It has been too long since I posted

Here it is just two days before Christmas, I don't know where the fall went. I've had a lot of fun playing cloth dolls with my doll club. Deanna Hogan came and taught two classes. Her new Verity doll and her Averill doll. She is a delight and I learned so much. I need to get my camera out and take some pictures. Averill doesn't have any shoes yet so she will wait.

Working again

I took today off for vacation and I've been working on my dolls. Here are some pictures of her latest look. Hair and costuming is going well. She still needs a headdress of some kind, wings and shoes.

I need to work on my demo's for the Oakland Museum on Sunday. The museum holds a demo on textile artists from the bay area. I've been invited to demo cloth dolls again this year, so need to put aside this doll and sew some doll parts to demo.

Hope you enjoy these pictures

I'm back and finally started working on a doll

I have been playing far too much World of Warcraft and hardly touched dolls. But, I finally got a figure finished and put together. She doesn't have any hair or clothes, I wrapped some fabric around her just for the picture. She will be a fairy with wings and then she will be looking down on another little figure (to be created).

Too tired to work on doll

I got too pooped out doing all the driving this weekend. Here is a glimpse of the rod puppet I created. She was inspired by the art work of Wayne Anderson and the book "Ratsmagic". She is Witch Dole. I need to finish her clothes and put snakes on her hat.

Toby Froud's Rod Puppet Class

I managed to make it to Toby's class this memorial weekend. I could not believe that it snowed on Donner Pass and I almost didn't make it over the mountain. I did not bring chains and so I followed closely behind a truck. The truck cut through the slush, but it was hard to see with the wind blowing the snow and slush onto my wind shield. My heart was pounding and I was gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles for 20 miles while we went through the mountains. Another person was coming from the Bay Area about a half an hour behind me and had to turn back because, by then, Highway Patrol was requiring chains. I am sure she is so disappointed to have missed it.

Even so, it was so worth it. I learned so much more because we really concentrated on sculpting. I posted a picture of one of Toby's dolls that I fell in love with. Tomorrow I will complete my puppet and hopefully post it then. I am exhausted and going to bed.

Happy mother's day. I was able to get to my Little Faun doll and put hair and clothes on her. I used an old beaver fur collar for her legs. She isn't finished yet, but this gives you an idea of how she is turning out. Her hair needs to be tamed down a little and I noticed in the pictures it looks like the fur on one leg is higher than the other, so I will need to fix that. But I'm done for the day. My son is coming over and going to wash and wax my car for mother's day. Hurray, it is a mess. Next week I will start my duties as the president of Gals and Dolls in San Jose, CA. I'm a little nervous because I don't really know how it will turn out. I was also lucky to met some great people when I went to Portola earlier this month. In fact, one of the woman, Kate, is coming down with her daughter next weekend. I forget how lucky I am to live in the Bay Area where there is such great fabric shopping. She is making the 250+ mile trip just to buy fabric. I can't say much, because I would do the same thing if the only place to buy fabric near me was Wal*mart. I put a larger picture of Faun down below if you want to scroll down.

Baking a Fimo Pan Figure

I sculpted a little Pan girl figure today and it is in the oven baking. Fingers crossed that when I look at it tomorrow, I will still love it. It is a far cry from the ugly stepsister I made in class, but I used all the techniques I learned and it really made a huge difference in the time it took to do. It still was about 6 hours for the head and torso, but I had to condition the clay as well as sculpt. Two big differences from taking Wendy Froud's class: 1. I was able to spend a lot more time to get it right and 2. we used Fimo soft in class and I used Puppen and translucent Fimo classic chopped together with Fimo conditioner. The classic is much better than soft. Fimo classic has a wax consistentency and does not melt in your hands so that when you are working on one side of the head, you are smashing the other side. I do have hot hands when I work, especially today. I cannot believe how hot it is, I finally turned on the air conditioner. It was over 84 in the house. Ouch. Water rationing here we come.

I decided to finish the doll I began in Wendy's class. She is certainly not pretty so do not use this output to judge whether to take a class from the Froud's. The techniques I learned and the experience was well worth the money and the time. I highly recommend buying her DVD because it is 240 minutes long and she goes over in detail her techniques. I posted the 'ugly stepsister' below. Enjoy and hopefully the next time I use Fimo, it will come out much prettier. I created a new wire armature, chopped up the Fimo and will start the new doll over the next couple of days. Too tired today.

Recovered from last weekend

It took me several good nights sleep before I felt recovered from last weekend's class. So today I will start a new doll. I am going to attempt a Pan figure but it takes me forever to finish anything, so who knows when it will be posted. I do know that using Fimo instead of Darwi clay will speed up the process. Darwi takes a good week to dry, so you can't sculpt and then keep working because of all the waiting in between. I believe that Darwi is stronger though because as soon as my last doll was finished, I dropped it on its face on the hard desk and nothing happened. I almost cried before I picked it up and saw that it had survived my clumsy self.

Back from Wendy's class

Valerie and I came back from Wendy's class on Monday afternoon, exhausted but happy. I learned so much in the class and it was fabulous. Wendy Froud's son Toby was also at the workshop and he is an incredible artist. Both Wendy and Toby created Pan figures and I really don't have the words to describe how fantastic they were. While I struggled to make a doll that had two eyes, a nose and a mouth in somewhat the correct area, they sat and worked on these dolls as demonstrations for the rest of us. I kept trying to coax Wendy's figure into my purse but he completely ignored me. Posted below is the figure Wendy started and pretty much completed during the 3 day seminar. Wendy said she had more details to button down, but to my eyes it was perfect.

Traveling to Wendy Froud Class

Today Valerie is picking me up and we are going up into the mountains above Reno to enjoy a beautiful spa and being inspired by a gathering of creative doll makers. I have not sculpted in Fimo before, so I know that my brain will explode with all the new information that I will try and remember. I'm bringing my camera so will share the pictures and experience when I get back.

Too many dolls not enough time

I have decided that work is getting in the way of my play. If I could only discover hidden wealth that would sustain me enough that I could just sit and play with my dolls, it would be pure happiness. Only nine more years before retirement, but some days, it feels like that is forever and other days, like it is just around the corner. Don’t get me wrong, I am very grateful to have employment in these uncertain times, but lately the call to create is overwhelming. I worked on Bartholomew some more, but had to put him aside because in the doll club I belong to we are exchanging secret pal dolls and I must complete mine before April 8th. I also need to get prepared for Wendy Froud’s class on April 11th. It seems like it was weeks away and now it is next week. It is one of those strange time anomalies, where some parts of time are slow and others push you faster than you can blink. I guess I should stop writing and sew and a couple of hands.

My Doll has developed a personality

Easter and I have been able to work on my doll between phone calls and my son and his girlfriend coming over. They ate Easter dinner and Sandra's mom's, so I didn't need to cook and was able to enjoy the day in my sewing room. Bartholomew has been named and I have the beginnings of his clothes created, but no embellishments. It is quite exciting.

Creating a new doll

Well, I have finished the sculpting and put him together. So far he has remained silent, so I really don't know how he wants to be dressed. Everytime I bring it up, he just stands there with this little secretative smile on his face. Maybe tommorrow he will tell me. He gave me permission to show his picture, obviously he feels no embarrassment that he is undressed. Hopefully tomorrow he will let me know who he is. If he does, I wil let you all know.

Anticipating a Wendy Froud Class

I am getting very excited because I am going to the Wendy Froud workshop in Portola, CA. Her husband will also be joining the class. I received her "Creating A Faery Figure' DVD this week and I have been watching it a lot. It is 240 minutes long and Wendy demonstrates all aspects of scupting a doll using Fimo clay. I am just blown away by how fantastic it is. The class is in April, so I will add more to my blog while I get ready for the class and show pictures of the class on this blog. I have been sculpting all day today (using paperclay) and watching her DVD. Not all the techniques will translate to paperclay, but many of the techniques do and I have been looking at my dolls with a new eye.

I am currently working on a figure that I have struggled with for about 3 weeks. The head was just not working for me. But I am so pleased with how it came out that I have begun the figure. It will be a while before I can show the finished doll, but as I progress with it, I will add pictures.

I cannot believe that it is 6:15 already. It will take me a while to get used to daylight savings time. The weather is so beautiful today: around 73 and the trees are just beginning to push out their leaves. You can tell how much I enjoyed the DVD because although the weather called to me from the window, I choose to stay in my studio and play with dolls.

March 8, 2008

The first night to change to daylight savings. Part of me is happy for more light after I get off from work, but the tradeoff of arriving at work when it is still dark does not appeal to me. At the best my little yorkie, Phoebe will not wake me up tommorrow at 4:30 by licking me in my nose. Maybe I can fool her and can sleep in until 5:30 for a few days. This time next week she will have figured out my new schedule and again will wake me up on the weekends.

So why did I decide to create a blog. Although being creative is a very internal private process, the need to share what you create with others who may understand why you spend so much time coped up in your second bedroom drives my creation of the blog. I am always searching for new doll images and pictures on the web, so decided that others might enjoy what I do.

So here I am sending into space my thoughts and creative images. I hope that if you have stumbled upon my little space you will enjoy my dolls as much as I enjoy making them.