March BJP

Whew it is the last day of the month & I made the deadline. Yeah! So after you've looked at the above picture, I'm sure you are scratching your head and wondering why did Dot put cut up Barbie dolls on her leaf. Well....I've decided that March is the month I'm dedicating to the wonderful women artist in my life. I'd like to especially call out to all my sister of the Guilded Lilies Doll Making Guild from Columbus Ohio and to all my new friend at Beaded Art Dolls on Yahoo Groups. Each of them have inspired me to step off my comfort box and expand my skills beyond what I thought was possible. Kudos to all of those women in my life.

Now, to explain what this crazy Barbie encrusted yellow beaded frenzy means to me. The cut up Barbies are to remind me of the weekend spent in Hocking Hills with my Lily Sisters. I volunteered to teach an Altered Barbie class for our annual Retreat. I had boxes of Barbies, paints, clays, this & that all in my car ready to head out in Friday morning. As soon as I opened my garage door at 10 am, there was already an inch of snow on the ground. This was to be the first of a record snow fall for Central Ohio. The ending amount was 20.4 inches. But back to my story. I was going to pick up Cyndy & then Linda called & needed a way to go as she was afraid to drive in the almost blizzard conditions by herself. So after a little bit of creative packing, we got everything including all the food into Ellie. By the time we got to Crocket's Run in Hocking Hills, there was already 6 inches on the ground. We got safely into the lodge & waited while others managed to make it down. Whenever the Lilies get together it is a wild ride of fun. I've never met women from all different backgrounds that instantly became my friends and more. Saturday morning, it was still snowing & there was a level 3 snow emergency for the county we were in (like we'd leave anyway, but we did worry we'd run out of wine). So amid all the beautiful snow falling outside the lodge nestling into the forest outside our windows, we were all warm and glowing with the Muse of Creativity. We all shared supplies, did surgery on Barbies, painted, sculpted, ate, drank, laughed, did a quick dip in the hot tub, laughed more, told sad stories, ate more, sewed, laughed, laughed and laughed. It was one of the best weekends I'd had in a long time. To be together with like minded women without any criticism or worries, and to just play. I'll always remember our weekend of record snow, Barbies, and the warmth of friendship.

The yellow is for my friends all at BAD Yahoo Group. We were trying to find another challenge to start in April. The moderators decided to do a puzzle piece doll challenge and to give people a color to work with. Very few people wanted to do yellow & though I had misgivings, I chose yellow to make myself work at it. Though the challenge didn't start until April 1st, I got the bug to get started. I had a puzzle of Ernie & Burt from Sesame Street which was the perfect size for the challenge (5-6 inches) and flat, flat, flat! I got out the few yellow beads I'd gotten from swaps over on the Delphi Forum groups I belong to as I had never bought yellow ever. I started to work on Marigold. I LOVE IT! To further challenge myself, & because of a new book coming out next month called Flatwork, I decided to really make it flat. So Marigold became my first totally flat puzzle piece doll all done in Yellow. BUT...I couldn't stop! I made another one, and another one all in yellow. Then I realized that the yellow which at first really turned me off, made my fingers feel so warm. The yellow was coursing through my body making me glow inside. I felt bliss. It was the first time in months that I felt so good. I realized then that it wasn't just the color of yellow that was soothing my spirit, but the intoxicating drug of friendship with the women on BAD who share their art, their lives, and their hearts with each other.

So there. Whew...all out. March is dedicated to all the women artist that I've been blessed to have met and communed with

dot

Yellow Puzzle piece dolls.

I am insane! Yes, I admit it here. I've got so many other things to work on, but I just can't help myself with making these adorable puzzle piece dolls. We have a challenge on BAD which is not suppose to start until April 1st, but here I am already with three under my belt. My challenge was to use yellow. No problem...a trip to Byzantium and there you go. Yellow taking over my life! But, this has been another challenge for me too.

I met Nicolle Campanella on another Yahoo Group & she was looking for entries for a new book she was doing called Flatwork. I inquired, but since a lot of my work is not flat, I didn't think she'd be interested in my work. Well, she was & she wants to add a couple of my dolls to her book. So I got to looking at the other examples of work that are going to be in her new book,and thought I needed to work on trying to make my bead embroidery flat or traditional. I was taught this by Rena Denison at Bzyantium, but never really got much into now. Well, now I'm hooked. Thank you Nicolle for making me rethink my beading and coming up with some fun projects. Now, I just can't help myself. I promised the gals on bad that I'm finished with doing yellow, but I still have 15 more puzzle pieces! I'm serious...I can't help myself.

Please view my new dolls for Spring....Marigold, Jonquil, and Daffodil.

Beaded Art Dolls

I love my group of ladies on Beaded Art Dolls. They all just challenge me to do things I wouldn't even dream of. We just finished up a challenge called Arsenic & Old Lace. We had to use a piece of vintage lace on our doll forms. I had plenty to chose from as I hit a big score last year at an antique shop digging through baskets of sewing stuff. I originally called this doll DandyLion & was going to have her flying down from a tree branch to cover up a group of Podlings on the ground, but I just could not get the doll to hang right, so I decided to attach her to the tree. Instantly, I knew that was what she was suppose to be. She's the tree branch reaching to the Sun. Then I began to look at the rest of the banana holder converted to a tree trying to squint & see what it wanted to be. I looked at the worktable (covered as usual) & found the face of Allison's Marano's Nutmeg doll. PERFECT! This will be the face on the main trunk of the tree. Then I decided instead of hurrying to get everything done by the 3/20 cut off for the A&OL challenge, to take my time & develop this project. So I'm thinking of using this as the base for Land Of Odds's Earth Mother challenge due next year. Plenty of time! I'm thinking of beaded dancing leaves hanging from the tree or maybe dancing on a mirrored pond. Once again, plenty of time to work on this.

Pay it Forward

The girls at All About Beads have been posting about Pay it Forward. I've piggybacked from Jen's blog & have decided to do this also. I'm not sure what I could make to send to such talented beaders, but I'll give it a try.

Here are the rules:

"So here are the rules: I will send a handmade beaded gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange (and email me their mailing address and favorite color), and who make the same pledge on their own blogs. I don't know what the gift will be, but it will be beaded, and you will receive it within 1 year, I promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward, by posting a pay it forward on your own blog."

Ugly dolls

I've got to hurry & get out of here for a meeting tonight at work. Lovely, lovely, lovely meeting before I put in my 10 hours so my night will be a total of 14 hours...yuck! Hope I can get off early or else they WILL be paying me overtime. But...over on Beaded Art Dolls (BAD), we've had two new members. One member was telling us how there were so many beautiful dolls. I had to laugh. I love beautiful & pretty, but seems that I'm torn to the ugly & weird right now. So I pulled up one of my Alphabet Monsters which I'm working on for DC&C 4th of July challenge. This doll is named Albert...one of my first. As my on going project, he is one of my Dumpster Dollz or thrift store "rescues". This is a scan, so he doesn't look that great...squished nose, cut off at the legs. But I wanted the gals over at BAD to see that Ugly is well...not just ugly.

Poll for BJP

In our year group called Bead Journal Project, Robin wrote & asked folks if they were interested in continuing this for another year. She had a poll to check out the interest. I thought about this for about an hour trying to decide if this was something I really wanted to commit to again. Here's the post that I wrote to BJP last week. I've reread this & I still feel strongly about it. Probably even more so as today I got the kit for the Pink Gala that I'm going to attend with my best friend Cynthia, my local friend Cyndy, and my new friend Pam. The patterns are lovely, but they are all BIG and so pretty. I just don't want to do pretty dolls right now, so after talking with Cyndy on the phone (who was working at WORK! Ewwwww), I've decide to make these dolls a part of myself. I'm going to learn the techniques being taught, but I want them to look like ME. Sorry to digress. Here's a copy of my post to BJP:

I have to vote yes. Even though I've found myself falling behind at times,this project has always been working its way into my subconscious wanting to make me expand. I've looked through the pieces I've done so far & they just seem to chronicle the month's passage by using events. Then February took me totally by surprise as it didn't have anything to do with Valentine's Day or Mardi Gras which I originally planned, but it was about something & someone that I had been thinking about for while. Emotions poured through my needle & onto the surface. I finished it all in one sitting. I was stunned that my fingers moved so fast, but the work needed to be completed. I was drained when done, but very pleased. Now I think I've figured out that I want the rest of my leaves to be more me & not just a name on the calendar. I want to go on, challenging myself with small projects every month so I voted yes to continue. I think I'll pick some other form as the center of my yearly challenge, but I want to keep doing this even if no one else wishes to go on. I've found the road, and it looks very enticing with lots of twist, turns and new discoveries. I shall not run down the pebble strewn road, but meander looking down, looking up, and always touching hands with my friends who walk with me.

SAD

I just read on my new friend' blog (HI PAM) that she is suffering from SAD. That happens when you live someplace where the Winters are gray & cold. It has been very cold, very snowy, and very gray here in Central Ohio. I think that is probably why I've found myself not completing anything. I have about 6 unfinished projects down in the Art Cave waiting for me to complete them. Most are done except being mounted & one just needs for me to put all the pieces together. But I just can't make myself do it. I'm really bad at completion. Reminds me of all the years I use to do cross stitch. I would buy a new pattern, the bigger the better. And work like mad on it, blending the colors, adding metallic threads to give it a wow factor, then as I'd get down to the last 100 "x"s I'd slow down & drag the finish. I actually once caught myself crying because I was finishing. Silly me! There was always another pattern I wanted to sew. I guess I'm not being like this with my beading projects. I have deadlines for many of these pieces, but I'll probably let them sit until the very end. So I've decided to shake myself out of this slump & get some of these UFOs off my workbench & completed. Hopefully, I'll get them done in this month of March. Maybe keeping busy will keep my mind from thinking about how awful it is outside. But then Spring is in only 3 more weeks. Let's hope it is Sunny & Bright & WARM!!!!!!