Great thrift find, and summer musings.....

Well, summer turned out busier than I thought! With all the clear weather and free time I had, I took on projects like painting the siding on the house, etc. Camping and diving were high on the list, too. In the end, there wasn't much doll making....

BUT....

My son and his girlfriend are visiting, and wanted to go to the thrift stores and antique malls around here. I lucked out at Goodwill, where I found THIS:

It was obviously a candle holder that was broken at the top, but it still held possibilities for me. I would like to use it as a base for a C/C doll. I think I could stuff a torso in the hole where a candle cup must have once presided. I don't think this will be my upcycle doll submission, since there was already a similar one created, and I would like mine to be different than the others, for diversity. But I think she will have to be a fancy lady, indeed!

There was a mate to this one.... a little shorter; I don't know why I didn't buy it, but I went back several weeks later, and there it was, waiting!

I was bored to death without my doll-making stuff while camping and diving at Lake Ouachita, but I filled some of my time doing this:



This is made from slate rock washed up on the shore, glued down onto a black painted board. The slate comes in so many colors.... reds, rusts, pinks, greens, whites, tans, browns, blacks, blues, and grays. In the end, I made two; this was the first, and the other still needs completing, but it is pretty exciting, so far! I started off with a simple design, just to get the hang of it.... I had never done a project like this before, but I received a lot of comments from other campers!

I think I will do some doll making again very soon. I am flooded with ideas.... time to pick one! I'm almost out of time for the ADQ submission!!! While camping, I had infinite time to pick up odd discarded and forgotten things around the campground, and also found a handful of small crystals, so I may work with these as well.

Classmates.com, and a new doll!

Way, way back, Bridget and I were close friends throughout school. Even when we went to different high schools (she went to an all-girl catholic school, and I went to a public co-ed school), we still got together on weekends, and all summer long. She was very cool.... super-gifted, not too "girlie", and very, very bright. She played the guitar, and made her own clothes. We shopped and dieted together, and dreamed up what we would do once we were out of school, and what we would change our names to (us silly girls; we both wanted to change our names to something exciting!). As it turned out, I had to move with my family during 11th grade, and Bridget and I were reduced to communicating by letter and phone.

We wrote regularly for two straight years (I still have every letter!). At about the two year mark, she went through some very difficult family drama, and we gradually stopped communicating. I have always wondered about her all these years..... if she ever became the rock star she'd wanted to be, or if she changed her name; if she had kids, and what she did for a living.

I had joined Classmates.com in about October of last year. I was curious to see whatever happened to the people I went to school with. It was interesting, but there wasn't anyone I was dying to speak to, so I put it on the back burner. I recently took a look again, and there she was! I sent her a quick message, and within 24 hours, we were emailing and talking on the the phone all over again!

We sent eachother photos and caught up on the last 24 years over the weekend; Here she is, today:


I had a doll in the works, already, primed black, sculpted hair and face. I completed her today, and ironically, I thought she ended up resembling Bridget very much! Perhaps the events of the weekend were still on my mind (I thought of her and our conversations a lot while making the doll), and it translated into what I was making.......
Supposing that theory is true, then perhaps I should take a look at my past dolls and try to recall what I was thinking of when I made them...heehee.....

Traci, AKA "Madame Zelda"

This one's for Becky.... and her Madam Zelda ;-)

Once upon a time, there lived a lady in new Orleans, who was a fortune teller. Her name was Traci, but all her friends called her "Madame Zelda":

She captivated thousands of visitors to New Orleans almost every year, who found her predictions entertaining:

She loved her job, met many nice folks, and worked in the coolest places New Orleans had to offer.

~fin


When I lived in new Orleans, I worked for nearly 20 years as a contract entertainer for parties and conventions. It was the coolest job I ever had! I got to play dress up, and entertain hundreds of folks every week. I did it all... read palms, cards, crystal ball, runes.... and the party-goers would all have great stories to tell when they got back home (though I have enough interesting stories to fill a book!).

So, one could imagine how I nearly fell off my chair when I saw Becky's fortune telling doll, Madam Zelda! I have a fortune teller doll planned, but have others to make, first. Of course, I was also going to call mine Madame Zelda, but I'll wait to see what she looks like, now (though I will secretly nickname her Zelda).... ;-)

They always seem to have a mind of their own.....

Occasionally, a doll will turn out somewhat close to what I had envisioned. Most often, though, they turn out differently.... an expression other than what I intended, a totally different theme, or even a different sex altogether! As was the case with my latest doll:

I have a cool Day Of The Dead collection years in the making.... My son gave me two unsigned DOTD cats for Christmas, and I thought it would be cute to have a couple of dolls be their companions; it had been in the back of my mind to make a devil and a skeleton for my collection, since all the pieces I have are from other artists, not myself (don't know why.... I just never thought to make any of my own, I guess). In the process of making him, he insisted on being a cute female imp in lieu of a menacing male devil, and so, my plans changed. While my exact vision did not materialize this time around, and she's not exactly DOTD-looking, I still think she's cute, in her own way..... and, the cats seem to like her. ;-)



I decided to let her become what she wanted, and I will try again some other time for my DOTD guy.

One of my favorite web groups....

Did I mention I was in Jane DesRosier's Cloth and Clay doll workshop? You can find it, here: http://clothclaydolls.ning.com/

I love it, and the ladies there are GREAT! I've had the opportunity to chat and become friendly with many of them. It's great networking, and great fun. LOTS of inspiration, there!

Taking a breather.... just to catch up....

I've taken a breather for the past week; doll-making is addictive, and can serve as a convenient excuse to get out of doing almost anything, which can cause one to fall WAAAAY behind! I needed to catch up on laundry, housework, and unpack a few more boxes (there are still so many.... how'd we get all this stuff?), Thank goodness I have a very patient boyfriend.

It had its rewards..... I unpacked a box full of white sheets from my massage therapy practice (closed as a result of H. Katrina) that were not quite good enough for Goodwill, but will be great for making doll bodies, and lining the back of my curtains for my new craft room, which I am going to make today! I also received my curtain fabric in the mail, and found a box of scrap fabric (mostly upholstery fabric, but I think I can use some of it for doll clothes).

I have this brand new craft room, still with empty drawers and cabinets, but still lots of packed boxes of craft supplies. I just wanted to get back into it so bad, I only looked for what I needed to get started on my jewelry-making and doll class, and left the rest. I realize that I could function so much better in a clean space, so I am getting on it today, and however long it takes, until it is finished.

Another bright spot was that I had the opportunity to get myself pampered this week (Everyone deserves that). Up until Monday, I had the same hairstyle as Iggy Pop (only it looks WAAAY better on Iggy Pop). I hadn't had my hair cut or highlighted in 18 months. Afterwards, I decided to go have a look at some of the clothing stores, just for fun.... as it turns out, one of them was having a huge clearance sale, and I got a bunch of new clothes... 11 pieces total..... all for less than $100. I hadn't bought new clothes just for myself in a very long time. I feel like a new woman.

I have written down a ton of doll ideas (okay.... 26) as they have come to me, and plan to get busy on them as soon as I create a functional space to work. Does anyone else do this? If I don't write it down, I'll usually forget.

There are some interesting requests, too: My son is a BIG TIME Anime fan, and wants me to make him dolls of some of his favorite Anime characters.... it will be interesting to see how (or IF) the Anime art style will translate out of a prim doll pattern.

BF wants me to make the rock band, KISS..... it oughta be a riot.....LOL.....

Marie LaVeau.... Voodoo Queen of New Orleans

Ahhhh..... I do miss New Orleans.

It was my home for 21 years, until August 28, 2005.... the day Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

One of my favorite tales of New Orleans was the story of Marie Laveau. And I've been thinking about her a lot, lately.

For those who don't know of her, Marie Laveau was born a free Creole woman of color in the early 1800's. She was also a landowner, which was quite an accomplishment for women of color in those times. She was a hairdresser to the wealthy socialite women of New Orleans, and would overhear the gossip between the women, which gave her inside knowledge to the New Orleans social life.

Before long, people learned of her Voodoo practices, and often came to her for assistance in obtaining that which they most desired. She was known for her powerful gris gris and mojo, and soon earned herself a reputation for being one of the most feared, yet respected, women in the city. Politicians and judges, societal and young women alike went to her regularly for her charms. Even after her death, people claimed to see her as if she were alive, and people still go to her grave even to this day to petition her for favors from beyond, marking 3 X's (XXX), and leaving offerings of food and booze as payment.
As I worked on her, I began to feel that she might not turn out exactly as I'd envisioned, but I did hope she'd still end up looking nice.

Okay..... so, it has to start sometime, somewhere....

After keeping up posts and blogs on various online groups I belong to, I have decided to finally lump several of them into one and create a public blog.

The reason I have avoided creating a blog is that I am really not "all about" any one singular thing; I have many more interests than what I see most people blogging about. My interests are so diverse, and I've hated the thought of keeping up a seperate blog for each one when I have so many, and I may be heavily pursuing one interest, then switch off and start pursuing another.

Here are a few tidbits:

I am a massage therapist, artist, mom, open water diver, nature lover, interior decorator, fortune teller, DIY-er, photo buff, and a bargain huntress;

I love collecting bottle caps, Buddhas, hands (a massage therapist thing), Old Ouija boards, witch dolls, antique fortune-telling games, and other artist's art;

I enjoy decorating, reupholstering, refinishing, painting, sculpting, crafting, scrapping, and I love to tirelessly bargain shop. My artistic interests are all over the place;

I'm the type of girl that hesitates spending $3 on a new shirt, but will spend $300 on a painting that I love at the drop of a hat!

I love copying a designer look on a budget, or creating my own look on a shoestring! I can do, make, and find ANYTHING cheaper (or free), and, even sometimes, BETTER;

I suffer from autoimmune disease, but I try not to let it define me, and I obsess about getting healthier, whereas I used to take it for granted.

I suppose that my blog will be mostly about art-related interests, save for a few moments where I really just want to shout something from the rooftops. ;-)