A Finished Project I Can Now Share.

 My blog has been pretty quiet for a while. I haven't had much to show. I had been working on a doll for a couple of months for a dear friend. It was for a doll swap. The swap was for a Fall/Autumn themed doll, whatever Fall means to you. It took a while to complete and I didn't want to show it until she received it but now I can share. Part of the reason it took so long was I designed a completely new pattern for the doll. I also spent tons of time on the accessories to make everything just right. My swap partner Moriah Betterly is such a great friend and has been so supportive of my work. We actually met in an online swap years ago. So it's like we came full circle. She loves the doll and I'm so pleased.

 I borrowed photos that Moriah Betterly, my swap partner, took cause they are so much better than mine.

 I made the doll a little prim doll to carry.

 Messenger bag with appliqued fall leaves.

 Little matching capelet with appliqued fall leaves.

Also a matching Tam hat.

 Especially for Moriah I made a little ADQ magazine that had pages of her dolls that have been published there and tucked it inside the dolls' messenger bag.

 Here's the dress she is wearing under the capelet.

And a close up of the boots. I modeled these after my daughter's Uggs.

Now that Christmas is over I feel the need to get back to work so will hopefully will have more to show soon!

A long over due update

Well November turned out to be the one month a year that I have very little pain and I actually feel Human again. Unfortunately it was also the month I had the full body wracking cough that had me worried I'd crack a rib. Very little sleep, trying to sleep sitting upright against a wall, waking up everyone in the house at night with my coughing and explosive sneezing. Some kind of virus or allergies? I didn't get better until my sinus' got infected and I got an antibiotic. I still have a dry hacking cough but at least I can sleep now. And still compared to October it was a good month.

Didn't get much done since I can't sew when I'm hacking up a lung. I managed to get one special Ornament done for the ADA's Christmas Swap.

He's a sweet little felt and paper clay Santa. I received the loveliest Santa Cat ornament from Trish Powell.

I took advantage of Cyber Monday and purchased a brand new sewing machine for a fantastic price and free shipping. It's a present to me from my wonderful mom for Christmas only I get it now.

I played around with it and so far I don't hate it, it's pretty easy to use and it seems to like me fine so we are becoming fast friends. Hopefully this baby will help get a good stock of doll bodies built up so I can do some shows next year. Fingers crossed.

My poor daughter just had a cyst or cysts on one of her ovaries rupture and has been in so much pain. So even though she's 20 years old she still needs mom to take care of her.

I put some of my older Holiday Plush dolls in my etsy shop and a couple of them sold...yay!

 These guys are still in my shop. I made them last year. I make a new set of holiday characters in a new design every year. Just couldn't make a set this year.

These 2 are the last of the holiday plush dolls from 2010 and are also in my shop.
 

I'm currently working on a doll for a swap and a custom order and I'm making a Super Hero doll for my youngest nephew and a girl doll for my brother's new girlfriend's daughter. I have a bunch more challenges coming up and I'm just tired thinking about them. Actually I'm physically exhausted. But of course I'll do them anyway.

Got Some Great News!

I received an email last night from the publisher of Art Doll Quarterly Magazine. They have accepted one of my dolls for publication! I will have a doll in their Spring 2013 issue!!!!

Major happy dance and much hugging of family members went on last night. I'm still tingling this morning! Now I can check off another goal.

I'll show photos once the issue has arrived about Feb 1st. Meanwhile here's a photo of Lita in her Halloween shirt waiting for the trick or treaters yesterday.

Day of the Dead Doll Finished

Took me longer than I thought it would but she's done. I think she came out pretty good for a last minute project. I really wanted to do her to be active in Art Dolls Only. Introducing Delores.

She's small, about 13 inches tall and made entirely from felt. I embroidered details on her face, arms and legs. Her skellie kitty has embroidered features too.

I'll put her in my shop as soon as I price her. If anyone is interested before then just let me know.

WIP Tuesday

At the last minute I decided to join in the Art Dolls Only Dia de los Muertos challenge. This challenge is open to the public too. I'm not sure if I told you all yet but I was recently accepted into this wonderful Art Doll group that I've been wanting to get into for so long. Well another goal reached!

She still needs a lot of work but I'm loving her so far.

If you are unfamiliar with  Dia de los Muertos, it is Spanish for Day of the Dead and is a Mexican holiday. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. 

I'll share more photos once she is finished.

My Vintage Halloween 2012 Piece Is Finished

I joined in on Patrick Gill's Halloween Challenge again this year. I've done 4 holiday challenge swaps with his group and they are so much fun. The challenge goes like this, we pick a Vintage Halloween card and then base our piece on it using what ever medium we work in. Most people in the group are sculptors and 2 of us work in fabric or in my case, felt and fabric. After we are all finished, swap partners are randomly selected and we send our piece on it's way and receive an awesome piece in return.

 

This was the card I chose. I just love pumpkin headed kids! My original idea was to do the tree in the background and the crow on the branch too but the piece would have been so large and the tree so time consuming that I left them out.

Here's the quick drawing I did to check for proportion. I'll show some WIPs so you can see how I constructed everything. Oh I forgot to mention that the entire piece is hand sewn.

First a little body.

Next a head. The card image has a more squash shaped head but I prefer a rounded head so I changed that.

I made her some little panties with lace even though you'd never see them cause nice girls wear drawers.

All dressed now.

No longer headless.

Working on her companions.

Finished!

I'll do a post when I get my swap partner's piece.

An Artist Friend I'd Like To Share With You.

I have a great friend named Cindi Myers who is an artist and a lover of animals. I wanted to share some of her mixed media paintings with you. She paints both cats and dogs and has a fun graphic style.

She sells her work on Ebay and her listings can be found here.  I hope you'll check out her work.

She has a blog where you can see more of her work.: http://oldblackcatboo.blogspot.com/

A New Frank For Fall.

I made a prototype head for a doll I was working out a pattern for. The head didn't make the cut for that particular piece but it was a great head regardless so I kept it on my worktable. After I finally finished several big projects I thought this head deserved a body.

You've probably seen him chilling on my worktable in other photos. Here he is waiting for a body.

Tailoring his jacket. Deciding on the position of his arms. Hands still need to be sewn and stuffed. He's a tall guy.

Hands sewn and ready to attach the arms.

Frank's all done and is in my etsy shop. There is a link to him on the right side of this page. He's  22 inches tall and is a OOAK. He's made from eco felt and is entirely hand stitched by me using my own pattern. He has a loop sewn on his back so he can be hung on a wall.

Really pissed I can't go.

I got a Ghoultide Gathering postcard from Pam Gracia of Soft In The Head Studios this weekend. I've been planning to go to this wonderful Halloween art show since January. I made hotel reservations, got my mom all excited to go on this road trip with me and went to the doctor to start a new treatment so I could actually leave the house and go.

I was so excited to meet in person all the wonderful artists I admire and talk to on Facebook. I was especially excited to see up close the artwork of these great people and hopefully snag a few pieces for me.

I've know for almost a month now that I wouldn't be able to go. My treatment isn't working and my health is not good. Hopefully another year I can go.

Monday in Sasyland.

Well I'm up and about trying to finish current projects and itching to start new ones too. It's amazing what a pain free day will do for my productivity. I thought I'd show some things going on in the studio.

 Here's a pile of felt that I'm using for my current projects. There is some fabric tucked in there too somewhere.

Here are two little ugglies (at least I'm calling them that until they are painted) on my clay table.

This is a paper clay ornament I did for Art Doll Artists Halloween Ornament Swap. He was fun to make and I can't wait to get my swap partners ornament. Can you tell I have a Frankenstein thing going on here lately?

I have a couple more of this style ornament waiting in the wings for clay.

The sweet little pumpkin girl is a WIP for Patrick Gill's Vintage Halloween Challenge and Swap at Every Witch Way Lane on Facebook. This is the 4th challenge I've done with this amazing group of artists. I use these challenges to push myself out of my comfort zone and really force myself to do things I never thought that I could.

This owl goes with the above piece. There is a black cat that goes with too that I'm working on today.

My next project is for ADAs Silent Film Star Challenge. Of course it's completely in my head but not even started yet. It's due on the 30th of this month but since I'm hosting it I'll probably end up pushing the deadline back a little bit.

 I love researching the fun and unusual and I found a great star that I never head of for my piece. She's Anna May Wong and was the first Chinese American Silent Film Star and was considered a female fashion icon of the era. Isn't she beautiful?

2 photos of the same dress. Of course I choose to do this crazy and difficult dragon dress.

I found this dress on Pinterest and OMG it's the same dress!!!!!!!!!!!! I have hundreds and hundreds of tiny rhinestones to glue on for the dragon design. I know I'm nuts. But once I get an idea into my head it has to be made no matter what.

Then after that project I have to do my wonderland project which I'm not having high hopes for anymore. So what are you all working on?