Operation Tidy O'Studio and some works in progress...

Those of you on FB have already seen these, but I thought to share it here.  I got three days to totally overhaul my studio--and will be selling mucho doll supplies on Ebay over the next months. 

The trick now is to keep it clean, and I think some of my changes in there will help.  Every time I rework everything, I get a little closer to refining a system that makes it easy to keep it tidy--the tools I use constantly are stored within reach of my chair, so I have only to tidy it up before I even get up.  So far I've had the room a week and it's still spotless.  This might well be a record.  (Try not to laugh.)

The week wouldn't be so impressive if I weren't working in there daily, but I have been.  I have four pieces in the works--two are a pair and will be dressed in patriotic colors, one is for spring, and the last is for an "aquatic theme" challenge in a magazine.  I gotta say, it's nice to go in, sit down, and begin work right away, without having to scrape aside bottles of paint, root through piles of tools and brushes for "that one" and work on a tray on my lap because there is no room to work on the actual work surface!  Maybe it'll actually take this time.  Maybe, at the young age of 54, I will finally learn a lesson I should have learned in fourth grade.  Ha!

Hope everyone has a fun Halloween!

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!