League Studio

My friend and neighbor Martha League Calhoun is a working artist in Spicewood, TX. Her work includes very large water scenes and abstracts like the one above. Recently, she kindly asked me to display some of my dolls at her place. I brought over a ton of stuff and she managed to find space in her tiny studio at the corner of Bee creek and Highway 71 west of Austin, TX.

I have been long away from the days when I made dolls; it's been almost two years! Some days I almost hope for a small disaster to take them all from me because I can't seem to get rid of them in an elegant way. Art that strangles and haunts is not good anymore.

I can learn a lot from Martha. Here is Martha's style: she has a deep discount sale that says "This is the way it is; if I can't move this stuff I can't make more art...and art is all I do. Please take it off my hands so I can create." I'm paraphrasing; if you want to see what she says about it, visit Martha's website.

I love Martha's style. She is not afraid to abandon what she has done before and try new things. And more importantly she is easy-going about letting go of her work and forge ahead into a new creative stage in her life.

Stick Doll Play Day

Some members of the Austin Fiber Artists got together yesterday to play with fabric. We try to do this every other month or so. Yesterday I got to plan our play day, so of course I chose to make a stick doll. Yesterday was interesting because I've always wondered if it would be fun to teach doll making. Turns out it was! And the results were fabulous, as you can see!

I posted more play day pictures on flicker under stick dolls. Check them out here, if you like.

I learned a lot, too:

About teaching:
1. People really appreciate a supply list so that they can bring their own stuff.
2. Needle sculpting is not as "intuitive" as I thought. I need to come up with an established formula for sculpting and/or provide a stuffed ball to practice on.
3. Everyone comes to a project with different expectations and ideas. (You'd think that would have been obvious to me!)
4. Some people want to buy supplies they use and are introduced to in a class, especially supplies they haven't used in the past, or those commonly used in their particular area of expertise. For example some fabric dyers wanted hemostats, and one doll maker wanted practically every tool I had brought.
5. If we'd have had 8 hours we could have done all the embellishing we needed to finish our dolls.

About doll making:
1. Eyes:
a. Close-set eyes make the nose bunchy when you needle sculpt it. Allow for extra space between the eyes.
b. To lessen the bulgy effect of the eyes, do not run the same thread through the eye and the eye socket. This will also help with directing the eye placement so the doll is not cross-eyed or wall-eyed.
c. Painted eyelashes look great with my eye beads (thanks, Diane!)
2. I'm inspired to try some different noses that the ones I usually make. A lot of people didn't like their noses, but I loved all the new shapes I saw!
3. Mary brought a pre-dyed green piece of Rayon and Jean brought a pre-dyed orange piece of bamboo to use. Their dolls turned out wonderful...I must try different materials and colors!

Anyway, the above stuff is meaningless to most people, so sorry, but I'm just really excited to try some new things. I thought I was tired when I left the play day, but I ended up going home and playing some more with my doll. I repositioned the eyelids and finished embellishing her. I thought it was going to be a guy doll, but no! As soon as I started painting the face I saw this very cute bookish lady peering out. I'll post her picture later on.

The ladies who came out to play were wonderful, all. Helpful with ideas, friendly, focused, and eager to make something new. They were all cool with the doll they made. I think they are all fabulous -- and their dolls, too.

It's all good. We increased the doll population on the planet in six short hours.

Purses Out and About

I recently discovered Moxie and the Compound, a boutique at 909 East Mary in Austin. I stopped in a couple of weeks ago to talk to owner Kayci Wheatley, but she was busy playing hostess for the Today show and a story on (I think she said) "grepsters", a word I'd never heard before, but a concept with which I'm intimately familiar. Apparently there is a need for a word describing parents who stayed cool after they had kids -- you know who you are. So I came back the next day and she picked some of my petal bags, messengers and little boy pouches for the store while Katie, Willie and Henry looked around at all the great stuff in there. It's a colorful, fun place where you can get locally designed and handmade things like pretty shoes and aprons to silly diaper bags and tee shirts. And of course now my bags! It's family friendly and there's a good coffee shop next door, too.