I have come to the conclusion that sculpting during the week is just not feasible for me at this time. My daughter is a spitfire and I have to be able to toss down whatever I am working on with a seconds notice to scoop her up before she wreaks complete havoc. The clay I use is messy and dries relatively quickly, making it not at all conducive to constant stepping away, occasionally for long periods of time. While I am itching to start sculpting, it will have to wait until the weekend when I have another pair of hands around to help stop my pretty little tornado.

Sewing work, on the other hand, is ideal for me to be working on during the week. And so I have started crafting something that has been whirling around my head for quite some time: a large(ish) scale cloth and clay doll. I made the pattern for the lower body and have almost finished the embroidery work on the two sides. I am using muslin stained with an avocado pit & skin (it rendered a pale pink color that I unfortunately couldn’t capture in the photographs) and coffee stained thread. It’s been tedious (however enjoyable!) work and I am pretty sure I will cry if this doesn’t come together how I want it to.

This doll will tie into another project that I will just touch on briefly. My husband and I recently worked on a small 12 panel comic for a local publication and we had such an enjoyable experience finally creating something together that we want to do more. I have written a few more short stories to be made into comics, one of which will feature the cloth and clay doll. Our hope is to spend the summer creating enough comic shorts to compile into a self-published book. 

Well, taking final photographs has proved a near impossible feat. I don't like using anything but natural light and since these dolls in particular are humanoid plants I feel it is imperative that they are photographed outside. 
Having a young child and needing a good amount of time outside without distraction, I had to wait until the weekend so my other half could keep watch over our budding trouble maker (side note: I am beginning to think she's actually part raccoon). Lo and behold it ended up being a very busy weekend and we were hardly home. 
I was able to take a few moments and try to capture some images. Of course it was 80 degrees with the brightest sun I have seen all year, not the best lighting by a long shot. Needless to say, I wasn't pleased with the bulk of the few photographs I was able to take. I managed to have two shots that I was content with, so it wasn't a complete failure I suppose. 

Luckily, there is a chance of thunderstorms for the next two days. My fingers (and toes) are crossed that everything will align and I will get some nice cloud cover without rain + have a half hour or so to steal away outside alone.

On a positive note, I put in my order for some appropriate shipping boxes for these goils and they should be here soon. I am optimistic that a shop update will be able to be announced some time this week.