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Hello from Sunny Florida. My name is Cynthia Stone, but please call me Cindy, all my friends do.
As the youngest child of four, my older siblings were more athletic than I, so I had a lot of time playing on my own. I often entertained myself with paper, scissors and tape. My mother said she always knew where to find me, as I would spend hours cutting and building things out of paper, cutting the projects apart and rebuilding them again until they appeared exactly as I wanted. I grew up in southern Michigan, so in the winter I sculpted creatures and people out of snow. In the summer, much to the chagrin of my mother, I was a mud sculptress!
Growing up and into early adulthood, I was always involved in something art-related, and my first love was the beauty of sculpting. Opportunities to make a living as an artist did not exist in the small community in which I lived, and I did not consider living in a larger city an option. I was a homebody who got homesick while living only a few miles from my parent's home! However, things change I became a single parent. With no jobs in my area, I moved to another state to work as an engineering contract worker. The best thing that happened was I overcame my fear of moving away from my family.
After many years of traveling from job to job, my daughter was finally living on her own, and I reentered the art world when a friend gave me a book by Robert McKinley on making dolls. My first attempts constructing the dolls resembled characters from science fiction movies! But once again, my office job took priority; I was working a lot of overtime so I packed all my artwork projects and books away and forgot about my sculptures.
In the fall of 1998, I retired from engineering to be the caregiver to my paraplegic niece in Florida. I had more free time on my hands to be with my family and to pursue my personal interests. Although I was still painting, I felt like something was missing. While searching the Internet for sculpture classes, I came across Audrey's on line class. It was the perfect answer. I could still be at home and work at my own pace.
The class was fantastic. Our first project assignment was to sculpt a Santa. Mine did not want to be Santa; he wanted to be an elf with big pointy ears and all! No matter how hard I worked to convert him to a Santa, he remained an elf. Thank goodness Audrey encourages such creative whims! You can see me pictured here with my original class sculpture, which I affectionately named Fritz.
I use old, new and recycled fabrics. Any real fur I use is from years gone by; I am a strong proponent of animal rights, and love them too much to kill for fur. Accessories may be old, new or hand-made. Each piece is numbered, dated and signed in the order in which it was sculpted. A certificate of authenticity will accompany all pieces.
My inspirations come from people watching, dreams and old memories. If you purchase one of my hand-sculpted pieces, I hope it brings you as much joy as it brought me during its creation.
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