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[Almirena]

I mentioned that I would be making a kolobok with its arm in a sling... so I've finally got around to it.

A boy kolobok with his arm in a sling, and a girl version with her arm in a sling:

Some delivery vans - the first is a standard white delivery van (which are used by couriers who are sub-contracted by Australia post throughout Australia, to deliver parcels).

The second is a delivery van belonging to the parcel delivery "arm" of Australia Post - Star Track.

The third is an Australia Post mail van; these vans are used by Australia post drivers to collect mail and parcels from post boxes and AP post offices.

This post has been edited by Almirena: May 10 2019, 10:25 PM

[Almirena]

An innocent little lamb.

Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee,
Gave thee life, and bade thee feed
By the stream and o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight
Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
  Little Lamb, who made thee?
  Dost thou know who made thee?

This post has been edited by Almirena: May 23 2019, 03:43 AM

[Almirena]

The farmer who is upset by the drought doesn't stand around all day holding a rake...
No, sometimes he's leaning on a spade.


I have also taken inspiration from your wonderful power tool / impact drill construction worker, Aiwan, in working on a construction worker using a jackhammer / pneumatic drill (the sort used to break up concrete floors or bitumen).
I was so tempted to use your beautiful safety helmet but I thought it would be more appropriate for me to make one from scratch.
(Also, unlike the impact drill version, I thought it might be better not to have a headlamp on it.)
I opted to go for the most typical colour (yellow) used for hard hats in construction - certainly as used in the UK and Australia - even though it risks looking washed-out in comparison with the kolobok's colour.
I've added safety ear-muffs to the hard hat, as construction workers would go mad if they didn't use them while operating the jackhammer!
(I've made two versions, as I wasn't sure with the first one that it was clearly a jackhammer.)

Other jackhammer version:

And... a whimsical kolobok scarecrow keeping away the crows.
(I was tempted to include corn growing in the background, but I think that would just make the scene too busy. It works well enough now, I think.)
I was worried at first that this kolobok would look like a crucifixion! - but it doesn't (thankfully).


This post has been edited by Almirena: May 14 2019, 07:35 PM

[Almirena]

I have been working on an old-fashioned lift (U.S. "elevator") with an operator wearing a bellhop uniform.

The bellhop girl is here separately:

The lift is here separately:

With just the lift operator in the lift:

Final version with a kolobok passenger:

[Reny]

Wonderful, Almirena. You are so busy. I like all your new koloboks - especially Rapunzel and the new farmer Your lift versions are great. Very nice!

[Almirena]

Wäre es nicht süß, ein schlafendes Dornröschen-Kolobok zu haben? Vielleicht auch ein Kolobok von Dornröschen am Spinnrad? ... Außerdem ein Schneewittchen-Kolobok...

Spaß!

(It occurs to me that a Sleeping Beauty kolobok lying asleep - with the prince kissing her awake - would be quite cute, as well as Sleeping Beauty at the spinning wheel. Also, since we're in the realm of fairy tales, what about a Snow White kolobok?

What fun!)

And thank you; I took quite a lot of care with the lift kolobok, trying to recreate that wonderful old-fashioned look of the very early lifts with their wood panelling and decorative wrought iron grille. I am happy with how it turned out.

[Reny]

These would be very nice koloboks indeed....

Yes, I see... the lift koloboks are amazing, the look of the lifts are very well done, Almirena

[Almirena]

Girl with handbag walking.


(Lift, this time with some passers-by as well, including the girl with handbag.)

Cow. >>>But I realised that Just Cuz had also made a cow kolobok - quite a cute and funny one.

This post has been edited by Almirena: May 23 2019, 03:57 AM

[Almirena]

Cow being milked by a milkmaid:

[Almirena]

A partridge in a pear tree:



A French hen:

[Almirena]

A common (Ring-necked) Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) with a gold ring in its beak:
Slightly tweaked version:

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me Five Gold Rings
It is highly probable that the gold rings are not literal pieces of jewellery, but - in keeping with the first half of the song Twelve Days of Christmas - are birds. The reference to gold rings must mean ring-necked birds. These are most likely to be Common (Ring-necked) Pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) which were introduced to England from China in mediaeval times. The neck is palely ringed; the main body of the pheasant is a ravishing gold, and the irridescent embellishments of this fine bird add to its beautiful and luxurious jewel-like appearance.

A colly-bird:
On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me Four Calling Birds

In the song Twelve Days of Christmas, most people interpret a calling bird as a song bird. However, the original song referred to "Four Colly Birds". The word colly means "black as coal or soot" so it is likely that the gift was four blackbirds (Turdus merula).

Two turtle-doves (European turtle-dove - Streptopelia turtur):
FINAL version which looks much better:
On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me Two Turtle Doves
(I wasn't happy with the first attempt; I think I tried to slim down the doves too much. When I made them plumper turtle-doves, and changed the branch to that of a hawthorn, it pleased me more.)

A flying greylag goose a-laying:
On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me Six Geese-a-Laying


JUST A QUESTION: Given that these are at least intended to be bird koloboks (with a kolobok-based head and a kolobok-based body), am I transgressing by giving them little feet? (The feet need fixing, I know...)

Should I in fact be trying to make these as koloboks without separate head and body?

(It's just so very hard to convey the tiny details that distinguish one sort of bird from another if I keep it to a true kolobok bird as Cherna, for instance, did with that absolutely gorgeous bluebird. It's a magnificent kolobok, but I am not sure that I could achieve enough differentiation between each bird if I stuck to that concept.)

I noticed that Connie added a duck body to her ducks, and it's in that spirit that I decided to use the kolobok base (smaller) for each bird head, and a larger (sometimes stretched!) kolobok base for each bird body.

(And besides... with a partridge, two turtle-doves, three French hens, four colly-birds, five gold rings (ring-necked birds), six geese, and seven swans, it would be fatally easy to fail in giving each bird its own little personality and behaviour (as well as colouring and details) to distinguish it from the others!)

This post has been edited by Almirena: Dec 28 2019, 04:56 PM

[Reny]

A firework of ideas, Almirena
I like the girl with the handbag and the cow...
I remember this cow version from Mother Goose Very funny, too.

And your birdies, especially the flying goose - very nice.

[Almirena]

Oh! I didn't realise Mother Goose had also made a cow kolobok. It's wonderful - such clean lines in how it's been executed.

I know my pheasant needs plumper legs - more like chicken drumsticks, even though that seems such a crude thought in comparison with the amazing beauty of the pheasant. (Sacrilege, I know, in light of how beautiful the pheasant is! but I have a wonderful Christmas recipe for roast pheasant...)

I don't think one can see the freckles on the little red-headed farm boy bringing the milking pail to the milkmaid; I might see if I can do something about that, perhaps by having him face the front with all of his freckles clearly on display. He should also have his own separate little kolobok identity; ditto for the milkmaid with her mob-cap. (I was pleased with how the mob-cap turned out, and I think a separate kolobok maid will be adorable.)

At the moment I'm working on the dancing lady for the "Nine ladies dancing". To make sure that this kolobok clearly shows a "lady" dancing, rather than just a girl dancing, it seemed to me that it had to be a girl kolobok with a wonderful mediaeval headdress.

<- static idea

The movements have been quite challenging; I'm basing them on a pre-1600s type of dance, with precise hand movements.


I'm going to be faced with a similar situation when I work on the "Ten lords a-leaping". It can't just be a leaping boy kolobok as it must convey the idea of a lord. I didn't want to make this a Victorian-style lord (using a top hat); so far I am thinking of making it a Renaissance hat in dark red and gold, in one of the styles worn by noblemen. We'll see...



Swan A-Swimming

And here is my swan a-swimming.
On the seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me Seven Swans a-Swimming



(I may re-work the neck; it looks a little clumsy. I wonder whether the water is perhaps too choppy; it looks more like the sea than a lake or pond! Well, I'll think about it...)


Lady Dancing

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love sent to me Nine Ladies Dancing

This is my mediaeval lady a-dancing:

(I might make the veil on the kolobok from the back view come down from the headpiece to lightly cover the kolobok.)

Lord A-Leaping

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love sent to me Ten Lords a-Leaping

This is my renaissance lord a-leaping:

I wanted to be sure that he looked lordly, in strong contrast to the pipers and drummers that will be coming up. I suppose I could have made the leaping lord a knight wearing his shiny helmet, but no lord ever wore armour while dancing or leaping about! (Clank, clank, clank...)

This post has been edited by Almirena: Jun 10 2019, 07:32 AM

[Almirena]

A momentary detour from the Twelve Days of Christmas...

I have the idea for Dornröschen / Sleeping Beauty, although so far she is just lying asleep in the bed to which she was carried after pricking her finger on the spindle:



or with both hands showing:

So far it's really just a girl kolobok asleep in an ornate old-fashioned bed. The prince must enter the scene and waken the Sleeping Beauty before it can truly become a Sleeping Beauty kolobok.

EDIT: The green bedclothes make it hard for the kolobok princess to stand out, so I've made them red:



This post has been edited by Almirena: Jun 19 2019, 06:05 PM

[Almirena]

In preparation for the eleven pipers piping (for the eleventh day of Christmas), I wondered what sort of pipe would be appropriate.

I decided upon a shawm, which is a mediaeval woodwind (a type of pipe) that has a flaring "bell" like that of a trumpet. Unlike a trumpet, though, it's made of wood. Its interesting look should (I hope) do nicely for the piper.



The piper must have a colourful hat suitable to a mediaeval or renaissance street musician:

or


Piper Piping

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me Eleven Pipers piping

This is my Mediaeval/Renaissance piper piping (three iterations):




(I've used mediaeval music notation to indicate the music, but I'm not quite sure that it works.)



This post has been edited by Almirena: Jan 4 2020, 01:36 PM

[Almirena]

For my drummer drumming, I wanted another eye-catching hat that would be worn by an itinerant musician striking his drum.

<-- static design

I'm going to make the drum itself a tabor:





But it needed a bit of reworking...

Drummer Drumming

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me Twelve Drummers drumming

This is my Mediaeval/Renaissance drummer drumming (and the drum is a tabor):





This post has been edited by Almirena: Jan 5 2020, 09:52 AM

[Almirena]

Playing card characters: Queen of Hearts

[Reny]

Almirena, your musicians are great I prefer the first piper.
Dornroeschens/Sleeping Beauty: the red bedclothes look much better...perhaps you can add some roses ... climbing around the bed?
And the Queen of Hearts.... very nice idea!

This post has been edited by Reny: Jun 23 2019, 08:53 PM

[Almirena]

I love the idea of roses entwining the bed. I'll see what I can do.

I'm glad that you like the musicians. I am extremely happy with them. The one that delights me the most is the mediaeval lady dancing; the movement involved had to be as precise as a gavotte... The piper and drummer are among my favourites out of all the koloboks upon which I've worked.

Here is another kolobok scene which grew out of the "crossing fingers for good luck" kolobok. It shows a cheerful little kolobok walking along, only to be suddenly confronted by a devil popping out from behind a tree. The kolobok quickly makes the ancient "crossed fingers" sign, and the devil is banished.



And a spinning devil...

(I tried so many different styles of horn, but most of them looked like a jester's hat. I think I finally hit on the right image.

[Reny]

I like both, Almirena ... very nice scene with the banished devil

This post has been edited by Reny: Jul 3 2019, 05:06 PM