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.

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