I've owed this doll in a swap for a few weeks. The theme was announced as "art doll" with instructions to "embellish, embellish, embellish" on any chosen base--not exactly my definition, but I can run with it.
My partner asked for "winter" colors, and I had an idea & even assembled materials, but the doll refused to cooperate--don't you hate it when that happens?
Then Seth was in the hospital with pneumonia, which of course made everything else secondary--he's home now, and recovering, but we're staying pretty quiet.
Which brings me to my birthday. 65 years ago, at about 3am, I entered this lifetime. It's been an interesting and often enjoyable one, which I hope will continue for quite some time. As is often my practice, I set a few goals: by summer I want to have the garage, a big part of the reason we bought the house, turned back from storage to usable workspace--I've had an industrial serger out there for over 5 years and never been able to use it because it's inaccessible! Likewise a folding sewing table, which is now coming in for the winter. And my big kiln is just buried! So you can see why this makes sense.
After that, we need to decide whether to keep living here or rent or sell and move somewhere with public transit and/or warmer and possibly even cheaper--if we decide to do that, I'd like to be out by my next birthday.
But what I'm giving myself as a birthday present is permission to take time off from my stores and everything else & do something creative. It may not be dramatic--I have a couple of very minor projects waiting--but I started with this swap doll and know that the more I create the more ideas I'll have--not to mention the happier & less restless I'll be.
The doll is made of a piece of a recycled sweater with great beading--I'd also thought about a star doll, so it's kind of that too, but more a snowflake. The legs are a bit of some fabulous beaded trim I bought from somewhere in Eastern Europe or possibly Turkiye. The head is one of my own polyclay mixes made in a mold, then rubbed across a pearly ink pad, and the hands are from a lot of Tierra Cast pieces I recently bought for my store. My original plan was to wire or sew up the bottom of the sweater piece, but then I decided I liked its puppet-like quality, as well as its ability to de-institutionalize a cough-syrup bottle , or top off a glue bottle (or slide onto a branch, or......) so I left it open. Mary, the recipient, is free to change that, of course. Anyway, here are a few pics--I think it's both wintry and cheerful.
My partner asked for "winter" colors, and I had an idea & even assembled materials, but the doll refused to cooperate--don't you hate it when that happens?
Then Seth was in the hospital with pneumonia, which of course made everything else secondary--he's home now, and recovering, but we're staying pretty quiet.
Which brings me to my birthday. 65 years ago, at about 3am, I entered this lifetime. It's been an interesting and often enjoyable one, which I hope will continue for quite some time. As is often my practice, I set a few goals: by summer I want to have the garage, a big part of the reason we bought the house, turned back from storage to usable workspace--I've had an industrial serger out there for over 5 years and never been able to use it because it's inaccessible! Likewise a folding sewing table, which is now coming in for the winter. And my big kiln is just buried! So you can see why this makes sense.
After that, we need to decide whether to keep living here or rent or sell and move somewhere with public transit and/or warmer and possibly even cheaper--if we decide to do that, I'd like to be out by my next birthday.
But what I'm giving myself as a birthday present is permission to take time off from my stores and everything else & do something creative. It may not be dramatic--I have a couple of very minor projects waiting--but I started with this swap doll and know that the more I create the more ideas I'll have--not to mention the happier & less restless I'll be.
The doll is made of a piece of a recycled sweater with great beading--I'd also thought about a star doll, so it's kind of that too, but more a snowflake. The legs are a bit of some fabulous beaded trim I bought from somewhere in Eastern Europe or possibly Turkiye. The head is one of my own polyclay mixes made in a mold, then rubbed across a pearly ink pad, and the hands are from a lot of Tierra Cast pieces I recently bought for my store. My original plan was to wire or sew up the bottom of the sweater piece, but then I decided I liked its puppet-like quality, as well as its ability to de-institutionalize a cough-syrup bottle , or top off a glue bottle (or slide onto a branch, or......) so I left it open. Mary, the recipient, is free to change that, of course. Anyway, here are a few pics--I think it's both wintry and cheerful.
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