Dryads or clay on a stick ?

viewer's decision

Using  twigs as armatures for these three (not yet) arboreal beauties was alluringly logical - what else would be more appropriate ?
I'm still figuring out if I have to cut of parts to reduce undercuts without making them look to flat.

The idea was leaving the branches leafless, so you can modify them to fit surrounding terrain.

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... and for the gourmets amongst you, here's some culinary findings:

Armillaria and a single Red Cracking Bolete, which has a simple but particularly interesting sour taste.

Cheers :)

mould recycling

Whoever made his own rtv moulds yet knows even the more affordable rtv silicone isn't that cheap - and you probably don't want to save money in the wrong place by using cheap silicone. Apart from that, some silcones aren't appropriate for spin casting, if that's what you're searching for.

I'm always keen experimenting and had a few minor accidents using an alternative curing agent.

The resulting moulds aren't satisying at all and there's no use for them, so I figured I could recycle them.

The first thing to do was apply a layer of silicone to the greens and plasticine.
Next, I sprinkled the mould with an equal amount of cured mould-pellets, it's kind of baking a cake.
After a day of curing the last layer is applied, silicone:sand - 1:1 (not any sand, fine quartz sand. I've tried other sand (even with additional curing agent), the results were fine but the curing still took a few days, it's not worth the risk).
This last layer provides an even surface and additional weight.


Cheers fellow cheapskates, let's see how this turns out :)

Warfairy

No pics, I'm sorry.
The first masters aren't satisfying so the pixies will have to face another mould-making process.

If all goes as planned and I'm certain, our little online store "Warfairy" will be up and running on Samhain/Halloween, octobre 31, 2012, with a few minis in stock.

The blog won't be renamed or abandoned, whoever is interested can still follow the sculpting and tinkering. The 15mm fantasy minis will still be the "Mushroom Minis". Whenever the fairies decide to pick some up, they'll carry them to the store :).

Cheers !

moss people

I like to range the woods for inspiration, mushrooms or running from time to time. If you take your time and keep your eyes open, you can see and hear a lot you usually wouldn't.

camouflage - find the frog !

 a little pond

 moss covering dead branches. There's legends about moss people. Looking at the various ways moss can grow, you'll grasp what inspired folks to make up these stories. it feels like the forest grows strange and lively green hair.

 fungus always has it's place. Fungi are the secret rulers of this planet. There's fungus in our bodies, walls, food, beds, ... everywhere around us. The largest living creatures of this planet are fungi; there's even fungi that can feed on plastic and other synthetic materials.

 more hair ?

 roots

 and dead roots on a deracinated tree, let's have a closer look

 I was instantly intrigued by these beautiful roots

 and the moss that grows on them. I'll have to find a way to preserve these for deepwood tabletop terrain, for if I don't

 they'll rot anyway. Fungi, bacteria, beetles doing their job.

 yet more water

 and another tree that fell. here's the top

 and here's the bottom, you can still see the treetop in the background of this picture. It is impressively large and managed to stay alive although almost completely deracinated for years. You can see branches and twigs growing out of it's trunk. It's a bit hard to see this tree is a natural bridge across water and swampy ground, the plants you see are growing from mud and water. Not a single spot around you could step on without sinking into the ground up to your knees at least, but  you can walk on the tree, which also provides a weirdly soft ground, since it's completely covered in nature's carpet, thick moss.

Time to sculpt some dryads while not forgetting about the manticore and fairies !

Cheers :)

Fairies, Pixies, Tree Spirits

A truly little something that came out while tinkering around.

They had noses at first but since they already look like tiny muppets I cut them off again. The mini minis are attached to each other and supported by a 'fairytail' of fairy dust, sparkles or whatever you like to think fairies have around them.

total height of the group is 18mm.

While going back to former projects and for the sake of today's subject, I'd like to share the presumably most beautiful of all sloppy scenes in children's and youth literature:

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"Who is that?"

Cheers :)