Moss mask and creepy little goblin feet

Okay so I finished the clay mask and...I'm not sure how I feel about it. I decided to do something with moss, so now it looks like it has a weird moss moustache. Also moss tends to get everywhere, so yeah. It was all over the place. It was interesting to work with, though, and I like how it fanned out at the top.

This project started out as a sort of ocean-themed thing, and I hoped the moss would work well for that - I wanted it to look like seaweed. Now I think it looks a bit like something you'd find posted at Regretsy. I'll probably wind up repainting it - I liked it better when it was black and ivory.

Panda isn't too sure about it either.

Here are the webby goblin feet.

That's all for right now. I hope to get some more work done on the goblin sculpt soon, but my various writing projects are taking up quite a lot of my time.

Life and all that, plus! Obligatory pet photo

I rolled out of bed today, stepped on the dog, then found my glasses and wandered into the kitchen in search of coffee, my most dependable friend at the early hour of mid afternoon.
As I surveyed the state of my living room over breakfast, I discovered tumbleweeds of dog hair lurking in the corners which may have acheived some sort of sentience at this point. I think some of them may have twitched. Yes, I need to vacuum.

I have a Great Pyrenees named Marzipan, AKA Panda. She is an extremely large, fluffy white dog who sheds a lot. My closet is a sea of black. I am fond of dark velvet curtains. Yeah. You can imagine. It is a neverending war on pet hair around here.
Anyway. So I need to get my house ready for Thanksgiving guests. I only have about a million other things to do this week as well, just...gah!
I really wanted to attend the Dances of Vice Grand Shipwreck Ball this weekend, but being one of the starving artist types I couldn't make the trip. For some reason I have felt the need to go out and swan around lately. That usually involves making more clothes.
In other news I hope to have the clay mask finished tomorrow. Unfortunately I was unable to find any pheasant feathers for my steampunk gas mask. I may have to cannibalize a wreath for some. More than likely that project will be on hold until next week though.

More work in progress - quick update

The clay mask is dry now, and I've noticed that along with all the tiny cracks it has from drying, the nose looks to be teensy bit sideways. So I'm fixing that and painting it this weekend. I decided to go with the iridescent green and blue to give it an oceanic look. It may even wind up with fins or tentacles.
I'm off to buy more supplies tomorrow. I need feathers, fake hair, vinyl paint and brass acrylic for the next mask project.
Writing  - I finished a short story last week, well, a long-ish short story that may well be a novella, that I really enjoyed writing. It takes place in my mythical cities, and the protaganist is a sort of Dickens orphan/fairy Huckleberry Finn. She was a lot of fun to write. The story wound up being a spin on the Bluebeard cycle of stories, with a surprising outcome.
I started doing some watercolors of my characters and settings, and that's been fun too.
I have two short works of horror sitting here languishing. I need to finish them and find a home for them...

Masks

Here are a couple of masks I've been working on. The first one is still a work in progress. It needs to be painted. The original idea was to paint it iridescent green and blue, but now I'm thinking of leaving the sculpted parts a bone color. The clay still hasn't dried, so we'll see.

This one I finished a long time ago, but I decided it needed an update. More feathers!

Goblin sculpture update:

Today I finished his legs and feet. He has webbed, clawed feet with an extra taloned heel (so he can keep his balance). The body tended to tip over due to the weight, so now he has extremely odd feet. The tail should help keep the thing upright as well. I hope to at least have the body sculpt finished next weekend, and after that I'll need to start detailing it with clay. I will post pics of it next week - there's not a whole lot to look at right now - just strange webby feet.

Happy Friday the Thirteenth

I thought I'd post about some random superstitions tonight.

CATS
Cats, of course, have a unique place in superstition. All over the world cats were believed to have powers of good or evil. They could see spirits, foretell death, and even control the elements. It was believed at one time that all witches kept cats as familiars. In the United States it is considered bad luck for a black cat to cross your path. However, in Britain black cats are good luck, and white cats are extremely unlucky. If a black cat comes uninvited into your house, it is a sign of good fortune to come, and must not be chased away or the luck will leave. If someone in the house is ill and the cat leaves, the sick person will die.

SHOVEL
It is unlucky to carry a shovel through a house, as it is a sign that soon a grave must be dug.

SNAILS
Snails were believed to have the power of healing many different illnesses. A gypsy remedy for cough was to put a black snail in brown sugar, and when the snail's slime is mixed in with the sugar it was given to the sick person to eat. In the seventeenth century snail slime was a seriously recommended cure for consumption. The snails were taken from their shells, mixed with sugar, water, barley and milk to make an emulsion. As late as 1929 people in the Blue Ridge Mountains took snails (by swallowing a live one every day for nine days) to cure tuberculosis. It was thought that during the course of the treatment the snails lived in the stomach for a while and their slime would heal the lungs. On Halloween night a charm could be used to find the initials of a future husband or wife by putting a snail on the hearth and letting it crawl in the ashes. In the morning the initials would be traced in the ash. A black snail crossing your path was bad luck, and to ward off misfortune the person had to grab the snail's horn and throw it over their left shoulder.

HEDGEHOG
The hedgehog was considered unlucky - it was thought that they drank up all the cow's milk when the cow was lying in the grass. A hedgehog entering a house was extremely bad luck. The hedgehog was also credited with knowing when storms were coming.
"Observe which way the hedgehog builds her nest,
To front the north or south, or east or west;
For if 'tis true what common people say,
The wind will blow the quite contrary way.
If by some secret art the hedgehogs know
So long before, which way the winds will blow,
She has an art which many a poor person lacks,
That thinks herself fit to make almanacks."
- Poor Robin's Almanack, 1733

LADYBUG
A bright red ladybug brings good fortune. It is thought to be good luck if a ladybug lands on you. It must be allowed to fly away on its own, however. A children's rhyme goes:
"Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home.
Your house is on fire and your children are gone."

LEAVES
It is ill luck if trees shed their leaves before autumn. It is unlucky to keep withered leaves in the house, and a Welsh tradition states that dead leaves left in a church where a baby was christened means an early death for the child. If leaves make a rustling noise all of a sudden, it means it will rain soon. An old rhyme speaks of a tradition concerning new leaves on the oak and ash:
"If the oak comes before the ash,
We shall only have a splash.
If the ash comes before the oak,
We are sure to have a soak."

SHADOWS
It is a very ancient belief that a shadow is a person's soul, or a mysterious entity tied to that person. As such, any harm that came to the shadow would injure, or even kill, that person. This idea survives today in the belief that it is bad luck to step on someone's shadow. Baring-Gould writes in his Book of Folk-Lore that he observed children scream angrily if another child stepped on their shadow, saying that it hurt them. In a legendary Irish tale the hero Fionn pursues his enemy without rest, finally killing him by throwing a spear through his shadow. In Eastern Europe there was a belief that a newly built house would not stand unless something had been buried alive in the foundation. Builders sometimes made the neccessary sacrifice by measuring a man's shadow in secret with a length of string, and then burying the string under the stone.

Source: The Encyclopedia of Superstitions, E. and M.A. Radford

"...quoth the bluejay"

  Everyone is familiar with the raven's role in mythology. They are often considered birds of prophecy and doom, and omens of death. The Norse god Odin kept two ravens, a black and white pair named Hugin and Munin - Thought and Memory. It was said they flew far and wide gathering news and information for Odin, and flew back to report to him, thus keeping him better informed than anyone else. The Danes and Vikings bore the symbol of the raven upon their sails. To them, the raven was a token of good fortune and luck. Another member of the Corvid family who is less well known for his role in folklore and myth is the Bluejay.

In Native American lore, the jay was associated with war. These fearless birds mob together and often attack other birds and even people to drive them from their territory. Pueblo war priests would wear bluejay feathers and put them on their prayer sticks in the belief that the feathers would drive their enemies mad. The voice of the bluejay alone is sometimes enough to unnerve, however. They have a startling array of vocal abilities, and are good mimics. They call out with a warning to other jays, and the distinctive noise earned them the name Schreachag Choille in Scotland - "Screamer in the Woods". Well known for their ability to imitate musical instruments, they were kept as prized pets in ancient Greece, and were sacred to the god Dionysus.

Jays were believed to kill ghosts - although they may in fact have been sending them on to the underworld. For like his cousin the raven, the bluejay has ties to the world of the dead. It is said you never see a bluejay on Friday, because that is the day the bluejay carries sticks down to Hell in order to keep the fires burning. They are also, like Hugin and Munin, messengers of a sort. They spy and carry conversations back to the fairy folk.

Jays are known for being tricksters and makers of mischief. They can be found all over, even in cities, but in the country they especially love to stay near oak trees, being fond of acorns. The bluejay is credited with spreading the great forests of the world by burying acorns and then forgetting about them.

Source: The Secret Language of Birds, Adele Nozedar

An Irish Trickster Spirit - The Fir Darrig

The Fir Darrig, also known as the Fir Dearg or Fear Druck, is a rather fearsome Irish spirit associated with water.

They are found in sewers and under bridges, on river banks or near the sea. In appearance the Fir Darrig resembles a stooped old man with ratlike features - including a rat tail. They wear filthy and stained cloaks over their ragged, yet flamboyant, clothes. The cloaks are most often a dark reddish-brown in color, which gives the Fir Darrig another name - The Red Man.

The Fir Darrig is a scavenger with a dark sense of humor. They are morbidly obsessed with death and bizarre death rituals. They have a love for sewage and pollution, and their favorite meal is carrion, although they occasionally eat people as well.

Fir Darrigs will sometimes approach a human and engage them in conversation, and even knock on a door and ask to warm themselves by the fire. They have been known to enter houses uninvited. You must always be polite to the Fir Darrig and allow him to stay as long as he wishes, but beware any advice he may give. He is a trickster spirit - and if he offers a wish he will grant it, but with a negative twist. He delights in the troubles of others. If you meet him, say "Don't mock me!"...it might work. It is wise to offer him a gift of tobacco or food, and if you can put up with his teasing long enough, he will bring you good luck. In this he is a contradiction.

The Fir Darrig will often claim he was once human, and may even warn you about the dangers of speaking to his kind.