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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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.

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 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.

 

More Busy Days Ahead!

Next month will start off with a bang—I will be in shows the first and second weekends. On June 4-5 I will be participating in the Flying Phoebe exhibit at East Bay Open Studios at Wanda Fudge’s Goose Cottage, 1610 Minturn, Alameda, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. I will be exhibiting sculptured cloth dolls, crowns, and my “Mad Hatter” 3-dimensional collage, plus a few small mixed media items. Can’t wait to get together with the other Phoebes and “hang out” in Wanda’s cozy garden.




Then, on June 11-12, I will be participating in the Live Oak Park Fair, 1301 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. I’m planning to exhibit items similar to those at East Bay Open Studios. I will be a part of the “It Figures” Art Dolls and Mixed Media group made up of Phoebe members.

However, even before June arrives, I am most looking forward to a 5-day doll-making class with internationally known Akira Blount. I have admired and loved her dolls ever since I saw her “Jester” in Susanna Oroyan’s Anatomy of a Doll. She will be conducting a Phoebe workshop on all her special techniques. I can’t wait to find out all about them and give it a try. I have been busily gathering up the items on her class supply list, and making a multitude of doll body parts on which the techniques will be applied. I hope to incorporate some of these techniques into the dolls I have to make before the end of the year. Those will include a parasol witch doll for Flying Phoebe window display at The Book Shop on “B” Street in Hayward in October. Incidentally, I have three flower faerie dolls that will be in the Phoebe display for the month of June at The Book Shop.



I have been invited to send a doll to “In Celebration of the Doll 2011” at the Houston Quilt Show in October. This will be my fourth year. And, I have decided to make and submit some items for Somerset Magazine challenges. There is the possibility that I will be involved in two more exhibits before Christmas in San Francisco. Let’s see it I can really get all of this done.

Before I put away my mixed media materials that I used in my crown making and started pulling out the doll materials stash, I made five new crowns. This post features the photos of some of them. The next photos you see should be of dolls!!!

Where Did April Go?

Wow, where does the time go? I have been on a crown-making marathon. I made up my crown pattern and some new samples and demonstrated glue pens, glittering, foiling, and making rubbings with Shiva Paint Sticks at the Rusty Barn Show at Cal Expo in Sacramento on March 24-26 while working in the Embellishment Village booth. The weather was wild! Gale force winds and pounding rain, yet the attendance at the show was amazing, especially on the first day when the weather was the worst. The truly passionate artists and crafters turned out that day and were so enthusiastic and eager to buy. By the end of the three days I had sold out of almost all the items I was demonstrating… and that inventory was supposed to last three shows! It was tiring, but exhilarating! I love playing with those products!

My crown patterns were selling at the show, so Embellishment Village ordered some more to take with them to other shows. They were headed for Ohio and Kentucky in April, Salt Lake City in May, and Long Beach in July. They wanted me to continue demonstrating, but when I looked at my calendar, I realized I had much work to get done for the shows, challenges and exhibits I am participating in between now and the end of the year. And, upon my return from Sacramento, I had to start getting everything ready for the crown workshop I would be teaching to the Flying Phoebes on April 21. Not only did I have the class during the day, but I was also scheduled for an enrichment presentation that evening at the Phoebe quarterly joint member and associate meeting.

What a whirlwind day that was… and so much fun! My class members said over and over how much they enjoyed it… it was more like a play day… no stress… just letting the creative juices flow! They produced fabulous crowns. I don’t have all the photos of their finished crowns yet, but Wanda Fudge outdid herself and has probably produced 10 or more since the class. I, myself, have made five more… three for gifts and two for exhibit. This blog post features the photos of Wanda’s crowns.

At the class and during the enrichment presentation that evening, I demonstrated making rosettes from various types of ribbon, pinwheels and fans from paper, and all the exciting techniques for creating wonderful embellishments from Angelina fibers. I also demonstrated all those fun ways to use the glue pen and large size glue from Embellishment Village to glitter and foil. I was thrilled that everyone enjoyed the demonstration so much that Phoebes have decided to schedule free demonstration workshops for members and associates in the future, with segments that will cover various techniques and materials used in doll-making and mixed media. I’m looking forward to more fun!