A journey of the imagination...my week at John Campbell!

I am back from my fantastically inspiring trip to the John Campbell Folk School! It was a wonderful week of focused learning and creativity. It's amazing what you can accomplish with no distractions, chores, responsibilities or electronics!!!

My mom and I both took Kathryn Walmsley's Animal Pull Toys class. She inspired us with her beautiful craftmanship and dollmaking techniques. We learned how to make an armature with foam and wire from our sketches and then layer paperclay details on top of that. The best part for me was her instruction on painting. She uses very diluted acrylic paints brushed on in many layers to create depth and dimension. Then, she adds shadowing and accents with pastels. I cannot wait to get a set of pastels and incorporate them into my work. They add such a soft, wonderful quality.

Kathryn showing us her painting techniques...


Me working on my Cheshire Cat....


My mom sculpting a Boston Terrier, inspired by her own rescue dog, Louie...



In addition to our excellent class, we enjoyed delicious food....3 home cooked meals a day!!! Heaven!! The meals are served family style and allow you to get to know the other students. It is great fun to hear about the other classes (woodworking, blacksmithing, weaving, knitting, cooking, etc.) and enjoy people from all over the country...one lady came from Alaska and another one was visiting from Greece.

And in true cat lady fashion, I happened upon a homeless kitten one evening on my way back to class after dinner. I saw it running down a path crying and crying, so I grabbed a can of cat food out of my car and followed it until it finally stopped at a place on the campus called "Mouse Town" (very fitting, huh?). He was very scared and absolutely starving, so he gobbled up his shredded chicken. Long story short, in the next 48 hours, he was letting several of us pet him and was enjoying being fed all day long by the passersby. I went to Walmart and bought a carrier and a bag of kitten food, and during lunch on the last day, one of the students agreed to give him a home. I named him Campbell and packed him up that evening and sent him on his way! Thank goodness for a happy ending!!!

Little Campbell eating a meal at Mouse Town...



And voila! Here are a few photos of our completed animal pull toys!

Kathryn's exquisite bird sculpture....inspired by a Dr. Seuss character. She even made the tail feathers by felting wool roving.


Our fellow classmate's whimsical turtle and mermaid piece...


Mom's homage to her beloved Louie! And can you believe this is the first time she has EVER sculpted with paperclay????!!!! Unbelievable!


My version of the Cheshire cat!

Headed to the John Campbell Folk School!

My mom and I are heading to the John Campbell Folk School tomorrow!!! This will be our fifth mother/daughter trip there, and I am super excited to get away and learn some new creative skills. We are both taking a class on how to make animal pull toys with the amazingly talented Kathryn Walmsley. I took one of her classes on sculpting hands at the Folk School a few years ago. I know this one will be equally informative and inspiring! Check out this stunning pull toy made by her...fantastic!



I just can't decide what animal I am going to make!!! If you have any suggestions, please let me know. A cat seems fitting for me, of course, but I am thinking that I should keep my week cat free for a change :). We'll see....

I will catch you guys later! Have a wonderful week!

The SnipPets in Art Doll Quarterly!

I haven't actually seen the hard copy of the current Art Doll Quarterly issue, but here is a peek at my spread! The SnipPets and I are so proud and honored to be featured in such an amazingly beautiful magazine!

Secret Weapon: Chicken McNuggets?

Last night, I headed to the stockyards to trap the elusive mama cat who had those poor sick kittens that we rescued last week. We had tried to get her several times before, so I knew i had to come up with a new plan of attack: Operation Chicken McNuggets. I am a vegetarian, but i can tell you that even I can barely resist the smell of those darn chicken nuggets. Well, it took about 10 minutes and that mama cat was in our trap!! Yahooooooooo!! I did a lot of cheering and jumping up and down...the happy cat dance!

I got this beautiful bobtail torti girl home and when i put the trap down, she started meowing and came to the front of the trap....ferals never do that. And then she ate the extra food that I slipped inside the trap while I sat there...ferals don't do that either. So then i decided to carefully put my finger through the side of the trap and touch her side. When I did that, she lifted up and started to purr and then began head butting the trap....ferals DEFINITELY don't do that!!! I reached inside and scratched her chin and she rolled right over. Oh boy, this poor sweetie had clearly been someone's pet and got abandoned at the stockyards.

Her spay appointment isn't until tomorrow, so i decided to bring her inside and put her in my guest bedroom. I let her out of the trap and put her up on the bed. She was purring like crazy and making biscuits on the bed. She is so affectionate!!! I am so torn now. I absolutely hate the thought of putting her back out there, but we have 6 kittens to find homes for and finding good homes for adult cats is extremely difficult. We'll just have to see what we can do.

I tried to take photos of her, but the camera scared her, so i can't share this lovely girl with you yet. BUT here are a few photos of Gilly and Basil...they are always more than happy to mug for the camera :)!!

HUGE Halloween Blowout SnipPet Sale!!! 40% OFF!

First, a BIG huge THANK YOU to all of the wonderful customers who made October the best month for The SnipPets yet!!!!!! I am incredibly grateful for your support!!! You allow me to keep on creating and live an artists' dream :)...oh yeah, and help a whole lot of kitties in need (that's the best part!).

And now I am ready to clear the cobwebs out of my shop, so to speak. All of my Halloween SnipPet Spooks are 40% off as of today! Check out the SALE section in my Etsy shop. It's time to make room for whimsical new creations. I am headed to the John Campbell Folk School next week and will be learning some new dollmaking skills from one of the best dollmakers around, Kathryn Walmsley. I am SOOOO excited to have a week of uninterrupted creative time with no distractions!! Yahoo! It's going to be F-U-N!

It may not be the Ritz, but.....

....it's a vast improvement! I am talking about the garage makeover I did yesterday. I have been helping a man TNR the cats that constantly show up in his yard for several months, and I decided that I HAD to redo his garage for many reasons. I have written about this situation before, but things have gotten a bit crazier lately. The dear man, Don, who feeds the cats is blind and his wife, Jean, is confined to a wheelchair. They can barely pay for their own food and personal needs and yet still worry about the neverending stream of kitties that end up at their house and do their best to feed and care for them. About 6 weeks ago, Don had to have gall bladder surgery and called on me to feed the cats while he recovered. During this time, I discovered that his neighbor was starting to trap the cats again to have them euthanized. This happened a few months ago and I desperately tried to change their minds to no avail. They hate the cats...period. And sadly, the cats love to hang out under their shed and in their backyard. So, this time, the best I could do was sneak into their driveway and release any cats that were in his trap. Trespassing is certainly not my normal behavior, but there was no way I could see that happening and not do something about it. Unfortunately, since I couldn't be there 24/7, he was able to get 2 young kitties. It still makes me so sad to know that they are gone. They weren't doing anything wrong and we had TNRed them. To make matters worse, the aggravating, irresponsible neighbor on the OTHER side will not let us get his female cat spayed for him, so he has kittens on his front porch that I KNOW will end up in Don's yard eventually. The whole situation is ridiculous, one neighbor producing homeless cats, one man trying to feed them and get them TNRed and one neighbor carting them away to be euthanized. It makes me want to pull my hair out to say the least. It is SO frustrating when you try to educate people on the humane course of action AND offer to do all the work and pay for it, and they STILL won't do the right thing. Sigh....

Well, my next thought was to TRY to entice the cats to stay in Don's garage instead of under the neighbor's shed. So, yesterday, I took the plunge and cleaned out all of the junk in there and filled it with straw. That garage was a smelly, dirty, moldy, nasty, spider filled MESS! It felt SO good to remove years of ICK out of there! I created a nice, clean feeding station and put mounds straw on tables and shelves and all over the ground....so many nice, warm places for the kitties to make nests and stay dry and cozy this winter. I hope, hope, hope they will set up camp there now! Keep your paws crossed that they do!

OH, and as I was cleaning, a calico cat (that won't get in out traps) sat in the back of the garage nursing her 4 precious kittens!!! I had a feeling that there were some in there, but hadn't seen them until yesterday. I wish I could rescue them, but Carrie's Catnap Inn is at full capacity, so they will have to stay there for now.

7 cats eating on the front porch...

Don's garage...


All the junk! The "before" photo...and this was after i had taken a lot of stuff out!

The new feeding station...

The "after" shots of the garage turned cat barn!



3 of the kittens exploring their new bedding...

A SnipPet makes it into Romantic Homes magazine!

My little holiday Rosalie Rabbit munchkin is featured in the current Christmas issue of Romantic Homes magazine!! SO very exciting!!! Someone needs to pinch me...can't believe I am actually published in such a lovely publication :). Many thanks to Sandy Wood, the Pfatt Marketplace leader, for submitting my SnipPet doll!

I will be creating a limited edition of this rabbit (sculpted and painted to order), so if you'd like to purchase her, you will find her at this link.