Day Three

His body is pretty much there. I added some to his heels, so he leans forward and not on his tail. I thought leaning on his tail would be cheating! In the process of cleaning out the room, I found this fur hat, made of small strips of fur. I'm going to cannibalize it for him! Now, I have to look around for fabrics for his clothes.

Time to Get Organized!!

This is the room that is supposedly the guest/craft room! Right now, it's a deadly room of crap!! As the rest of the house has been getting organized, this room has been a Repository of Random Stuff. I have crafty crap collected over years and stuff that I bought recently, but never did anything with. I tend to like to work at my kitchen table, but it's important to get this organized, so I don't have to spend 20 minutes finding something when I need it! This is my task today: start pushing stuff around, so it makes some sense!

The doll will get his head on today and will finish drying. After this crap is organized, I can start dressing and painting him, hopefully, this weekend! 

Day Two

Day two and the paper mache has dried enough to be more stable, but is still somewhat plastic. Time to put the parts together. It makes it more difficult to costume, but I am a stickler for gesture! I told my friend Stacie yesterday my dolls are NOT poseable, only I said it in a German accent! "You vould not repose Michelangelo's David! You vill not pose my dolls!" Not that I am Michelangelo, or even close, but you get the idea.

One of my friends, after seeing pictures has said it was a lion, and I agree. I love how when something clicks in place, all the other options are closed and the creative path has veered and a destination is defining itself. Other than the fact that it will be wearing a vest and maybe a tailcoat and be holding a walking stick, a lot is still up in the air. I told Stacie, I don't usually have a complete idea of what something is going to look like when I start. I enjoy meandering and discovering!

Stacie Made Me Do It

It all started with Stacie wanting to come over and have a craft day at my house. I had no idea what I would work on. I had a couple projects in the works, but nothing had really taken off. I haven't made a doll in years, yet, when we sat down to work, that's what I started with! I made the face first, just playing with the features and seeing what would happen. I had thought to make a monster because I had a big styrofoam ball to make the body with. Somehow, it took on cat-like features, having to do with something Stacie was saying. Then hands and toes that needed claws. The feet will have spats, I know that much! Like fingerless gloves, only on the feet. I usually do a wire armature, then pad it our with newspaper, then instant paper mache and sometimes batting. This time, I'm using a styrofoam ball for the body, but know the position of the body needs to be stable, or it will fall over. It has a tail, but I don't want to rely on it for stability. So here it goes! Let's see where this takes me! I found out how much I miss this kind of work. It's like storytelling and sculpture and costuming all in one. I never had a lot of success selling my work, but don't want to use that as an excuse not to do it, anymore!

Welcome to the Pond!

A few decades ago (just about three, actually), while sleeping on the cold hard floor of a Connecticut condo and attending graduate school in costume design, I had this dream. In the dream, a woman named Flora ran a diner called Flora's Pond. She served up primordial soup from a spot in the Earth where it hadn't completely hardened. When people were in need of recharging their batteries, or completely bereft of hope, they went to Flora's Pond to get a steaming bowl and a sympathetic nod.

My life has experienced twists and turns, but this dream has never left me. I've interpreted it many years, depending on my current worldview, but Flora and her pond exist beyond and explanation I may have for them. I hope you will enjoy my journey as I explore my creative whims and fancies.

In what I call my "real world," I am a reading teacher, but my soul is truly in this work.