Invasion of the Pumpkin People

Well, here's my most recent Halloween-y project...

You may recall from The Week of Broken Holiday Decor post that I have something of a fancy for those cute vintage-y paper mache pumpkin people. Those and stuff with a candy corn theme pretty much make up my Halloween decor. It's one of those things (like strawberries) that apparently I sort of collect and didn't realize it until I started thinking about how many I had. Here are some of the ones that I could get to to photograph them (the others are in my attic): And, of course, the little guy I just fixed up.Almost all of my Halloween decorations (unlike a lot of my Christmas decorations) are things I purchased, not things I made myself. I'm just always drawn to these paper mache pieces for their nostalgic look, but have had minimal success working with paper mache in the past and I find I have been generally content to forgo that medium in lieu of something else. Case in point: this is my one and only real paper mache project that looked halfway decent. I made it a couple of years ago for my cousin, Anna. Recently, however, I've been challenging myself in other media- making far more than just paintings- and am really enjoying it. Inspired by the pumpkin people I purchased recently, by my relative success with the artificial food sculptures (see One Sweet Thing... post), and by two new bloggy friends: Amelia (who I've mentioned before-she has the candy club) see her work at sweetbfolkart - it's colorful, whimsical, often incorporates sweets (so of course, I think it's fabulous!) and all of her pieces have such personality; they're just cute, cute, cute...go have a look-see!

and

Jenny of thepolkadotpixie- her work is so sweetly nostalgic it'll just make you swoon. Adorable is the only word for it. Literally everything she makes would be perfect in my house-I love it!

*They're both super-talented so check them out.

Anyway, since I had paper-mache on the brain and some paper-clay on hand I began experimenting and eventually kind of got the hang of working with it. I was determined not to give up this time, even if my scupture cracked a little, or water had to be added and the whole piece scrapped over and over again. Finally, many hours (and I do actually mean multiple hours) later I had a finished Halloween paper-clay creation...and I have to say I'm pretty proud of him.

TADA!!!!

It's a little paper clay pumpkin person atop a cupcake! It's doubtful I'll be able to part with him...as he was rather labor-intensive and he goes so well with my other Halloween decor (his cupcake actually coordinates with my former creation, #1 Candy Corn Lane: Remember that? I may have to hold on to them both and display them together. But, now that I'm more confident in my sculpting skills I'll definitely be incorporating more little paper clay figures into my artificial sweet stuff. The prospect of this new product line really excites me... I'll share whatever happens with it next!

Thanks, as always, for visiting! I'll leave you with two inspirational vintage postcards...it's Halloween in August, I suppose!sweetly, happily, and artfully yours,

randi