Dinko's fan

I (Boris) was really happy yesterday to see what Dinko's fans do. Susan Sherry Avarello set up a Flickr group for polymer clay creations inspired by Dinko's work. I have to say also that I personally really like Susan's work. Her creations can be found at her Etsy store and on Artfire. You must check out her work. I have to say too that the other thing I enjoy is the nickname she uses sometimes 'time4coffee'. For me personally it is always time for coffee. I drink almost 1/4 of a gallon of that stuff each day. Anyone who enjoys coffee and Dinko's work is in my 'coolest people' list.

Taurus

Believe it or not this is a Taurus. It is built for a friend of mine who will give it as a gift. Here are the specifications he gave me (Boris).
- it has to smile - check
- not very big horns - check
- dancing position - check
- sunglasses between the horns - check
- a bottle of vodka that has to be removable in case the person he intends the Taurus for gets offended - check
- a silver necklace - check, even though this is not exactly silver, but it looks like it, some old piece of broken jewelry
- silver trainers with pink stripes - check
- I love WV Polo inscription - check
So much for building custom ordered figurines. Hope you like it.

How to come up with a mythical critter idea

When you start making mythical creatures every once in a while you get the desire to make one. But which one, there are tons of them? No need to get nervous wondering what creature to make. Wikipedia always helps. Here is a link to a particularly helpful list of species in folklore and mythology. They are listed alphabetically and there is an image provided for most of them which makes a good starting point for a mythical creature polymer clay project.
On another note learning about the myths and legends of other cultures is really, really fun. Well, at least for me (Boris) it is. You may discard some of the listed creatures as too complex to make, or too easy to make, or not enough interesting to make, but anyway the list is huge. I am quite sure you will find the creature you like and then start playing with the clay.

Where do the Easter bunnies dwell

Those of you who have kids and are already working with polymer clay know that it is hard to determine the natural habitat of the polymer clay creatures. And even though they are most likely to reside in your studio if you have one, or on a shelf somewhere in your work area, sometimes they have strange dwellings. In this instance it turns out that three of my Easter bunnies inhabited my four year old daughter's slippers.

Several hours later one of the bunnies was living in a kitchen drawer, another one behind the couch and as for the third we don't know yet. 'Daddy, he went in the forest to see some friends.' she says. I am inclined to believe that it rather went in one of her toy boxes or on a strange trip around the house and some of these days I am going to find a bunny at the most unexpected place.

Gargoyles

I (Dinko) did some heavy scholarly research on the fascinating, and highly academic too, topic of gargoyles - the grotesque stone-carved creatures you see on the outside of Gothic cathedrals and some other buildings. Why they put demons and monsters to drain rain-water form the rooftops of churches, when they could have just as easily put angels with hoses, and other sprinkling devices (a certain fountain in Brussels comes to mind), is not exactly clear to me to this very day. There are theories of course, but we won't dwell on them here, for lack of conclusive evidence.

The research technique I employed borrowed heavily from train-spotting and bird-watching, fascinating hobbies in their own right. So I went places, I saw gargoyles, and I took pictures, looked at them for some time, shook my head violently, and made these deranged-looking creatures. I guess it's all the dripping water that made them crazy.

"But what does that have to do with mythical creatures and their sculpting?" some of you may ask. Just about everything, I would say: gargoyles, and chimeras (the ones that are just statues with no water draining function) are often depictions of mythical beasts, and beast cocktails -1/2 part lion, 2/5 snake, 1/8 man, stirred not shaken etc. In a nutshell: If you are looking for some interesting ideas about mythical creatures, Google "gargoyles" and you will find some century-old and tested material.