Noel Night

There's a lady in Chandler AZ (about 2 hours from me, south east of Phoenix) who has an antique store within an antique mall.  She actually has five booths, all put together to make one shop, so to stay she has a store is not overstating matters.  Carries the most fascinating mix of antiques, Victorian themed art and clothing, architectural scavenges, and folk art.  I could stand there all day and not see all of it, so much detail.

Well, she found me at a doll show and asked if we could talk...the result of which talk was that she'll now be carrying my dolls in her store.  (I think I already posted this news, but didn't go back to see.)  Each year, the antique mall has an event called Noel Night, during which all the merchants have a sale and stay open late.  There's a restaurant which has great food, and music, etc., and it's apparently a pretty busy night.  Patti asked if I would make a particular doll for Noel Night, and of course I did.  Her name is Victoria Noel, and she's 28" tall.  Cloth and clay, as usual, and wool hair.

I've got three more dolls in the works for this event, and hope to have them all finished in time!  I'll post them when they're done.  But in the meantime, here is Victoria (Patti wanted an "attic fairy").

I'm the Featured Artist!

A short interview with Art Dolls Only...and pictures.  It was fun, and I hadn't really thought about my doll Beth in a long time...

Also, a picture of the most recent doll: a southern belle.  I should say bell, because she and her two sisters (which I will post later when I get more pictures) are made from giant papermache bells I found at a thrift shop!

I was aiming for a sort of folk-art version of shabby cottage...not sure if it worked.

Penny Bunny

Could be that all the soul searching has helped more than I know, could be the full moon and magic beans, could be I'm just stark raving bonkers, but I feel like cleaning out, winnowing what feels like art from what feels like desperation.  I have a better idea of what I want to do now.  It'll take a while to get it right, but dang it feels good to have a direction.

To celebrate, here's a little clothespin doll I just listed on Etsy.  I'm able to make these in less time than a lot of my dolls, so the price can be more accessible.  Hope you like her.

Penny Bunny

Isobel

If you were to ask my daughter to describe my decorating style, she'd say "Mom likes Ugly."  By that she (hopefully) means I like odd, eclectic, rustic...in my house no room follows a pattern from the room before.  But she hasn't seen my house in...maybe six years?  She doesn't know I actually love pink, or cabbage roses, or lace, because the last she saw, my house was full of squatty carved totem guys, rustic clay pots, and woolly handwoven everything.

So she may be surprised when she sees this latest doll...(click to enlarge).  She (the doll, not the daughter) is paperclay head/face/hands, cloth & fiberfill body, and a little inverted bowl for a base. 

I tried my hand at a "pretty" doll, which is out of character for me.  Not sure I'll make any more, but I think I like this one.  Critiques are appreciated--and bear in mind I have a tough skin.  Any constructive criticism helps with Ye Ole Learning Curve.

Painting boxes.

I have several papermache boxes, collected over the last year, and lately I've had this urge to turn them into something.  Two so far are destined to be sewing notion boxes, w/ little pin keeps on top and a tiny doll.  The other two I've worked up in coordinating colors--aqua, dark tan, and cream...thinking of some kind of "doll" by stacking them.

My house is not geared toward the "shabby chic" decorating style--the hubs doesn't put his foot down on anything house-wise, but he nurtures the quiet hope that I will continue to keep it mostly gender-neutral.  ;~)  Nevertheless, I absolutely melt in the presence of old cabbage roses, pink ribbon, and rustic white paint.  So I think I'll make the notion-boxes doll to fill that particular craving.  Maybe someone else will be able to enjoy the results.

Hope your Wodin's Day is creative, interesting and full of love given and received.

A Reindeer for your favorite Science Weenie.

I had so much fun making this guy.  Bought the papermache deer at a thrift shop, did his eyes and nose with paperclay, and then covered him in a vintage--at least 1950's, maybe earlier--physics text.  As I went through the pieces of torn page, I kept running across little phrases that made me wonder...maybe physics and the mysterious flight of reindeer are not mutually exclusive?  Nice to think so, anyway.

Whadda ya think?