Another Roundup Blog

Here is Fabby Dolls - another round up blog about ADO dollmakers. There are some beautiful pictures there, and some names familiar to followers here.
Blogger and doll maker Deena Maurus also has an Etsy store. All of her profits are in support of research for Choroideremia.

Linda Lee Sutton porcelains

Linda Lee Sutton is a porcelain doll maker. She creates sweet and pretty one-of-a-kind, limited editions and portrait dolls of mostly young children and ladies. She will make a commissioned portrait of your child with a 9 month lead time. However I think my personal favorites are her antique reproductions in period costume. These handpainted porcelain faces have a beautiful, luminous quality.

Ellen Benson

I am a sucker for mixed media figures and wall hanging. Ellen Benson's work combines both. She uses all kinds of vintage and found objects in her art, as well as creating a whole series of paper mache based works she calls "Divas".
Additionally she is a member of an intriguing group, Philadelphia's Dumpster Divers.

Pam Grose classes

There has been a lot of enthusiastic buzz about the continuing visit to the US of Pam Grose, Australian doll maker. Reportedly her classes are wonderful fun and she is very high energy and a truly inspiring instructor. She will be teaching for Making Ends Meet, October 3-4 and then again at Art Is You East Coast Artists Retreat October 8-12.
That website Fabric Addictions, based in Western Australia, looks very cool. Really fun to browse around and dream. I'm being very stern with myself - I will not buy any more supplies until I make some inroads into the treasure trove I already have at home! Really, I mean it.

Lynn Cartwright

I love Lynn Cartwright's hyperrealistic large scale work in polymer clay. Each OOAK is meticulously dressed with enormous attention to detail. For example in the pictured work, Eleeasuk and the Salmon, this Intuit wears miniature reproductions of traditional clothing down to hand knit mittens. That fish is 18 inches long.

More Winners

Kelly Riley-Duckworth has posted pictures of the winning dolls, along with some of the dolls standing nearby, from the Dimensions in Dollmaking show in San Diego last weekend. Congratulations to all who participated. Hopefully many of these will make their way into publications soon.

Hobbits

September 21st, 1937 was the publication day of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit". It is also Respect for The Aged Day in Japan.
Nuno has been making beautiful cloth dolls for a quarter of century. On the site are many photos of cloth dolls and various doll kits. One of the dolls is Merry, one of Frodo's hobbit friends from LOTR.
Meanwhile here is a gorgeous doll house version of Bag End.
Anyone else making Hobbits? Please comment with a link!

Rosie's store

Check out Rosie O'Donnell's Etsy store where she sells very nice altered Munnys (Munnies?)and other mixed media sculpture pieces. She donates all the sales to charity - she says that she personally matches the funds realized from sales.

Mary D's

Many doll collectors will know that Mary D's Dolls are closing their real life retail storefront as of this weekend. Luckily they will still be selling the wide (I mean truly enormous) range of superb collectible dolls over the internet. Their newsletter is cool and often includes coupons for assorted discounts like free shipping.

Coolaberration blog

A doll round robin, in which I am participating now has a blog. Art Doll Coolaberration 2009 will continue to have pictures of the dolls as we progress. The dolls are being given evolving stories too. Doll artists and writers, we are.

Absolutely Japanese

Absolute Japan is a website with dolls, doll kits and interesting doll crafting tools. If you buy a kit from the site, you can then access online tutorials. I'm interested in Kimonos. I'm working up a pattern for 18 inch dolls (American Girl style). These dollsa are very beautiful and inspirational.

Big Head Beauty

Silvie Cola is a repaint/face up/reroot artist specializing in Blythe, Momoko and other "big head" dolls. (My daughter is crazy for a Pullip right now so they are really on my radar.)Sylvie also has an attractive pictorial blog where she periodically publishes the ongoing saga, The Chronicles of Judith (pictured), the struggles of a smart girl journeying through a ditzy world.

Witch Giveaway

Doll friend, Gail, is holding a blog giveaway of this wonderful mixed media hanging Witch that she has made. Just go to her Dollistic blog before September 30 and comment to be in the drawing. Perfect timing for upcoming Halloween festivities.

Bead Tutorial

Celticat has written a very clear, simple and informative Bead tutorial for anyone interested in trying out beaded dolls. She includes links to bead suppliers and a handy bibliography for your next trip to the library or bookstore. Who knew thread needed to be or could be conditioned? (BTW the link to Celticalt's Bead Doll Booklet is defunct, and it is hard to get back to the tute - so don't click on that one.)
The gallery of work by members of the Bead Art Forum is spectacular. The pictured doll is by Lesley Conniff.

Fuzzy Panda

Craftzine is holding its first Crochet-Along. Starting Tuesday September 8th you can join in crocheting this adorable amigurumi panda. I suppose if you can't make the online event on Tuesday, there is nothing to stop you from following the downloadable pattern in your own time. I like the mix of textures.

The pattern was created by Tamie Snow, the author of Tiny Yarn Animals.

Strange Moons

Was the full moon tonight or last night? I don't know - it looked full tonight. Last few nights it's been orange all the way to setting because of the smoke in the air from the fires ringing Los Angeles. It's looked creepy. The fires are out and the moon is getting silver again.

But for a few days it was a very strange moon.

Strange Moon is the name of doll artist and painter, Stephanie Alice Rogers's website. Her dolls do have a somewhat creepy air, a bit mystical, a bit strange - but also very beautiful and distinctive.

Baby Dimples

It has been a while since I have featured a reborner. Baby Dimples is the reborning site of creator Therese Perchard. On her site are slide shows of the nursery, astonishingly realistic full scale reborn babies, and information about the craft of reborning. Also check out her doll houses collection including several miniature Victorian repro stores.

New Newsletter

I am trying out a new service, Mail Chimp, to publish an intermittent email newsletter, as occasion warrants. It will probably be no more than once a month with sale announcements and new content related to my doll making, other crafting and book writing progess, and including the odd foray into reviews of craft/doll books and events.
The list is entirely opt-in, so if any one is interested please go to my Iggy Jingles Blog to sign up. The box is right there to the right below the welcome. I'm waiting until I have a few signups before sending out the first one.
UPDATE: Mac users who may have had trouble seeing the "Subscribe" button should be able to find it now that I have changed my blog template to a wide one. Sorry for any inconvenience!

Cat Spirits and Shamans

The website of Griselda - Spirit Art Dolls and Mixed Media Assemblage - is full of small totem figures with a very serene feeling. I especially like the feline ones, Bast and associates. The site has lots of slide shows to allow to flow over you. She also has an Etsy store, with dolls in a wide price range.

Whimsical Point of View

Fairy tales are just one of the inspirations over at Joanna Thomas Art Dolls. She makes dear little polymer clay figures with wistful faces, that aren't fairies, but story book characters or historical individuals imbued with fey and whimsy.

Wendy Ellertson

Wendy Ellertson's imagination is populated by creatures of other realms. Working from self-described "eclectic, modern and folk art" influences her figures incorporate natural materials and primitive, in the sense of ancient, motifs and shapes. I like them very much.