ad libitum

BUNNY, A RABBIT AND A FROG WALK INTO A BAR

Well, they may not have walked into a bar, but they have walked into my life. Inspired by my class with Lana Guerra, I have made 3 more dolls. This time I used paper clay, rather than Super Scupley, so, these dolla are lighter than Bunny (see previous post).

Miss Polly Wogg is very close to being a frog, but has a strong leaning towards being a person, too.

Felis is, of course, a cat.

rear view of Felix below

Mrs Ester Bunny may have a lot of salt in her pepper hair, but she also still has a lot of energy and loves to dance.

As you can see, I find making these dolls very addictive. I already have plans for making more. Darn real life for interfering with my art plans.

 

A FEW FACES IN THE CROWD

I made a new face mold and tried out Delight air dry modeling clay. Now I have to wait for the faces to dry. Then it will be time to paint them and use them for dolls, jewelry, and collages.

By the way, this is my first attempt at blogging by my phone.

BIRDS WITHOUT FEATHERS STILL FLOCK

I've had a delightful flurry of visitors and art time has been a little scarce. I have managed, however to finish a few birds (yes, they have my daughters' eyes on their bird heads; they're  my birds, after all).

 

 

 

SPIRIT DOLLS

ME SECOND PMC DOLL

I completed my second pmc doll...and now I have thoughts about three more.

ANGELS AND OTHER THINGS

I spent the past week-end sewing and playing in the studio (which is getting messier and messier and really will have to be cleaned up at some point).

I made three hanging doll angel versions of my grandniece, Ayla; and I made four fabric hangings using resined photos and paper. I also watched most of a Firefly DVD set I bought, but that didn't produce anything but enjoyable dirversion.

Here is Renaissance Angel Ayla.

This is Antiqued Angel Ayla.

And, Royal Angel Ayla...if you look closely, you can see the beads on her full length vest.

I have some beautiful bits and bobbles of fabric and ribbons and pieces of resin paper I made last year; so, I decided to make some small fabric collage/wall hangings.

A BIT OF SELF PROMOTION

Some of my art is currently on display (and for sale) at For The Art (210 Lake Street, Kalamazoo). I was there for last Friday's Art Hop and am keeping my work there for the month of March. I invite anyone local to stop by and take a look (hours are usually 11 to 5 Mondays through Fridays and 11 til 2 on Saturdays, but it's a good idea to call first).

This is a tree of angels, birds and word people.

This is a display of my dolls.

More of the dolls and some of my fabric photoshop images.

Fabric images and some large, matted photoshopped images.

These are two of my fabric collages commemerating my trip to Ireland. The collages are about 16x16 inches.

Frankly, the store 's participation in Art Hop was not particularly well attended (the store is out of the usual Art Hop pathway). I tried not to take this personally (with semi-success); and am deciding to focus on the fact that my art is on display in an actual place of business.

GETTING READY FOR ART HOP AND GIVEAWAY WINNERS

First off, the winners of my fall banners (I'll send them off to you tomorrow, Monday) are Lori Hutchinson, Karen Owen, Carla Trump, Jackie Smith, Deb Lewis and Jeanie Croupe. Thank you, everyone who wanted a banner.

The past week and week-end, I have been working on some projects for the November Art Hop in Kalamazoo.

 

Below is a torso canvas I was working on. It's almost finished in this photo. The paper swirl has been painted over and now matches the rest of the canvas.

I made 13 digital/fabric sewn pieces of this show. I printed out digital collages (which I have previously made using Photoshop) on fabric and then sewed around them.

I wasn't sure how to finish these pieces. I tried putting them in frames, but wasn't happy with the frames I had. I then decided to sew the fabric onto watercolor sheets. I like the look of this.

I also have 10 dolls that I'm going to exhibit.

I want this to all be indicative of my work, but I flit about so much in my art that it's hard to show an accurate sampling.

THANK YOU LISA RENNER

As I posted from ArtUnraveled, I took a doll making class from Lisa Renner. It really was my favorite class - and this is from a group of classes that I totally loved. I returned home wanting to make dolls (well, first I spent a week doing very little except marinating in Michigan after my two week absence) and I started a few. I realized I really like making these dolls and wanted to go into production mode (I want to get my web site up and running again by this fall and I was thinking that I would like to start by stocking it with fabric dolls and fabric journals). I emailed Lisa and asked if she minded if I used the pattern she gave in class (great instructions, useful ideas) and she graciously gave me her permission (Thank you, Lisa).

So, I dyed and stamped and painted some fabrics.

I sewed some doll forms.

I stuffed some doll forms.

I made some faces and gave them some hair.

Today, I completed my first doll. I have several others in various stages, but I needed to finish one for a present. She is embellished with crystals, has silver hair with bauble embellishments, is holding a butterfly and has a draped bauble skirt. Her name is Ivy, but she might be renamed by her new person.

ART UNRAVELED - NOT SO SHORT REPORT

Well, things got off to a bad start (unhappy experience at the Minneapolis airport, cr rental problems and I lost my registration packet) and then quickly turned around (dinner with Fran and Dave on Monday night, fun shopping at SAS fabrics and Whole Foods on Tuesday afternoon and a good opening presentation Tuesday night).

I have been so busy with classes, visiting friends and enjoying myself, I've neglected to take many photos and I've barely been reding my emails, much less posting. I've had a day and a half of Photoshop class, a day and a half of working with resin, a day of doll class, Vendor Day and a gret presentation from Someguy about the 1,000 Journals project. It's all good. Well, it's all good, except for the quality of the few photos I managed to take.

Mike Jennings taught the Photoshop class and did a great job. He was very well organized nd he dealt with 12 people who were each at different levels of competence. I picked up some good techniques and am looking forward to working on some digital collages (ideas are dancing in my head).

Susan Lenart Kazmer taught Resin and Everything You want to Know About It. We made molds (I made  right and left leg molds, shell molds, and some blobby things that didn't quite turn out as I intended). We cast our molds, and the hot Arizona air certainly speeded up the process. We put things in bezels. We covered dried flowers with resin (mine are a little too thick and look like malformed blobs, but may work as component parts in the future). We covered paper with resin. We used metal and tools and made some jewlery with our resin pieces. I have lots of incomplete resin bits and pieces and I completed one ring which I made from an Egyptian stamp I resined into a bezel (Susan demonstrated how to make an adjustable ring, which I think is a very cool idea).

Lisa Renner taught Oh My Captive Heart! A Mixed Media Art Doll. What a fun class! Lisa had prepared muslin doll bodies for us to dye/paint/draw on. We made polymer faces (had to apply make up on the doll faces - something I haven't done on myself for over 20 years) and learned a cool technique for a beautiful finish to the faces. Then, we made polymer shoulders and hands (I really need to work a lot more on hands) and wrapped fabric around floral wire for arms. Then we put it all together, added wool roving for hair, decorated the dolls and ended up with a wide array of really cool looking dolls. Plus, Lisa gave us bonus materials and instructions for making wings (my doll doesn't want wings, but I intend to make her some fairy sisters when I get back home).

Friday night, I had a delightful dinner with Fran Saperstein, Angie Platten, Martha Brown, Jennifer Whitmer, Lorri Scott, Leighanna Light, and Tracey Kazimer-Cree. It was great fun. In fact, it was so much fun, I forgot to take pictures (too busy eating and talking and laughing).

Saturday was the Shopping Extravaganza. All I can say is "purchases were made." Saturday night, Fran, Angie, Tracey and Andrea (a friend of Fran and Tracey) and I went out to dinner before the 1,000 Journals presentation. It was another fun dinner with pleasant people. The 1,000 Journals movie and following talk by SomeGuy was really interesting. He brought 20 of the journals with him and people got to look at them and add to them.

Today I will return my rental car and then I have a class tonight. I'm taking Glorious Papers with Jacqueline Sullivan (yes, I flew to Phoenix Arizona in August to take a class from someone who lives in Michigan). I've had classes with Jacqueline before and really enjoyed them, so I expect good things.