Back to Dolls

 

With one doll exhibit at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley closing and another one on the horizon in February at the Olive Hyde Gallery in Hayward, I decided I'd better get some new dolls put together. This one is sculpted cloth with a second layer of gauze "skin" on her face. She is a tribute to admired and influential women, from ancient history to present day.

 

 

 

She is surronded by admiring hands and represents the feminine spirit, feminine intellect, and feminine creativity. The hanging name tags on her skirt include the names of: Jane Austen, Margaret Mead, Emily Dickinson, Betty Friedan, Martha Graham, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Gertrude Stein, Gloria Steinem, Frido Kahlo, Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Billie Jean King, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Blackwell, Helen Keller, Rosa Parks, Michele Obama, Babe Didrikson, Amelia Earhart, Florence Nightengale, Harriet Tubman, Mary Magdalene, Eleanor Roosevelt, Marie Curie, Indira Gandhi, Queen Victoria, Joan of Arc, Mother Theresa, Margaret Thatcher, Clare Boothe Luce, Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou, Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright and Golda Meir. Hmmm, there are so many more... maybe another doll?

 

 

The medallion at her waist says it all. "Celebrating Women, the Sacred Femine, and the Right Brain." However, she also represents the celebration of all women... mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, nieces, friends...

 

 

The second cloth sculptured doll I made celebrates the Muse. The box base contains both literature and music—she guides the pen—and holds the key to great inspiration.

 

 

I also made a couple of new altered bottles

embellished with shells, pearls,

and fibers representative of the sea.

 

 

I love decorating the bottles

and have many more ideas

of ones I want to make.

 

I love the sea...

have spent many an hour just staring at it...

and these bottles trigger fond memories

from my youth... of days spent at my grandparents

home on the Pacific Coast.

 

 

Its Almost Christmas

Blocked felt hat base with flower, ribbons and feathers.

I've been working non-stop for months getting ready for the two craft shows in San Francisco. This weekend is the Celebration of Craftswomen at Fort Mason in San Francisco. I made two hats and above is a photo of one of them

I took time out to try making one of the paper Marie Antionette
slippers for myself. I love it!

 I have made crowns, both large and small. Below is a large one.

Still making crowns out of fabric and paper.
This one is a combination of the two.

 So many bracelets. But, so much fun to make. Each one is unique and totally different from all the rest.

I made 23 cuff bracelets. This one is made with a vintage doily,
vintage jewels and ribbon rosettes. 

Here is a closer view of the embellishments.

This is a close-up of the cuff shown in the previous blog post.

Another close-up of vintage embellishments on a bracelet.

The base fabric of this cuff is dupioni silk with dyed lace embellishments
and a lot of hand beading.

 This is my favorite fascinator and I wore when I worked in the Paris Flea Market in Livermore. Great place to discover everything French and Shabby Chic at bargain prices.

This is a fascinator on a headband that I made with
the French touch.

New Directions

What a busy year this has been and it is far from over!

From October 2011 through August 2012, I was a virtual slave to my space at the “Paris Flea Market” in a neighboring California town. Besides liquidating a lot of my vintage items from a lifetime of collecting, I then moved forward to acquiring more from estate sales… painting items with chalk paint for that “shabby chic” look, making collaged cards and Eiffel Towers from vintage ephemera, sewing pillows of all shapes and sizes with Paris motifs, making paper pinwheel banners, embellished antique bottles, French fascinators and Halloween hats, mini dress forms, etc., etc.

I loved the chance to make a lot of new items, but the monthly sale deadline was just too much in light of the fact I had other shows and exhibits to plan and work toward. I never really had the time to even photograph the items I was creating… they were gone without so much as a visual record to remember them by, except for one photograph of one of my little mannequins with an authentic French designer label, a paper Paris pinwheel banner, and a Eiffel Tower pillow in the photo above.

I joined some of my artist friends (we are known as “Art Dolls and Mixed Media”) and exhibited a few of my dolls at the Frank Bette gallery in Alameda in April, May and June—my umbrella doll overwhelmingly won the popularity vote by gallery patrons, with my tree pose doll coming in second.

 

In June, I and my friends exhibited two weekends at the Alameda Open Studios.  Our dolls are currently on exhibit at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley for two months, ending November 22.

 

 

I gave up the PFM in favor of returning to the art I personally want to create, rather than creating for a shop.

 

Now I am preparing for two craft shows in San Francisco in November and December. I will be displaying  several dolls, cuff bracelets and neckpieces made with vintage fabrics and costume jewelry, crowns, hats and fascinators, cards, and Christmas decorations.

 

Details and photos of a few of my new items are below.

 

CELEBRATION OF CRAFTSWOMEN

November 24 and 25, Fort Mason, San Francisco, Booth #415

ARTISTS: DONNA PERRY, BONNIE HOOVER, WANDA FUDGE, KELLY MEAD, MARY PORTER VAUGHAN, STEPHANIE SMITH, ZANAIB NIA GREEN, DAISY KIEHN

 

KPFA CRAFTS SHOW

December 8 and 9, Concourse Exhibition Center, 635 8th Street, San Francisco, Booth #134

ARTISTS: DONNA PERRY, SUZANNE DURAN, STEPHANIE SMITH, WANDA FUDGE, BONNIE HOOVER, KELLY MEAD, MARY PORTER VAUGHAN

 

 

Dupioni silk cuff with vintage hand-dyed lace and amber crystal beads.

.

 

New Beginnings

Time really flies! Especially those holidays—and where did winter go? It has seemed like spring here for weeks. The trees are all blossoming and the bulbs are all blooming. So beautiful! It is time for new beginnings and new projects.

My dear friend and talented cloth doll artist, Wanda Fudge, has just gone live with her new Web site, Art Doll Emporium. She graciously asked me to be a part of it. Go to http://www.artdollemporium.com/. Several of my crowns and dolls are on the site, as well as Wanda's fabulous famous women, and nationally known doll artist Bonnie Hoover's very original and popular flat dolls. I feel honored to be in such good company.

I have started making some small crowns and some Eiffel Towers from paper. And, painting a lot of medium sized objects, including picture frames, with chalk paint for that shabby chic look. I am so lucky that my beautiful 7-year-old granddaughter loves anything French... just like me. We are in the process of decorating her new bedroom! I am thrilled!!!

I am in another postcard exchange with 9 of my Phoebe dollmaker friends. I have three to do each each month—three down and six to go. I can't wait to receive all mine! I also made a bunch of cards... French, of course! Here are a few.

Here's to another wonderful year of crafting. This time I hope to take more time to photograph my projects and post them, before they end up in someone else's home!

My New Parasol Doll

I finally finished Penelope! She is constructed over a vintage silk parasol. Her face, body and hands are sculpted from cloth and consist of two layers, knit and gauze. She is the largest doll I have ever made... almost 44 inches tall including the base. Her costume is made from vintage taffeta and organza with vintage lace and jet beads for embellishment. The base is a cigar box with a graphic attached.

 I made a tiny beaded drawstring bag to dangle from her wrist, as well as a dance card for the Halloween party she is attending.


Her dance card is full and she is waiting for the first dance to begin!


She is going to be on display in October in the window of the bookshop in Hayward and will also be in the Women's Craft Show at Fort Mason in San Francisco on November 11-13.

Her hat is made of felt and a variety of embellishments.

I have three more parasols to use for dolls. They are so much work to make (and take so much time) but I am looking forward to making the next ones. I have a beautiful pink parasol, as well as a ruffled one that is a pinkish-orange. I think they will make up very nicely.

BOOOOOOO!

 I finished my postcards for the Phoebe postcard exchange.

I must be the world's worst photographer... the colors are not as vibrant in the photos as they should be (in spite of my PhotoShop manipulation) and the postcards always look bowed in the middle, although they are precisely cut rectangles. I need to spend more time practicing photography and less time crafting (not as much fun!)

I had 8 postcards to make, and I finished them early. There is so much going on before my son's wedding in October... then the wedding in Maui... then the two craft shows to finish items to sell.

 I can't wait to see the ones I get in return!

While I usually incorporate more fabric than paper in my postcards, these are mostly paper with some fabric embellishment.

Now that these are completed, I will move on to more crowns and dolls for the shows.

Wishing everyone a "Happy Halloween" early this year!

Finally Back to Dolls!

 After taking Akira Blount's class in April, I made numerous body parts, especially the faces, necks and hands, using the two layers of fabric (thin knit sculpted, stiffened, and covered with gauze).  I am now in the process of putting them all together and creating dolls. Below is "Paris" who has a small shrine to Paris set into her midriff.

She is about 20" tall, and the ruffled skirt is vintage silk organza saved from a party dress my mother made for me when I was in high school.

Also in the shrine is a silk rose, a copy of some vintage French writing from Paris, a few pearls, and a small vial of French perfume.

Next I made a "Prince" doll using duiponi silk for his pants, jacket and turban. I made him little leather boots, and added feathers from a very old feather duster to the top of his head. I added some trim I bought in Montmartre (the fabulous fabric district) in Paris to the front of his jacket.

I used the same type of head and hands and a pattern I designed to incorporate into a doll in the Yoga Tree Pose. I painted and stiffened gauze to make tree moss, made a fabric boa to wrap around the waist and one leg, and added leaves and fibers to the head to finish out the "tree" look. I will be sending this doll to the International Quilt Festival in Houston this month in response to Pamela Armas's special invitation to be a part of her exhibit.

My friend, Rosie, inspired me to move outside my comfort zone and make a primitive owl. The pattern was drawn with my left hand (I'm right-handed) and she even donated part of one of her husband's sweaters to make the vest. I felt like a child again. I was so much fun to make, without my usual worrying and planning. He's one of three dolls I am submitting for the Phoebe window display at The Book Store on B Street in Hayward for the month of October.

Another doll I am submitting for the window is "Pumpkin Face." She has a cloth sculptured face, to which I added paperclay, gesso, and paint. She has a wired and wrapped body, not my usual stuffed fabric.  

She has a large spider on her head, stiffened gauze on her costume, a bat at her waist, and a hollowed-out jack-o-lantern with a tiny real candle in it.