Anything Good Happen While I Was Gone?

Created on: 7/26, 2009 at 06:26 pm

Miss me? Busy or lazy or just so sick of clackity-clacking at my keyboard for a living that I didn't want to type another word? Really, I have no excuse for not blogging. Same goes for not taking lots and lots of art pics. I dunno. Maybe I've got my flake on. Maybe it's the heat. Fucking July. Sigh.

Anyway, before Autumn, I figured I should post something, just so the cobwebs don't get too thick.

Remember Toben?

He looked like this when he left his home last year.

Looking pretty good, him. I'm the last to work on him. It was hard to find a spot to put anything. The dolls get so full after 8 people.

I added some beads to his boots, his hat, and then around this fantastic peace sign. His bag got some bells, too.

Here he is from the back. I wish you could see this cloak in person. There's so much texture and color going on. Gail in NC did this addition.

After getting Toben out the door, I started on Persia. She's my entry for Gail's Art Doll Round Robin Coolabberation 2009, to be known as CA2009 hereafter.

Journals were a must on this project and so I created this for her.

Here's the cover open to the first page. Watch out for the glitter spout. (Palms forehead.) I was having a bad glitter day. It looks like a magical fairy princes wiped her nose across the page. Damn magical fairy princesses, anyway.

The outside of the address label has a map of the Middle East, Persia is an old name for Iran, and the inside has a mermaid to keep her company.

This is the center of the page. There was a ten word limit, which I loved the idea of. I tried to get across that she's a Pirate Queen. This is some of the first playing I've done with water color pencils. I really like the way it came out, all that effortless texture. Those little seagulls were a real bitch. They're tiny and I cut them all out by hand and glued them on. I can't tell you how many disappeared under my desk between the table and the glue stick. The black thingies used to be part of a balloon.

Gatta came home too! Look haw gorgeous she is!

Check out this face. Isn't she something!

Earlier this month we were shocked to find a little baby seal right next to the dock. Apparently the mommies beach the babies while they go out all day long, then come home and pump the little kidlette full of milk.

I needle felted this little critter. He's my first one and I think he came out pretty good for a first try.

His little eyes are faceted black beads.

He's about four inches long, just right for the palm of your hand.

The girls decided they wanted him to go to their friend Sasha, who was very excited to see him.

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Glutton For Dollishment

Created on: 6/23, 2009 at 10:45 pm

I'm not exactly in over my head, but I am having a Roman-esque orgy of doll making and art journaling. At the beginning of this month, I had 5 dolls and 4 journals due. Now, with 5 days left, I've got 2 dolls finished and one of the journals. Colette was one of them and she's been gone for about two weeks. Toben and I have been getting cozy, doing a little beading. Last but not least, The Marked Woman and I have been discussing her needs.

She decided that a mask was in order. Since she is a traveler, sometimes she wants to walk about incognito. The face is based on a Cirque du Soleil performer I fell in love with.

Then we talked about putting some oomph into her hairstyle. Very cute, if I do say so myself. I hope Kate likes it as much as I do.

So that's that. Two dolls down, Colette and The Marked Woman, one almost done, Toben, one in pieces and one still floating around the inside of my head. At least I found the fabric for her today!

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Colette

Created on: 6/23, 2009 at 10:18 pm

All done, her.

The first thing I did was dye her hat. I love how the color came out, just a hint of raspberry in the chocolate!

I used a mini tera cotta pot to give her a Turkish turban kind of thing. Around the base of it I used black netting wound about and beaded.

I also added a little "bling" to the petals of her dress.

I made her one of my signature baskets. This one is copper and wool.

I love this portrait of Colette. I pieced together the elements of her face with parts cut out of a magazine. Her face is a grilled cheese sandwich. Her eyebrows and nose was a green apple!

I love the wings. Coincidentally, Gail, the leader of the CA2008RR did similar wings for the last doll she had. I'm going to have to kype a picture of them because they're even cooler than mine!

Inside the wings. The text reads "My dress made of sky, moist at the waist, tight to my chest. I am full of the sweet soaked clover, unstoppered. The tiniest star traveling beneath the moon."

Final page of the journal. Since I was Colette's last stop, I loved the flying home imagery.

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New Art Dolls To Work On!

Created on: 5/23, 2009 at 10:07 pm

I've been so piled underneath work this week, it's been insane. But, I've been a good girl, my house is clean, laundry is done, kids have done all their lessons and there is nothing, repeat NOTHING to keep me from arting it up.

I've started a new journal page. I didn't have anything in mind when I started it. These leaves came from Esther James. I'd never seen a ginko tree until I moved to Seattle. It was so beautiful, and right by where I caught the bus. I saw it at least once a week from spring until late summer. When Esther pulled out the leaves, it took me right back to those days, being pregnant for the first time, lost in a new city where I knew no one, filled with happiness and expectation, knowing that my life was never going to be the same. And it hasn't. I've never been so happy anywhere else I've lived. It's healing here. The irony isn't lost on me that my first tree-friend was a ginko.

This is Tobin. He belongs to Jen in Ohio. What a great doll he is. His due date isn't for a while, so I'm going to work on some of the others first. He's a lot smaller than I thought. I think the beads I got for him are too big.

This is what he looked like when he left home. Quite a change, yeah?

Here's Colette. She belongs to Gloria in New Jersey. She's really interesting.

There's only two people, me and Jen, who get to work on her before she goes home. I feel really bad for Jen. She's going to have to be ingenious to come up with something else to add. This dolly is pretty much covered. I'm going to make an alteration to her cap and make her a basket. Gail put a lovely beaded necklace on her. I played around with ideas to add to it, but instead, I got the idea to hammer out some very thin steel bands and drape them over her neck. They're going to have to super thin, so we'll see how that works out.

Check out her hardware legs. I'm going to have to give it a try with the felted set I'm planning.

Here's what she looked like at the start.

And meet The Marked Woman. She belongs to Kate here on the island. She's due on the 7th, so I'd better get cracking on her. With her painted body, she doesn't invite being covered up. She's got boots, which rock, a hat which is also too cool, and a cloak that doubles as her bedroll. I want to make her an item of clothing too, but I also want to give her something else. I wonder about making her a mask. A woman on the road alone might certainly want something to give her a bit of anonymity.

I'm off to read the instructions on my dye-na-flow. Miss Colette's pink and fluffy is about to go bye-bye.

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A Surprise in the Basket

Created on: 5/14, 2009 at 10:38 pm

Having a conversation with the girls over at Gail's RR, I mentioned my hideous wall paper. I noticed this as soon as I moved in, along with a few other things that the artist threw in for good measure. The apricots look just like rear ends. There is a face in the lemons. And this here is a severed toe in the middle of the mushroom basket. You can see the liver spots on the end of the toe and the nail has peeled back a bit. The inattentive chef may well not notice. Luckily, corpses, like house guests and fish, begin to stink after three days.

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