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!

OOAK Fairy Disaster Gosh I am Soooo Sad

Hi out there, I am out there diligently working on my next doll/egg project. Or at least I was.


I sculpted a little toddler doll, she was to be a little fairy. Her face was soooo adorable, I kept telling myself to take pictures but kept putting it off.


Some ball of something got on the dial of my convection oven and I adjusted the temperature to that little ball of shmootz.


My little girl burned at a whopping 450 degrees.


I can't get over my sadness. I melted down pretty well myself. I haven't shed that many tears in a long time.


Everybody said "oh my gosh. all that work!"


I could care less about the work. To me it is all needed practice any way.


It is the loss of that little face that cheered me up, even when it was on a wooden stick, the little tiny dimpled hands that were to hold her little swan. The great big blue realistic eyes that looked up with so much hope.


Usually when I make a mistake I want to get going right away and "get back on that horse". Yesterday I sculpted two fine little blue eyed babies' faces.


But neither of them are my little Lily.



So I have decided to abandon the project and mourn her loss. Thanks to my laziness, I have no pictures of this little darling. Only charred remains.


Tomorrow I will start on something else. Today I just want to rest.




I will never make that mistake again.

Last picture

I really like this picture so I had to add it. Cheers!

OOAK Mermaids, Egg Art, and Other Musings

Alas I am calling my mermaid and egg sculpture (no name yet) and my Ankie Daanen Dingle Dangle Doll finished. I am glad to do this as my head is swimming with new ideas, my work space is tidy and ready to accept another torrent of clay, beads, glitter, crystals, ribbons, and more…and my tassel web site calls out continuously for help. I had said that I was apprehensive about my web host company submitting my web sites to the search engines while they lay dormant through this latest storm of mad creativity, but off they went, and that is OK too. As I noted, when my tech savvy son gets here in hmmm how many days, weeks, hours…who’s counting? I will put him to work filming, editing and posting my video tutorials for making gorgeous tassels! I don’t see these little furry creatures (the tassels, not my children) as window decorations…I see them as an opportunity to display art and creativity and sculpture all in wonderfully creative ways. I have taught tassel making for many years and hope that this web site will spread the word about them and make them doable and attainable. For now, I am posting my pictures of my recent works. I am always sad with respect to how the two dimensional world of photography robs so much work of its depth. I love things that sparkle and shine…and I just have never been to able to capture that well on film. It will be even more of a challenge with tassels, which are tactile, feel me pieces of art that renders cameras useless. However, it is the best we have, and will suffice for now.

Cheers!