Well Hello there.....long time no blog!
I'm here to admit that I'm a failure, yes, yes I am. I couldn't bring myself to make a video for my doll class and instead will just be writing up directions for it. I had every intention of doing this, and was actually excited about it, until my dear sweet hubby (who was supposed to film me) decided that he needed a script and direction on where to zoom in, zoom out, etc. I'm a kind of off the cuff girl, so this wasn't working with my spontaneous mojo. If I can find one of my friends out here who is knowledgeable and willing to work in my "off the cuff" kinda style, I'll happily make a video, and please don't judge my amazing hubby harshly, I don't begrudge him his need for order anymore than I begrudge my lack of it when doing "freestyle" entertainment!
For those of you wishing to have written directions, please email me at "meriw@cox.net" and I will be happy to send you the directions once I have them finished.
I have also been quite busy with many projects, of which I will share with you, and the first one is an art doll exchange I'm participating in. Back in January, I participated in a local event called ArtZona, where lovely, talented artists from all over the country came for a weekend of crafting/creating and snarky women talk. It was a blast. Those of us who actually live here in Arizona, decided to create a local group called "Arizona Showgirls." We will be taking many field trips to local events, shops, museums, etc., and just generally bond over all things creative. There are 8 of us and although we've been on a couple of trips, we also decided to have our own art doll collaboration. Each of us created a doll of some sort (head, body, limbs maybe, and storage container) and these dolls will be circulated amongst each of us to add our stamp of creativity to it. I guess this would be the same as a "round robin" for a journal. Anyhoo, my first doll to work on was from my good friend Sharon, who most recently participated in my "upcycled light bulb doll" class. She started a doll by using a paintbrush and adding porcelain legs and arms, as well as a molded PaperClay head. All by itself it was wondrous and there isn't much more you could do to improve it, however, that just made it more of a challenge.
 |
Here is the gorgeous box she created for it. She used
an old cigar box and glued this wonderful botanical/
fruit paper (from a retail bag) on top and on the inside. |
 |
When you open up the box.........there she is. Sharon rusted the
metal band around the brush, cut off part of the handle and
then created the face and head out of PaperClay. |
 |
There is also a small booklet included so
that each artist can mention what they
did to the doll....kind of like a history
of it's creative journey. |
When I first saw her doll, I immediately knew what I wanted to do to her, and luckily enough I was the first person to work on her. I told Sharon what I had in mind (in case she would be offended) and to my delight she told me to go for it!
 |
I gave her doll boobies and wings!!!!
I used amber beads for the boobs and used some
copper rounds and pretty little aqua crystals as
"pasties/nipples" and strung them on twisted
copper wire which I then wrapped around the brush. |
 |
For the wings, I used both copper and brass
mesh (which Sharon supplied), twisted copper
wire, turquoise glass beads, clear glass heart
beads as well as copper rounds and swarovski
crystals for the decor. I used the copper mesh to
create cutouts for the upper parts of the wings,
and I punched about 24 "leaves" out of the
brass mesh to create what kind of looks like
feathers on the lower half. |
If you click on the photo's you might get a better look at the wings. I'm very pleased with the outcome, but can't wait to see what else will be done to this doll by the other artists. I'm also excited to see what becomes of the doll I started, but we don't meet again till next week for the next exchange.
In other news, I'm letting you all know that our dear friend E, of "Creative Breathing" is doing fine and still recuperating from her recent knee surgery. Having had over 13 knee surgeries myself, I know how debilitating they can be and that in turn creates frustration which can add to our depression. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers, but know that she's doing just fine She'll be horrified to know that I said this, when she reads it, but she's one of my dearest friends and I've received many emails asking about her, I felt it was necessary to let you all know. She's an amazing lady, and will be back to crafting and blogging regularly when she feels up to it.
Last but not least, I am announcing my next class.........tah dah!!!! A few of the ladies in my last class said they didn't want to wait until November for my next class, so I've decided to have a class in June for creating paperdoll greeting cards and layouts. I used to teach this class at a local scrapbook store called "Mystic Paper," which has sadly gone out of business, and I actually still have the directions and images all set to go for this class. I will be back in just a couple of days with all the specific details, such as date, time, etc., so please come back for that information.
Thank you for your patience, and I'll be back real soon with information on the June class.
Hugs,
.jpg)
