A-hoy matey

Hello world!
I just got done with my philosophy homework, and composing my speech for speech class so I feel very accomplished, unforch, all this homework means little room for making the butterfly people this weekend, but all is not lost, I spent a long time working on this tiny pirate girl, she was a real challenge for me, I felt like she just never would go right, she even broke in two places after baking which I had to try and fix.
I still like her though, she is quite different.
Cant wait till the summer when my production of B-peeps will be undaunted!








I’m currently going ape shit with making custom order portraits! One little girl down, two siblings to go!
I’m going to get a portfolio together for Union Square Park this summer that features only custom portraits, I think many people would like to have one. My next blog will feature my latest custom order piece.

The Latest

How to make a polymer clay mermaid

How to make a mermaid from polymer clay.
Okay, maybe not how to make one, but how to decorate one at least.
Begin by making your mermaiden, mine has super long hair going down her tail
Know what you want her to be like, really fishy, fantasy, Disneyesque... whatever
I like mine to be kinda silly, but still look like you dug them up from the ocean floor.

Next, splot paint on her, use the colors you want to later combine and mesh
with one another, mine is going to be green since shes a mermaid, and I am adding
white paint instead of black so she can be a more pastel color.

Step three, blend. Use water (if using water based paint) to thin the paint and
spead it all over the figure.

next, continue blending until evenness, or in my case, unevenness is achieved, I want the streaks to remain in the tail . Paint her eyes on if you want eyes. Now for the final touch, and wait until she is dry before doing this, but use GOLD paint to give her an iridescent feel, she is half fish afterall.

Lastly, give the girl some scales for texture and visual appeal,
put a nice crystal in her hand and be satisfied with your creation.

Mermaid made by Pedro Ramirez on 03-22-08

Jewelry

What do you guys think about The Butterfly People becoming jewelry? The last person on etsy to buy a piece from me was going to use the girl for the centerpiece of a necklace, though I suggested against it since she was not reinforced to be worn. Also a customer of mine suggested they could be worn, so I thought id try it. Today I made a teeny tiny butterfly person, shes got no wings, and is painted polymer clay. I took one of those thingies you make earrings with and stuck it in her head and realized shed make a cute fairy necklace charm, or earring, but would anyone want to wear them? They could be cool Christmas ornaments as well. Ideas, ideas, so many ideas and so little time to manifest them all!





She can be a necklace and though she lost some of the essence of being a butterfly person, she will not easily break and is extremely tiny.


asymmetrical earrings even?





Below, her next to a "normal" small (under three inches tall) butterfly person for comparison.

Where did all the items go from your etsy store?!?

HELLO!
If anyone noticed my items disappeared from www.minifigure.etsy.com tonight its because the girls pictured below all went to a better place... no they didnt die, they have moved on and hopefully will do better in their new environment.

Union Square Park (My return)

I just wanted to let the fans of the butterfly people know that I have not forgotten about you. Those who used to come out to spend a day at the park in the greatest city in the world, enjoying its diversity while talking about the meaning of life, and viewing my artwork will be happy to know we are only two and a half months away from having those days return. The hot weather, the breeze, the rain, and the shine, Union Square Park at fourteenth street is the place for vendors like me to be, true, some things are going down and the building of a restaurant on the North side of the park may push us out, but for now we enjoy these stomping grounds while we can. I will be at the park working on new pieces as well as vending my already made ladies. it’s a lot of fun to watch the butterfly people being made and I suggest everyone to come enjoy, its free! So get ready for this summer, its going to be the best one for the butterfly people yet!
Speaking of issues dealing with artists, if you or someone you know is interested in street vending like I do but don’t know where to start, and to stay on top of issues affecting artists like me in NYC, join the ARTIST (Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics)
group on yahoo, they give you links to all the documentation you need to sell on the streets and also email issues affecting artists like myself. They might seem a bit radical, but agression is what has allowed artists in the city to have their second amendment rights to sell their art, which in turn allowed someone like me the opportunity to take advantage of this even though I didn’t fight for it, we (street artists) all have the responsibility to keep the privilege.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NYCStreetArtists/

Bohemian guy in subway system in NYC caught making fairies!

You just might find me…
Who is that guy? That crazy person over there digging around in that box with the dolls on it?
Who would be doing something like that on the MTA New York City Subway train or New Jersey Transit bus and dressed like that! He must be homeless, unstable, or both.
Careful! Don’t sit next to him, you never know what he is doing in that box.
For some reason I cant stop looking, he is making little people, I hope its not some kind of witchcraft of voodoo religion.
One minute he is hand crafting little women, the next minute he disappears, who was that?

Photo Blog - Azul Ojo AKA Gaia Goddess

In my March 1st blog, Tres Hermanitas, I showed you guys Azul Ojo and how she turned into Gaia, the goddess of earth!
Well, here she is for your viewing pleasure with her beautiful real blue Morpho didius wings.










She is fierce

OH!
And I forgot to mention, she is a replacement for the piece that was destroyed (two sepearate times) below. First she was a warrior Amazon woman, then when she was damaged, I took the head and placed it on a fairy dancer figure... she was doomed I guess, perhaps cursed that night at Union Square park years ago...
No molds! I just re-poainted over her eyes and made a new body and hair.

Ceramics Show 2008, City College

Greetings,
There are only two more days until the Ceramics Gallery reception on the 13th. Again, any New Yorkers who want to come, its free.
Here is a link to the event: CCNY CERAMICS

I did the lighting for the show and have my work in two sections, one is my larger vessels, and the other has smaller pieces and some figures and a dragon (my silly or kitsch stuff), all work has the students name with it whom it belongs to so be sure to look for the artwork of Pedro Ramirez if you should decide to attend. I did have the pleasure to check out some of the work there and the other artists are extraordinary if I do say so myself. If you cant go, don’t worry, I will have plenty of pictures and a blog re-cap of the night.

NYC Inspirations 2008 pieces are finished

I cant believe it, the NYC Inspirations pieces are done! Below is the final product of the bran child which was just an idea and has become a polished and finished piece of personal symbolism.






Last night I had all my faceless figures with everything ready or so I thought. I decided more needed to be said, they needed wings, wings are symbols of life, freedom, change, and beauty. I also needed love, and some other factors. I found just what I was looking for in my bag of broken jewelry, I found green stones that looked like the peridot in my high school class ring! Peridot has healing properties and is my birthstone so I decided to place the stones atop little metal jewelry pieces which would end up looking like a head piece or crown for the little butterfly people. I am please with the result, a star on their heads.










After this I decided I would go back to my roots and put something inside I learned about way back in Art Quest in 1999 at the hermitage art center in Norfolk Virginia, and that is the four directions and their elements. I used items as symbols for the elements, I made and burned the tips of miniature candles for fire, put leaves in for earth, cotton sprig for air, and a shell for water.




I decided for ease of reading to keep the text on the chests of the girls printed. Their little cases are full of trinkets and things to bring you in, and they carry a message to give, YOU INSPIRE OTHERS.
They are all done and ready to be given out! I can hardly wait.

NYC Inspirations update (the pieces are half way done)

Well hello!

I'm happy to say the NYC Inspirations campaign is coming along nicely which really is surprising since I can often take eons to get anything done. My first public piece entitled "The Tower of Hopes/Dreams" never even made it into reality, and custom orders that are not paid for in advance seem to live on forever unfinished, unprioritized. But such is not the case! Today I finished all seven of the seven awards/pieces which will be given to seven unsuspecting and deserving New York street artists who inspire others. I have talked to several people and most agree I need to have several pieces with me at all times just in case that need comes where I feel compelled to deliver the butterfly person to someone, I should have them, and it should be spontaneous, not planned out like an awards show. Anyway, back to the girls, yes, they ended up all being girls and all being rather similar looking.
(I love the picture below, haha, looks like attack of the hand or something)

Beginning somewhat androgynous, the figures started out simply pointing out into space as the schematic on the last blog about this project showed, yet after mixing the clay for the super cool skirts and putting the intensely bright yellow shirts on, it was evident the figures had genders, they were women. They remain faceless however because I think it would take away from the meaning of the pieces which are symbolic, bright and colorful to symbolize inspiration, brilliant, bright, intense inspiration, nothing dark and dull. The face of inspiration is faceless, anyone can inspire so they remain as is. I will however put text on their shirts, this is imperative to drive home the point, "YOU INSPIRE OTHERS" its very indicative with the pointing of fingers so to speak which the ladies will be doing. They all have black hair, yellow shirts, and multi-colored skirts. They all also carry a diamond in their left hand, and point with their right. The diamond/stone represents a gift they have to offer, sort of a physical representation of the non physical gift of inspiration, they are basically little allegories of the people (whether male or female) who they will be given to, those people inspire others and thus are colorful people who give the gift of inspiration. I was not going to put any wing on them at all, but it is true, they are butterfly people, or as some see them, fairies and that makes them special, so they will all have matching REAL butterfly wings. The figures are baked and ready to get their wings and cases sometime tomorrow! (later today)
have I ever had seven B-peeps on my hand at once? I wonder what the world record is...


No breasts for these girls, but they do get rad psychedelic skirts

Okay, at this point im feeling like a commercial toy-maker

I dont like it when they point at me, so I take the picture from the side

You see what I mean! Yikes!

Thats better, they have hair too, just like my original Butterfly miniatures...but is it
just me or do their pointing fingers remind you of guns?

Ah, not so freaky when its just one, the final version may have this sticker on her chest or...

I may paint the text on.

yes, YOU inspire others



Again, I'm happy that the campaign is getting underway, I actually even made little cards to go with the pieces themselves which read, "The Butterfly People presents, the NYC Inspirations campaign. You have been selected as one of seven people in New York City who are public inspirations to people. This figure was created to give you a hard copy of the fact that people appreciate what you do. Keep up the good work!" Why seven people you say? Well, seven is a very special number in my life.
The back of the cards say "Change lives, inspire, be an inspiration" over and over and over again.





think I have found the time slot to find artists, I have a break during school days between 12pm and 3pm to scour the city before going to math class, also on Thursdays and after 7pm the other days. Woot, let the campaign begin!