Plaid: FAIL

I have a few recent projects I'm dying to share, but since they're gifts, and the people are on the internet, I really don't dare to post photos until after they get their gifts.  Its killing me!  I usually share what I'm doing with the folks at work, but so many of them are no longer at the company or work at home.  So there will be a few posts ready to go at the end of the month!

I have worked with Sculpey for lots of years, but have never tried doing that sliced-pattern thing.  I do lots of different figures from around the world - china man, Eskimo, Aladdin, Vikings, Huns, Romans, knights in armor, cowboys and Indians.  So this year, I got the idea of a Scotsman... in plaid.  Right.  What was I thinking?

So I spent hours researching tartans, and two hours coming up with a plaid that was a dismal failure.  I have a new appreciation of people who can create designs in sculpey that they can slice.  I had no idea how thick I was making stuff as I layered it up.  And I ended up with way too much white.

Pretty colors.  But it was unusable for what I was doing.  There goes most of my afternoon down the tubes.  Ugh.

I was going to give up entirely, and try painting on the design after I finished the ornament, but in playing around with my ruined tartan, I discovered that even with a simpler design, I got the "feel" for tartan, even if it wasn't technically what I wanted.  Which is fine.  I liked it better than anything I could paint.

I'm running into several issues.  The gillies look alright, but the dude's legs and ankles look like they belong to an elephant!  And he's got a paunch belly, which makes me laugh.  I think I need to move that weight up into his shoulders!  And the bandaid on my left thunb is wreaking havoc on his face and shirt - its leaving these odd pockmarks if I'm not careful.   And the tartan is brown, not the bright red and green I had been envisioning.  On top of it all, I am out of red, and I really don't want to have to run out and get some more right now.  Finally, in looking at this photo, I realize I should have rolled my plaid a whole lot smaller before I started slicing. <sigh>

But at least I have something to show at the end of the day for all my work.

At this point, I'm fervently praying I can finish him tomorrow.  Usually the most time consuing thing in my ornamets is the research before I start making them, or the small detail work.  I'm having trouble just getting clothes on this guy!