More Clay Animals, Acorns, and Pumpkins

Remember the little acorn, hedgehog, and mole ornaments I was painting a couple days ago?  They are almost done now!

I gave them a clear, non-yellowing outdoor gloss sealer and they look pretty awesome!

The pumpkins are still getting their final gloss coat.  

It's a bit tricky to paint them since I have to do one coat for the top, wait for it to dry, and then flip it over to give it a coat from the bottom.

My desktop looks like chaos, but it's kind of pretty too in a an artist-at-work kind of way.

In hindsight, I probably should have made all their metal loops reinforced with clay like this version.  The plain wire version is not very secure because the wire is too flexible and it can break through the clay.

The other option is to make them with no wire loop like the mole.  His glossy coat is spectacular.  I am quite fond of him.

I started painting some other ornaments too.  There is a monkey, a tiger, and a pig. 

There is also a sheep that looks a bit like Lambchops the puppet, and a brown bunny with a cute face.

I'll post more pictures when I finish giving them a glossy coat.

Have a great day!

Pumpkins and Acorns In Progress

It was the last day of my preceptorship today and it was a very good day.  Somehow, everything went smoothly.  In the morning the night shift nurses wished me good luck and congratulations on being done my nursing program soon, and at the end of the day the nurses on my shift gave me hugs and well wishes too.  In between, the patients seemed to be in a good mood too.  The ones that overheard that it was my last day had wonderful things and good wishes for me too.  It was fantastic.

 I went home and settled into a dream-like state.  "Wow, I thought.  I'm finally done."

I washed my uniform and settled down at my desk.  It was time to paint again.

 Soon my desk was covered with little orange gourds.

 They are not done in the least, but they look fun.

My fingertips turned orange as they got stained from turning the pumpkins around.  Good thing the paints are water soluble and wash off easily.

 The little ornaments that got painted the most were two acorns.

 I think I got a bit carried away.

 I managed to take advantage of the streaking look to create the acorn nuts.  The caps got royal treatment too and turned out nicely.  They look very textured.

I am quite happy with these two acorns.  I can't wait to give them a clear coat once they are dried.

Happy creating!

Little White Acorn BLOG GIVE-AWAY!

I couldn't sleep last night so I pulled out some yarn and began to crochet. It's starting to feel a little Fall-like around here what with clothing stores switching to Fall-style clothing and the air beginning to take on a bit of a chill crispness. I decided to make an acorn.

I have a somewhat limited range of yarn colours right now so the end result was a mellow taupe coloured cap on a fuzzy white acorn nut. I liked it quite a bit so I made one more today.

One of them is in the store now.

The other one is part of my very first BLOG GIVE-AWAY! Leave a comment on this post between now and August 31st to be entered into a draw for one of these lovely little acorns.

Good luck!

Acorns Vs Hazelnuts

The other day, my parents brought home a large bag full of nuts. They had collected them from under a tree and wanted to know if they could eat them. According to them, these nuts looked exactly like some other nuts they had seen in a grocery store the day before. I peered closely at these mystery nuts and I suspected that they were fat, round acorns based on the fact that they were so readily available this time of year. However, I didn't see the stereotypical acorn "hats" and these nuts were quite round, so I couldn't be sure. I looked to the great world wide web for answers. First of all, I wanted to know if acorns were edible.

I discovered that acorns can be eaten, but that tedious preparation is involved. Acorns contain tannins, which are quite bitter. If you consume a large amount of tannins, you might develop liver failure. As such, acorns must be shelled, ground to a pulp and soaked in water. You can do this by lining a sieve with a dish towel, pouring in the ground acorns, and running the pulp under water until the contents are no longer bitter. The only edible part is the acorn meal, which remains after straining out the juices. You should use this acorn meal immediately, as it turns dark when it is left around. Here is a good article on using acorns for food.

Acorns can sometimes look similar to hazelnuts when they are ripe. How can you tell them apart? First of all, look at the nuts on the trees.

Acorns have brown caps on top of each nut. On the other hand, hazelnuts will be inside leaves that hold each nut like a flower.

Next, look at the leaves. Acorns come from oak trees with narrow, multi-lobed leaves.

Hazelnut trees have large, roundish, textured leaves.

Now, you can tell the general difference between acorns and hazelnuts and can decide for yourself if you want to pick all those tempting nuts up! As for my parents, it was too much work to make acorn meal and the lucky local squirrels were the only ones to benefit.

Cheers!