Hope you don’t mind me sending this picture of the witch showing her without her boots, or stockings even and her arms not yet connected. You can see that one arm is painted with the ‘flesh’ (acrylic paint) but the other one is still mainly primed with Gesso.
Connected the arms to the body when they were finish-painted and the blouse sleeves were on….did this by drilling holes in both the body and arm on either side, then gluing a wire to the body on either side (in the holes) and then gluing the arms to the shoulder/body.
I made her ‘blouse’ out of a piece of dinner napkin where I painted white dots in rows vertically to give some detail to her blouse. You can see 2 of the napkin pieces are ‘dot’ painted and one of them…not. Made a little collar out of the napkin where I cut the edges with scalloped sheers and then painted that edging with white Gesso to stiffen it and add a little dimension. Because the ‘clay’ that I made with shredded-up dinner napkin, white Tacky glue and white Gesso was so messy and didn’t really lend itself to fine details (like distinctive fingers and finger nails), had to cut the fingers out when the arm and hand was finally dry and then add individual finger nails made of regular white paper when the fingers were finally trimmed into a good enough shape.
The ‘slip’ used part of the allowed tinfoil. It was cut using scalloped scissors, painted all over with white Gesso and then detail painted on the edge with, again, white Gesso. Once finished, put a narrow seam on one side of the main piece and then pleated the top to confirm with the witch’s waste before gluing the main piece together and then to the witch.
‘Hair’….made with a cotton ball that was pulled into a long narrow piece, hand-rolled and then wound around a toothpick for a week or so. Gives it that curl! The black ‘circle’ on the white piece of paper is actually the witch’s hat, without any detail added yet.
Did not glue down much of anything except the witch and the broomstick holder. Everything else was ‘tacked’ down with Museum Wax because I wasn’t sure exactly where I wanted it to go. This picture does show the elaborate hinge on the door, though. The crow is still on the cauldron but you can’t really see him. That’s why I took the other picture showing more of a close-up. No matter how carefully I take the pictures, something always doesn’t show….like the ‘straps’ standing up from each of the ‘monster purses’!
The crow is perched on the cauldron at the back of the group.
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| The completed scene |
TRASH TO TREASURE ITEMS USED
Feathers: Used for wings/tail on crow; the feather ‘stems’ used as vials of elixir on the witch’s tray; feathers for the witch’s hat
Beads: 2 used for ‘cauldrons’, the rest used in potion bottles
Cotton balls: 1 used (stripped down to narrow strips and wound around a toothpick) for witch’s hair
Eraser: For the witch’s boots; left-over pieces used for the cat’s head and the man-eating plant’s jaw
Stir sticks: Door; broomsticks and broomstick holder
Small box: Witch’s pedlar tray
Stickers: Moon on witch’s hat; eye in the ‘brooch’ at the joining of the cape on her chest
Greeting card: Ridged edging around the wooden door; legs on frog; roof of upper jaw for man-eating plant, shaping around binder clips (shark-skin leather look purses)
Fun foam sheet Shaping on wire armature for witch’s hips and bosoms; under-shaping for baby owls’ heads; pillow for baby owls; back legs on cat
Felt square: Witch’s cape; the snake; tail for the cat; quilt for the baby owls
Toothpicks: Legs on cat; suggestion of body for baby owls
2 sheets of 8 ½” x 11
paper: Witch’s fingernails; ivy leaves and man-eating plant leaves; ivy stems, twirly stems and teeth on man-eating plant; sign for ‘Rune Stones’ and for potion bottle and vial labels; masks; sign on wooden door; handles for shark-skin leather purses; strap for the witch’s tray; pages of potion book; a small amount for the top of the witch’s body (to make ‘shoulders’ and main chest area)
Cardstock: Witch’s hat; ‘bones’ in Bone Appetit cauldron; pot that the man-eating plant is in; handles on the cauldron with ridged lines; top narrow ridge on the witch’s tray; moons on the broomstick stand; tail on the crow
Q-tips: Stem part used as stem on the man-eating plant; a Q-tip missing one ‘bud’ used for butt and ‘spine’ of cat
Push pin: Bottom of 2 used as bases for the gazing ball and the skull head
6” length of ribbon: Found a weird ribbon that had lots of threads in it that I took apart and used to make the brooms; painted some of it green/brown for grasses underneath the left-hand ivy
Toiletry lid: Used a small travel shampoo bottle for the cauldron with the crow on it, frog-leg and tiny plastic straw and ‘frog feet’ handles
Tea Bag: Tea grounds as the ‘dirt’ for the man-eating plant’s pot; string as a leash for ‘Bull’ (the frog)
6” square of fabric: Witch’s skirt; threads of the fabric used for ‘strings’ holding keys on brooms and for the ‘elastic’ part of the masks; cut up into matching pieces for the witch’s ‘stockings’
Binder clips: 2 shark-skin purses
Straight pins: Used one piece for door handle
Napkin: Shredded up a dinner napkin into tiny pieces and combined it with Tacky glue and white Gesso to make the ‘clay’ for the head and arms; left-0ver clay was used for the crow, part of the cat; and 3 little mice/cob of corn that didn’t make it into the scene
2 straws: Used one paper straw for the witch’s 2 legs (over the wire from the pipe cleaner)
2 pipe cleaners: Took these apart and used one of the 2 wires in the one pipe cleaner for the wire armature for the witch’s body; wire from the one pipe cleaner and the 2 from the other pipe cleaner were used for the ivy plants growing up the walls; the tiny bit left was used for the mask ‘holders’ on the tray
2 nut shells: The man-eating plant used ½ of the pistachio for the top ‘jaw’; the other half of the pistachio was used for the top of the frog; half of a walnut shell was used for the
owl’s bed
Aluminum foil: The ‘slip’ for the witch is made from this (painted white after ‘pinking’ the bottom edge)
Sandpaper: Made to use the pathway to the door
Egg carton: The flat lid was used for the background by the door, and the rest was mixed with water, glue and Gesso, flattened until it dried and then cut into strips for the side wall
Foam core: Made the 2 steps from this
Sequins: Small bat in witch’s hat, ‘keys’ on the broomsticks
