Ink Spillers Attic

One of my new doll friends, Yvonne has just made some beautiful delicate spirit dolls incorporating vintage repurposed fabrics, natural elements and hand painted polymer clay faces. She also makes an intriguing base for mixed media art works, "fabric paper" that looks like something I'd like to try.

Call for Gypsy Treasures

Once again the call is out for the Annual Treasures of the Gypsy Doll Challenge. This year's theme: The Enchanted Gypsy. It's one of the best value challenges around since for the $20 entry fee, you receive a package of wonderful doodads and fabric bits to use in your doll. The dolls are exhibited and the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX in October.

Fanciful Twist

Vanessa Valencia makes beautiful, whimiscal mixed media art dolls with complex histories told as fables. They have a slightly wistful air that contrasts with the candy bright cheeer of Vanessa's charming polymer clay Elves. The (immense amount of) photography on her whole website is gorgeous and lush too.

On her blog she invites folks with blogs to the 2nd Annual Mad Hatters Tea Party on Saturday, June 27th - a blog hopping virtual party with giveaways at some blogs. Seems like quite a few doll makers will be there.

Peruvian knits

Natural Child, a beautiful attachment/gentle parenting site is currently selling knitted Peruvian Mother and Child dolls. Vividly colored of alpaca wool, these are Fair Trade items that support low income artisans. I rather like the rendition of the traditional costumes of the Andes.

Hawaiian Retreat

Marilyn Radzat has announced registration open for her next wonderful Hawaiian retreat, which will be November 1-7, 2009. The event will be limited to seven women, so if you want to "expand yourself into your greater glory" (who wouldn't?) please act fast. The photos from the last retreat look wonderful.

Laugh About It

She probably doesn't need my help promoting this, but still it's doll news....

Marie Osmond has a podcast on her website announcing the very limited edition doll with the same title as her book, "Adora Might as Well Laugh About it Now Belle". She will be available this coming Monday June 15th. With only 100 available on the website (more on QVC), I imagine they will go fast, and it looks like you can pre-order from there already. This 13inch tall pretty doll has big, big eyes, maybe showing the influence of BJD's and manga on her design. She comes with a miniature copy of the Marie's book. Is it readable? Can't tell..possibly.

BJD's and Tea Parties

Upcoming in August is the Innocent Seraphim (or InnoSera) an Asian BJD and Japanese street fashion convention in Bellevue, Washington. There will be fashion shows, BJD face up and other workshops, cosplay, tea parties, a concert, and apparently some very classy costumed bowling.

August 8-9, 2009. Register before July 18th for a ticket to the Kissing Violet concert to be included in the package.

On the website are details of other smaller events planned by the InnoSera organizers, like sewing classes (and more tea parties).

Forest Rogers

I've posted already today, but I can't resist. Forest Rogers' work is amazing! She makes fantasy figures in polymer clay with really wonderful proportions and surface detail.

Buttercup

Thanks to creeping arthritis, I don't think I have the fine motor acuity any more to work this tiny, but for those that can British online store Buttercup Miniatures is a lovely miniatures site offering knit and crochet patterns, yarns and adorable tiny scale accessories. They have some free patterns just to give it a go, and on their blog list timely and delightful new products for adding versimilitude, like voting cards so your doll house folk can go vote. I would need a magnifying glass to see the detail.

Kismet doll jewelry

I was browsing around the Dolls and Miniatures section of Etsy and I found Kismet1990Designs, a maker in Tuscon creating really beautiful looking miniature scale jewelry equally as fine as any I have seen at conventions. Each very reasonably priced set apparently includes earrings, bracelet and necklace sized for 12 or 16 inch fashion dolls. Only around since last November, I think this store is worth a closer look.

Dimensions in Dollmaking call for entries

The entry forms for 2009 Dimensions in Dollmaking are up on the Imitation of Life Construction Company home page. The theme this year is "Make Me Laugh", although adapting the theme is optional.

Dimensions in Dollmaking is an annual exhibit of cloth dolls within the San Diego Quilt Show, this year to be held September 16-19. Visitors to the show vote on their favorite dolls.

At the website are some wonderful galleries of dolls from past shows. IOLCC is a vibrant doll

club based in San Diego which meets monthly. Many of the members have been featured here in the past. They also maintain a blog for the latest news about upcoming events and workshops.

Paola Zakimi

Paola Zakimi is a doll maker from Argentina showing her evocative and distinctive pale dolls on her bilingual blog. She's currently prepping for a solo show in Australia, exploring themes of yearning, emptiness and lost hopes, the challenges of poverty as expressed in a moving poem translated on the blog.

Who says dolls are a trivial art form? Not me, not me.

(Thanks Mary Ann.)

Collector's Blog

I found a wonderful resource for collectors of BJD's and fashion dolls. The emphasis here tends to be art doll makers, so it's nice to discover this blog, Fashion Doll Review, made by a collector whose interest and attention to detail gives her status close to expert. Self described "fan", Alison, posts about fashion dolls of all sizes and also makes garments for the dolls in her collection. It's worth browsing early posts for useful and informative doll care content. Plus she has a killer list of doll collecting links and blogs, and interviews with doll fashion artists.

Oh and she also quilts (and her list of favorite books include a bunch of mine).

Whispering sighs

All the primitive and folk art doll makers you might ever need gathered in one dreamy, nostalgic place - Whispered Secrets of a Primitive Past. A name and visual style evocative of faded wall paper and interesting patinas somehow combining great-grandma's lavender and camphorwood. A whole marketplace of different artists with links to their own websites and blogs promising that this is "where the craftmanship of olde is taken to heart and hand." And eye.

Calling Art Doll makers...

Here's a chance to be part of the genesis of something. A new online doll club, Decidedly Different Dolls, has been started by my doll friend Jeanne, with assistance from Gail. The Yahoo group is seeking members, with the mission to support each other in the creation of unique art dolls and learn from each other. I believe the plan is to hold different challenges and share tips and techniques, such as the very first entry, an easy (as in "why didn't I think of that?" smart and easy) accordian journal, on the brand new blog.

Radzat Dazzles

The encrusted details of found object embellishment, the patina of vintage fabrics and laces, the luminous delicacy of the skin tones and features - all are hallmarks of NIADA member Marilyn Radzat's remarkable dolls and fantasy figures. I'm intrigued by the idea of the artists' creativity retreats she and her associate, the equally wonderful Gail Lackey, hold in the serene atmosphere of her home island Oahu, Hawaii. She has many galleries on her website for you inspirational pleasure, and also offers online doll making classes.

Hurry! to win a pretty cloth doll

Here's a chance to win a Sophie and Lili handmade doll (so adorable). Just to be clear - follow the link to Sophie and Lili's blog to enter - not here.

But hurry, the random drawing will be June 4th.

Good Gaudy

elinor peace bailey makes dolls as bright, cheerful and colorful as she appears herself. Indeed she describes herself as "altogether into gaudy". She spreads the joy through her website - check out the hints and tips page - and her fiber arts blog. She has recently published a digital book on CD combining patterns, ideas and methods, "The Doll As A Messenger", which joins her DVD, "Doll Making Basics" available from her website.

Glorious Doll Club

There are some great doll makers in Australia and some of them are members of Hello Dollies, the doll club of doll making store and textile art supplier, Anne's Glory Box. They hold quite a lot of events, including a recent workshop making beaded and embellished fairy slippers, and a members' Show and Tell.

Dreamweaver

Sonya Prince at Dreamweaver Sculpts makes polymer clay fantasy figures like fairies and gnome creatures, and tiny miniature polymer clay dogs. She takes commissions for custom dog sculptures, using photos of your best friend. WIP's on her blog. When you realize the scale, you can't help but be impressed with the detail of the sculpting and painting.

One and Only Dolls

Once again I'm indebted to my doll making friends for the heads up for another lovely site.

Renee Coughlin's One and Only Dolls website features beautiful galleries of repainted fashion dolls, many as fantasy characters. Also she shows explains many of the alteration and repaint techniques she uses, and lists some useful links.

Kurt's Fashionable Future

Thank you Barb for the heads up about Kurt Van Buskirk's delightful fashion doll clothing website. He designs and sells ultra limited editions of chic outfits for 16-17 inch fashion dolls. I'm excited to see them since our new Ellowynne Wilde arrived on Friday. I've taken measurements but have yet to make up any patterns. Kurt has some intrigueing plans for later this year. I'll be checking back.

Memorial Day

Monday is Memorial Day in the USA. Here's Hasbro's whiz bang G.I. Joe website . On the other hand here is The Toy Soldier & Old Tin Soldier Shoppe, a source for rather different fighting toys.

May 25th is also the day "Star Wars" was released in 1977, and we went "Episode IV? Huh?". And a new industry in tie-ins and merchandising was born.

Mini Reborn sculpting

It has been a while since I have mentioned any reborn artists. Here within Precious Ones Reborns is a very interesting work-in-progress project. Lillian Evans is creating a new reborn miniature sculpt from polymer clay, with lots of descriptive detail about her process

Modern Doll Collectors' Convention

The Modern Doll Collectors' Convention will be held October 14-17, 2009 at the Hotel Albuquerque in Old Town , Albuquerque, NM. I've stayed there. It's a lovely hotel for a conference. The 2009 Dolls Awards of Excellence will be presented there.

The theme this year is "Enchanted Adventures". There is also a Yahoo group for the convention.

Berdine Creedy, whose BJD's are gorgeous, will be just one of the presenters leading workshops.

House of (the cutest) Mouse ever

Found on Twitter, Life, Craftiness and Everything blog full of useful marketing how tos and the sweetie-cutie-cutest wee precious little handmade mice, available on Etsy. Aww they are soooo cute and witty too. Now to put my Etsy Mini on my Facebook page....not as cute as mice.

Oh yeah - you can enter to win a mouse every month. Did I mention they were cute?

Queen of Holidays

How cute are these gourd dolls and ornaments and strange little folk from Melissa Valeriote, aka "The Holiday Queen". Materials include paper mache, paper clay, and wood. She has stuff for all holidays but I think we can guess which one seems to be her favorite.

October Effigies

Kerry Kate's October Effigies may be my new favorite creepy, strange and dark doll site. I think she is doing extraordinary things with fabric and paint with her dolls. Currently she is having a sale as detailed on her blog.

New doll artist

It's a new fiber art blog, but the aesthetic is pretty and the cloth dolls with mixed media accessories and embellishments look very promising and interesting. I think Abi's "An Angel at My Table" blog will be worth keeping an eye on.

Good Girls Mania

Debbi Crane, co-author of the lush and lovely book Mixed Mania, has a terrific blog called PaperDoll Post. Some of her latest projects are "Good Girl Dolls", sweet cloth art dolls incorporating mixed media techniques on her brand new Etsy store.

Miniature village

This miniature knitted village complete with villagers really tickles me. I don't knit, but I can see doing some architectural crochet. The knitters of Ashford, UK were busy for 23 years on this project.

Photo collection

Angelifiticatus' website is still under construction. But, for your viewing pleasure, Mia Peterson does have an amazing Flikr album, with numerous sets full of photos of collectible dolls beautifully lit in textural backgrounds real and constructed. Her photography has been featured in Haute Doll and other publications. Reading the descriptions leads us to discover face up artists and doll costumers too.

If you love her images you can buy card sets from Cafe Press, like the pictured image.

Couture

Today I visited the Barbara Peterson doll show, a room full of vendors selling primarily Barbie collectibles including valuable vintage dolls, current and recent collector editions, vintage clothes and accessories. There was also a smattering of gorgeous Fashion Royalty and Tonner dolls. I was excited to see an Ellowynne Wilde doll in the vinyl flesh, and happy to note that the Tonner "Twilight" dolls resemble the actors a lot more in person than they appear to in the photos I've seen. It was fun to look at the Barbie's and Dynamite Girls and realize just how many of them we already have at home.

I also met a vendor I have featured here before, Joe Blitman of Joe's List, and was intrigued by his offerings of beautiful vintage style doll fashions from a Canadian company, Dressmaker Details Couture by Masterstroke. They are prettily packaged with a nostalgic feel and are very detailed. Photos of the outfits on dolls of different sizes are on their blog.

Jan Horrox

I live in California so I tend to be US-centric when it comes to events and resources. However the internet is international, so I'm happy to be able to tell you about some events across the pond. Jan Horrox, a UK textile, artist has an online store for all kinds of cloth doll supplies, workshops and patterns. She has listed a bunch of textile events in her corner of the world.

Also at Jan's store is a customer gallery for your viewing delight. For more of her own work see her blog.

Rosie outlook

Rosie Rojas is a much published and prolific mixed media dollmaker. You can see her distinctive work in polymer and paper clays, cloth and found objects on her very nicely laid out website with galleries. She lives in Texas. I sure wish I could have visited for her Susie McMahon workshops last month.

Felt Yodas

Here's a link to a How-To for a felt Yoda doll.

A Yoda Finger puppet workshop will be part of the Maker Faire coming up in San Francisco at the end of the month.

Adventures

Lisa-Li Hertzi has written a cool looking book, Art Doll Adventures. The dolls are fun and the lists of materials and tools helpfully comprehensive.

In addition she has her blog, where she alerts us to another great doll exhibit at the Wayne Art Center in Philadelphia, PA.

Iconic Event

Jason Wu is celebrating 10 years of Integrity Toys by throwing a party in Chicago, October 1-3. Registrations are now open.

He has also designed the official Life Ball fashion doll, a beautiful limited edition collectible doll to benefit HIV and AIDS treatment, research and prevention.

Doll stand bargain

Currently on sale at American Science and Surplus are these doll stand display cases. 15 inches tall with two different kinds of stands included, they are only $5.95.

This site has been one of my favorites for a long time because these guys have an alluring assortment of craft supplies and tools at low, low prices: a couple of different kinds of doll starters, remarkably inexpensive glass bottles great for holding beads and embellishments, paint brushes, dyes and every now and then glass beads, craft wires, ribbons and glues. Plus stickers, foam stamps, papers, sketch books. Also the descriptions are a hoot.

If These Walls Could Talk

It's short notice, but there's a cool event coming up at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles. On May 14 there will be a workshop and performance about shadow puppets presented by playwright Leslie K. Gray.

Here's a YouTube video of her work. I think I may have seen some of it at a kid's craft fair event a couple of years ago. It's very cool and fun.

A wordy site about shadow puppets has lots of info about them, but no pictures. Meanwhile Artsedge is a beautiful, slide show type of site with info and pictures about traditional Chinese shadow puppets and history. At this Indonesian travel site are many pictures (with links) of their traditional shadow puppet characters which are gorgeously painted despite not being seen in the performances.

Izannah

I had never heard of Izannah Walker until I was browsing recently. I'm so glad to have learnt about this part of American doll making history, an extraordinary woman whose work continues to be such a huge influence on many contemporary dollmakers. Izannah Walker Chronicles is a beautiful website, very pretty with a serene feeling, and lots of links.

What were they thinking?

Time for a bit of humor. Mike Mozart of Jeepers Media constantly posts his video reviews of "Fail Toys" on youtube, complete with whacky sound fx. These are pretty much always reviews of commercial toys, sometimes from major manufacturers. He has skewered teddy bears, lampooned certain Barbies, puzzled over Bratz, and found odd design flaws that make one join him in asking "Did anyone actually look at this before it was marketed and packaged?" and "Where were the focus groups?". Sometimes he may be a bit harsh, but he is pretty much always funny.

Tutorials

This is not the kind of site I normally feature since it isn't about dolls specifically. However it seems to me that some (many) of the techniques and ideas presented in these tutorials for mixed media art could be put to good use in art dolls, paper dolls and certainly in art doll journals. Therefore I hope everyone will go across to Agnes The Red Art and Craft Tutorials and have a browse around.

(Thanks for the heads up Karma.)

Kokeshi: From Folk Art to Art Toy

In Los Angeles LATDA - the Los Angeles Toy, Doll and Amusements museum will be holding a Kokeshi Doll exhibit, in collaboration with the Japanese American National Museum . The exhibit runs from July 11th through October 4, and dolls by the featured artists will also be on sale at the museum store on site.

LATDA is a fairly new organization, still looking for a permanent home. But they have a newsletter, a blog and offer memberships.

Tact-Isle

Sometimes it's hard to choose which photo to use, when there is so much variety and beauty to be found. Linda Misa is another Australian doll maker who makes beautiful cloth dolls with personality and lovely faces, and who also creates painted and paper collages. On her site she offers a number of free pin doll patterns and lists the classes she offers. Go Aussie.

Judy prims and witches

Surfing around I just found Judy Daigle's blog, Art Dolls and More. Can't think how I've missed it up until now. She makes character dolls in primitive style of cloth and polymer clay amongst other things. She also sells patterns including instant downloads. I love the personality in her dolls' faces. This cat is all but winking! If you hear fiddle music in the middle of night you'll know where to look...

Soft Tourists

Here are some cute knitted softies who, according to the Jen's Wee Softies blog, enjoy travelling and being photographed.

I was at the Eiffel Tower when I was a little girl. There's a small restaurant or cafe up there.

Quinn Knits

Craft Magazine blog featured these dolls by this artist, and now I want to also because they are really sweet. Quinn knits produces knitted, embroidered, felt and embellished soft doll and toys.

There are also some rather beautiful portrait dolls including a colorful Frida Kahlo under the Painted Dolls tab. The photography is also beautiful and exemplary for other doll makers wanting inspiration for staging and lighting their work.

Dollistic

Here's a new doll blog, by my one of my newest doll making friends. Gail makes beautiful spirit style dolls with mixed media and natural embellishments amongst other things. I gotta love someone who loves paper beads like I do! Oh and does recycled green type crafting too - check out her home made stamps.

Fertile traditions

In honor of Beltane, here is a website about handmade fertility and spirit dolls from Eastern Europe. Most of them are cloth, have a folk/primitive style and include miniature knitwear. I think they are rather pretty, and the details of information like why certain traditional trims or objects are included is interesting, even if you don't believe in the magical aspects.