Currently: December 19, 2005 Yesterday we had to go to a Winery Party put on by the owners of the winery Jeff works for. It was sort of a "Thank you for busting your ass over Harvest" and a celebration of the new winery building itself. It was also a housewarming party since there was a fancy new house to celebrate as well. Long story short- I needed a housewarming/Holiday gift. I saw an episode of the Barefoot Contessa where she made Chocolate Truffles and decided that was what I was going to make. I was going to roll them in chopped pistachios and crushed peppermint candy, but after a little searching found a recipe in the December Food and Wine for Chocolate Truffles rolled in Spices. Yum! (Note- you have a be a F&W subscriber to view the recipe, but if you Select All, and copy and paste the text into a program like Notepad or Word you can see the recipe. You can also email me and I will send it to you.) The spice mixtures are: 1. a toasted coconut mixed with cardamom, clove and cinnamon, 2. ground ancho and chipotle chiles mixed with cocoa powder and allspice, and 3. cocoa powder and chinese five spice. A word of warning. If you are going to grind the chiplotle chiles yourself, wear a mask. I sneezed and coughed like mad, that powder is POTENT! Beautiful Truffles ready to be boxed. Truffle Supplies. I had some brown craft boxes I bought at Michael's just sitting around, and some leftover brown craft tags from a Halloween Project. I recycled an old Christmas card illustration and created a sticker for the craft tags to let the people know what they were eating. I printed these out onto sticker sheets. Boxed up. I lined the boxes with natural waxed paper because the brown matched nicely. The tag gets inserted into the box. and Truffle boxes are ready for the party. I bought some ribbon at Joann's to wrap around the boxes. I tape the ribbon to the box and put the label on top of that, so the ends were nicely concealed under the sticker. This was a very last minute project and I am so please with how it turned out. The truffles are yummy. It made me wish I would have had my act together a little more so I could send boxes out to all of my friends and loved ones. Oh well..sorry folks! There's always next year. December 15, 2005 Finished Santa Tassel: I decided to go with a snow leopard theme. As you can see I added a bulky trim around his hood and robe. I also made arms. The picture doesn't really capture the color of the leopard spots, or the glitter I sprinkle on him. I couldn't decide whether or not to add the tassel fringe. I am still not certain. I was afraid it would make him look like he was wearing a hula skirt. I painted him with acrylics and sprayed him with a varnish. I then painted a burnt sienna oil paint all over him and rubbed it off to get the "aged" look. I added a clear snowy glitter to the top of his head, arms and other areas. Overall I would say that I am please with this experiment. But I think, as I said before, that I will try to plan out the next one a little more thoroughly before I just jump into it. I don't like his face very much either, but after eight coats of paper, you tend to lose detail. I will have to think on a solution to that. December 9, 2005 I have been in a Paper-Mache mode lately. I am experimenting with using modeling clay as a mold: 1. I sculpted a simple folk-art-ish santa shape out of modeling clay and smothered the guy with Vasoline. I used newspaper and white paper in alternating layers and wallpaper paste as my "glue". I had 6 layers total. 2. I let him dry for a few days and cut him in half. 3 and 4. Vasoline is ESSENTIAL in enabling the paper-mache to pop off of the mold. I forgot this step on a previous test and I was digging clay out of my paper-mache shell and ultimately had to throw that incarnation away. 5. The two halves are glued back together and allowed to dry. I used rubberbands as clamps. I then sealed the seam with another layer of white paper and allowed it to dry. 6. I lightly sanded the Santa with a fine grit sand paper and painted him with a few coats of Gesso. I am not exactly sure what to do with him now. Add more detail or start painting? I initially started this project with the idea that he was eventually going to be a tassel, but he was mainly an exercise in using modeling clay and wallpaper paste in conjunction with paper-mache. This little experiment has also taught me that my projects usually are more successful when I think them out before jumping in feet first. Meaning I should probably sketch out some of the details and color ideas before I start sculpting. But it's an experiment, right? November-->