulously talented sister who always comes to assist me in the heat of a deadline for stitching these for me!!)

I love this blonde and white bunny!

Colors so bright they make you want to eat candy!

Group shot! Everyone stand still!

TaDa!!! That's all from me for Easter this year! I may take a few orders and have a few Easter tricks up my sleeve for my page on SpookyTime Jingles in March! So please come back soon!