New Christmas Design!

 This little German style Navitity Christmas lamb is too cute! He's made from paperclay and has hand carved stick legs. His needled cotton coat is overdyed and antiqued with coffee. He sports a hand dyed scarlet red shoe lace collar with a tiny rusty bell and stands 2 and 3/4" high at the head. He's gonna look great on the tree!  I wll post something about the mushroom when I get a better photo.

Great Stuff! Ferry Building Gallery

  I am pleased to announce that my work will be once again found at the Great Stuff Christmas Sale at the Ferry Building Gallery in West Vancouver on November 30th, 2012  to Dec 21st,2012. If you are in town of have a chance to visit, come on by I will be at the gallery periodically as well as opening night to meet people. If you would like one of my bears, this is a great opportunity. For directions click on the image above.
  Shown below are some shots of the gallery and my window display from 2011.

The Ferry Building Gallery in West Vancouver

2011 Window Display Sue Gorrie Folkart.

The Life Of Pinky The Pumkin And Little Gummer

 The Life Of Pinky The Pumkin And Little Gummer

Stay tuned for more Pinky and Gummer this week. For a peek into their future here's a peek at last year's pumkin .

Paperclay Folkart Christmas Ornaments Past

Thought you would like to see some of my past Christmas work and the types of things that adorn my tree each year. Each design starts off with a rough sketch, some Paperclay, armature wire, styrofoam, acrylic paints and various carving tools.

Christmas Paperclay Angel Ornament Limited Edition

Paperclay Roly Poly Elephant One Of A Kind

 

Roly Poly Chubby Rabbit

 Roly Poly Peter Rabbit

Roly Poly Bear

Roy The Redcoat Jointed Soilder

Jointed Limited Edition Clown Bear

Sheep Pull Toy Limited Edition

New Gallery Bear With A Blue Cape Coat

A white winter bear for the gallery. So here she is already to be sent off to the gallery. She has beautiful blue eyes, a tilt growler, German glass glitter snowflake and a blue cordoroy cape coat. This is my first Victorian style cape coat design with a flowered liner and vintage leather buttons. I think this bear will particularily age well.

"Great Stuff" Sneak Peak

Introducing Timmy a bear in a book. 9" Timmy with a red wool scarf and bell, sits in his own little book box with an imitation fir sprig and vintage ornament. Timmy holds his very own German glittered bottle brush tree. He will be available at the "Great Stuff" Christmas Show at the Ferry Building Gallery in West Vancouver starting November 18th, 2011. He has a sweet face doesn't he?

"Great Stuff" Show- Ferry Building Gallery

I am pleased to announce I will be taking part in the "Great Stuff" Gallery Show at the Ferry Building Gallery in West Vancouver. I will be selling bears big and small as well as Christmas paperclay ornaments. Admission is FREE.  Show opens November 17th, 2011 and ends December 18th, 2011. Click on the pic for more details.

Goofy Jack-O-Lantern

I still can't resist an afternoon of pumpkin carving. Photo via iPad 2 and Pixlr-o-matic.

Primitive Folkart by Owen Scott

Primitive Folkart Noah's Ark by Owen Scott

Some people seem to be born with an innate sense of art and design and not even know it, such as people like my friend Owen. He really doesn't think he's an aritist. He has no training but the training of life and trial and error. Yet yet everything he makes gives you that "WOW" and "I love it!" factor. You can tell each piece was made with the thoughts of a particular loved one in mind. He says that it's hard when someone wants him to make them one of his pieces of folkart because it's never the same. The feeling required just isn't there. I can really identify with this when you are making things that move the heart. 

Owen started with the gift of a whitling knife from his wife. She thought it would be a great way for him to unwind. On a vacation he took the knife and block of wood and made a little version of their cat, Gilligan. He graduated later to a scroll saw and a skill saw. He made large furniture like tables,cupboards, a bed. Anything his wife asked for really. 

This included bird houses for her beautiful garden.

Owen carves small birds and animals as well as using found objects in his work as is the case below of "Mr. Dundarave" made form driftwood found at Dudarave Beach in West Vancouver, BC.

 "Mr. Dundarave" by Owen Scott

Some of my favorite pieces are the automata pieces. The ones that turn with a crank and do an action, like sawing Uncle Sam and the Train Stop Man.

Owen's work inspires me. The sense of play, the simple yet sweet details and the feeling I get when I look at his work. It's stuff you want to touch and feel and play with.  I believe that what's in our hearts comes out in the things we create. I see warmth and love for his wife in every wood cut , scratched and painted patina.

I hope my work can always have the feeling that what I made was made for someone that I loved because I think that's our best work of all.

Freedom in the Design Process

Sometimes the design process can be a bit frustrating trying to get just the look that you want, especially when resizing and shrinking a pattern. I have tried a few techniques to get my resizing perfect all to no avail because of the geometric complexity of the pattern of curves and angles and the scaling of a pixel vs. the scaling of a regular rulers' inch. Shown above is a new prototype 12" bear. I make up a prototype bear in muslin fabric and then pin it together and mark the areas I want to change. This time I made 8 heads before I got the look I wanted.

I tried special "scaled rulers" at 1/2 scale and 3/4 scale which do a bit better job than scaling the pattern in Photoshop, but the angles were still off. (Some areas would be too chubby or too thin.) The height proportions were much better though. This technique works great for making clothing patterns to fit the bears as there aren't as many extreme curved shapes to deal with. To get some printable scale rulers visit this link. I found it very informative. I used the radial technique to shrink my bear patterns.

http://deofsf.com/Resources/Scale-Rulers.pdf

 I think it's time to do some freehand guess pattern making. This can be more freeing and satisfying since one isn't "trying" to make any particular look. This is when the good mistakes help you create something new and fresh. I took this approach with my drawing and it really helped my attitude that my drawings weren't "good enough" and improved my drawings. New respect goes out to those artists that can make their bears look the same no matter what size they are. It's a long process that requires patience and a bit of guess work. But, somewhere in there one has to keep that feeling of freedom to create whatever comes out. This is what truly gives one's work it's own identity and character.