JJ Worden

Mixed Media Artist

Tins. And Wax!

I seem to be all over the place these days. Prolific, yes! But frittered.

I still have more herring tins to come but they seem to have migrated to the back of the pile. I did finish this one, though. And it might be my fave to date.

It includes two special elements.:

  1. A photo of my husband's grandmother (on the right) in front of the Peggy's Cove Lighthouse, an iconic symbol of Nova Scotia.
  2. Plaster wings using Madrat Rubber 's (is Gretchen still in business??) coolio wing stamps. If you look closely you'll notice the wing on the left actually broke. I love using broken then patched bits in my work. That whole Wabi-Sabi thing I guess.

And while I still have a few unfinished tins to work on and after a brief clothes-making interlude (like I said. prolific. FRITTERED!!), I pulled out the wax.

On Instagram I saw this wonderful filtered photograph with cracks and texture of a simple monochromatic image and it set my brain cogs twirling. I've been wanting to play with some of my own photographs for awhile and the combination of cracks and softness just scream WAX! to me.

Still very much a work in progress but I like where it's going. One note though: Red (wax) is HARD. (ie it gets everywhere you don't want it!) And of course, while I had the wax out I started to splodge it on all that pre-Christmas plastery goodness I'd been playing with. Firstly I added legs (aka scrolled up wire) and fences (nail 'posts' wrapped with thin florist wire) to all the houses then I let loose with the wax.

I love love LOVE the combination of plaster and wax hence the reason I signed up for Stephanie's class in the fall Waxenplast. You should join me. It's gonna be goooood!

more tins

More tins continue to pile up on the stairs to be taken up to the studio and I'm creating shrines as fast as I can!

herring tins a-go-go

Herring Tin Shrines - Works in Progress

I'm currently in that crazy space of having a ton of projects going on at the same time.

Shrining...

Herring Tin Shrine - Detail

My husband loves — LOVES — herring. Pickled. Smoked. Pickled AND smoked. Actually I have no idea if that's even a THING because I'm never EVER in the same room with him when he consumes 'teh stinky'.

Plaster Houses

Welcome Home - Plaster House Assemblage

While doing the Hand-Formed Sculpture class with the inimitable Miss Stephanie I made a ton of samples — mini houses and cast ornaments, hearts, stars and a few shriney-type things. As time has gone forward I've been incorporating some of those starter pieces into finished assemblages. Or shrines. Or maybe, shriney-type assemblage thingees.

Finished...Sacred Mouse House

Sacred Mouse House Assemblage

Sacred Mouse House 18" or so high (I really need to get measurements BEFORE I post. eesh) and with arms, probably 8" wide and only about 4" deep.The head is made of plaster over a foam base.
The house was made by me out of cedar shingles, maple veneer "siding", mica windows.
Animal ribs for arms. Wire for hands and feet.
Hard to get shots of the house interior but 'head', 'body' and heart are visible through the 3 windows.
Door wired closed.

Crows & Houses

Wax Crow

My finished wax crow from Stephanie's Hand-Formed Simple Sculpture class. I love this beast.