Mummers me Dear

The two newest members of the 2011 collection. :o)

Mummers

Mummering: "Mummering, mumming, or janneying in Newfoundland and Labrador describes the practice of visiting several homes throughout an evening while dressed in a disguise. Usually groups of friends or family will piece together their disguises using whatever they have around their homes. They might change their walk, talk, shape, or size—whatever it takes to make them unrecognizable to the hosts of the homes they visit..." (http://mummersfestival.ca/home/?q=node/26)

This tradition was once very popular among the people of Newfoundland. It faded over the years as our population grew, small villages grew to towns and cities. The tradition is slowly returning as people retell old stories, new generations put a twist on the old traditions ( ex: mummer parade) and artists display their own variations of "The Mummers" which egniten more talk about the subject and spreading the tradition just a little bit more.

As a folklore student and proud Newfoundlander I am very excited about the tradition once again appearing in our province. I have found my own way to bring attention to the tradition and wish to share it with you here.

To start I would like to tell you that I have only taken one "clay" class in my life and it was only a small part of a larger project I was working through, everything else I have learned with clay has been self taught. If as you read through this you can think of a different way for me to accomplish the same goal but in a better/ easier way please feel free to contact me with your thoughts and suggestions.

The first thing I do is to build the armature.  I used 19 gauge Dark Annealed Steel. I find this wire easy to manipulate, yet strong enough to hold the frame. I do not use a "jigger" I only use pliers and my hands to shape the wire into the shape I wish. I use two standard shapes one with legs and one with a dress. ( I do not use male and female as mummers often switch it up )

I then start to fill out the armature.  I find using a little piece of tinfoil at a time works best. You just keep adding the tinfoil until the whole shape is covered and it is built up in the spots you wish to have stand out. For example the stomach. Remember it is better to build up with the tinfoil now before you start with the clay. It is much easier to drape the clothing over the tinfoil then a lump of clay. The clay moves a lot more and thus changes your figure. If you build on top of your tinfoil you have a solid structure and the clothes tends to drape better and then looks more realistic.

Here is a group of the armatures ready to be "dressed"

Once the armatures are ready I add the clothing. If the mummer is wearing boots I start with them, and then add the pants. If they are not going to be wearing boots, I start with the bottom of the skirt/ dress adding the rest of the skirt/ dress once the bottom finished, then I bake the piece according to the package.

There is two reasons why I bake the bottom piece before finishing the mummer. 1) It gives me a steady form to work with while "dressing"  the rest of the mummer and allows me to find where the mummer is balanced so I know how to pose the rest of the body without having it tip over. 2) once the bottom half is baked I can handle it as much as I want and I will not ruin the shape I have created, or leave finger markings in the clay (I really hate finger prints in the clay I spent so long trying to get just right.)

Sometimes I bake the mittens the same time as the bottoms depending on if the shirt is going over or under them.

I have had a few "accidents" once the bottom of the mummer is out of the oven. For example this guy decided to go skiing in his new pants and got caught up in a tree and ripped the back out of them. (Really I have know idea what happened but this sounds better then " I took him out of the oven and he was all shagged up") 

So instead of throwing him out for ruining his new pants I decided to use a rule I use with scrapbooking  "there are no mistakes, just opportunities to embellish." so I took the same colored clay and filled in the hole and then decided that while I was adding more clay I would add some more details. And as I knew this guy was going to be trouble I gave him extra stitching to hold his pants together.

 With his pants all fixed up I moved on to his shirt and jacket. (I didn't rebake him because it was only a small spot of fresh clay and figured I could avoid that spot. If you wish you can rebake them after you repair them.) I then rolled out a piece of clay for his shirt and cut it into the shape of a t-shirt. Before adding the shirt to the mummer I place a small bit of beige clay around the neck area. I know, I know you are asking "why?" because it will be covered up. I know it's there and even if you can't see it I want it to be nice. Its just a thing I have to do to feel like the piece is complete.



 The jacket/ coat whatever you want to call it comes next. This step I do in pieces and then blend the pieces together.

What mummer is complete with out their instrument? As I am not musical inclined I tend to use "Google" as my guide. 

For some strange reason I do not have any pictures of the next couple of lsteps but basically you lay a rectangle piece of white around the head and let it take on natural folds as you do so, if you try to force the folds you end up with a lot of finger prints and even a few tears. Then you add a hat (don't forget to add the eyelet for hanging the mummer) and position the instrument. Sometimes things can go wrong as seen below. After I added the hat I realized that I had left some red dye (red tends to do this) on the mask, as well my lovely cat left a hair that was really hard to get out with just my fingers. So what did I do to solve this eyesore? I baked it! Once baked you can sand (the white parts) and get rid of any unwanted "extras"

All fixed





Finally

Ta Da then you have a wonderful mummer.

 

  A few pictures of other mummers I have made.

 

 
  

Long Time

Wow it has been a while since I posted. I really wish that I could be motivated to post everyday like some people. I can't seem to do that so my aim shall be once a week. Once a week I think is fair. I do something creative almost every day that it not the problem, the problem is writing about about/ how I was creative for the day. So once a week I plan to pick at least one creative project and write about it.

This week's topic shall be "Craft Fairs". I love doing craft fairs, I love getting ready for them, I love walking in and seeing all the familiar faces, I love talking to people as they look at our crafts and ask questions, I love the the connections we make there, and I just love that it is starting to feel like we belong.

This fair was held at a school so we planned for a lot of children (not a good idea, but anyway...) We tend to make affordable treats for the children so they have something to buy while they are at the fair ( it is surprising how no one caters to the children) and it brings their parents over to look at our crafts.

This is a few of our decorated treats

Christmas Birds

After a friend posted a link to Martha Steward's Cinnamon Bird Ornament  I decided to give them a try. Hubby and I have made similar items before but they were a lot simpler. I even did the easy version with my class one year ( My mommy helped).

Here is the dough and my 1st template cut out

 Starting the sprinkles, which by the way are now all over our house. Tee hee oppies

  And the following is my almost finished birds. I have to thread some ribbon through the holes so they can be hung on a Christmas tree. I am also debating if I am going to put a clear coating on them. The trees will be turned into brooches or added to cards.

 Hope you like them!

Getting Ready For A Craft Fair

 So I have been house bound for over a month now, sick with pneumonia. During my non coughing fits (which was not a lot of time) I worked on finding ideas for crafts I could make to sell at local craft fairs. I love learning new crafts and the best way to pay for my never ending demand for supplies is to sell the items I make.
I also spent the last few days making a gift for my best friend for her birthday  but I can't post pictures until she get her mail.
However I can post pics of one of the items I hope to be selling at the craft fair. It is a paper baby buggy   that I plan to fill with small baby items and wrap together. I am so proud of this, and think it would make a excellent baby shower gift.

These are the two side views , I place a large drinking glass next to the buggy so that you could get an idea of the size of the buggy

 The back views, the little button says "cutie"

I just think it is the cutest thing. I hope there will be most posts through out the week as I get more things completed. However, I go back to work this week and I am hoping to finally get around to some schools so it will all depend on how much time I have on my hands.