Post script...an egg

Here is an egg piece I made also...no accompanying figure this time. I love this piece, to me it screams art deco...or nouveau...one of these days I will learn the distinction.

Cheers!

One thing you can always count on is for time to pass. With a baby, it passes like a bullet train. Our little addition to the family has already passed his four month birthday. It is so wonderful to have this opportunity to become a mother yet again! I will say that this one is work...holy cow is he ever. My visions of a sweet little baby gazing up at me from first a bassinet and then a playpen, while I toil away at what I love- dolls, sculpting, costuming, stitching, teaching about the art of passementerie- have evaporated into clouds of fussiness, sleep deprivation, co-sleeping and napping in my arms while the time ticks away. No matter though. There is plenty of time later...right? Somebody throw me a bone!!!

2012 wrapped up as a pretty good year artistically speaking, if not very productive. Pregnancy is hard on an older body and childbirth about like being hit by a truck. But I am proud of what I did accomplish, and hopefully these surreal ideas in my head, visions of fairies and babies and sparkling decorated eggs, will someday transcend the thin boundaries of my brain and find their way to a physical form. Alas, the dreams of these future endeavors keep kind company for me.

I finished the "Heartbreaker" mother and child piece that I started and of which I previously posted pictures in progress.

Here are a couple of "in progress" pictures:

I really had fun making the needlepoint shoes, too.
The "Heartbreakers" are from a class I yook with A is for Artistic, with a wonderful teacher and world renowned doll artist, Ankie Daanen.

I also took another great class from Diane Keeler, "Sculpt a Teddy Bear", starrind sweet Willie. I really wanted to do something different and have fun. I found this reaaly wierd fashion fur at Hancock Fabrics and decided to give it a whirl. I really love how this bear came out. Let me tell you, the way Diane does her instructions, you just can't fail. Without further ado, meet the "Red Bearon".

So I have embarked on more classes, all while trying to finish others...I wish there could be more free time in day, but I wouldn't change things for the world. More soon I hope!!!

Check out the tassel web site...videos are up and running...on YouTube too.

Cheers!

I am just about finished with this latest block of projects. I tried to post the pictures in chronological order but I guess it's just going to do what it wants...but they are all here! Libelle, a project by Sherry Goshon, was a really fun project to do, and since I am always trying to incorporate things I love to do I added two butterflies carved out of a rhea egg shell and adorned with glitter, crystals, and organza fabric. The three tiny little butterflies are made of paper and attached with wire. She has Swarovski crystals in her hair; her hair is made of some exquisite yarn I bought at Magpie Yarns. I added some blending filament and some gold yarn I had previously purchased also. I really recommend yarns from, for example, Tilli Tomas for art doll hair. They are beautifully dyed, and many have beads or sequins. Libelle's sleeves are silk rose petals, and the dragonfly wings were made by me following the design by Judy Serresseque; the basic wings can be purchased at OOAK Emporium and you can also download the tutorial there for creating these beautifully embellished wings. This was a time consuming and challenging project, but I had a blast.

So now that Libelle and Monika are finished, I moved on to finish my little polymer clay fairy. She is equivalent to an eight inch high sculpt. I have wanted to undertake an ambitious project like this one for a long time but the timing and inspiration was never right. She is a fairy sitting in an opened ostrich egg shell, with the insides of the shell adorned with ribbon embroidery. The doll herself also has a detachable silk ribbon embroidered train. The skirt lining and the folded ribbon rose are silk velvet that I hand dyed in shades of teal, olive, sage, and aqua. I used Fimo gel for the wings and embellished them with Pearlies. The ostrich egg took me a week to cut, and I had to use a flexible beading needle to achieve the ribbon embroidery on the concave surface. As of now I have covered the back (or the outside of the shell) first with paper clay then with modeling paste to cover the embroidery thread and ribbon ends and I am attempting to restore the outside so I can decorate it as well. The panels will then be re-hinged, the egg placed on a stand, and her pedestal made and then with a lot of help from Above she will be finished.

The tassel web site is getting ready to go. We will be in the video studio all day tomorrow, in between ostrich egg panel sanding.

Here are some photos of the progress of the doll, along with finished photos of Libelle. As with any project I create, I welcome "how'd you do that?" questions!

Cheers!

Hello out there! Gosh it has been a while. It would seem that the loss of my little Lily shut my world down. Actually I have been on doll overdrive! I have been wanting to wrap up some projects before going full force on the tassel web site. There has been a lot of of activity on that site and I am excited for it to be all that it can be. My son is home from Florida so we will be spending the rest of the week taking pictures, making and editing videos, and posting, posting, posting. I have a notebook-actually two notebooks- full of ideas regarding the site and new tassel designs to share. This will be so much fun! I hope you will join me! So I have been taking classes from A is for Artistic and also from Doll Street Dreamers. As I posted, I took a class from A is for Artistic with Ankie Daanen, a wonderful doll artist and teacher. At the same time I had signed up for Marlaine Verlhests's class on air dry clay dolls. I put that one off for a bit, actually mostly because I honestly felt no artistic or creative inclination to participate at the time. However, this strange urge came over me to see what was going on there, so I dove in, and I created Monica, who I just adore. She is my sassy little goth girl with her little pet rabbit, both adorned with crystals, and Monica in satin, velvet, and silk. I really ended up enjoyng this class. Marlaine is also a wonderful, attentive instructor and I highly recommend her class if you get the opportunity to participate. Here is Monica in the beginning:

Actually she almost wasn't. It took me three "heads" to get one I finally liked. What is funny is I got so frustrated with the lips, I decided on the third try I was just going to do something really goofy and just make them puckered. I figured on making a sort of sassy Pierot. However I actually liked the shape the face started to take and decided to go with it. I can always use the practice. Plus, I read from another instructor something that struck me: that it really doesn't matter if you think it is perfect or even good enough, just finish the doll. I really like this philosophy, and it is true, because I need practice in all aspects of doll making, down to the wigging and costuming and the painting. Monica took on a life as she progressed form body

to ideas for costuming and hair

to the finished doll (yes that is her little rabbit, sculpted in polymer clay with Swarovski crystals and a tattoo)

We just love her in my house. She has taken a prominent seat in the living room...she too is observing how pathetic television is! I like to work on more than one project at a time, because I have no patience. The only way I can keep my hands off something that is trying to dry, cool off, solidify, etc. is to have something else to work on. So I have had three projects going at one time. The second is called Libelle, and is a doll created by Sherry Goshon and is available as an online class with Doll Street Dreamers. I was browsing this site which I like to visit- it is mostly about cloth dolls (I very mush recommend this site...it has so much to offer!!!). I thought Libelle was so unique and a wonderful opportunity to learn new techniques and use new media that I coudn't pass her up. So I embarked on sculpting her face, then her body, and the project is progressing beautifully even if it has required loads of patience and waiting time:

and also I am working on another polymer clay doll/decorated egg project that I am really excited about

This morning I finished the crochet sleeves for this polymer clay fairy; she will also have a beautiful (at least it is in my head, anyway) ostrich egg.
The three girls at once:

Hopefully I will have more to report and more to look at this week as I wrap up these projects. Then it is tassels. tassels, tassels!!!
Cheers!