EJ Taylor class

Oh my goodness, how lucky was I?  Five day workshop with EJ Taylor.  I learned so much about paper clay and oil paint and full body sculpting.  The Flying Phoebes hosted EJ to teach in Northern California and I was lucky enough to host him at my house.  Of course he might not say that, because I'm a terrible cook, so I took him out to dinner every night.  Ha ha!  He is wonderful. 

The start of our day at Marcella's beautiful house as we drink our coffee and find out what we will be doing. 

We got right to work, sculpting heads out of paper clay and learning that we knew nothing.  But we all concentrated and worked hard. Of course we broke for food, candy and lots of coffee, laughter and good fun.

EJ was fabulous and gave us all indivdual attention and no one left the workshop disappointed.  Everyone's dolls stood on their own and were developing personalities.

 

Sally's doll practically walked off the table with all her attitude, of course

EJ Taylor

I cannot believe that I'm taking a class from the world renowned doll artist EJ Taylor.  It is an amazing experience.  Not only learning his  techniques, but also listening to his life stories and his philosophies on art.  I'm so thrilled to have him staying at my house while he teaches the 5 day class to the Flying Phoebe doll club in Hayward, CA.  He is showing us how to sculpt the head and hands and build the bodies on our dolls.  To see his amazing work, you must check out his website, http://www.ejtaylor.com/ .  He has always been my favorite doll artist.  Who knew that the stars would align and I could not only meet him, but host him in my house.   If you ever have the opportunity to take a class, do everything you can to make it happen!

Trade Shows and Selling

Well, I'm finally going to put my toe in the water and see whether I like the idea of selling my dolls.  It isn't something that comes easy, the letting go of a little piece of your creative spirit....but I know my dolls will enjoy the adventure of going to other people's houses.  But there are some dolls, like my Gnome Nanny and child that I just cannot bear to have leave the house.  They are both to dear to me to let go. 

I create the Bird for my little creature

So I fiddled all afternoon trying to get fluffy feathers to stick to this little bird.  Ugh!  They are up my nose and glued to my feet, but looking good.  Need to paint his feet so they aren't copper wire....but that will be after the glue dries on the feathers.  What a mess feathers are and I've never created a bird, so what do I know about what they look like.  You will never find this one in a backyard at your house, but if you follow a certain path in a hidden cave with a small stream ..... and then find the magic door unlocked...then you too may find him sitting on a branch....looking for the Birdman...

Sometimes he comes into the house and sits under my living room lamp...but that is only when their are lighting storms and his feather's get wet, then the Birdman knocks on my door and I feed them honey and seeds and they tell me all their adventures....

Another Fabulous Froud Weekend

I got to Petaluma on Friday morning around 7am and waited for the class to begin at 10.  Stayed in a funny old Victorian Hotel (Metro Cafe and Hotel) where the had make your own coffee and quiet signs all over so that you did wake anyone.  But it was very relaxing and artsy and seemed to fit the whole mood of the weekend.

 Three days of creative fun, exhaustion and birthing of new ideas and creatures.  Once again Wendy and Toby Froud generously shared their creative process with 15 lucky artists. 

Here is the fruit of our labor.  Fifteen little creatures all made under the watchful eye of our mentors who gave us tips and tricks throughout our time there.  Even the fur we used on our dolls was magical.  We were using left over fur that was used on the movie "Where The Wild Things Are".  On Friday we started the class with a meditation to find our creative energy and if we were lucky, to meet the creature we would sculpt.  All day Friday we worked on the head, getting the sculpt just right.  Saturday was heads and feet and wrapping the armature, then Sunday was painting and dressing.

And to top it off we had the class at the Petaluma Art Center and at the same time they had an incredible doll show. The show runs until the middle of September. If you have the chance to go, you will be rewarded with the opportunities to see dolls as diverse as E.J Taylor, Wendy Froud, Christine Shivley, Leslie Molen, and Kat Soto just to name a few.

Because Wendy and Brian were promoting their latest collaboration "The Heart of Faerie Oracle, Brian also came to play on Sunday.

My little creature just told me that he was a bird man, so now I need to make some birds to be around him.  I will publish a picture, once he is finished.

Secretive Merfolk refuses to talk

She refuses to speak.  In fact I think she is not happy that I found her hiding behind the seaweed in Half Moon Bay off the Pacific Coast.  She peaks at me out of the side of her eyes as if to say, shhh!  hiding here.  Maybe she isn't talking because I have not finished beading her skirt.  hmmm.....

This doll was truly a challenge and I learned so much working on her.  I have to thank all the hardware guys who helped me figure out the nuts and bolts I would need to support her heavy upper body.  Plus duck tape is a wonderful invention.  It really made a huge difference. I drilled holes in the Fimo, painted her gills, sculpted an upper body, all things I had not attempted before.  And I'm so pleased with her. I was inspired by the drawings of Tony DiTerlizzi from the Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide.

Working on a new doll

I've been working on this sculpt for two weekends.  I'm such a terrible picture taker, that the pictures never look very good.  This creature will become a mermaid, once gills, hair, tail, etc are added.  I enjoyed trying to do a full sculpt, but it really shows off all your mistakes.  No hiding it with clothing.  But even though it is not that great, I am enjoying the process of doing something a little different.

Finally got a decent picture of my Dark Fairy

Here is something else I struggled with.  I made him in a class with Wendy Froud.  I tried every wing you could imagine and put him in every position I could think of, finally I put crow feathered wings on him and he came alive.  Well at least he settled down and started acting nice. 

New Doll Finished this weekend

I went to Tami's house and sat around with my creative friends and played dolls.  There are four of us that get together once a month and gossip, eat and create.  It is a lot of fun.  I finished a doll that I have struggled with for a couple of months.  The face didn't work and I didn't like the horns, so I tried redoing the whole thing.  It was a big learning experience.  Don't know if I really like him, but he is growing on me.  At first he seemed to want to be fierce, but that he became 'the messager'.  At least that is all he has told me so far.

I've been gone too long

It has been for ever since I last blogged.  Lots has happened in my life.  My son got married and the holidays were wild with all the extra family every where.  I was thrilled to be asked to join the Flying Phoebe doll club located in Hayward, California.  What an incredible creative group of folks to mingle with and trade ideas with.  Winter is coming to an end and I'm starting to feel the juices flowing into playing with dolls again.

I just finished baking a new head and then burnt the heck out of my finger pulling it out of the oven.  Note to self:  do not touch the hot wire no matter how excited you are about the looks of the head.  Then I saw a huge crack in the face.  Fingers crossed, super glue will do it's job.  I will post pictures if I can rescue him from the trash can.  Otherwise I guess I will have to hold a funeral. 

Sometimes life is just too strange and powerful

Last Sunday my ex mom in law called me (she is 93) and just wanted to chat and tell me she loved me.  There was such sweetness and sadness in the phone call that it felt like she was saying goodbye.  I thought, I must get to her house on Saturday.  Yesterday my son called me to say that he heard from his Auntie that Fanny was on life support in the hospital.  There were no clues from her normal health issues (growing old) that this was going to happen.

I spent the day yesterday at her bedside wishing I had made more time to visit.  Isn't that always the way?  So we all pray that she can start to breath on her own and we get to see again the little devlish glint in her eyes.  I know I need to recognize that she has lived a long and full life, but I selfishly don't want her out of my life.

Selected as a Froud Website Wahoo

I just got word that my blog has been accepted as September 2009 Froudian Artist of the Month. What a tremendous honor and such fun. Now I need to figure out how to link it to my website.

I'm so excited

I just found out that my grey doll will be featured in "Soft Dolls and Animals" magazine. She will be in the November issue. What a kick. I went to a cloth doll convention in Ohio this spring and the sponsor of the convention sent in 25 pictures of dolls to the magazine. I was one of the lucky ones that was picked. Wahoo! This is a first for me to actually be published. Can hardly wait to see it.

Bought a new computer

Here I am playing around with my new computer, realizing that all my wonderful links are now on my old computer and I will have to log into it to get all the info. Love getting new toys, but hate having to figure this all out. Bought a lovely HP Firebird VoodooDNA gaming system, because I love gaming so much and the visual graphics are so intense on this machine.

AFIC and back to reality

I had such fun, meeting new people and learning new techniques. I was completely flabbergasted when several people wanted to buy my doll 'a study in grey'. It was so flattering that my peers found my work interesting. It is a little sad to look around the room and not see the grey doll sitting in her corner, but I know she has a new home with Peggy. After talking to a lot of people, I so want to go to NIADA this year. Got to try and save some money and see if I can make it happen.

On another note, my friend Daisy is in the new Art Doll magazine. I was so excited to see her published. I guess I'm going to have to get her autograph when she comes over. Please check it out under the Gypsy Challenge.

Nanny Gilly finally has her little girl

I was so anxious about making the baby/little girl that was going to be in Nanny's arms, but sculpting small is not something I was confident I could do. I started thinking I would just do a small baby with closed eyes - I figured I could manage that. But all of a sudden this little face started to emerge and I was in love with her. Then I got little hands and feet to look OK. It was a miracle. Here I was procrastinating for about 2 weeks because I was positive that the child sculpt would not make me happy.

So now that I have two new people to live with and all my other little dolls seemed happy to have the company. I can now relax that this figure is completed and now I have to start sewing on my Cloth doll homework for the Cloth Doll Convention in Ohio. Only two weeks left to get it all done. Better sew everynight.

I'm busy but not had much to say here

Quiet time for me, but I have been productive. My son had an emergency appendectomy and it threw me off a little. You would think when they are almost 31, that they don't need you, but in emergency nothing works but having mom available to help out. It happened the night of doll club and I anxiously called the vice president to make sure she could fill in for me. I will be glad when I'm no longer the club president. It is a long drive at night and I don't get home until around 11p.m. I have to turn around and get up again at 4:45 so it wears me out. It is also a cloth doll club, and since I have started sculpting, I'm not as interested in cloth dolls. I still love them, but I can get so much more expression in the sculpted doll. I'm going to a cloth doll convention in April, so I'm hoping it will ping me again with cloth doll interests.

I've been working on 2 of my dolls and neither one is completed, but will add the pictures of their progress. One is a dark fallen fairy and one will be a nanny gnome. I need to make little baby for her to hold and one to sit on her back. That will be a challenge because I have a hard time making little things.

Fabulous, incredible class

I had a fall on your face blast at Wendy Froud's advanced class in Reno. First of all she is so gracious and generous with her ideas and techniques and her son, Toby, is funny and talented. And second, I met the greatest group of people at the class. Some I knew from the first class I took from her and some I just met. The creative energy in the classroom made me float around all week afterwards. I wish I could bottle up that creative energy and put it in a glass jar and when I'm feeling not inspired or tired and discouraged, I could unscrew the lid and be bathed and renewed in it.

Thank goodness i have memories of it and hopefully, fingers crossed, I will get to meet again with all those lovely folks and laugh and play.

Back to Sculpting

Well I can hardly believe that it has almost been a year since I took Wendy Froud's first class. It opened up a completely different way of thinking. I would have done so much more this last year, except for one thing and one thing only. World of Warcraft. So on the same weekend that I got introduced to sculpting with fimo, I also got introduced with WoW. Who would have thought that I would have become so hooked on that game. I thought it was a teenage boy game, but here I am 56 years old and playing that stupid game every night.

But, Wendy Froud is back and teaching in Reno at the end of February. I'm taking an advanced course from her, so we bring already sculpted head, hands and feet and then build the doll with a more advanced body and paint techniques. So long story short I have been sculpting the last two weekends. Miracle of miracles, I have two doll heads that don't look like aliens from outer space.

I received Wendy's 2nd DVD on creating older characters and so began my new adventure. I did start to paint the 2nd head, shame shame on me. But she so wanted to come alive and I also used taxidermy eyes instead of sculpting them. I like it. So now I have an old woman head and a old man's head.

Next to this post are the little pictures.

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.