clownin' around

Now that Halloween has past, i can finally share a very special piece i had been working on.  I was commissioned to make a doll replica of a special gentleman that had passed. I was given the photo (in the bottom right corner of the first photo) and given the following requirement. the wig, the fangs and blood. The award was to be given in D.C. at a party held on Halloween- so no chance of ruining any surprise- and the wonderful client gave me plenty of time to complete the project (not all do you know -wink, wink)

not knowing the person in question and yet knowing that it was going to be used as an award in his honor, to celebrate his love for Halloween and dressing a bit 'psycho'- i can tell you now- it was a daunting task. challenging new territory. i liked it.

it isn't often that, as an artist, you are presented with such out of the comfort zone commissions. usually, you are commissioned to make duplicates of your work that people love, but are not always quick enough to purchase the original. To get a commission so out of my territory, and for such an emotional work- i was truly honored.
the frosting?  the client was over the moon with the outcome.

and i must admit, i am pretty pleased with the outcome- not a bad liking, eh?

celebrate on another.
be a clown.

a good night

Dance around the bonfire.

toast the new year.

honor your ancestors.

be thankful for the harvest.

share the feast.

enjoy the night.

Happy Halloween.

Blessed Samhain.

on summer travels and things that caught my eye



I always rather enjoy the travels of summer, or should i say the drives of summer as I rarely fly to my destinations domestically- i guess you can say i am a child of the *road trip*- a few snacks, a rucksack, a camera and a map and i am good to go. travel by plane and you miss the richness of the american road and all it has to offer. you just need to get off the highway now and again to make sure you catch it.

this summer the direction was south. the starting point; where new york meets canada. the finish line was the treasure coast. 1,380 miles, 8 states, 4 weeks and a whole lot of coffee. (thank god for starbucks venti quad mochas. how would i function?)

the coastal route has the best architecture. and once you get into the deep south- it's as if

you stepped back in time.

can you just imagine what the inside of this old theatre looks like? i silently hope they

have restored it to its original grandeur as i pass by. that would be lovely.

Bob's your uncle. Fannie's your aunt. Life is good. enough said.

while i always enjoy the journey- the finish line is well met and there

is still work to be done. and so we move on to Halloween!

Welcome to the Spirits in Sanford!

Did i mention that the women at the Jeanine Taylor Folk Art Gallery have a way

with entertaining? would you have ever thought of a prosciutto brain skull. very cool.

(me being goofy, again, in front of my doll display. )

after years of seeing their work via everywhere, this was my first show with the ever-so-charming Jorge de Rojas and the quite adorable (i can call him adorable 'cause he's the one in the stripey tights and buckle shoes!) Allen Cunningham.  Both have hearts of gold and a talent unique as they are. it certainly was a pleasure to hob with them for a while.

the new steampunk zombie ornaments were unleased at Spirits, and i am thrilled to say they were very well received. while they have just about sold out, there are a few that you can purchase here .

And after all of that excitement, the miles on the road, the intense southern heat (yes, 82 degrees is INTENSE in October for a northern girl!), concerts on the warf and barefoot midnight strolls in the surf- i reach the mountains again...

Looking forward to the slight chill in the autumn air, candle-lit pumpkins, crunching leaves beneath my feet; the wonder that is the season between summer and winter.

let's just say mother nature had other plans.

♥*¨)¸.·´¸.·*´¨live well.

¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*love each other.





if you are ever in the area- you have to check out this gallery!

Stop by and check out the Jeanine Taylor Folk Art Gallery. This is the BEST space i have ever seen/shown in. the energy and the art work and the people. *sigh*  just fabulous.

Halloween is coming! Halloween is coming! or Mayhem, Excitement and Deadlines~ My work here has just begun!

When school lets out in the June, everyone is a flutter with excitement and anticipation.

 It's SUMMER!  There is packing to be done and trips to be made,
sunshine to delight in and hammocks to relax in.
And the lazy days of summer stretch on and on and on.....

until ***'"'PooF'''"' one day you wake up and it's over. and you can't quite

grasp on to where it all went. and then you realise. if Summer is over, then school must be starting.
 if school is starting, the Autumn must be on it's way. if Autumn is on it's

way, then that MuST mean....

HaLLoWeeN is Coming!!!!

i love Halloween (or All-Hallows Eve, as we call it here at the Noll).
i keep half of my decorations up all year long.

half of them- because then, there is still always decorating for the day (and night)

 to be done! and oh, what fun we have!
Halloween invokes images of magic and mayhem. Of full moons and bat wings, of costumes and
cool nights. long walks with leaves crackling beneath your feet. of witches and spells and things
that go bump in the night.

Halloween also means the start of a very busy season here at the Noll. 

Orders come swift and they come early. i now know why stores start to stock

seasonal items three-six months before the season!

*i still don't understand it- but at least now i know!*

I've created a limited studio edition Zen-sible dolls- the most

senseless of creatures- so silly they are! But they are bound

to lighten your mood with a giggle or two!

just watch out for this one, where ever she goes~ she likes to

announce that she's queen of everything- and then tickle your toes!

 

a touch of Fae and a dose of magic appear in a series of

watercolor paintings on vintage papers 

 3-d sculptured shadow boxes will make their debut. this little

w.i.p. has a 'pocket full of poseys'- look for him in early September!

and the studio series of cloth/sculpted "stump" dolls 

(the 'ada' has to find a better name!)

were so popular *there are still a few left at the shop--->*

that there are more on the drying rack- heading for art shops in Idaho and Oregon.

Little Safarina was so excited- she tried jumping off the drying rack in hot

pursuit of some candy- as you can see- she put on her best witchy

costume- and added a nose, so you would be frightened *don't tell her i told!*

Well, time she is flying, like a witch and her broom!

Halloween will be here before you know it!

 it's time i headed back into the studio!

don't forget to get your custom orders in early~

there are phenomenal artists out there,

with voices to be heard!

if you don't believe me- just listen for the buzz!

it's coming from the hive!

live well.

love each other.

the findings of my gypsy journey or why i believe i should come back as a bat

sounds silly enough- coming back as a bat- its not like i have a fetish for mosquitoes, and while i do have perfect pitch hearing- i tend to be quite fond of my eye sight. so why a bat you might ask? well- first and foremost- bats are super cool. and really. who doesn't want to be super cool at least once in their existence? but that isn't even it- the real reason goes much deeper than that-  

 i have an on going love affair infatuation with places like this:

i can tell you, i just want to, feel compelled to, really long to, well, hang out in there.

what do you say? just for a few hours. i am betting the view is fantastic!

and then there is this.

it's not a morbid facination- but a facination nonetheless-

graveyards. cemeteries. boneyards- what ever you call them.

every one of those markers tells a story. had a life, lived a dream, broke a heart. and as daft as it may

sound- i find great peace listening to their stories.

and the older the marker, the deeper the history, the better the story.

this is my favorite time of day- the time when the sun just sets but it is not yet dark.

the earth starts to cool, your skin takes to a chill and the chaos begins to quiet. this is the

time when my mind starts to whir.

As you can tell by the time of this post, i seldom sleep through the night,

unless it is a full moon- and then i don't sleep at all. for three days.

until it starts to wane- my mind won't shut off and my eyes won't shut. 

a bit odd i think- but i am used to it- and a such,

we have great conversations during those times,

the moon and i.

and i think she will be great company when i come to take flight.

as a bat.

^oo^

live well.

love each other.

SummerFest- Free E-Class Tutorial- Time to Make the Ghoulies Part Three

 I can't believe it's monday already and another week has past!

First thing we need to do is make a pair of boots for our ghoulie

so that he can stand on his own.

all we are going to need is the paperclay, a few tools and  a skewer. by the way- the skewers

come in handy for a multitude of reasons- but the coolest is that they are just a hair larger than the

15 gauge armature wire- which allows all your pieces to fit together just right.

work a piece of clay into a cylinder form.

place on your table and cut in half. one for each foot.

shape into a triangle form and then pull up one side to form a boot- and round

out the front.

take the flat end of the skewer and poke a hole for the leg wire

to go in- once that hole is in there- then you can gently place your ghoulie

into the boots- to make sure you have a good fit, and the wire sits in the boot properly.

i added little buttons for effect.  place them up on a piece of styrofoam to dry-

you can put them anywhere flat really, just not wood (the oils will seep into clay).

i just use a piece of styrofoam because it is clean and "seep free"- nothing in it to come out

and nothing you put on it will seep in.

while they are drying, it is time to rip up some fabric.

i used coffee stained muslin. you may use what ever fabric you choose- just rip

it up into strips that wil fit comfortably around your ghoulie.

and start wrapping.

leave some hangers- ghoulies can be so messy.

gently place in the boots again- to make sure the wrappings don't do down

to far, and the boots dont fit.  once the first wrapping sets, and the boots are dry

glue the boots in place and then give the ghoulie another wrap.

now is the time to start playing with your ghoulie. paint, embellish, give the final

touches.

the finished ghoulie is within sight!

Q&A:

thank you for all of the emails! i will get to everyone of you!

and thank you Elizabeth! that means my goal has been achieved! to take some of the intimidating out of art dolls. This is just a beginning. like i explained- these are your basic, basic steps. but once you start (and you will :O)  you will develop your own style and technique; your work will become more refined and intricate- never worry about watching someone else- that is where inspiration comes from- if one werent to teach another- the "art of" would fade away. 

Allison; The objective is to develope your own style, and not continue to copy someone elses. when your starting out you are mimicking actions- as an artist your talent will shine through and so will your own style. it takes loads of practice. some people think you can just wake up and be good at something- just because someone else is-  what they dont show you are the hours and hours of work it took to get there. it is fun. it is an amazing thing to be able to do, actually- but it is also a great deal of work to perfect.

Ger:  no, you did not miss the steps. i realise i did not go over hands and face painting. that is for a whole other day!:O)  this is for getting the basic armature and form down. just a look to take the scarey out of the whole process.  i had a number of people approach me not understanding or knowing how to begin- my answer to them is this basic step class to get them started on their way.

okay- see you all next week!!

live well.

love each other.

SummerFest- Free E-Class Tutorial- Time to Make the Ghoulies Part Two

Welcome back and Thank you for all the lovely emails!

As we go along (for anyone new joining us) please feel free to drop me an email or leave me a comment with any questions or comments. The comments section has been temporarily placed on moderate- and i will not be posting the comments (for the e-classes only) here on the blog- i have found this makes  people more comfortable, as i want everyone to be confident enough to ask me anything and i will only make reference  by first names- there are no "stupid" questions (Right Alice *wink*) it is "just" art- it won't bite!

Okay then. let's get to it!

...... the Body Armature! (insert scary 'muwahh haa haa' here)

The body armature is actually not as scary or complicated as it may seem. And i will note here that a) i am not the end all, last word on body armatures- like everything, there is more than one way to get it done. b) this is a basic structure, as you go along making dolls and creatures, you will perfect your basic structure and things will get very tricky- but until then, grab two pieces of armature aluminum wire and some masking tape.  yup. that's it.

the length of the wire depends on how "tall" you want your little being to be.

lay your wires next to each other, and start to wrap them together with the masking tape, about 1 to 1.5 inches (2.54cm to 3.81cm) from  the top end of the wires. keep them parallel with one another while wrapping. you want to make as many wraps as you need to keep them securely together. usually about 4 or 5 wraps should do it.

once you have them so they don't "roll" away from each other, and your going

to have to eyeball this one- wrap the length of what would be the distance between

the shoulders and the hips- your basically outlining where the torso will be.

the next step- see photo above- is going to be to bend the two wires apart and

then bend them back again to create, what looks much like a tuning fork, but will

actually become the hips and legs of your little being.

Do NOT glue it on yet, but if you just put your head on the 'neck' you can get a better

feel as to how things are going to look when we are done.

You can keep the head on, because we are going to need it there for placement of the arms,

but for now you can put the head/body aside and grab another piece of armature wire.

the length of the wire is going to be 2x the length of the shoulder to the knee area of your being,

or basically however long you want it to be :o) see that is the beauty of making creatures/dolls-

you can make them look however you want to!

TIP:  armature wire is very... bendy. it is easy to start getting a lot of kinks in it.

here is a super easy way to bend the wire in half  in one shot.

grasp each end of the wire between your thumb and first finger (one in each hand)  so you look

like your ready to conduct an orchestra- and bring your hands down and together and the

wire will follow, so you get this..

now take those two ends again, same position and just ratchet it back and forth in small, fluid

motions. the wire will start to close that camel hump until the two sides just about touch.

give the wire a bit of a flip and bring the two ends back up so it looks

like this...

time to bring back the head/body to the table for a line up:

flip the wire so the hump points down and, giving room for the neck, place the wire behind the body

and Voile'! instant shoulders/arms. now we want to make sure that they

are secure and don't wiggle or fall off- so it's time to bring out the masking tape again

and start wrapping, first the hump to the 'spine' and then up and around both

shoulder parts, and you will see the body start to form up. remember we still

have NOT glued the head into place. it is just rattling around up there, so

be careful not to send it flying while your wrapping with the masking tape.

next, cut another small piece of wire, bend it using the same technique above, only this time

we are placing it around those hips we just made. if you refer to the picture, you will see

one side on top of the body frame, and one side underneath. this is giving the armature some added

support and rigidity- when in doubt- reinforce. you don't want to put all of the hours

into an art doll only to have the main structure fail- a few extra steps in the beginning

will save you a whole lot of swearing in the end!

that being said, what are we going to do? you got it...

wrap him up! masking tape is remarkably strong when used in this

application. it can also be twisted around joints so that the form is strong,

yet still moves freely.

so there you have it. his main body form is almost complete.

now we need to grab some batting...

i like batting, as opposed to fiberfill, because it is easier to wrap and weave around

armature parts when making dolls. it is a personal thing- i don't like lumpy dolls, and the batting

holds itself into place so you don't need additional (insert name of favorite securing

device here) to keep it in place.

so peel off some batting (single layer) and lets get wrapping!

okay. now he's not so skinny! put as much or as little batting as you want to make your

creature as thick or as thin as you like- it's all about your vision when creating art dolls.

me, i'm going to stop here.  i think he is ready for the next step.

we finally get to give him his head!

and i found a pair of hands that were drying and commandeered them

for this project-

make sure you have good air when using your adhesive- it STINKS-

and will give you a headache- so... fresh air!.. lots of it!

i put the wire right into the tube of glue and gob it up good.

i just don't like pieces falling off!

so don't over do it- but use enough adhesive to get the job done.

and if the glue globs over the neck or arms.. no worries- it is going

to be covered up anyway- and at least you know the future owner of your lovely won't

be searching for a hand some day!

ohhhh. creepy, creepy.

okay- so more cute than creepy - we will work on creepy

another day! :o)

okay- remember- shoot me off any questions you may have, next week we will finish these

bad boys up with feet and paint and final wardrobe selection-

have a most excellent week!

live well.

love each other.