30 Heads in 30 Days

The Origin Story

Eight years ago I turned 50 and woke up one day and decided
I needed a change.

That’s the way I am, sometimes.
I wake up one day and think:

I don’t want to do this anymore.

It’s that thought, if you think it long enough, that starts you moving in a different direction.
The thinking thoughts turned into words
and when you speak them out loud there is no pulling them back in.

I started making things.
The one thing that brought me comfort as a child was making things.
Things out of cardboard and paper and things out of clay.
I started making things for the shear joy of making them.

I was using air-dry paperclay at the time and plastic easter eggs for shapes as well as tin foil balls.
And I practiced. Before I left for work and after I came home.
In my bed at night I practiced.

Learning the material, trying on different styles. Building different ways.
It’s how I learned how it felt to hit a stumbling block and move through it.
It’s how I learned to have fun, again.

I got lost in the process.
My only criteria: the reason for the project, was to get myself to show up and to do the thing again and again.
To do the thing on the days I didn’t want to. On the days I had no time.
On the days I felt like: I have no ideas and it doesn’t matter and WHY, am I doing this?

And it was these heads I was most proud of.

Because I kept a promise to myself to do something everyday for myself.

They were not for sale or meant to be gifts for anyone. They were never even completely finished products.
But, they were all sculpted heads.

And I learned a lot:
About the material,
How I liked to build and different ways to build.
To disconnect from the outcome.
To push through even if I hated something.
How to have my back. And I remembered what it felt like
just to make something for myself and not for anyone else.

To make things I wanted to make

Just because.

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Skip to Videos
  • 8/1/25

    Day 29

    Day 29 - It’s officially Fish Car Friday.

  • 7/30/25

    Day 28

    Day 28 - I return to the prompts for just the thing I needed today.

  • 7/29/25

    Day 27

    Day 27 - Intuitive Sculpting….I give you a glimpse into my true process

  • 7/28/25

    Day 26

    Day 26 - Tackling Texture

  • 7/25/25

    Day 25

    Day 25 - A hedgehog

  • 7/22/25

    Day 22 - Another Monster

    Day 22 - I do love monsters. They are my favorite thing to make.

  • 7/21/25

    Day 21

    Day 21 - A trip to see a friend’s show inspired me to try something new.

  • 7/20/25

    Day 20

    Day 20 - Explorers.

    They are representation of how I feel about life.

  • 7/19/25

    Day 19

    Day 19 - I return to the prompts.
    I don’t only make human faces.

  • 7/19/25

    Day 18 - How to choose a nose

    Day 18 - How the choice of a nose can change a face.

  • 7/17/25

    Day 17 - It just depends

    Day 17 - I combined yesterday’s video with today’s to answer the question: how long does it take to make one of those?

  • 7/16/25

    Day 16 - Give me a hand

    Day 16 - Give me a hand. The hands are the tools of the soul according to Carl Jung.

  • 7/15/25

    Day 15 - Making Masks

    Day 15 - Making Masks

  • 7/14/25

    Day 14 - Something from nothing

    Day 14 - Some days you don’t know what to make, so you just begin.

  • 7/13/25

    Day 13 - Two for One

    Day 13 - Two for One….a fish car beginning and a passenger emerge.

  • IMG_3061.jpeg
    7/12/25

    Day 12 - Monsters

    Day 11 - Growing up we had Creature Features on Saturday afternoons. Today’s challenge: Monsters

  • 7/11/25

    Day 11 - Fish Car Friday

    Day 11 - Fish Car Friday with a free giveaway

  • 7/10/25

    Day 10 - Let's talk about feelings

    Day 10 - I did not realize the connection between what I was making and how I was feeling until some time had passed.

    It was in the looking back that I saw the connection.

  • 7/9/25

    Day 9 - Sketchbooks

    Day 9 - I open my sketchbooks and share some images that became sculptures

  • 7/8/25

    Day 8 - Return of the Prompts

    Day 8 - Into week 2 and now it’s starting to feel like a job!
    Actually, I return to the prompts jar for inspiration

  • 7/7/25

    Day 7 - Rest

    Day 7 - Rest

    My favorite thing to do is sleeping. It’s free and it turns out it’s also good for you.

    In this video I show you how to make torn clay hair and also include a portrait that a friend painted of me

  • 7/6/25

    Day 6 - Going Large

    Day 6 - Going Large

    The first time I built large I almost stopped.

    I started feeling overwhelm and fear.

    Fear of things not working out

    Fear of my vision not coming out exactly the way I wanted it to. Fear of Failure.

    At least, that’s what I thought I felt at the time.

    Now I know it was also excitement. 

    Of the unknown
    of possibility 
    of what will happen 

    Next

  • 7/5/25

    Day 5

    Day 5 -The feelings wheel

    I never knew there was such a thing.

    Someone has compiled all of our emotions onto a color wheel.

    It’s like a flow chart from confusion to clarity

    Some emotions are easy to decipher:

    Excited is joy

    Shocked - Surprise

    But it was the trickery feelings that were an eye opener to me

    The emotions that sit at the top of the chart.

    The blues and the purples. I was surprised to see:

    Guilt = Sadness

    Inadequateness = Fear

  • 7/4/25

    Day 4 - Teeth

    Day 4 - Growing up my mouth was too small for my teeth.
    It was a genetic thing.

    As my grown-up teeth grew in they crowded together 
    like so many people on a too full subway car.

    My mother decided something had to be done.

    So I got braces.

    I have always been fascinated by teeth.
    Especially the kind that are a bit wonky
    and not so white that you need to wear shades

  • 7/3/25

    Day 3

    Day 3 - A recent trip to the eye doctor has me realizing I am just getting old.

  • 7/1/25

    Day 2 - Prompts

    Day 2 - For today’s challenge I received your prompts, collected them in a jar and decided to put my hand in and try one on for size.

  • 7/1/25

    Day 1 - fish head

    Day 1 has me looking to my sketch book for inspiration.

    I am creating work for an upcoming show titled:
    Celebrating the River.

    I have been planning a fleet of fish cars and a whole bunch of swimmers.

    The show opens in August at the Stover Mill Gallery in Erwinna, PA.

  • View recent photos.jpeg
    6/27/25

    In my own words

    The origin story of my very first 30 heads in 30 days challenge began with the thought:

    I don’t want to do this anymore.