WODENGEIST!!!

i make things.
...some of you may remember that, from before.
like,
with my own two hands, i pinch and pull, paint, poke, prod, and push
all the little limits of my imagination,
and once in a while,
when i'm not cooking, or writing, or tat-F*ing-tooing,
i do something else.
something to quell the compulsion that slowly, but inexorably,
builds up inside my head and my hands,
pressuring me to produce something special.
i can't even say i enjoy it,
so much as i need to do it, or i'll fall apart.
not doing it would feel worse than doing it feels good, if you get me...
yep.
but, i make things.
and when i do, it's so dungeony, and dragony, and fanatically fantastic.
uh-huh.
that's my field of expertise.
fine art is all fine and good,
but folk art meets folkloric fantasy and fairy(or worse, faerie)-styled tale tailoring
is 100% where my interests lie at all times, on my time,
in whatever meager spare time i can summon up.
in between all the other other things i'm on about.
dudes!
i made a wodengeist.
uh-huh.
a forest spirit.
a little woodsly wizard.
a green man.
yeah, that.
in my own biased opinion, i think it's worth a sh!t...
enough to show him off to all of you, at least.
check the dolls-are-a-thing-i-play-with-type teleport:

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORD!
there's an old beech stump in the woods out back,
and it has grown a crown of trunks from the old roots,
to resemble a little throne.
i saw it while walking crabtree,
and i knew i needed to make the man who lived in it.
.....so i did;

c'mon.
he fits in there like he's always been there,
which was pretty much the whole point.
i'm really relieved when things work out like that.
it means i was paying attention, and it paid off.
that's how it's s'posed to go, y'know?
*
the hands, feet and face are all sculpted from polymer clay,
which has been weathered and detailed with ink washes and acrylic paints,
dry brushed and rubbed, with clear gloss enamels on the beady eyes (literally)
and teeth.
those teeth have been glazed with copper enamel as a repair measure-
i burnt the in the oven.
ugh.
that sucked, but it ended up being a happy accident,
because they look pretty fresh as metal jauns.
lucky lucky.
the body is made primarily of heavy winter socks.
yea. that's real.
two pairs of 'em,
plus a few odds and ends of fabric, to make it look cooler.
on the ones,
it's all the extras that really activate the hottness.
look:

a sorcerer ain't sh!t without fresh gear, guys.
seriously.
a bandolier with jars of sprankles is the TRUTH!!!
that's spell component 101, dude.
and he's got  rune-carved hands.
and bones in his belt,
and vertebrae on his staff,
and rings of stone,
and a kickass little cap, with feathery macaroni for good measure..
dudes, check the flipside:

C'MON!
bones, claws, cones, and crystals!!!
too much is the right amount.
i used craft foam and metal/wax powders to make the knee and elbow and shoulder armor.
and the there's that necklace-
i never know when i'm gonna need stuff like that,
so whenever i see interesting costume jewelry, i snatch it up,
and save it for later.
that's the smart move, kiddo-
i'll use it eventually, for sure.
yarn, ribbon, felt....i've got acres of it, in big boxes,
stashed in the back of the Folk Life & Liberty Fortress.
there's always a use for that kind of thing.
-
the hair?
we can thank crabby's destructive nature for that.
it was once a plush hedgehog, for about twenty seconds,
before he mauled and macerated it into debris.
bad news for toys,
but great news for that heroic renaissance moustachio, am i right?
haha.
-
i also have bags and bags of bleached bones,
i do,
i know, that's not especially vegan-friendly, but i promise,
they're repurposed from roadside car-kills,
and i harmed a grand total of none of the animals that contributed their skeletons
to the cause of art-makery.
i believe these vertebrae are from a fox, but the belt bones are beaver.
how neat is that?
*
anyway,
i still make art, occasionally.
...and the dolls?
well,
i made hundreds back in the old times.
literally.
so, i have a little bit of a leg-up on the process nowadays.
now, when the mood overtakes me,
there can be no stopping until the thing is done.
these new-newnesses are twice as intricate,
and twice as time consuming,
but i think they might be eleven times cooler.
that's a force-multiplying magnificiation of a return on the time invested.
i do what i do, dudes,
because i HAVE to.
that's all there is to it.
thanks for looking, and reading;
never quiet, never soft.....