I've got a loverly bunch of coconuts...

... along with various and sundry other bits and pieces ....
The one with the blue wig is definitely a keeper.  It is from a class by Judy Skeel...and I am very happy with it.  I still do want to do something with that one.  It had some amazing techniques that I think I managed to accomplish very well.  Just didn't feel impelled to complete the rest of the doll as it is in her pattern and so I quit.  Seems to be my MO some days.  The others...?  well, if you are doll maker, you will see the problems... although, some of them can be overcome with proper hair or banding or hats or something I suppose.... Most of them were trying to get a grip on how to put a second skin over the original stitched heads in order to hide the centre seam.  And..they did work.. sort of..... but, man, it's tough to get rid of wrinkles ..... as we know!

The tiny head is a bead.... haven't a clue what to do with that...although I did see some bead head angels on a Flickr site the other day.... perhaps a possibility.....

Doll Street is having a Boneyard challenge.  I have plenty of discarded or unused body parts and yet.... looking at them does nothing to tweak my imagination.  Who needs a head...an arm...a leg? ...to complete their doll.  Let me know the general dimensions or a size you are interested in....I may be able to help.

One leg has the beginnings of a shoe on it....hahahha.... from when I was making my ...erm... which doll was that now? ...... I think it was this one.... maybe .....

or , perhaps this gal..... who knows now. Years go by.........

Stuff accumulates........ my poor, poor crafting room.....yes....a whole room ....with a huge table and a large enough desk.... and I still have no room to work...and wouldn't know where to find anything to begin with...............

ohhhhhh...... look, poor little Rumpel....still unfinished .... .... I am pretty annoyed with myself now....

 Hey.... there's even a little mouse in there.  Obviously it's time to dig a hole.  No, not to throw myself into...but to make some room to play with some fun stuff in there.........

beyond curious....

Those were Judi's words as she wondered what I was up to with the shells.... and.... well... he is definitely that alright@!

I totally forgot to take some photos as I was putting on the clay... but, first most of the opening was filled with softened (as well as I could get it softened... ) older clay.  It is great for using up the clay that we just hate to toss.   You know the stuff... getting a bit hard or crumbly and is just no good anymore for sculpting, but, for some silly reason we refuse to throw it out.

Then... cover that with a thin piece of new soft clay and begin to lay on the various bits and blobs and start to make them look like a little face.

He is one of Dawn Schiller's Odd Fae and Autumn Things ..  she calls them Hermit Shellfae.

Little Sage wondered what the heck he was too... although he didn't scare her because I did try to give him a kind face even if he is a bit strange and different.  Sure...he's a bit different than any of my other stuff...but, hey...a person has to try "different" every so often.
                                                                                                    



I have to say though.... next time I must try for a more manly-man shell.  I still have to stifle a snicker every so often because he just looks to me like a little old man wearing a frilly pink baby bonnet!  I'm sure he would disagree.

Okay... by the end of the day....the silliness began.

My shell was pretty fragile...can you believe Michael's still made me pay for it? ...although I did get a discount. The back portion of it began crumbling a bit around a small hole that was already there.  Then, ..... somebody suggested that perhaps I should put some clay in the opening to help hold things together... and maybe even make it a portion of his anatomy sticking out of the hole..... because it would be funny....and that was it.  Well, that and the wine....

So, I made him a bum.  Giggling all the while.......

After baking his face portion....I added the hand... because it was too awkward for me to put the fingers up against the face while the clay of the face was still soft.  Not that my clay is ever "too" soft.  I definitely don't have what they refer to as "hot hands" when working with clay.  Apparently some people have hands so warm that the clay is very soft all the time.  I wish.  Mine never seems to move that easily or feel soft to me, but I wasn't going to risk it after spending hours on his face.

There was more baking .... and then there was painting...with acrylic paints....

And... then... a bit more painting on the reverse...just to give it a bit of colour too...

and voila....

Lyle appeared

and has taken up residence in his favourite plant pot....

Some days he doesn't feel very chatty...and just turns his other cheek.....er...cheeks......

I dunno.... my other shell is pretty BIG...I might not want to make a huge Hermit...but, we'll see.

here is Dawn's Hermit... see what I mean about a more manly shell?

..and look at this cute little one....awww... I love him... you can put them in any shell..... this one is no bigger than Dawn's thumb.... you can check out some of her others at her site ...

The big debate rages on...and on... ad nauseum... .

Dolls are art. Hmmm
Bears are art. Hmmmmm.......

Personally? ... I don't get it. The bear and doll makers of the world seem to be protesting all the time that nobody takes us seriously (well, okay... they mean"them" not me and I mean "them" too...not me) ....that nobody calls what they do "art"... that they don't include them in juried art shows and galleries. So what? Who cares? As a matter of fact somebody yesterday on Doll Street suggested to another that she spit in the person's eye that told her she was not a "real" artist.. because she "just makes dolls". Brother...... what next? I can't figure out why it is such a big deal.

Others were talking about what is art... and why. This debate has been around since, well, ..... forever. If you check a dictionary, there are about 11 different meanings...including this one.. "cooking, sewing and housekeeping are household arts"..... mmm... yeh..... Maybe I subscribe to the one that says: "any form of human activity that is the product of and appeals primarily to the imagination" ...but that doesn't mean it should be juried into an art gallery showing.

Many of the doll makers in the discussion decided that art must "speak" to them; must have an underlying message or something.... huh?..... are they saying that dolls must only be made to carry or convey some special cryptic message? To whom? and why? Maybe I just don't understand what these people are saying. Most of them have some idea of what their own message is I am sure...but when others look at their dolls, how on earth are they supposed to figure it out? I think it goes beyond ridiculous when they then put up their little sign that explains what the doll symbolizes and what it is "about". It is not saying much on its own if it needs a hand written sign is it? Honestly, I just don't get it. Maybe they just mean that the dolls should be made for a reason and it can be as simple as Mingus ... he was made for a challenge on the doll site... they wanted a dungeon keeper... someone to also keep the rowdy jester dolls in line...so I made him look .. uhm... well, you know.... as if he could handle the job. Actually he looks a lot like my Dad used to look. Really...I can show you pics.... He didn't get the position. A felty cute little animal did. There ya go...the right guy for the job is in the eyes and mind of someone else...

But the real thing about making this doll was that I wanted to try my hand at sculpting. He is the third one I have done with polymer clay...and I was trying for more features in a face. Trying to figure out how to do different lips... wrinkles and cragginess.. even a scar.... and I like him a lot. That is what counts for me.

My feeling is.....they really are just bears...they are just dolls. (alright, maybe with the exception of creations by Lisa Lichtenfels and a few like her) So what? Why can't people simply enjoy making them instead of being upset that nobody views their "stuff" as art?

I love to do mine simply because I have discovered that I can. I love making bears, dolls, ( I especially love doing eyes for some reason).... paper things, etc... ...and just want to be able to use new techniques every time I see one... want to learn new techniques every time I even hear about them .... to prove to myself that it can be done perhaps?... I have to confess...I don't really know.

Perhaps as simple as to be able to see how it turns out.....to see for myself and to show a few other people what I am able to accomplish.


This particular face has been shown on my blog before.. but just to illustrate a point... this is a technique that I was learning by taking a class. Cloth over cloth. It was very tricky... took about 5 hours to get that cloth overlayed onto the sculpted cloth face under it. But, I did it!! I was ecstatic to be able to accomplish it. The lips are formed with a tiny iron so that they have substance and do not just sit flat. Absolutely amazing to me! The rest of the doll is sitting, waiting to be finished...she is to be a Harpy... a mythological creature; part woman, part bird. She certainly will get done too...as there are more techniques I have not yet tried, but real life intervenes.. other things need doing at the moment. Like tiles and plumbing etc...

My family and friends like to see what I have been making..but for heaven's sake...if I try to convince them it is art or it has some deep inner meaning...or should be viewed with an eye to interpreting something world changing or earth shattering...... ...well....

Why can't people just enjoy what they do? Enjoy the comments; be happy that anybody even bothered to stop and look at our small creations? .... enter them into challenges or competitions if they are inclined...but why worry if people in "art circles", or whatever they call their little cliques these days, don't accept dolls as art? Who cares? I don't........perhaps because I also don't happen to think welding some bolts and nuts together is art .... nor is the slapping of one big stroke of paint on a huge white canvas... nope..not to me.

I am more a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type of person...no deep analytical thought processes happening here about bears and dolls. I hate analyzing things to death...like to get on with the business of living, and if, in that endeavor...I find some fun things to do.....I do them. Yup... dolls and bears.... and.... so much other interesting and fun stuff that I guess I just don't have time or inclination to ponder deep and disturbing things.... things like why is making dolls not considered art............lol..........

Okay...Laundry and Dusting are calling my name.....


...... same day...hours later............

Hahahahha... I was talking to my sweetie about the doll artist thingy... and he looked me straight in the eye and said... "Well, I think you are a doll artist"....... oh, no.... now I am in a total quandary ..hahahhah.......

still learning... on so many fronts.....

Well, if there is a way to put pictures at the bottom or in between paragraphs... will somebody please help? I can't figure it out and I don't always want them just at the top or the side now do I?


I am taking another on-line doll making class from Judy Skeel ..it is called The Harpy. She is a mythological creature; half woman, half bird.

My first few attempts at a head that is the right "stuffed-ness" for needle sculpting was a dismal failure. You know the scenario....too soft, too hard...finally ... well, okay, it was not quite "just right", but good enough for a first one. By that time I had three heads on the go. My husband dropped the first one from height onto the table and it was a good thud... so a good laugh. Especially since Judy's description was..."it should be somewhat like a hard boiled egg out of the shell". Hmm.... I recall that his words were something like..."this is more like the extra hard boiled egg still in the shell and somebody painted it with about 19 coats of lacquer". Thanks sweetie...

Then I managed to do the needle sculpting; and on with many hours of applying a skin of 100% cotton...not an easy task if you know how little stretch there is in that stuff! There were a lot of Judy's favourite.... French words!! to be totally honest.... the air was blue! And, there was I, almost ready to give up and make a whole new head for her body 'cuz I thought head number 3 was just never going to work. But persevere I did; I am happy to report that is one of my good qualities. Then, on with some painting, forming lips with a special technique... making her look so good I probably will have to use this technique again.

The blue hair is just plopped on for a photo op...but, hey!...I kinda like it.......she may end up a Blue Harpy. It makes her eyes look so vivid.

Today is a day for organizing things after a hectic weekend and at least a full week of not looking at dust etc. Perhaps tomorrow I can get a start on her again...although now, I am thinking about making enough bears for the Bear Fair here in August. It is sooooo true about there not being enough hours....... or days..or weeks.....

Oh, and the other thing about this blogosphere learning curve? First thing I did when I got on here today was blow away my comments... I viewed what was referred to as comments... there was nothing to see..so I happily deleted that post thinking I was so clever for keeping my posting box tidy! Arrrrggghhhh!!! looked back at my main blog page... ....the comments wiped out! I did not mean to do that Judi! I was excited to have a comment on my page! Darn it!!!