Putting life on "Vacation Mode"...

Our life is pretty good.  I'll be the first to shout this from the roof tops.  

But today I put our life here in a holding pattern, desperate to escape for a spell.  

The count-down is accomplished. 

Bathrooms scrubbed, dishes clean, floors swept,

Etsy "vacationed", bills paid, mail held,

neighbors notified, tenants reassured,

cat re-assigned, trees watered,

truck cleaned, bags packed,

and sheets changed

for the night we return, to a clean house,

rested minds, refilled hopes, 

and a new year.

Have a wonderful Yule, and may you enjoy

a lovely, prosperous, and creative 2012!

I think I found it...

Having studied other cloth doll types of the same era, and making lots of Non-Izzie Dolls with Izzie-like bodies to experiment with feet/hand/arms/torso/head shapes, I've drawn one that suits me.  She's a little plumper than a real Izzie, and I've got more dinking around (technical term) to do with the foot and hand pattern, but  I think I've found the basis for the one I want to work with.  They'll bear a family resemblance to Izannah Walker Dolls, but with a difference.

Change was evident throughout the history of Izannah Walker's dolls: part of the wonder of her dolls was how they evolved over decades.  I like to think we're making long-distant cousins of those first little ones.

Doll makers owe Dixie Redmond a huge debt of gratitude for making these dolls and their history available for online study.  If you're ever tempted to try your hand, I highly recommend Dixie's beginner-friendly, printable e-book, or even better, the online workshop when she next holds one. 

I guess this one will be (once she's finished) Izzie #9...
and the first JDConwell IW inspired doll of 2012.
Here's to a great new year.

Do you have a favorite photo site?

I'm planning to have use a photo site to upload things to, for easy access and for storage, as well as for using on Ebay auctions.  Is there one you like best?  If so, why?  What do you like most and least about it?  The one I'll use will have to work with Ebay, but I think the only other consideration is ease of use.

What say you?

New URL for this blog!

I spent a while trying to decide how to make the blog more relevant to the art business...the gardening and dog news are fun, and there will still be posts on that, but for the most part, it's become an art blog, more than anything else.  So what to do?  Scrap it and start over?  (My inner child hollers loud,  "But whyyyyyyiiiii???")

So I compromised and changed the URL.

Did you know you could do that?  Go to settings, then publishing, then change the url right there in the little window.  I'm sure I will have issues lining things out...but I'm convinced it was the best way to go.  If you are reading this from your normal Follow link, then it's all good.  (And if you change yours, let me know, and we'll work together to see the sum-total of effects!)

The husband asked me why change it, if it'll possibly domino or cause problems.  He's good for questions like that.  I told him I have a whopping total of 95 Followers.  With a ginormous audience like that, any damage is gonna require one helluva butterfly effect to cause a ripple in a bathtub.  Besides, I went to a few blogs that link to mine...sure 'nuf, the link goes right on thru.  Guess we'll see.

The thing is, I'm aiming for a goal, made up of little parts.

First, to eventually eliminate the website that costs money and serves very little purpose.  It did originally serve to let me check the box in Business 101 that says: Create an Online Presence.  Not so much.  More like checking the box that says: One More Site to Maintain.  Time to renew, noooo thank yew. 

The second part is tied to the first: streamline time spent online.  There are a handful of blogs I follow belonging to people I consider friends.  (You know who you are. xoxoxo)    I value that connection!  But the majority of the blogs I follow are more like keeping up with what's happening.    Having a business blog instead of a website allows me to visit those valued friends, post new dolls, and check the "art news",  all in one place.

The third part is less measurable, but maybe most important.  I must disconnect my sense of self-worth from the presence or absence of feedback!  Changing the blog to a business-related one gives me a little distance, the way no visitors to your house is different than no visitors to your store.  It's easier not to take it personally.  Those friends?  Their comments touch me, because they go out of their way to stop and Say Hi, and it makes my day and gives me energy. (more xoxoxo's!) But what wastes my day--and way too much energy--is worrying when I talk to the "empty room".  The blog is only a blog, and the presence or absence of commentary in no way reflects my self-worth.  I've assigned myself to write this one thousand times.

So, changing the URL to one more relevant, along with the Doll House where the actual listings will happen) is part of my business goal strategy.  (If you fail to plan, are you planning to fail?)  The blog will eventually serve as a website, a storefront, AND a platform for exchanges of art talk. 

For now, the blog is serving as an excuse NOT to go wash that load of laundry.
Hope you have a fabulous weekend,
and make something beautiful while you're at it.

Painted faces...

With regard to my last post, I finally got the sculpts where I wanted to paint.  Still not "there" yet, but I like them.  Now to give them arms and legs.  The clothes I'm waiting to sew when we're in Phoenix.  I like having some embroidery or hand sewing...this will give me more than enough!

My apologies for the bad photography...I thought this old trunk tray would make a good backdrop, but it's dark and created more contrast than I wanted.  Oops.  Lesson learned.

On Humility, Mr. Miyagi, and New Izzies.

PLEASE NOTE THE NEW URL.  (Thanks.)

I'm trying out a revised version of Dixie Redmond's Izannah Walker doll pattern, the one I got when I took her class last summer.  I made the following four dolls from her original pattern, (although one of them had a styrofoam head, so only her body was from the pattern) and learned a lot.  Here are those dolls (last two sold on Etsy, first two did not.) 

So those are Izzies #1 thru 4.  I waited a while to make more...not on purpose (I don't think), and then the bug got me and I had to try again.  Of course, initially, I did what I tend to do--which is get all excited and think I'm finished after the first attempt, which is "pretty good".  But the sad showing one of my dolls is making on an Ebay auction prompted me to get over myself and really take stock.  Nothing throws cold water on an ego like Zero Bids and this being my first time to put anything on Ebay...well, you get the picture.

So I looked at the dolls at that stage, and realized I had done what my art teachers warned about...I drew my version of a tree rather than a real tree.

Ah so, grasshopper...now it is time to
Go back.
Look closely.
And this time...SEE. 

My muse, instead of the floaty-fairy kind my writer friends all seem to have, is a stunted, grouchy, Mr. Miyagi sort of fellow.  He basically made me understand that the reason my doll isn't selling on Ebay was that she was one of my first two dolls.  But Mr. Miyagi...my other two sold for over $200 each!  Doesn't that prove I did great?  His answer: Tell that to the Watchers on Ebay. 

Hard on the ego, but true, none the less.  Then he asked me (please don't send for the guys w/ white coats...I promise I'm okay): Do you want an army of these little dolls, unsold, sitting around the house?  My answer of course was no, to which he replied "THEN STOP PHONING IT IN."  A most un-Miyagi construct, isn't it?  But I knew exactly what he meant.

So I spent another several hours, adding, subtracting...reshaping the already thrice reshaped. (I never get to use the word thrice...isn't it cool?)  Then another several hours, from breakfast to lunch yesterday. 

The revision I made to Dixie's pattern is in the head shape--a thinner neck, which I will later re-thicken, along with some basic changes in the shape of the head/face pieces.  The Revised Revision of the sewing pattern will need still more changes, but I have these four to a place that satisfies me.

They're not "there" yet.  But I'm closer.  

I didn't phone it in: I really looked this time.  

So Mr. Miyagi...back off a while. 

Besides, an army of little Almost Izzies sitting around might be kinda fun.

Yule at the House of Conwell

I don't go too heavy on the decorations, for several reasons.  First, the hubs is only willing to alot (cheerfully) a certain amount of year-round space to storage.  Second, our family is too far and too spread out to come see us over the holiday season, and few of our friends are willing to travel this far out to visit.  That's not as pathetic as it sounds.  Or maybe it is, but oh well.  I'd throw a party if I thought it would help, but we barely remember how to throw parties.  Third, and maybe most salient: what goes up, must come down. 

But I do have a few odd collections, one of them I collect for the hubs.  I've always collected for him, with or without his permission, because he's just not a collections kind of guy.  So between the nutcracker soldiers (we are a military family), the vintage toys, and the elves, I have enough to keep the Bah Humbugs away, but not enough to require a storage unit and a week to put it all out.  Our tree is three feet tall.  Maybe next year, when I have grandkids here (only six hours away...oh. my. goodness.) I'll push for a big tree, but for the last few years, this little tree has worked fine.  I have to put mini ornaments on it, and save the larger of the kid-made ornaments for the pine garland over the entertainment unit...but it's a cute little tree.

The "husband's collection" of nutcracker soldiers, along with the beer steins his brother got him when stationed in Germany.  I like that they're standing under a copy of the Constitution.

The Elf Shelf.

Toyland.

Our tiny tannenbaum...

So while I have three reasons for not making a ginormous display, I have one really good reason for dragging it all out every year, even if the hubs barely looks at it.  I love to revisit all the things my kids and I made together over the years.  The ornaments Josh and Renee made in first grade, with gap-toothed pictures of themselves, Jason's art-class masterpieces.  The technicolor reindeer Casey painted the year Phil and I met.  I have a felt campfire I made back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.  The little paper spiral of smoke is long gone, but the little logs and flame are still there, literally hanging by a thread.  The ghost of Christmas Past comes alive, smiling sweet memories for me every year.  I make everyone new handmade ornaments every year, for the Ghost of Christmases Yet To Come.

I don't think it's too early to wish everyone a wonderful season of Holy Days.

On Old Farmhouses, and Stuff.

Wouldn't it be cool to have an old restored farmhouse to live in?

Phil and I often pick out old houses when we drive in the country, ones that we'd want to live in.  We go for the long, wrap-around porches, the old ranch-style one stories that are common down here in hot country.  Houses up north call for two stories so you can stay warm at night upstairs, but down here, it's all about big windows and lots of them, with shade all the way around the house.

How I would love a country kitchen like this... 

As much as I love looking at the country decorators' art, the antique finds, the primitive homes revived from a century ago, I've noticed an overkill in which every old cabinet, every basket, every over-the-door shelf is full of...stuff.  Not useful stuff, but arty stuff made to look old.  There are names for that kind of stuff...ornies, bowl-fillers, and my perennial favorite: tucks. 

I gotta ask: is this how those people really lived in the "olden days"?  Did they really cover every flat space with look-pretties that serve no purpose but to collect admiration and dust?  I think if you handed some old farm lady a "tuck" and told her it was to sit in her dough bowl and look pretty, she'd look at you like you were nuts.

Sure, the wealthier folks had a fancy room or two so they could express and impress, but the rest of them had a USE for everything that sat on a table, basket, or shelf. In its purest form, "Folkart" was making useful things beautiful. 

I don't think the process works in reverse.

Of course, there is another extreme--the Shaker sort of "Thou Shalt Have No Look Pretties" esthetic, bare and period to the point of austerity.  Some go so far as to hide all things modern--dishwashers, fridges, and TVs--in specially built cabinets. I can only imagine what a pain in the tookus it would be to live in a house where no Modern Things are allowed out in plain sight.

Some day, if and when we ever really settle in a place, I'll hope for wood floors, architecture that allows me to pretend the house is old (if indeed it isn't) and a common sense approach to Stuff.  There will be Look Pretties, there will be Old Stuff out for the sake of enjoying Old Stuff.  But the tables will be covered in books, cell phones, bills, and other odd bits of our daily life, just like they are now.

If you can't say anything nice...

...don't say anything at all.  

I'm all out of nice today, 

but I'm working hard to correct my frame of mind.  

So I figured I'd post a picture that makes me smile, 

and wish you all a lovely weekend.

This is the Schultz, when he was about eight weeks old.  

He'd get so excited about his dinner that his back feet would come up off the floor, 

and he'd balance on his front feet...

that is until enough of the food went from the bowl to his tummy, 

then he'd slooooowly settle back on all fours.  

Wish I'd had a video of it.  :~)

Giving Thanks

I am grateful, all the way to my bones, for my life.  Health, strength, a good mind, busy hands.  I have a beautiful loving husband who is my best friend and we have this dog who makes us laugh every single day (and the dog's foster-cat who insists he is NOT domesticated, but purrs at our feet when we sit out in the evenings.)

My husband has a good job that allows us to build the business we plan to retire on...and while he might not enjoy the job as much as he does the business, he does appreciate it for the steady platform it creates.  And while he might not admit it, he enjoys some of the friends and coworkers he sees every day.

We live in a warm climate.  No snowy Currier and Ives holiday scenes for me, but I can revel in a day of garden work in January, wearing no more than a flannel shirt for warmth.  Tomorrow we'll go hiking through some local nature trails, which is a tradition we started once the last kid moved out. 

My children and grandchildren are everywhere--Oklahoma, Oregon, Louisiana, England and Japan--too far and too many for me to visit.  But they are there, they are healthy, and they know I love them.  We had a new little grandson join the family just last night, in fact, and I look forward to the trip next spring to meet him!  Someday, I'd love to preside over a noisy, rambunctious, family-filled traditional Thanksgiving, the kind I grew up with when all our family lived close.  Since I plan to live til at least ninety, I have time.  But even if they're scattered all over, I know they're there, and as long as they're happy, I'm good with that.

I have a blessed life.  A quiet day of thanks is a pretty good tradition...
Whatever kind of day you have tomorrow,
I hope you have much to be thankful for.

My silly boys.

Going through the paper clay!

I had eighteen more doll-body blanks from when I started the wooden jointed doll project.  I decided most of them will be rabbits and cats.  Went through a pound and a half of paper clay between yesterday and today!  Now to start making their paws--they'll be sculpted onto the dowel rod pieces I cut and drilled last summer.   (Back when I sanded all my knuckles off on the hub's belt-sander.)

Here's a sneak peak at the critters in progress.

Wascally wabbits, waiting for their lucky rabbit's feets.

Cats.  Coming soon to a theater near you!

I don't know what happened, but this isn't a cat OR a rabbit, in case you were wondering.

I'm thinking of putting a feather in the mouth of the left one...

This one kinda has a Cheshire thing going, doesn't she?

I have to be patient and wait for them to dry...the cats have styrofoam in their heads, so I can't dry them in the oven.  (I tried that...it seems that stuff expands with heat.  It gets ugly.)  The eyes will look better when they're cleaned up a little, and they'll all get arms and legs and maybe some clothes.  Oh, and Alien Boy will no longer be an alien.

Wimbley, my first wooden-jointed rabbit...

Sydney, my first wooden-jointed cat.

Rain!!!

This is a good thing and a bad one.

Bad (to get that out of the way) because apparently one of our rent houses suffered hail damage in the last storm, and now has a leak from the roof, down the walls, and into the master bedroom ceiling on the first floor.  I don't EVEN want to think about that yet, because we're still waiting to hear whether the insurance company will cover it before we can get a contractor on it.

But good because, of course, we have a lot of landscaping that was getting pretty desperate for rain, not to mention all the trees.  The hubs got took pictures this weekend of the Palo Verde my father-in-law brought us back in March of '09.  They're desert trees, but with a regular water, they grow pretty fast.  Lots of teeny thorns--you want to be careful when pruning these puppies, but beautiful little yellow flowers in spring, and fine lacy foliage all summer long.  The best part is that "Palo Verde" means Green Skin, as you can see by the trunk--it's green all the way to the ground!

(Pay no attention to how I'm dressed in either picture...I live in my "play clothes" pretty much all year.)

A chilly morning in March of '09...

Not sure what the face is about...probably laughing because Gabe was yelling "You're killing it!" as I pruned.  But a good gardener knows that the planting-pruning will help a little tree get off to a good start.  (Cruel to be kind?)

Now it's not such a little tree, but it will likely get another five to ten feet taller, with mild winters and steady water.  It's leaning out away from the trees behind it...ideally it should be out in full sun all day--they thrive in Arizona in 115 degree summers.

A Confession

I know they're part of America's history, and that in a way, they can symbolize the dichotomy between opposites in each of us--light/dark, good/bad, etc. With a Master's in archetypal mythology, I ought to appreciate them as the purest example of the primitive collective unconcious in physical form...

But can I just say that topsy-turvy dolls 

give me the heebie-jeebies?

The creative aspect in this folkart is admirable--I know some doll makers over on the Maida site who have made such gorgeous examples, with their sweet little faces.  To see a real antique one (two?) is intriguing, if for no other reason than their historical value.  When I was a kid, a friend of mine down the street had one(s) that was Little Red Riding Hood with Grandma and the Wolf on the other...end. 

But there's just something about having two torsos and heads and no legs...it's like Siamese twins joined at the waist.  Poor things.

Maybe I need to get more in touch with my dark side (or is it my light side?) and embrace the symbolism.  Maybe I need to get off the computer and go write out the grocery list for today's trip to town.

There are lots of things I could have posted today. 

This is what got posted.  For that, my apologies.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled Thursday.

More time to make dolls?

Ordinarily, that's a good thing.  A great thing!  But in this case it's looking like our Thanksgiving Trip to Phoenix is soon to be our Christmas Trip to Phoenix.  (Sorry Mary Jo, if you're reading this...Phil plans to call home this weekend.)  Which is hard to see as a good thing, because I miss those people something fierce.

The reason  for the delay...is, well, constant delays.  The contractor working the rent house rehab is making a lie of all the good things he told us about himself.  Into the third week and very little done, and half of that done incorrectly.  The house is rented, tenants to move in December 1st...and our "final walkthrough" date set for Nov. 30th--the day after the return from ten days in Phoenix.  We can barely get him to show up at the job site now, I can't imagine what a week and a half of no supervision would bring.  Well, I can imagine it...and it's ugly.

It makes me sick to my stomach to think of coming back to find it still undone, with this guy still making excuses and promises...the tenants with their U-Haul loaded and ready for their move.  This real estate thing can be fun.  And then there's now.

So I'm trying very hard to look on the bright side: I love to spend Christmas with family, and it looks like now I'll have the chance.  In the meantime, we'll be here over the next few weeks, poking this contractor with a stick (a.k.a. threats of no pay and bad Angie's List Ratings) to get the house done in time.  Since that isn't a 24-7 job, despite how it feels, I'll have time to get more of Phil's leather listed in his shop and work on some dolls.

But I miss our Phoenix people.  I'm looking forward to this visit, and looking back fondly on past visits.  You know how you can start planning, practically on a cellular level, for a certain experience?  Good times, a gracious home, chatting with Mary Jo while we (heh, I said "we") cook supper, a game of password, maybe?  Coffee with Gabe, feeding the quail in the mornings.   Love you, Gabe and Mary Jo.  Well, we'll still be there, just a few weeks later.

Fun with Walnut Ink

Played around with ideas for hang tags.  I've been using some I'd cut and doctored up, but I'd hand-write JDConwell Folkart Dolls on them, which is okay, but sort of...hasty-looking.  

So yesterday's experiment was to make some with printed card stock, stamps, and walnut ink.  This is not a new concept, I know...any stroll through a "Hang Tags" search on Etsy will net you plenty of cool tags.  But I wanted to make my own, and I had these wonderful little vintage stamps...you know how it goes.

Lots of experimentation with the walnut ink crystals.  Where has this stuff been all my life?  It doesn't smell, like coffee or tea.  It lasts pretty much forever once you mix it up.  In a spray bottle, it mists over a doll's clothing to age it with that light-and-shadow effect that old stuff gets when some of the fabric is exposed and some of it is protected...if that makes sense.  If you sprinkle a few grains of crystal over a wet surface, they dissolve to create "old spots" (as the husband calls them) on the paper or fabric that look really convincing. 

I played with various strengths and application methods (certain spray bottles are great, others are an unholy mess).  Of course, while the ink is water soluble and does wash off, there is still a little bit of staining, so my hands and nails might look better if I wear rubber gloves next time.  :~)

So far, at least for hang-tags, my favorite method is to sponge it on both sides, bake them dry, then iron them flat.  These are the ones I made yesterday.  Of course I'll tweak them a little here and there, but I like the primitive look of them.  I see Christmas gift tags in my future.  Ooh!  Maybe a little bunting that spells out Merry Christmas?  Yeah, I'm in trouble.

Just artin' around...

I found this little paper mache elephant.  Added a little paperclay for detail, gave him a stripey circus ball on a stand, a polka dotty hat, two mice and a feather.  Why not?

Baby Elephant (sold)

Do you wear shawls?

I do.

Not to Wal-Mart or while I'm out gardening.  I don't know how our great-great-grandmothers managed to do so much in them, given what a pain in the butt a shawl can be.  I've crocheted a few shawls for myself, and have a ridiculous number of patterns for them.  Not sure I'll ever make them all, but I love having the patterns, love thinking of the fuzzy, slinky, or wooly yarn I'll crochet into them.  (An even bigger fantasy: I will KNiT one and PuRL two!)  But I wear them, and love them.

Here's why: they make me be still.

Aside from practical considerations--did you ever try to put a load of laundry on to wash while wearing one?--a shawl is for sitting still.  Perfect for early weekend mornings...for evenings, when dark rolls in and the chores are done.  A certain frame of mind is necessary to wear a shawl correctly, in my never-has-been-humble opinion.  A willingness to sit, unencumbered by feelings of guilt FOR sitting, and doing whatever you want to do while you sit...whether it's hand-sewing, watching TV, watching birds from the porch with a mug of tea.  

Perfect for doing nothing at all...for being still.

Do wear shawls?  Why?  When?

Fun with Vintage Art

Lately real estate has eaten my life again, so I haven't had any time for art.  But as Yoborobo reminded me today, life balances out, so one of these days I'll get to spend hours at a time in my room, sculpting, painting, sewing, whatever.

Right now, I'd like to share a link I found this morning, for Vintage art--old postcards, etc.  Please respect their terms of use, and avoid copyright problems.  Some lovely stuff, though.  I plan to play around with it, once I get the chance. 

Vintage Holiday Crafts

 Cheers.

On the road to Austin tomorrow...

Well, if you're reading this on Friday morning, then I guess that's on the road "today".

Worked my tookus off all day, getting these guys finished.  Took admittedly horrible pictures, because these dolls, being less expensive, sell fast at the shows and I wanted to have a record of the ones I'd made.  (Yes, I am that optimistic.)

So, real quick, here are some of the dolls I finished:
Blogger messed with zoom, so either click once for slide show or right click and open in a new tab for a real zoom.  Sorry.

See everybody next week.  :~)