Other outlets for members creativity!!

[Mark S]

I've started this new thread because I know that most figure painters have other outlets for their creativity. Figure painting may be the main obsession for us all and the funnel for our greatest creative urges but most of us will have other ways to satisfy those urges in between figure projects.
This thread is simply a way to show some of our other creative pursuits.

One of mine is Bonsai, this plant I found growing out of the cracked brickwork of a barbeque about 25 years ago....I've trained it to this stage so far, it's a strangler fig ~

 

[Jim]

That bonsai tree looks real interesting.

I also build WWII Pacific theater armor and I'm starting to design and kit-bash Steampunk vehicles.

In all my other free time (!?) I'm working on a suspense-thriller set in Hawai'i in the mid-1930s. Hopefully, the first of a series.

 

[Tecumsea]

Cut the branches off Mark-would make a great background for a figure, LOL

Keith

 

[Tubby-Nuts2]

The base route formation looks like an overgrown 'Dead Dog' ! Weird.

However, I have often thought about having a shot at a 'Miniature Japanese Bonsai', as it seems an art and skill in itself!

My Patio, does have numerous salvaged/dumped plants from olives to figs! and interesting thought.

Mark

 

[housecarl]

Very nice Mark.

 

[Helm]

I'd love to be able to produce Bonsai but it always ends in tears
Steve

 

[1969]

Nice looking tree Mark, I also grow Bonsai and did so long before sculpting figures, have neglected them this past year but come spring I will be back onto them and will be looking at reducing the collection down to just a couple of trees, sadly I don't have the spare time to care for them as they deserve any more.

Steve

 

[garyhiggins]

Looks great Mark, personally I can barely keep a Cactus alive. looked at as an abstract form, it's quite animal like. On this business of training, what tricks does it do?
Best wishes, Gary.

 

[ChaosCossack]

I imagine its best trick to be "Stay" followed closely by "Play Dead" You might get it to catch a frizbie if you hit it just right.

Really, it's a very interesting tree. My thumb is more black than green so no plants for me.

I build choppers around old Harley and Triumph motors with lots of hand fabricated parts.

Colin

 

[Mark S]

I imagine its best trick to be "Stay" followed closely by "Play Dead" You might get it to catch a frizbie if you hit it just right.

Really, it's a very interesting tree. My thumb is more black than green so no plants for me.

I build choppers around old Harley and Triumph motors with lots of hand fabricated parts.

Colin

I've tried the frizbie thing Colin but it just hangs there limp in it's branches.......disappointing really when you consider the years I've been doing it.

But I started this thread not as a demonstration of Bonsai but as a way of getting to know what other creative endeavours that forum members might indulge in when not painting figures.
So Colin please post some pics of the old Harley's and Triumph's mate.

 

[garyhiggins]

Sorry Mark, apart from Sculpting and painting figures, I don't really have any other creative endeavours, unless you count whistling annoyingly when listening to classical music? Although when I did Archery, I taught myself Saddlery so I could make myself a really good leather quiver (and then ended up making everyone else one as well)
.
Best wishes, Gary.

BTW Colin, After a lifetime riding Harleys and Triumphs, for his mid life crisis a mate just brought himself a Lambretta???????

 

[ChaosCossack]

Usually it's the Harley that's the mid-life adventure
I do some leather tooling as well. Started by making a tool pouch to mount on my bike because I was too cheap to buy one. Then it was other pouches and bags for friends bikes and from there a heavily tooled seat and a series of knife sheathes, gun holsters, wrist bracers etc. There's bits of my leather work floating all over Toronto. I only drag the tools out now when I need something myself... A lifetime of bad behaviour has let me with pretty beat up hands and leatherwork is pretty hard on the old paws. Figure painting is far more forgiving on the joints.

I officially started a new chopper project last week... maybe I'll post some WIP pics As for old projects... that would require scanning old hard copy pics

Interested to see what other PFers do away from the bench

Colin

 

[Helm]

Not a lot these days, used to do various Martial Arts, build bikes like Colin but just Triumphs, now it's mainly games on the puter, never realised that doing stuff in my 20's might end badly in my 50's Used get inked a fair bit but run out of space and money more or less
Steve

 

[Ron Tamburrini]

One of my many hobbies Fly tying and Trout fishing
This is one of my creations ; not sure whether to fish it or stir fry it

 

[theBaron]

Nice tree! Isn't it a little big for bonsai, though?

Other interests? I belong to a small theater, where I work in stage lighting, set construction, and I have also appeared on stage. I don't need to do it, like the actors do, though. I'm also on the board there. Here I am, on the stage of a show I lit last year, "Being of Sound Mind":



I also like beer, as many of you know, and have a collection of about 250 beer mugs and glasses, all German, of course. I also brew beer, though it's been a while, and maintain a beer garden in my backyard, a pleasant little place to sit and enjoy a glass or two:



I also like to cook and to bake, because there are things I like that no one else knows how to make. The big baking season is upon us, with Advent starting this Sunday. Kiffels and cups:



Stollen and Lebkuchen (The kolach at the right came from a local bakery, though):



and Springerle, Toll House and chocolate cookies, and more Lebkuchen:



And I ride bike, when the weather permits. It's my main exercise, and I also ride with a team of my friends in an annual ride to raise money for research for a cure and treatment for multiple sclerosis. Here's some of the team, setting out on a group ride in the summer (yours truly in the foreground):



Prost!
Brad

 

[Mark S]

Some nice baking there, Brad........handy man to know.
AS for bonsai sizes, they do come in all sizes as long as they conform to certain principles.

The size classifications, increasing in size:
Keshitsubo: 1-3" (3-8 cm)
Shito: 2-4" (5-10 cm)
Mame: 2-6" (5-15 cm)
Shohin: 5-8" (13-20 cm)
Komono: 6-10" (15-25 cm)
Katade-mochi: 10-18" (25-46 cm)
Chumono / Chiu: 16-36" (41-91 cm)
Omono / Dai: 30-48" (76-122 cm)
Hachi-uye: 40-60" (102-152 cm)
Imperial: 60-80" (152-203 cm)

I think mine would fit into the Omono/Dai classification I reckon.
Some can be huge~

 

[Mark S]

Nice flies Ron....another miniature creative pastime.

 

[Ron Tamburrini]

Nice flies Ron....another miniature creative pastime.

Along with Japanese Acer trees , full size Bonsai " if theres such a thing"

That fly has never been in the water , most of the time the closer to the real thing does not catch fish and the scruffy imitation always out catches

 

[Helm]

Always found this has good results when fishing

 

[Ron Tamburrini]

Typical Para no finness