Pink Swimmer

Pat from Doll Crafter & Costuming is just spoiling me rotten! I just got my new issue & in the gallery is my Pink Swimmer that I submitted. I made her last year & now that I look some of the beading just doesn't please my eye, but I still do love this wee little doll.

Tiki Goddess

Along with beading like mad! I've also been playing around with mixed media doll making and decided to take a plunge into working with Apoxie Sculpt. I took a class back in May with Jean Bernard, and never got a real chance to sit with the stuff & get mess. Well, I did just that. I took a fashion doll (my niece told me this was Ariel) that I bought at the thrift store. All those poor sad unloved/unwanted dolls sitting on the shelf made me so sad so I bought 6 of them. I got the head at the Dollar Store. After playing around, getting paint every where & getting my husband to help me figure out how to mount the doll onto a stand, I finally came up with this final doll. I'm going to send slides of her to Art Doll Quarterly for their Altered Fashion Doll challenge. Keep my fingers crossed that they like her & want to print a picture of my funky Goddess.

June and July Bead Journal project

Boy, I'm really slow at getting my two bead journal projects up on this blog. I've been busy trying to get my Bead International pieces done before the deadline & YIPEEEE...they are done. Also working on other projects. I feel like I'm an acrobat juggling all these different projects while working a full time job. But I am WOMAN...I am TIRED. LOL!

Okay, I came up with my big game plan for the year. What I am going to do is to make each month of the Bead Journal project s leaf using the same leaf shape but they will be in different positions as I'm going to mount each of the leaves on a tree wall hanging with three months being on each branch. June/July/August are green leaves. September/October/November will be brown leaves. December/January/February will be white leaves. And March/April/May will be probably pink leaves. I want to follow the change of seasons here in Ohio. Each individual leaf will be something important that has happened to me in that month.

As you see in June, it was my vacation. We went out to South Dakota & Wyoming. The plains were in bloom and so green. Their drought was broken & I got to witness the plains green and vibrant with flowers. I fell in love with the swaying grasses and the blue straw type flowers growing everywhere. July is Ohio State Fair time! Wheeeeee...nothing like a big corn dog/elephant ear & lemon shake to go with the hubbub of the Fair. But I digressed a little here, because what July means to me is the memory of going to see the circus on July 4th at the Rose Bowl when growing up in Los Angeles. After the circus, they would have such a display of fireworks that to this day I can still see the colors. So I chose a Clown's face that I got from a friend, Emily Eckel & surrounded him with blooming colors of red white & blue to celebrate our country's birthday.

Spam Guard

Boy, I'm a horrible blogger. Here I haven't written a thing since I got back from vacation. It was fun. Made it all the way out to Wyoming's Devil's Tower. Awesome place! Anyway, since this is about Beading for a Cure, I thought I'd share a couple things. First off, Beading for a Cure is a wonderful group of women who do this all for the love of a long departed friend who died from Colo-Rectal Cancer. They all decided to get together to raise money for cancer research in her name. Being beaders, they decided that what better way to honor their friend's memory, than to have a challenge & auction. This is my second year with the group. I never knew Laney, but I do know people who battle colon cancer and was ready to stand up & add my name onto the list. We pay & receive a kit of beads. We have to use at least one of each bead to the project & am allowed to add one extra type of bead of our own choice. I decided to do a doll, but needed more to cover the larger area than size 11s so I asked permission from the BFAC board & was allowed to also use sequins.

Now back to my vacation & BFAC. I can't go anywhere without taking a beading project. Yes, even when camping. So there we were in the camp grounds at Devil's Tower. It was hot & there was no shade, so we decided to go to a very nice park at the base of the Monument which is near where the largest population of prairie dogs live. I was sitting at a park table with all my beads surrounding me working on Spam Guard's body. Several women came over to see what I was doing. I tried to explain the concept to them, but all I heard was..."those colors don't match". Yeah really...I already knew that. So I told them to wait & I'd show them what he'd look like with his head attached. Still got the comment "still doesn't match". So I was very disenchanted with this doll. I put him aside, for the rest of the trip & worked on my MoonMan instead which the same women the next day exclaimed he was "just gorgeous". Poor Spam Guard! I did finish him & with each pull of the thread as I attached his helmet, I began to like him more & more. I brought him home almost finished & he sat on the top of my eMac doing the duty that I gave to him (he's not too good at it, but I still like him). Every day I'd look up & see my wee warrior smiling down on me & began to like him more & more. Finally the day came where I had to send him off to AJ. He's gone. I miss him. So what am I doing to get over my grief...I'm making another Spam Guard just for me & oh yes, this new one does have colors that match.

Getting ready for Vacation

Well here it is getting twilight outside, and my car is already packed for vacation. We are heading for South Dakota. We are going camping for 10 days. Can't wait as we haven't been on vacation together for over 3 years. I'm sure Chris will be waking me up before the crack of dawn to get ready to go. He's so excited. The dogs won't be happy. They like to sleep in on the weekends. Poor poochies. My niece, Amanda, is going to be staying here when we are gone watching the house and the Scottish hoard. I hate to tell her that the three have finally after all these years learned to hunt as a team. In the past three days, they've caught two adult rabbits & tonight I stopped them from adding a squirrel notch to their kill belts. It is their nature, but still I hate to see them kill small animals.

I've got my projects all packed up. I'm taking my doll for the NIADA challenge with me. Can't show him yet, as he's not completed enough. Also taking my Beading for a Cure doll. Darnit! I forgot to take a picture of the kit we got to work with. Not my favorite colors, but I have finally come up with something fun. I even did my own original doll pattern for it. Also got a bag for the Guilded Lilies Round Robin that I must finish before I get back so it can go on to Liz for her to work on it.

Had a bunch of small things to do tonight also. Got my application for the Ohio State Fair filled out & ready to mail. The deadline for that is the 20th. Also took some pictures of my Scottie dog band for Linda Bassett. Linda is going to a Scottish Terrier antique show down in Cincinnati. She told me it is her 11th year. We met each other that long ago. I stopped going when Fiona had her litter of puppies, and things just always seem to happen so I don't get to attend anymore, but miss all those guys from Wee Scots. Linda is using the pictures for some presentation. She was telling me what she was doing & it sounds like everyone in Cincinnati is going to be laughing large!

I also submitted another doll piece to Doll Crafter's and Costuming. It is for the Fall Gallery titled Fearful Fall Fun. I sent in a picture of my Dead Pirates. They were the villain challenge for Guilded Lilies last September. They heads are ones I found at Archie McPhee when I was out in Seattle visiting my friend Cynthia & going to ArtFiberFest. I saw those pencil topper pirate heads & fell in love with them. I had to have them (wish I bought more now), naturally they became funky dolls. I might work some more of this piece for the Whimsical Beads challenge, but might not. I have no idea what I'll be doing once I get back. But I DO KNOW that I must start my Bead Journal project. Got some ideas...finally.

take care & see you all in two weeks.

dot

Whew....

This is going to be one busy summer for me. Along with doing the 12 month beaded journal project proposed by Robin Atkins, I'm also going to be working on three pieces for juried shows, a challenge doll for NIADA, and a challenge for Beading For A Cure. http://www.beadingforacure.org/

Now the later has caused me some discomfort indeed. We got the kit which is the challenge part, and none of the colors even spoke to me. Along with that there was a lamp work bead that threw me totally. I usually don't use lamp works in any of my work, so to even contemplate how to incorporate it into a doll design, put me far behind on the schedule. At first, I thought "why not just do a bracelet with the lamp work as a focal bead?". But that really isn't a challenge to me is it? I feel very comfortable doing beaded bracelets and to just do a bracelet wouldn't make me "grow" in my beading and doll making skills. So finally, two days ago at work I came up with an idea that has been growing inside my head until finally last night, I sat at my desk in the Art Cave picked up needle, thread and felt & began. I also looked in my bag of thrift store throw aways & found the perfect head for the doll I'm working on. Oh yes, naturally it is going to be a doll. Then I got out my hoard of sequins because I got permission from the board to use sequins, and I chose for my extra bead type to be added. I'll get a picture of all of this later on & post. It looks pretty chaotic for now, but I've got it all worked on inside the noggin. I've even got a name for this piece...SpamGuard! So, I'm pushing myself to get this, and my NIADA doll done by July. I'm wanting to have an NIADA artist critique SpamGuard as this is my second orginal doll design. My fingers will be smokin'! but my brain will be coolin' off.

Meanwhile I've settled on the form for my Bead Journal. It is a secret until September!

Is it Summer???

Yeppers, it is HOT. I mean turn the air conditioner on hot! But we are NOT letting AEP get a bite out of our wallets yet. So I've been spending alot of time down in the Art Cave playing. I spent all day yesterday working on the ATCs for a swap I'm in. All I got left to do is to put the rivets in them & sent them off to Tracie. I'm also working on my NIADA challenge piece. NIADA is going to be in Detroit this year. Only a three hour drive, so I'm going with my friends Linda Apple & Cyndy Sieving. Also a couple other Columbus doll makers will be there, Judy Skeel & Inez Bausch. Hope to run into them & have a few laughs. I've heard that this is the most drool worthy thing there is when it comes to doll making. I'm looking forward to getting to see the best of the best in person & get my Muse sparked with ideas. I'm not taking any classes, as I've got to get back to work, but I'm always open for some inspiration. Linda talked me into doing the Challenge for NIADA. The theme is Over the Moon. Naturally, I'm making a beaded doll. I'm doing a Moon Man, so we'll see if I can get it done in time. Between NIADA in July & now is our vacation. We'll be going to South Dakota for 10 days.

Guess I should mention my dogs. I love Scottish Terriers. I guess I should say that is how I got into beading. I met Cynthia through a Scottish Terrier e-list & be became friends. She is the main culprit in my beading obsession. I blame her every single day! I know her ears are BURNING! But if I wouldn't have fallen in love back in 1989 with a sweet little Scottie dog I named FalaPink, who knows what I would be doing now. So my FalaPink is the one who got me on this course in my life & made me realize I'm an artist. Thank you my sweet puppy boy who is waiting at the steps of the Rainbow Bridge with our sweetie wheatie SkyeBlue. Love you guys every single day.