Meanwhile, Back in the Workshop...

I am happy to say that I was finally able to get back into the workshop this past weekend. Now that I'm in the second trimester of my pregnancy, I actually have the energy and the stomach to get back to work (morning sickness was a real b*tch!). 

 

I managed to sand and shape about a dozen animals and trees, which are now ready for painting.  Then I cut out almost two dozen other animals.  There are slim pickings over in the Faery Tree Creations shop right now, but my goal is to restock the shop within the next few weeks.  Working full time during the day, then trying to fit in time to cut, sand, shape and paint for my toy business AND spend time with family (all on top of being pregnant) is not an easy thing! Thank goodness I have such a supportive husband, who doesn't mind me spreading all my painting stuff across the coffee table in the living room to work while we watch TV together. 

I had my faithful, orange eyed companion with me the whole time I was in the workshop. Oráiste has no fear of the scroll saw, nor the hand sander or Dremel. As a matter of fact, she liked the Dremel...when it wasn't running. The sanding bit apparently tasted good! 

 

Please excuse the workshop floor, it's rather gross with all the dirt, crud and sawdust. Ory didn't care, she was happy to sit in sawdust and play hockey with the little scraps of wood that hit the floor.  Some days, I think she's part dog.  She was picking up scrap wood and chewing on it - weirdo!

While messing around with some larger scrap wood (that Miss Ory hadn't chewed on), I cut out this gigantic tree and base. It's much larger than any of the other trees that I cut out, since I free handed this one and didn't use my normal pattern (with the base, it probably measures almost a foot high).  I think I'll paint it up for our autumn nature table...that I have yet to set, because our cats thoroughly enjoy playing with it. I have this image of waxed leaves that have been collected from outside, mini pumpkins from our garden and some of my wooden animals...but Sid (our little black bully of a beast cat) likes to throw the wooden animals to the floor for our Yorkie to play with and Ory just likes to sleep on the table. Our other two cats ignore it.  

As the painting gets completed and the new product goes up on Etsy, I'll keep posting about my progress.

Enjoy your autumn days!

In Search of Dragons

My stepdaughter is obsessed with dragons. I'm pretty sure that the topic of dragons comes up at least four dozen times a day. So when I started making my little wooden animals, I knew that I'd have to make Ellie some dragons.

Well, after I finished sealing some of the toys, she was checking out the finished product and she asked the inevitable question: "Can I play with them?"  I hated to have to tell her no, but I had already listed them for sale in the shop; they were product.  But I promised her that I would make her some of her own, so she could play with them.

About 20 minutes later came the inevitable NEXT question: "Can you make me dragons?"

How could I say no to that face??? 

So this past weekend, I designed and cut out wooden dragons for Ellie!

I made a winged dragon and a water dragon.

  

I tried my hand at using watercolor paint on them, rather than acrylic and spray shellac, rather than the water-based sealer.  Using watercolor paint did NOT produce the effect I wanted, so I went back to acrylic and I loved the spray shellac (painting on shellac is awful and I don't recommend it!).

I may just have to make a new category in the shop...Faery Tree Fantasy Collection!