Finding My Way

I have spent hours on-line looking at beautiful, wonderful paperclay figures.  Some of them abstract, some of them fine sculpture.  Some of them whimsical, some serious and some downright sad.  I have tempted myself with complicated images.

In between looking and dreaming there was the actual working time with the clay.  I have read and heard people rave about paperclay -- they were all correct.  Its wonderful stuff.  If even I, a  total novice, can figure out how to actually get the clay to stay in place - add features - manage the finish painting then it has got to be a 'hands' friendly product.

As I followed my learning curve (without actually getting seasick), I realized that I had to let go of preconceived ideas.  Those fantasy creatures with perfect noses and haunting eyes were probably not for me.  It was better that I just covered the styrofoam and then let things happen as they happened.

Along the way I began to recognize the look that came most naturally to me.  A somewhat primitive look - a simple look - a look that might tell a story.  Why not try to recreate those aims using clay?  Let's see what happens.

I'm sure there will be some changes as I go along - as I learn more, as I learn to control the clay better, as I venture out into the unknown. But for now - I'm happy, feeling quite elated that new little people are beginning to populate my studio.

"A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike.  And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us." - John Steinbeck

"Taking Flight"

Here I am, taking flight!!!  It seems that this year is turning into 'the year of flight' for me!  First my punchneedle bird series (still ongoing) and now an art doll with wings.  I love the idea that I can 'fly' anytime I want to - I just have to grab my needle and thread and take off.  I love the ideas that keep flitting into (and out of) my brain.  What if I do this or what if I do that?

To get technical, "Taking Flight" has a fabric base which I overstitched.  She is covered in a variety of embroidery stitches.  I hemmed and hawed over what I would do with her wings when I realized that the feather stitch would be oh so apropos!  However they seemed to be grounding me because it took so very long to stitch and overstitch all of these feather stitches.  And no, I didn't count them *smile*.

I'm excited about the possibilities for more 'abstract' body patterns and I'm sure you'll see more of them flying out of my studio as the months pass by - although not all of them will have wings.

"Flying dreams mean that you're doing the right thing with your life". - Doug Coupland

Work Awaiting...

This is what I like to see -- stitching work waiting for my hands to take it up and create something new.  I have filled to the brim the small table in my studio.  There are two punchneedle projects (a bird and a picture); there are two art dolls (one all ready for embellishing, the other languishing upon a pile of fabric that will one day become her body). 

I have finally come to a point in my life where seeing all of this sitting here doesn't bother me.  I don't feel compelled to get busy and 'clean off that table'.  This is a big break through for me.  Now those piles of fabric and thread and floss and fibers are gifts waiting to be opened and they are all for ME!! 

One day soon I will want to add another pile to the table but that will mean that I have turned one stack of goodies into a finished piece.  I'm so thankful for this small space filled to the brim with 'pieces to be'!

"We can only be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures". - Thornton Wilder

"The Bell Ringer"

I'm welcoming the new year with art doll "The Bell Ringer".  To paraphrase an old rhyme 'with bells on her fingers and bells on her toes - she shall have music wherever she goes'.  These warm colors boosted my spirit during the snowy, grey/white January that we've been having.  It was almost like a warm sunset sitting on my work table as I stitched away on her.

She ended up with 229 French Knots -- no, I wasn't counting as I went, nor was I trying to beat a record.  It just dawned on me as I finished the last one - 'wonder how many French knots I've done'.  So of course I had to count them.

Working on art dolls requires constant movement going from one type of stitch to another and I like the energy it involves.  Not much quiet meditation when working on such a small item - because you no sooner get involved in one stitch when that area is finished and its time to move onto the next.  I love trying out various stitches and looking for fibers to add to the surface.

"Ring the bells that still can ring.

Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in". -
Leonard Cohen

Inspired Dolls

Have you ever seen Akira Blount's figures? Here is one of my favorites titled “The Sky Isn’t Falling Chicken Little”. Akira is an artist living and working in Tennessee but she often exhibits her work here in western North Carolina and I have seen many of her pieces at Ariel Gallery in Asheville.  Recently a friend and I visited Ariel Gallery and happened to meet Akira's husband Larry.  Akira and her husband Larry work together to create these absolutely lovely pieces. What a fun visit we had.  Larry talked to us about Akira's attention to detail.  She is not adverse to taking something apart, many times, to get it 'just right' and it truly shows.  You could look at her figures over and over again, each time catching sight of a detail that you might have missed before.

Here are some of the items she uses in her work – cloth, wood, metal, clay, natural materials, found objects and here are some of the techniques she uses – needle sculpting, dying, woodturning, carving.


This kind of work humbles me – inspires me – and never ceases to amaze me.

"The energy and beauty of nature has always sustained me". - Akira Blount 

With Needle and Thread

Here I am, with needle and thread taking small stitches on the body of an art doll.  This fabric just called out to be embellished with various stitches. 

Lots of running stitches (of course) some French knots, a feather stitch or two and a variation on the star filling stitch.  I'm using the book "Elegant Stitches" to guide me.  Loving a challenge as I do -- I'm thinking that each upcoming piece shall contain at least one new-to-me embroidery stitch.  Now that should make life interesting.

"Such a small thing -- embroidery -- but what a lesson it has to teach!" - Judith Baker Montano

Balance

It is my goal and desire to have balance in my life.  Not too much of one thing, not too much of another.  Sometimes its hard to keep that balance - life throws something at me that has to be attended to or that absorbs my every waking moment and the balance is thrown off.

I've been working back and forth between art doll creation and punchneedle creation.  I have noticed that the difference between the two tends to bring a balance to my art life that it didn't have before.

Art dolls are a very 'active' enterprise.  Beginning with just an idea - making a pattern (or two or three or four) - figuring out fabric and threads and attachments and stitches can take a lot of energy.  And then the doll is begun and throughout the whole process, down to the last stitch my mind is going and my hands are doing many different things. I may be painting fabric or stitching fabric, I may be attaching trim or finding just the right button but my mind and hands are always on the move. 

Punchneedle seems to be just the opposite.  Once the design is settled on and drawn onto the fabric it is time to fill it in.  In and out goes the punchneedle - the only thing that stops the process is the rethreading of the needle.  I usually work with music in the background.  The other day I was working on punchneedle and there was a particular piece of classical music -- it came to the forefront of my attention because all I had to do was punch in and out.  I even got going 'with' the rhythm of the music.  I realized then that punchneedle is my 'quiet' art while doll making is my 'active' art.

How nice it is to have that balance, to be able to go back and forth between art forms that I love - feeling energized by one and mellowed by the other.  I think, for right now, that the scales are even for me.

"Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate". - Chuang Tzu

Bits and Pieces - Doll-Wise

There are four different doll 'ideas' that I have -- names and themes that I have come up with.  Its time to put my imagination into motion.  The patterns have been created. The fabric has been chosen.  The fibers and some accessories have been stacked.

I'm ready to go.  Thanks for joining me on this fall into winter journey!

“Art is not about thinking something up. It is about the opposite – getting something down. The directions are important here.” - Julia Cameron

On a Roll!

After much trying, pushing, frustration, challenge -- I'm finally 'on a roll'.  I've been going through a lot of frustration as I wanted to create art dolls in a new-to-me fashion.  I had several ideas for faces, but most of them didn't work out (after much expenditure of energy and patience - well maybe not that much patience)!

But I finally settled on a face of my own design using the reverse side of punchneedle.  It took a lot of trial and error (error being the key word here)  but I came out of it full of excitement and anticipation.

I've now created five new art doll patterns - designed them and made my templates and I'm ready to go.  The only problem I'll have now - is deciding which one I want to try first - oh and of course what fabric and what embellishments and how I'll put it all together and...  You get the picture -- because I know that each of you often goes through the same thing.  Sometimes the excitement of trying something new pales when you get right down to the long hours of work its going to take to bring it to life.  But in the end, its worth it.

"By perseverance the snail reached the ark". - Charles Spurgeon

Punching In

The pictures I'm showing you today are not an example of punchneedle the way it is supposed to be!  That's my disclaimer for sharing with you my 'fooling around' with the craft of punchneedle.

I'm a 'doer' - I have little patience with learning something, I always think that I can just charge right in and 'do' it - come out at the end of the session with a finished product and go from there.  So, everytime I learn a new technique I have this 'learning curve' that I have to deal with.

Here are some examples of my punchneedle learning curve (which by the way is still curving in spite of my practice stitches).  My whole thought is to make faces for art dolls using punchneedle.  I have lots of pictures in my mind of finished faces - unfortunately getting them translated through my fingers is taking more time than I had thought it would.  Hmmm, could be I'm a little arrogant to think that I can just pick up a new piece of equipment and automatically have a finished piece before me in a short time!

I've made samples so that I can become familiar with the way the thread and needle work together. Using two threads with a small needle - using three threads with a small needle - using two threads with a medium needle - using three threads with the medium needle and so on.

I'm making progress -- slowly -- and am still excited about the prospects for this craft.  I'm even thinking that I might not stop with doll faces but might eventually make some of the patterns that I've seen in books and on the internet.  But all that will have to wait for me to get proficient enough that I can actually create an art doll face that I'm happy with. 

Patience and perseverance are the two words that I'm following as I wander down this new art journey path.

"He that can have patience can have what he will".  - Benjamin Franklin

Punch Drunk?

Here I go again - learning a new skill (well of course at the beginning one can't actually use the word 'skill').  Earlier this week I took a class in punchneedle.  Once again my local quilt shop Material Things gave me some new inspiration.  I was looking around in there a couple of weeks ago and saw some lovely finished punchneedle pieces - pictures and pins and covered buttons.  I was entranced by this form of looping embroidery floss through fabric and making pictures.  Probably just because its the way my mind works, I immediately thought that it might be a fun way to make future doll faces.  As with rug hooking, in punchneedle the loops are on the front BUT the back of the fabric has the same image only in flat stitching.  Why couldn't I use this for faces? Fortunately 'Material Things' offers punchneedle classes.

My friend Peggy had taken the class before, but wanted a refresher so the two of us set off to see what we could learn.  It was a small class, so we got a lot of one-on-one instruction.  I found out that punchneedle actually began in Egypt long, long ago.  They used the hollow bones of birds as their punch (okay its much improved these days having its very own needle punch contraption).  There are several sizes of needles - fine, small, medium, large which allows the use of different numbers of floss.  The needle has settings from 1 - 12 with 1 being the lowest setting.  I can see that a 12 could be used to make the mane of a lion (or a really wild, bad hair day)!

One of the secrets is to keep your fabric as taut a possible.  Embroidery hoops are used but it was obvious from trial and error that the better (and tighter) the hoop the tighter your fabric will stay as you punch in and out.  Peggy brought small plastic containers for us (thank you Peggy) which we placed underneath the hoop. This means you can punch away without drawing blood by hitting a valuable body parts!  

There are all sorts of in's and out's to this new-to-me craft, but I discovered that I really liked it.  It can be much like beading in that it is very meditative punching in and out of the fabric.  Unlike beading, if you make a mistake it is very easy to correct.  You just pull the offending loops out, smooth the fabric with your needle tip and start over.  For someone new to the craft like me - this was probably the most important information that I learned!!

"He who has imagination without learning has wings but no feet". - Joseph Joubert

"Send in the Clowns"

For some reason I always have ‘trouble’ at the end of a project. I’m not sure what happens to me – but all the doubts (is it good enough – will it work – should have’s and could have’s) come barreling at me. I’m sure some of it relates to the fact that so often I’m doing something I’ve never done before so I’m not even sure if it will work when I start out. Another possibility is that, after spending so many hours working on a piece I begin to wonder if what I’m doing will actually become what I had imagined it to be way back when I started.

My current art doll, “Send in the Clowns” is no different – as I got closer and closer to the finish line several barriers cropped up. Having a mind-picture and creating a new-to-me design can sometimes become a challenge. Creating a hat was one of the last things to do – which I had thought I could do all by hand, as I had done with the rest of the doll. That didn’t work at all – and my sewing machine was dusted off and put to work (albeit short work since this hat is really small). And the first one I made was too big – now big is probably not the correct word to use as we’re talking fraction, smidgen, trifle – but it did mean that it was back to the drawing board and another hat was made.

Next problem to encounter – I had designed this doll with her head cocked to the side – it seemed to fit her mood. So of course the hat was cocked to the side too. My whole plan as a setting for the doll was to hang her inside an open box - but with a cocked head, if I strung the hanging loop from the top of the hat she would be hanging cockeyed. If I strung the loop so that she hung straight – the loop would be out of the side of the hat. Oh my, what to do?

That question still isn’t quite solved – but here she is – all put together but still waiting for a display. From now on, when I have a design problem – or those last minute jitters I’ll just say “Send in the Clowns”.

“Isn’t it rich

Are we a pair?

Me here at last on the ground.

You in mid-air.

Send in the clowns.

Isn’t it bliss

Don’t you approve?

One who keeps tearing around,

One who can’t move.

Where are the clowns?

Send in the clowns.

Just when I’d stopped opening doors,

Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours,

Making my entrance again with my usual flair

Sure of my lines,

No one is there.

Don’t you love farce

My fault I fear.

I thought that you’d want what I want.

Sorry, my dear.

But where are the clowns?

Quick send in the clowns.

Don’t bother they’re here.

Isn’t it rich?

Isn’t it queer?

Losing my timing this late

In my career?

And where are the clowns?

There ought to be clowns.

Well, maybe next year."

Steven Sondheim

Clowning Around

Here are some pictures of a 'work in progress' during these long, hot summer afternoons.  This figure - with its temporary, maybe permanent name "Send in the Clowns" has been worked on, set aside, worked on, then set aside.  I've been in the middle of a piece that I can't reveal until mid-September -- but this art doll keeps drawing my attention back to her and so I've temporarily put aside the 'deadline' piece and have picked her up to have fun playing with the theme, the fabric, the beads and the stitching.

She began as a piece of fabric that I just loved.  Not a color that I would usually use - sort of a rose red - with multicolored dots spaced and black lines squiggled here and there.  To that I added bunches of over-stitching lines in curves and swirls.

Once that was done (for a front and back piece) I carefully hemmed all the edges.  Then came the layout -- that part where, if I can, I layout the bits and pieces that will fill the fabric spaces of each doll.  I have to allow for the embroidery stitches that I want to put here, there and everywhere on the fabric. 

One of my favorite songs, of all time is "Send in the Clowns" -- the music is lovely and the words are so poignant.  They tell the story that each of us has had at one time or another in our lives when we were ready for something but things (life) didn't work out. 

Do you ever have a project that you just want to finish so much -- not to have it done by any means but to enjoy it as being finished?  This piece is that to me -- she speaks to me in ways that I can't exactly express.  Hopefully her message will be clear once she is completed.

Isn't it bliss?

Don't you approve?

One who keeps tearing around,

One who can't move.

Where are the clowns?
- Stephen Sondheim

Am I going in circles?

These days I feel as if I am turning, turning, turning in a huge circle (or is it a U-turn).  I'm not sure -- but here I am back working full time on art dolls.  A long time ago (or does it just seem like such, time being so relative) I made primitive dolls.  For five years or so I stitched hundreds and hundreds of little arms and legs.  I tea and coffee stained so much fabric that my fingers were consistently brown.  I worked the craft show circuit in Georgia and Tennessee, packing up all my little people and taking them to urban shows and country shows.  Each year I made up lots and lots of primitive Santa's to add to my inventory.  I told the story of topsy turvy dolls and shared my vision of dolls played with during the early history of our country.  After awhile I felt as if I were on a production line of stitchery (and indeed I was) so it was time to move on.

At that time I discovered lots of new-to-me art forms.  I learned the use of handmade paper and decoupage and playing with collage.  I discovered the magazine "Somerset Studio" which opened all sorts of doors for my creative mind to peek into.  My whole world changed while I created book art.  The world of craft shows was reduced to those few gallery or art shows that I could find that would take 3D work.  The work was amazingly fun and new discoveries were always right around the corner.

As a result of my book art I discovered the world of beading -- especially encrusted beading.  And as you know I have been completely hooked on that -- laborious as it can be it is such a completely mediative art form.  Slip the beads on the needle, put the needle into fabric, lay the beads down and do this quietly, over and over again as the pattern reveals itself.  Wonderous!!!

While working on various encrusted projects I realized that I could make some figure forms using my newly learned skills.  That was a wonderful discovery for me (as you probably know if you've read earlier postings).  And now, with my latest work "Birdsong" I am back into art doll work again.  The circle has been made -- this time I enter it with a 'beading viewpoint'. 

I'm not sure why I always seem to end up with 'people' as my art form.  Perhaps I'm intrigued by them, perhaps I need more friends *smile*, perhaps I just love the idea of bringing the human form to life.  Whatever it is - once again I am trying to bring a little magic into my studio in the form of the figure.

Let's see what I come up with during this turn of the circle.

"Creativity is a natural extension of our enthusiasm". - Earl Nightingale

Old Friends

These two old friends occupy the very tip top of the corner cabinet in my studio.  They are leftovers (please don't tell them I called them lefovers!) from my 'art doll' days. 

A long time ago (or so it seems to me) I began making cloth dolls in the 'primitive' style.  As time went on and I learned about the world of 'art dolls' I switched gears and explored art dolls using found objects.  Thus the dolls that you see above.  Made using Altoid tins, paper covered straws, a little polymer clay and bits and pieces of oddities these dolls came to life - looking totally lost among the tea-dyed primitive dolls.  But they were fun to make and fun to show.

As I delved more into art dolls I found that decoupaged paper could be used over plain cloth bodies to make a finish that looked almost varnished.  Once I used fabric as a base I moved on to using fabric as the whole doll, skipping the paper covered fabric.  For several years I had fabric dolls hanging all over the place - and soon they went to shows and were adopted by visitors passing my booth.

Just before our move to western North Carolina I became enamored with book art - and spent five years making books as an art form.  Using paper and fabric and found objects and decorative beading and well, the list goes on an on, I became a book artist.

Through book arts I discovered beaded embroidery, especially encrusted beading and once again my focus switched.  I became passionate about bead work. Beginning with beaded abstract pictures I soon found myself trying my hand at jewelry and sculptured beading and the more I beaded the more I loved it. 

And then...yes back to figures.  I had made an abstract picture and wondered if I could use the same shape, making a back and front to create a figure.  The rest is history! I had come full circle back to 'dolls'.  I'm not sure why I always gravitate to figure work but I seem to find it endlessly facscinating.  

These days, my friends from long ago look down on me from their perch and wait to be introduced to the next figure that will appear from my hands.  Hopefully the glittery beads, elegant faces and detailed beaded stiches won't make my old friends too envious!

"Trust that little voice in your head that says "Wouldn't it be interesting if..."; And then do it." Duane Michals