New dolls and fabric's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well its been a wonderful couple of weeks,Ive joined Art Dolls Only and Nancyes Art Doll,and the encouragement and warmth of the doll makers has been awesome,I encourage any doll maker to join them,you wont look back,these women are so inspiring!

I have been working on Bunny Blue,I decided to go back to the way I made dolls when I made my first ever dolls,I just sew up a doll in calico and paint it with acrylic paint,when its done I will put coat or two of matt varnish for its protection and viola a new doll!

I also found some great fabrics at the local craft store,they will be great for clothing on the dolls and for back ground props,love the glittery type of fabrics for the back grounds.

Thought I would share a tips here about presenting your dolls,I take a few pics of my doll with back ground props of contrasting fabrics and glittery flower and odds and ends and then I click away until I'm happy,them I take it to Photoshop and tweak it with distort-disfuse glow untill it is soft,then I crop it,use some brushes to soften the edges,then its ready to be veiwed.

I keep a large number of phot props handy and make a good deal of them,I purchase bonches of fake flowers,pull them apart,glitter the edges,join them back to gether with button,paper clips, whatever is handy,alo9s make boxes of different styles,jewelery,boahs,feathers,paintings,lace,anything pretty,funky and fun!

Tool of the week is my stylus,its great for dotting patterns on my dolls.

On the shelves and everywhere!

Its about 1am my time,Im sitting in my in house studio office and looking around and all I can see is dolls and art and paper work,but the dolls are on the shelves and everywhere,and I love it,I find it so hard to part with them but they overrun my home and life so they must leave and start their own lives with new mums to care for them.

My nieces adore them and I find that they become rather mad at me if they don't get first pick,but hey family don't pay the bills,its nice to know that the girls are so fond of my little darlings,at least I know that they treasure them.

Anyway on with it the blog thing,life has been nothing but hectic lately,my illness has been a major hindrance,my arms are so painful its hard to even put a jacket on without nearly passing out but hey I manage, but its hard to feel inspired when I'm having a pain peak,I just hope it ebbs soon,still Ive managed to get creative and do some cute little dollies and I have reached the half way mark with one that has been in the process of evolving for more than six months,it now has paint on its face and now I'm thinking how to find the next stage with it,I don't even know its gender yet,I have posted it in this entry,any suggestions?

The bandits are coming along as is my purple fairy,I have a least 12 dolls in different stages of creation,probably more actually,I know that the big studio has quite a few in it as well as the inside studio and here I am planning to make about 20 more dolls,what the heck the more the merrier!

I have some paper clay heads waiting for bodies and some paint,I also am inspired to make some more paper clay heads and some sculpy heads and bodies as well,I just love to make these dolls,to explore and develop as a doll maker.

I also joined two great group this week,Art Dolls Only and Nancys Art Dolls,they are fantastic groups that encourage,inspire and welcome every who comes to play,i recommend that you look them up,they belong to ning,so go and see them!

I also purchased the book Creative Cloth Doll Couture by Patti Medaris Culea,its brilliant for those that want to advance into this area of doll making,I recommend it highly!

Well of to catch up on my other blog so until next time..Happy Doll making!

Oh Bunny Girl!

Ive been working on the bunny girlz,they are done and look fabo,sexy and flirty,their man isnt quite finished as yet,Im at a stand still with him but he will arrive soon enough.

I love the girlz though,I used some patterned cotton,painted over it,the eyes are acrylic eyes and their faces are painted with acrylic paint,I stuffed the bodies with part fiber and part pellets,I wanted pellets in their bottoms and bellies to make them sort of softer and kind of squishy,it works for me.

I have moved on to some small character dolls,also using fiber and pellets,I just like the feel of that mix,although it isnt good for every doll,I think I like dolls to move and flop but I also like some dolls stiff and rigid,I guess its what ever you have in mind when creating them,most of the time I just sort of let it all happen.

Blog update...check out two cool doll makers Odd Dolls and Mealy Monster you will find their links at the side of this blog,you wont regret the visit.

A fun thing to do!

I have just spotted a fun art doll swap over at http://wildatheartart.blogspot.com/2009/04/under-sea-swap.html blog,sounds like something fun to be involved in,pop over and check out all the details for the swap that is coming up.