Vermont Open Studios & The Flood of 2011

Here is 48 Franklin Street in Barre, Vermont, the home of Sans Souci Studios, with its cheerful yellow "Vermont Crafts Council Open Studio" sign greeting visitors in the front yard. Our visitors were down a wee bit from last year and here's why.

On Thursday, May 26, I went to my "day job" (which usually I do at night) as an on-call residential counselor for young adults with mental health and substance abuse issues. It was starting to thunder and lightning when I drove a group to an acupuncture session in Montpelier, and while I waited in the car, half inch hail began to fall. I drove the group back through torrential rain and when I got back to work, was told that a tornado had passed within a few miles of the facility. One of my coworkers asked if I wanted to stay until the rain subsided a bit, but I wanted to get home in time for my daughter's storytime. We were, after all, reading Harry Potter! The water on the roads was like nothing I had ever seen before, but I made it home safely.

On Friday, May 27, the last day before Open Studios, I woke up to learn that my daughter's school had been cancelled and to find three inches of water in the basement. This made me very crabby. Of course I had left all sorts of Open Studio tasks to the last minute, and I really didn't want to spend my day entertaining Isabelle and bailing the basement out in addition. Then I went online to check the news. I discovered that something like five inches of rain had fallen in two hours the night before. All but two roads in and out of Barre had been closed due to flooding, and several had washed away. Several hundred people had been evacuated from their homes during the night. Property damage would eventually amount to 6 million dollars, with around half a dozen homes being condemned and 70 to 80 percent of the trailers at a local trailer park rendered uninhabitable. Suddenly I didn't feel quite so crabby anymore.

Below, downtown Barre as the flooding began, and beneath that, route 302 just outside of Barre early the next day. (Times-Argus pictures.) Half of one lane of 302 ultimately washed away.





Open Studios looming or not, I had to take a break to walk downtown and see what had happened myself. Below, a tractor clears mud from the intersection of route 302 and 14, while a vactor suctions out a storm sewer.



Below, the National Guard directing traffic around a flooded area, with dust blowing in the background. I was really struck by the dust- when all that mud dried, it turned into dust and blew away, so that Barre was a perpetual sandstorm for the next several days.



Below, a car stuck in a sinkhole in downtown Barre. (Times-Argus picture.)



The week after Open Studios I had the insatiable desire to see the damage to roads I drove on routinely, so I would park my car at the "Road Closed" sign and walk to the washed out area to take pictures. Below is Muddy Brook Road, partially repaired, where I often drove to take Isabelle to school. If you look closely you can see a section of yellow-striped pavement turned perpendicularly to the rest of the road by the force of the water.



Below, a picture of Muddy Brook Road I found online (not sure who took it) taken the morning after the flood.



The road most relevant to me, however, was route 14 between Barre and East Montpelier, as this is the way I drive to work, and the way I had come home the night of the flood. After parking my car at the "Road Closed" sign and walking a loooong way in the heat, this was my first sight of the damage.



I got closer so I could begin to see the culvert the workmen were replacing.



And then when I got closer still, I could appreciate that this hole, even though the workmen had been dumping truckloads of dirt in it nonstop for a week, was still deep enough to fit my entire house.



OK, ladies and gentlemen, the moral of this story is, never drive in water running over the road in a flood. You can't tell how deep it is or even if the road is still there under the water. I got lucky, and I feel more than just a little queasy thinking about quicky the road washed out after I'd driven over it. Below, pics of route 14 right after the flood. (First pic from an unknown web source, the second from the Times-Argus.)





So, until next time, stay safe and well!

OMG! It's the KILLER FROG!!!!!

Killer Frog is a local legend. He was a Christmas gift to Isabelle from her great aunt Margie, a beautiful enameled rhinestone-studded frog-shaped jewelry box that developed an insatiable appetite for Playmobil people. He was also the inspiration for my husband Brian's Halloween costume this year.

It was interesting to turn a noob loose in my studio and see what they would do with my methods. As can be seen below, Brian first sculpted a frog mask sketch on the miniature armature, and then the actual mask sculpture on the life-sized armature.



Being the devoted spouse that I am, I positive-cast and assembled the mask for Brian, and he painted and finished it. Here he is modelling it wearing his very appropriate "Get Green" painting shirt. You can tell from the fangs that he's Killer Frog and not, say, Toad from The Wind in the Willows or Toad or LeFrog from Flushed Away.



And in other news, we've had some personnel changes here at Sans Souci Studios. Here is our new kitten and administrative assistant, Ezzy, whom we adopted for Isabelle's birthday at the local animal shelter. As you can see he's already getting into the swing of things.



And on a more solemn note, our own black Halloween kitty, Skimble, shown sitting with Isabelle below, passed away suddenly but peacefully in a favorite sunny spot a week ago. She had been a stray with many old injuries, and I guess her body was just too worn and tired out to go on anymore. She is badly missed.

Summer 2010: The Battle of the Basement

Who would guess that beneath the idyllic exterior of Sans Souci Studios would lie these scenes of horror?







This is my basement. The table in the third pic is my workbench. The cobwebs and white powder all over the table is paper mache dust from my dremelling. This mess has not been cleaned for nearly THREE YEARS. This, needless to say, was one of my major projects this summer.

There was one major obstacle and one major incentive to cleaning the basement. Here's the obstacle:



This is the electric bamboo bike my husband has been building. It lives next to my workbench, and its parts are often scattered among my tools. I would need to pick them up in order to clean my workbench. In a fit of wifely pique I have not touched them, and in a state of husbandly obliviousness the spouse hasn't either. This stalemate lasted for two years. (For more about hubby's bike building adventures, visit idledad.blogspot.com)

Here's the incentive:



This is Skimble, who as a stray suffered severe abuse. She has a huge bald scar on her back from where kids poured boiling oil on her, and she has an inoperable smashed hip, presumably from being kicked or hit by a car. The long and the short of that is, her rear end hurts her all the time. She associates her litter box with pain and does not like to use it. Either that or she just has a bad attitude. In any case, when I cleaned the basement I found she had peed on 1) rope 2) sponges 3) work gloves 4) insulation scraps 5) packing peanuts 6) cardboard boxes and (drumroll please) 7) the snow shovels. One major incentive for cleaning the basement was a much better smelling work environment!

I did make one major materials-related discovery- paper mache dust, like cat urine, glows purple under black light. So, unless the spots were also still damp and smelly, I couldn't be entirely sure if they just needed sweeping or blasting with Nature's Miracle. I wound up washing the entire floor. I figured after three years, it wouldn't hurt anyway.

All Species Day 2010

I've been quiet on my blog lately, holed up in my studio working on the deer mask and trying to attach the %&$#@!!! antlers in a somewhat less ridiculous fashion. Fortunately the junior maskmaker at Sans Souci Studios has been more visible.



Here is Isabelle modeling the jaguarundi mask that she and her father made together for this year's All Species Day. Incidentally her stuffed kitty "Sneeky Peeky" is dressed up as a person.



Jaguarundi? It's a South American wild cat. Isabelle is way into cats, and we're guessing she likes the way the word 'jaguarundi' rolls off the tongue.

All Species Day? It's a yearly pageant held on the first Sunday in May, put on by local artists and consisting largely of young kids wearing homemade animal masks and costumes marching from Hubbard Park to the lawn of the Capitol Building in Montpelier.



And, as you can see, the occasional grownup dressed as a Na'vi.

What I Did Over Summer Vacation

My focus this summer, whenever I could get into my studio, was to try build the stock back up in my Etsy store and replace the five masks I sold recently: one for use in the dance festival in HI(see previous post); one for use in a music video in NY, and three for use in a culture festival in Tokyo. Here are my efforts so far.



This cat mask will be my last mask made of Celluclay. I had to try Celluclay just one more time, and I found that not only are Celluclay masks heavier- this mask weighs in at two pounds, over four times as heavy as the same mask made of paper strips and glue- but they don't really take all that much less time to make. Because it's so heavy I offered it for sale at a significant discount in my Etsy store. Maybe I should have offered it at less of a discount, as it's on its way to a new home already.



I love this unicorn mask. I confess when I first got this white Kanekalon hair I thought it was so ugly I stuck it in a cabinet and left it there for years, but I love the way it looks here, that stark flossy white contrasting with the pearly white of the head. I'm tempted to keep this mask.



And here we have Sneer, my grinning wolf mask, with a cool punked out new 'do. The long mixed black and red hair is commerical hair used for extensions; the short black hair represents my efforts to make peace with my new sewing machine and learn to weft hair myself. For those of you who are dying to learn to weft your own hair (or just figure out what the heck that means) check out this very informative article: http://www.nonidolls.com/weft.html

To tell the truth, it was amazing I got anything at all done this summer, considering this was going on outside my studio window through much of it:





It was almost impossible to concentrate with the backhoe working mere feet away and the entire house shaking. But,contractors who previously wouldn't even return our calls were lining up to give us quotes and schedule dates to start work on our long neglected front stairs and retaining walls, so we finally got that work done. I guess the McMansion market has dried up a little.

Before pic:



During pics:





After pic:



I am very happy with how the work came out.

It was also amazing I got any work done given the number of wonderful, refreshing trips we got to make this summer, not that I'm complaining! We went to the Sterling Renaissance Festival in NY:



And to the Cape:



Doesn't my hair look positively carnivorous in this pic??

And also on a camping trip in Groton State Forest here in VT.



So now that I'm all relaxed and refreshed and have a newly renovated house to work in, it's time to get back in my studio! Next on the to-to list is another cat mask to replace that one that just sold. Until next time!

Revisiting Celluclay with Isabelle

First of all, I just have to get it out of my system... isn't Isabelle cute? She's so much bigger than the last time I posted her pics here.

Anyway. Isabelle has been coveting the new "Scrutinizing Eyes II" masks and has asked me repeatedly for one to paint. They take so long to make I hesitated to give her one, but then I figured it might be a good opportunity to try out some new casting methods I'd been thinking of. So for the first time in about eight years I cast masks with Celluclay, a commercial paper mache pulp.

Celluclay has one significant advantage of traditional glue and paper strip paper mache- it is about a thousand times quicker and easier to use. The glue and paper strip "Scrutinizing Eyes II" masks take 9 to 10 hours to cast and finish, but similar Celluclay masks takes about 3 to 4 hours to cast and finish. Theoretically, anyway, assuming the process results in a viable mask. Which in the past it hasn't.

There's been a number of reasons. First of all, I believed that Celluclay warps more easily than other kinds of paper mache. Now I'm not so sure that's true. Yes, some of the early masks I made with it did warp, but I've since learned things that could have prevented this. Such as, a paper mache mask that is not sealed properly will warp no matter what, and acrylic gesso does not seal anything, while Sculpt and Coat or diluted Weldbond PVA glue does. I've also learned that the shape of a mask will influence how it warps just as much as the materials it's made from, and some shapes just require special handling. (For more about this, see this post here: http://sanssoucistudios.blogspot.com/2007/06/mask-shape-and-warpage.html )

Another issue has been Celluclay's apparent inability to adhere to my detail coat of choice, a mixture made from Weldbond, Polyfilla and cheesecloth. (For more about my detail coats, see this post here: http://sanssoucistudios.blogspot.com/2007/04/yet-more-materials-experiments.html) But then came the big "duh" moment.. I was using actual glue- Weldbond, a kind of Elmer's on steroids- to adhere the paper strips to my detail coat, while I was relying on the dried powdered glue in the Celluclay mix to do the same job. I was comparing apples to oranges! What would happen if I used real glue?

So I cast two test masks. First I cast my detail coat into the mold and let it dry thoroughly. Then I thinned Weldbond with just enough water to make it mixable and added it to Celluclay, which I then used to fill the mold. Then I set it aside to dry, and waited, and waited. Then I remembered that Celluclay packed in thick layers in a rubber mold will NEVER dry. I put the mold under a fan and waited several days, and even then it only dried on the surface. When I finally demolded it, some of the surface of the mask stuck to the mold and pulled off. Paper mache generally doesn't stick to rubber molds, but it sure as heck will stick to a rubber mold better than it will to water! The damage was repairable, but it was still a hassle. Best to be avoided.

So for the next mask, I tried applying a layer of Weldbond over the detail coat, adding a THIN layer of Celluclay over that, letting it dry, and repeating this process about three times. I did not mix the Celluclay with anything other than water, as I didn't think I could handle the thin layers if they were too sticky. The mask dried fine in the mold, and none of it stuck to the rubber, but I did get a curious slight wrinkling effect on the surface. I suspect the Celluclay pulled at the detail coat and wrinkled it up as it dried. I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do about this yet, if I'm going to worry about it at all- it is fairly subtle, and I suspect I could sand a lot of it out if I were motivated.

So in the end the Celluclay did not warp any more than the paper strips did, and ultimately it did adhere well to the detail coat. The biggest downside of Celluclay that I now see is its weight. A Scrutinizing Eyes II mask made with paper strips weighs only one ounce, while a similar Celluclay mask weighs three. Just for comparison's sake, a fairly normal pair of prescription glasses weighs one ounce, while the great big huge honking Coke bottle pair you will never catch me wearing on this blog weighs two. Still, it's possible for certain well-balanced, helmet-type masks that are inclined to stay on of their own accord anyway, that the Celluclay could work quite well.

So the moral of the story is that Celluclay is once again a possibility. Stay tuned!

The Other Resident Maskmaker At Sans Souci Studios

I'll take a minute to show off the work of the other resident maskmaker at Sans Souci Studios, my daughter Isabelle, who is now five and a half. Here goes!



This is a rabbit mask.



And a kitty mask.



This is a scary ghost mask.



And here we have a horse mask. It's been strapped with curling ribbon.



Another kitty mask. Check out those eyelids and eyebrows- aren't they awesome?



And the piece de resistance, Isabelle's scary monster mask!

These do have a certain something to them, don't they? Isabelle often makes these for me when I'm grouchy and I need to cheer up!

What I Did(n't) Do Over Winter Vacation

I've been so busy with this that and the other thing that I realize March is almost over, and I haven't yet posted my annual "it's winter and I'm not getting a thing done" post yet. So, here it is.

Isabelle's winter vacation is always tough. I'm not able to work in my studio much at all during the day when she's home, so I try to work at night, after she goes to bed. Only problem is, THIS.



THIS being one of our cats, Rumpleteazer, aka The Teaze to her friends. Nighttime is HER time. After Isabelle goes to bed, she's used to sitting on our laps and getting lots of cuddles while we read or watch TV. In her mind, it is SO not cool for us to do anything else at night!



This is one of Teaze's usual bids for attention. Here she is, standing up on her hind legs and clawing my stomach while I try to work. Usually she claws my butt, but I haven't figured out a way to take a picture of that yet.



And here her bids for attention are escalating.







Oh well. I managed to work for a grand total of ONE HOUR while Isabelle was on vacation, and most of it was spent taking cat pictures. I suppose if I can think up some snappy captions, I could at least post them on icanhazcheezburger.com!