That was then, this is now.

A nice lady I met on Facebook bought my little Frankenstein character...and then while she was looking at my Etsy shop's past sales, she encountered a previous piece of folk art she'd bought from me--several years ago!  It was kinda funny.  But anyway, while she was in the past sales thing, she found one of my verrrrrry first art dolls--back when I was making them out of gourds. 

 

She wanted a custom character similar to him.  The original was trick-or-treating, and this lady wanted an Easter Bunny with a basket of eggs, but otherwise, I tried to stay with the basic idea of a kid in a bunny suit.  (Who, it must be said, was originally inspired by the movie A Christmas Story.) 

So of course my imagination kicked into high gear at the challenge--to revisit a thing I'd made WAY back then, when I didn't know much at all about paper clay, or how to assemble these characters to be sturdy, or faces.  Or painting.  Or antiquing.  My techniques are so different, and I think the sculpting is better.  The original is still fun, but I am pleased to think my skills have grown in the seven years since I made him.

Of course now I'm thinking of revisiting a lot of the ideas I had back then--they were good ideas, and with new techniques, they'll be good again.  Cheers! 

And just like that, there were tiny angels.

I was working like crazy on little Halloween peeps, and just like that...I went another direction.  Not sure if these little angels are related to any holiday--one of them has Halloweenish colors, but that's about it.  I just got them in my head and couldn't get them out. 

So I'll get real photos and post them in my Etsy shop later, but right now, here are some little angels.  I hope your week is fabulous. 

Smalls

That's what I call the little folk art characters--smalls.  They don't require sewing, and don't require wig-making, which cuts WAY down on the time it takes to make them.

 A couple of weeks ago, I got sketching and came up with seven little characters to make, and got busy.  (I had a minor surgery in between then and now, so its' not like it took a whole couple of weeks.) 

So this is a photo-heavy post, and I'm not sure I'm sorry about that.  Ha!  Little Frankenstein and his Mummy have already sold, but the rest are in my Etsy store.  Hope your week is amazing!

Punkin

I'm working on Halloween dolls now.  Most specifically, sculpted smalls, because they're faster than big dolls and they're fun.  But they're not ready for their close-ups yet, so...

Here's Punkin, who is just now finished and in my shop.  (I have lots of dolls there right now!)  For Punkin, I found an old pattern--one from the 1930's--that I call the "baseball head babies" because of the way the pattern pieces go together.  She's a fat little thing, with her arms and legs button-jointed.  Her hair is Tibetan lamb, and her booties are wool felt.  She's a little bit of a hippy chick, with her asymmetrical hair and the twists of bittersweet vine for a necklace.

 

 

I try to live in the now, and appreciate what is in front of me.  But even though I'm a gardener, the last of the summer months and the heat just wear me out.  I'm so looking forward to Fall!  We don't get great fall color here--the desert doesn't do deciduous trees as well as other places--but the temps get cooler and the dog-walking can be in the afternoon with the hubs instead of only me in the mornings.  We have gotten more than our normal 8" of rain this year, so maybe the trees we do have will be a little more colorful. 

Have a fabulous weekend!

Progress Derailed (or Mundane Life Asserts Itself)

For some reason--and if you make things, you know exactly how fickle the Creative Muse can be--I have really had a productive streak for several weeks.  I have dolls in the works, I'm finding certain elusive traits as I work on them, and I'm totally jazzed about upcoming ideas. 

And then--stop!  Not because the Muse has clammed up.  No.  In fact, she's yammering away in the back of my head, "Oh, you really need to get back in there...so much to do."

I'm stopping because I need to clean this house!  My housework, much like my creativity, tends to ebb and flow.  Only with housework, I confess there is much more ebb than flow.  I read a funny on somebody's FB page:

Yep.  Only only that whole "every week" thing is kinda funny.  So, ten minutes?  More like two days.  Horrible, I know.  The spousal unit definitely had to lower his standards when we married.  I tend to the basics--the bathrooms and kitchen are clean--well, they're not health hazards.  But the rest?  That's not clutter--that's my Sewing End Table.  That's not dust, that's a protective covering for...everything.

We seldom have company, which is how I end up letting it get this way.  I would LOVE to have more company, but it just doesn't happen often.  Brother and Sister-in-law are coming up this weekend and I am tickled silly--they're fun people.  But you know...the house. 

So that's the end of my rant-whine, because adulting is hard and waaah! 

I do have two dolls ready to list--no, wait, one is already listed, but anyway:

Echo

Belsnickle

Hope your weekend is WONDERFUL, and that it includes very little housework.  Or a lot, if you like that kind of thing.