Original Works

Yesterday I had about 2/3 of the current (and mostly unfinished) doll projects lined up on the hearth, assessing what I need to do to finish each one.  Out of the ten dolls, six were Izannah Walker type dolls, and the others were original works that tend to take their own direction with or without my permission.  The other ten dolls in Studio Limbo are originals, too.  Their stories will have to happen later.

The lineup.

I love making the Izannah Walker dolls, and if I do say so, 

I'm pretty good at it, for no longer than I've been at it.  

But as I described what all I needed to get done with them, the husband said, "I like your original work best."  To be fair, he's not a huge fan of the izzies--that's an acquired taste.  But he's always liked the weird and whimsical things I make with gourds or wood or found materials.

Fox and Parrot...pals.

Hope

Lucy

Gourd Skelly and Bat

Scarecrow Annie

Harvest Queen

It's easy to doubt, that original stuff.  Just because I think it's fun, does that mean somebody else will?  But a lady wrote to me today after buying the Rag Doll Pattern I just published, and reminded me that she's bought three of my dolls already, and would love to use the pattern to make her own "work of art".  How great that felt at a time when I really needed it...not only that my goofy folkart spoke to somebody, but that it also inspired them to make their own art.

There's no end in sight for me and this love of making Izannah Walker artist dolls.  

But I might make a little more room for Jan-made originals...maybe one sort of art feeds the other?

What feeds your art?

New listings in the Etsy Shop!

I had a fit a while back, and luckily it coincided with the purchase of...antique jump rope handles.  Yes, antique jump rope handles.  They had to become dolls.  Of course they did!

Dibeaux

At the time, I was also exploring the joys of vintage circus graphics, and the two made a very interesting limited edition of tiny dolls.  I've listed them on Etsy finally, and can I say I had a blast writing their stories?  I did.

Have a great week, y'all.

A new kind of gourdie doll...

Just playing around this weekend, and decided to use a gourd as the head for a rag doll.  For some reason I literally dreamed about doing this, so I figured I'd best give it a try.  What do you think?  She's a little sweet for my taste, but it was an interesting exercise.

The body is two piece construction, gathered around the "small end" of the upside-down bottle gourd.  Stuffed with raw cotton, rags, and bee-bee's in her butt to weight her so she sits upright unaided.  Her hair is a wig sewn of yard and glued on.  I didn't use any paper clay--there was a bump on the gourd just right for her nose.

I like to think if a mom back in the pioneer days were trying to make a doll for her daughter, she might have made one sort of like this.  She'd probably do a much better job on the dress and bloomers, and she'd have had to figure a different way to paint the face, but they did have oil paints, stains, dyes, and pencils.  This dolly is just under 11" tall, which surprised me, because she seems so small sitting in my hand...

More Gourds!

This is Patience, the newest listing in the shop.  Her listing description tells what all she's made of--I still have one more scrap of that woven trim she's wearing.  Guess I'll be warping the loom again if I want any more of that wild, multi-colored pattern.

I finally finished all the gourd dolls I'd started...at some point I decided to aim for a lower price point by doing less sculpting on the paper clay, (which takes a long time because I get carried away).  This one is my favorite of the "simple" ones.  The rest are fun, varying from silly, to sweet, to downright ridiculous, because you can never have too many three eyed parrots.  (More pictures tomorrow.)

But for now, have Patience.  (teehee.)

Finally! New listing in the Etsy shop.

I think I posted about Sydney a while back...but I've finally gotten around to adding listings.  The last few months have seen me making dolls, but not putting them in the shop.  The hubs rather dryly mentioned that it's hard to buy something that's not in the store...(he is a smart ass, but I knew this when I married him.)

The new pictures I got of Sydney helped...I've created a backdrop and am considering using white as a backdrop for more listings.  The vintage table/shutters thing for now, but later I'm going to try a trick I learned on Etsy about how to make a "white box" for photographing smaller things.  Guess we'll see.

For now, Sydney is up for adoption.  (She's a very good listener...)

Gourds again!

A couple of finished dolls...

Boanne, a tiny river goddess...

Erin, even tinier lord of mischief.

Gourds!

Between the wood dolls and the gourd dolls, I've been busy.

On some earlier post, I'd mentioned finding a monster stash of doll eyes at the thrift shop.  Then there were all these gourds laying around, waiting to be turned into something interesting.  Besides, I want to submit a gourd art doll to Art Doll Quarterly's gourd challenge.  I have gourd dolls already made, but decided to make something for the occasion.

Sooooo....  I gave them eyes.  And have sculpted faces.  Oh boy have I been having fun sculpting faces! 

The end result is a sort of cross between nature totems and spirit dolls.  Although I must admit having the silly things all lined up and staring at me was a bit unnerving at first.  It's better now they have faces. 

Some WIP photos... (don't be scared.  They'll get painted later.)
One of them looks a little like Peter Lorre, doesn't he? 

Meet Marcelle.

I finished her, actually the sealer went on this morning.  Our Mini-Monthly Challenge on the ADO (art dolls only) team was a Masque theme...and as I happened to already have her 5/8th of the way finished, and knew I wanted a sort of twenties, flapper-girl follies kind of face, she decided she'd cooperate and dress for the challenge.  Nice of her, wasn't it?  I get the feeling she's not always so cooperative.

She started with a child's building block, an old wooden spoon, and a couple of clothespins.  The bottom stick of the spoon became her arms.  Paperclay did the rest.  I love paperclay.  Have I mentioned I love paperclay?

I think the mask suits her.