Antlers and taxidermy

A couple of weeks ago my pal Erin of Bows and Sparrows hosted a craft night with our group of crafty friends.  Whoever hosts the night picks  the craft, which usually takes a few hours to complete and then you get to go home with a completed project.

If you haven't heard, painted antlers are the next big thing.  At least that's what we're hoping.  West Elm should be calling any minute now for the rights to these photos.

My naturally shed antler pre-paint

Antlers and wine!

My sad little paint tray

Oh this?  Yeah, I painted it myself

An example of good antler painting form.

Antler colours inspired by E's shirt

Crafty lineup

D, working hard on her project

Erin has more photos on her blog if you're interested in antler overload.

And if antlers aren't cutting it for you, may I suggest a visit to Foster's Bighorn in Rio Vista.  It's a nice afternoon drive along the river between Sacramento and San Francisco.  The bar and restaurant is covered wall to wall with stunned taxidermied animals put together in the 30s and 40s as well as amazing, can't-look-away photos of vintage hunting expeditions 

One of my favourite sad stories with an accompanying photograph is of the wolf who was shot in the jaw.  The wolf was still living, just unable to attack.  The hunter needed to get back up a hill so he held the wolf by its tail and had the animal drag him to the top.  

Sad and creepy but so interesting.  The day V and I visited in September 2010, I had a massive headache but after seeing the fate of these animals and having a beer I felt pretty lucky to only be suffering from a headache.

Photo by amenfoto

Apparently they have one of the world's largest collections of taxidermied animals with over 300 heads.  They don't just have your usual specimens, they have everything.  Giraffes, lions, elephants, rhinoceros' and wolves.  Or maybe these are usual things to taxidermy.  What do I know?  I just paint antlers pretty colours.

The dining room, photo by thomashawklooklook

Printmaking

A carved linoleum block

Printmaking is my favourite way to be artsy fartsy.  Unless you're really winging it when you're carving the block, it's hard to screw up the design and even if you do, you can usually fix it so it looks like the mistake was made on purpose.

The resulting print

I tend to think about what I'm going to draw, sometimes for weeks (and months...) then I draw a rough draft on paper in pencil.  When I'm happy with how it looks I flip the paper over and lay it on top of the lineoleum block.  Then, I use a pencil to rub the back of the paper so the design transfers lightly on to the block so there's a general cutting guide.

Polar bear linoleum block for a print I made for my Dad for his birthday a couple of years ago.  About a year after I made his print (the only one) I wanted to try something fancy with different colours but the brayer I used just mixed them all together and made a big mess.  I need to try again with more than one brayer.

Penguin block

Penguin print with a watercolour wash

I happened to reserve two of the same book from the library by accident.  The first was published in 1955 and the second in the 1970s.   

The book offered this interesting tip

Printmaking project ideas by month

I should definitely make a patriotic motto card this month.  Suggestions?

When we were in San Francisco last weekend I stopped at the art store hoping to pick up a large linoleum block (18x24 or larger) so I wouldn't have to pay shipping by ordering it online.  They didn't carry the larger sizes in the store anyway so I'll be placing an order soon.  Shipping's free at Blick if you spend over $160.  Anyone need some art supplies and want to go in on an order?

What art or craft projects are you working on right now?