Found a Treasure

I'm still working on clearing out my stuff from my mother's place. While doing so this past weekend, I found this doll. At first I thought about selling her but then I realized her provenance. I'd made her over 10 years ago during a workshop at Arrowmont School for Arts & Crafts. The teacher was renown doll artist Akira Blount. Akira passed away several years ago. It was a week long workshop and I learned a lot from her. And I had been making dolls for about 15 years then. The one important thing is how to give a doll a layered look in clothing without actually making each individual piece. I've carried that with me from then on.  Looking at the doll, you can see layers of clothing but she doesn't have them. Her shirt is her body.  I couldn't afford one of her pieces but I could afford that class. She was such a kind and giving person.

She had us come up with our own profile pattern, even though we followed her design. She wanted to make sure we got the full affect of creating our own doll from start to finish.  Her face is needle sculpted and then painted. So I will keep this doll because of her connection to Akira Blount.

Thank you Akira for your time, experience, and laughter. I will miss you always.

Ugh!

At some point, hopefully, I will get things at full speed ahead. Right now, it's starts, stops, and bumps along the way. I've been having a rough time at getting creative again but hopefully I'm on the right launch pad this time. Here I've started painting the doll head pins that I started a couple of weeks ago. Eegads! They should have been done by now but I'm a big goof. I'm working on changing that, really, I am. I put down the basics with acrylic paint. The eyes and lips. Next I'll go in with color pencil to do a quick makeup job, finishing off with permanent pen.

For the full body pins, I used clothes pins to keep their legs separated while I painted their shoes. For larger dolls I use the toe separators you use when you paint your toenails. Those things hold and separate doll legs quite well. And as you can see, clothes pins work for smaller pieces. You use what you have.

Below you can see better the beginning of their paint job and how the pins are holding their legs.

Moving Right Along

I've been crazy busy the past couple of days after a huge anxiety attack. The sun was out, it was nice and all I could think about was that I was stuck in my apartment. When I was younger, I would gas up my truck and hit the road, go to a park, whatever. Now, I don't really like going places by myself. Then the downward spiral began and well... it wasn't pretty. I told myself to stop it. Put my big girl britches on and do something. Anything to make the mental funk go away. I made up messy mix to cover a couple of dolls I'm working on. Remember Verity? Well, I got over not doing the next step. Deanna Hogan came up with this combination of modeling paste and gel medium to hide the stitches from needle sculpting the features. I've put on two layers. I sand in between and I will put on a couple more. I repainted the alien feet. The little green guys lying down. And put Creative Paperclay on my two Halloween dolls. When you don't work on things you've always done, you forget what you did. So I'm covering up some stitches on their heads so I can paint them. I typed up two short stories I had written. I wrote out the character list for my mystery story. I didn't have time to feel low. That was Sunday.

Monday I worked on a top secret project. A new client dropped off a quilt top to be longarmed. I outlined my mystery story. Continued working on dolls and sketched a page of bears. I did 29 Faces last month and the plan was to do bears this month for another project. Of course, I'm a little behind.

Today I longarmed a quilt. That took all day.

I'm home now and have eaten dinner. It was filling but not great.  I'm tired but it's a good tired. I will sketch some bears and work on one of my stories. Never give up.

Progress

I’ve gotten a bit further on my Halfsies. They have been fully covered with Rigid Wrap. I like using that before I use Creative Paperclay because the Rigid Wrap gives the piece a bit more strength. It’s just me. The process is not written in stone. But it saves on using tons of CP. I also started some bunner ornaments and although part of me wants them to be traditional bunnies, that little weird streak in me is saying, ‘creep them up’ a bit. We shall see. Right now everything is drying and I’ll turn my attention to the rats. See ya soon.

7 March -No pic post

Gonna make this short but it's happened again. Last month was okay with a big online art challenge and getting other things done. It was great and the adrenaline was coursing. I was happy and excited. Well, things ended February 28 and the adrenaline went away and I crashed. At least this time, I didn't crash and burn. With a couple of explosions thrown in for good measure. It took me two days to get back in the swing of things and looking back on past experiences, that's pretty good.

I like having challenges. Something to work towards or for. If it helps me out in the process (financially), that's a bonus. But when the event is over, or the deadline met, I feel lost. The rush is gone and it takes a long time to build it back up again. There's nothing like getting into your zone. It's exciting and freeing and it makes you feel like you can solve all the world's problems and conquer the universe. But when the task is over and the surge of adrenaline is gone... poof... just gone, it can be bad. In the past, the crash would be so bad that I would cry for days, crawl under a blanket and suck my thumb. Okay, maybe not suck my thumb but rock back and forth. How would I get that fantastic feeling back? It took a couple of years to figure out what was going on and prepare for it. Now, instead of taking weeks to recover and get on with the next project, it's days.

Things that help me out or get into the next thing:

• start a project right before the previous adrenaline rush ends. That won't give me time to think about which project to start next. It won't give me time to be overwhelmed by all the projects I want to do. All 586,439 projects. Okay, not that many. Just wanted to see if you're paying attention. 
• Listen to someone's voice. I have several friends who have amazing voices. I don't have to tell them what's wrong, just that I needed to hear their voice. And then they make me laugh and it puts me in a different frame of mind to get back to work, to keep going.
• Do a marathon of really bad movies. This is new. I've been watching disaster flicks. Most make me laugh. I know they aren't supposed to do that but they're so bad, that's all you can do so you won't try to sell dust bunnies online. They just make me feel like I can create anything.
• Pick something to do at the bottom of my list. And I have a very long list. Something I totally forgot that I was going to do. 

It's just a matter of time before I'm back into my zone. That, I KNOW. I will get a group of projects going to make sure my adrenaline is more on an even keel than extreme spikes that can knock down a raging T-Rex. How do you deal with your adrenaline spikes when working on something special or for a deadline? What do you do to stay in your zone on a regular basis?

I guess this wasn't short after all. Ha! Until next time. It will be soon. Create everyday. Doodles count too.

Halloween Swap Ornament- 31 Days 11

My online doll group has a Halloween Ornament swap going on and this little gal, Serilda is on her way to a new home.  Good thing because she's really cute and I was falling in love with her.  So I guess there is a plus at getting things done at the last minute.  Just kidding.

She has a tulle underskirt, painted boots and face, and there's a pipe cleaner in her hat and can be posed a bit.  The spider is a charm and it does look like she's not expecting that particular kind of friend.

Here's a painting tip: To paint feet or shoes, stick the legs in a toe separator. Yeah, the ones you use for your toesies.