I’ve had fun this weekend working in my garden. I flat wore myself out yesterday. I got up early and mowed and picked beans and 2 cucumbers, got the yard watered in the back and the flower beds watered in the front. I went to the farmers market where my favorite veggie booth had yellow squash and zucchini! I also got my first beans of the season… had to get some since my bushes are only producing a small hand full every couple of days right now. After the farmers market, I headed to Round Rock Market Days where I got myself a very nice present. It won’t be unveiled for a couple of months though, because it has to wait for my back patio redo.
Anyway, today I slept late after a late night thunderstorm and rain into the early morning. I have been toying with an idea, possibly for my table favor dolls for All Dolls Are Art 2012. I finally tried it out this afternoon.
Meet the snail! I sculpted him out of paper clay this evening over tin foil.
Isn’t this a great face?
This is my butterfly I was working on and have set aside as I don’t know how I want to paint it yet.
I have also been playing with faces. I want some flat faces I can mold, which I decided I was going to do with these today. I read on Fran’s Blog how she molded a less than perfect face and used the mold to create another face which she added clay too and remolded. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find my mold material. I know I saw it in the last few days, but I’ve moved it and can’t remember where. Oh well.
ADAA is coming up soon! We still have plenty of space in classes. If you are curious, you can visit our Facebook page or our website: www.alldollart.com.
Tags: ADAA, All Dolls Are Art, Creatures, Dolls, Faces, Paper Clay, Sculpting
Spring has visited Central Texas and looks to be on its way out the door already, but I’ve been taking advantage of the wonderful weather to dye a lot of fabric. I have been busy, working on several projects all at once and have some pictures to post, but not of everything!
I dyed a whole BUNCH of fabric over the last week. I think I did 25 or 30 yards of velvet and 12 yards of rayon. The velvet is all posted in my Etsy shop and I’ve got links on my Facebook Fan Page so I won’t post pictures here.
I’ve started on my All Dolls are Art 2012 table favor doll prototype. I don’t have a picture of it yet, because it’s just clay and wires at this point. I’m venturing into new territory courtesy of my Art Fest class with Michelle Allen and trying out paper clay. I should have enough progress made later in the week to be able to post pictures!
I’ve also been working on Connie’s fabric book pages, but, alas, don’t have pics of that either yet! Especially since I got home late from work and spent the rest of my evening posting listings on Etsy.
What I do have are the journal pages I’ve done recently. It has been a good long while since I worked in my journal. In fact, I had a drought all last fall, not doing anything in it until Christmas when I had my annual “art play date” with my niece and nephew. Whenever they are here, I give everyone a break and “babysit” by pulling out my journal and my art supplies. This year, both kids got water color supplies in their stockings, so we had plenty to go around!
After Christmas, I got sick almost as soon as I got back to work, and ventured into my journal about two weeks in to my 6 week bout with a cold. This page is the result of my being sick and tired of being sick and tired. 
Then I went to Art Fest, and took along my journal and supplies, but didn’t even crack a page open while I was gone. Since I’ve been back, though, I’ve been playing in my journal when I got sick again (sigh), and been travelling for work, and just generally playing when I couldn’t put enough time together to work on my other projects. Since it’s been so long since I played with acrylics, I’m a bit rusty, but am finding my way again.
I collaged some images I had laying around and played with paint colors I don’t normally use on this page.
This one has a gel medium transfer and I used a new stencil! Love the dots!
I decided to start out with a black background on this one, and add color to it to see how that worked. I was listening to Florence and the Machine’s new album, Ceremonials, while working on this. Love the album, especially love “What the Water Gave Me”.
This is free form drawing/painting without collage this time. I’m not quite finished with this one or the next two.
This one is almost all collage at this point, with a layer or two of paint on top, plus some stencilling and doodling. I went back to the color palette I used for Hey Daisy from 2010 (yep, still working in the same journal!).
This page is the opposite page to the one above. More collage, outrageous juxtaposition of elements. Lot of fun to do though! And here, for reference, is my Hey Daisy page.
Tags: All Dolls Are Art, Art Journal pages, Art Journalling, Dolls, Paper Clay
ADAA is pleased to have the multi-talented Arley Berryhill on our faculty this year! He is always pushing the envelope as a designer and costumer. He is teaching a new doll at ADAA 2012, the Gypsy Fortune Teller, complete with her fortune telling booth.
Believe it or not, this doll is constructed from cloth. Arley spent time as a make-up artist, and brings those skills to his doll making with beautiful and realistic features. The hands of his dolls are the most beautiful hands I’ve seen.
In this class, you’ll learn Arley’s techniques for doll and costume construction, make-up, wigging and turban making. As a bonus, Arley will teach you to make the fortune telling booth!
There is still space available in Arley’s class. For more information and to sign up, visit the All Dolls Are Art website.
Tags: ADAA, All Dolls Are Art 2012, Arley Berryhill, Art Dolls, Cloth Doll Design, Coloring Faces, Costuming
I went to the last Art Fest week before last and had so much fun. Unfortunately, I came home and caught a cold again. 
I am so very tired of being sick! This blog post is mostly pictures. I’m very, very busy getting ready for a dyeing workshop with my doll club next weekend and so am going to leave you with pictures of the wild flowers that are gracing Central Texas and my Art Fest creations.
This is what it looks like in a field near my office. You wouldn’t guess that there is a major shopping center just beyond the trees.
A lonely fire hydrant.
One of many butterflies gracing our fields and skies.
My backyard flower bed.
My first class at Art Fest was with Michelle Allen (Michelle’s blog). Great class, fun techniques, fantastic teacher! My dolls are the surfer tweety and octopus. The odd gentleman is Kristy’s. I hadn’t seen Kristy since 2008 when she stopped in Austin for SxSW and we had coffee! We had 2 classes together and had so much fun catching up and sharing band discoveries.
Second class was Misfit dolls with Lana Guerra (www.crudethings.com). Mine is the pink and orange beauty with the spots and stripes.
Last but not least, was Wings with Cynthia Thornton of Green Girl Designs. Loved this class and had so many ideas!
Tags: Art Dolls, Art Fest, Photography, Wildflowers
I’ve spent most of the last month and a half working in my yard. Spring came with rain, thank goodness, and, in between showers, I’ve been working on my flower beds and my gardens.
I spent time today dyeing some velvet. I got some great turquoise and a wonderful chocolate color, as well as some yellows. I will have them posted in my shop tomorrow.
For now, enjoy pictures from my garden and of Marley!
Columbine
Ornamental Kale
Marley likes to sleep on his back. Funny cat!
Look at that sweet face!
Tags: Cats, Garden, hand-dyed fabric, Photography, velvet
