Sheri

Sheri de Bow makes beautiful polymer clay and mixed media dolls, busts, head ornaments, and other fine art - all with distinctive large wide-open eyes. Her dolls engender a tension between whimsical, fragile beauty and danger. Her blog, Ostrich Girl, tells all about her recent exhibitions.

Claudia's Adventures

For your viewing pleasure, something to make you smile - The Adventures of Claudia blog.

From the same creative visionary who brings us Gerbils in Hats.

Life is good.

Kickstarter Obos

Here is another Kickstarter project that is close to funding and looks like fun - Obos by Really Brothers. I like the look of these - nice clear graphics and recycled cardstock. I like the limited packaging too - very slick. Good luck! I hope your get reach your target.

Oh, and here is Planet Obo.

CHA De Witte Engel

I've been loving participating in the CHA Expo in Anaheim. I visited Pollika and saw the sweet line of De Witte Engel doll kits and supplies. In addition to the charming lines of tiny doll kits - fairies and pixies - from felt and cotton cloth, they also sell wood-and-rope doll bases, felting tools and felts, and an all cotton skin tone jersey in every possible complexion. Very soft and stretchy.

How cute are these?

Knitted critters

Here's a new book for knitters - the very clearly titled "Knitted Dinosaurs". There's some info about yarns and different pictures of the finished paleo-fauna on the publisher's blog.

You know, I don't knit, but these are cute. For knitters, they could make a nice alternative to socks and beanies for your kid gifts this year.

More Paper work

Somehow or other I'm just finding a lot of paper sculpture today. Today I learnt that in Japan the art of paper cutting is called "Kirigami".

Here is a person who makes cute figurative sculptures from your business cards. The Petrina Case Etsy store is sweet too.

The other site I found today markets patterns for 3D Kirigami including birds and dinosaur skeletons. Easy Cut Pop Ups has links to video tutorials, and at least one free pattern.

Print-and-Fold-A-Day

How did I miss this blog for so long?

Toy-A-Day is a blog with a daily download of a printable full color template for a folding doll figure. They are cute and nice graphic design. The characters vary wildly from celebrity portraits like The Beatles to The Little Prince to characters from contemporary storybooks and classic pop culture. They are up in the two hundreds now, so plan to spend a few minutes browsing.

Steve Jobs Action Figure controversy

As a likeness, this figure is amazing. As an interesting website, the in icons site is cool also. Lots of movement. But as a business move in the school of "better to ask forgiveness than permission"....that's a whole 'nother thing.

Apple is not pleased. But does Apple own Jobs' image or does his family? The comments are interesting.

Maybe just the licence them the figure already, and perhaps donate that money to some worthy cancer research charity. Is Apple going to get into the doll making business? Not likely. Maybe inicons should pay a hefty rude tax for not asking first - OK. Yet I'd like them market this doll. It's good work.

OTOH, as the relative (by marriage) of a celebrity, would I be happy to see a commercially produced portrait doll of my late father-in-law made and marketed without permission ? Well, I'd at least want it to be this gorgeous - but no. I'd want it to be licensed properly and above board. And maybe a US company...

We'll keep watch.

Steampunk Fair

Here is an event that will surely be of interest to doll makers - The Steampunk World's Fair. This will be held in Piscataway, NJ, May 18-20, 2012. At $50 for the weekend, this has to be one of the least expensive admission fees around.

There will cakes and costumes, and music and merchants. Too late to apply as a vendor for this year - but maybe for next....? No list of vendors yet - but there will surely be dolls. I mean, surely. {I wish they put links to more pictures from the past events on the site, and a list of last years vendors and merchants. That would be useful.}

Nigrica Little Folk of Faery

Here's a sweet Etsy store, Little Folk of Faery. It looks like someone has been out with their butterfly net capturing those pesky fairies and bottling them. They are ever so tiny, and I assume still just as magical.

This store, relatively new, is part of the Whimsical Art Doll Artisans team, which is dedicated to "the most curious, bizarre, eccentric, fairy tale-esque elements of life". Some familiar faces, others new.

Treasury alert

Here's a lovely Art Dolls Only member made treasury for the New Year.

I hope everyone's holiday has been grand so far.

Text Enhance Opt Out

OK. You can opt out of seeing Text Enhance on your computer (supposed to be "creating relationships between vendors and consumers" - right, thanks for the effort.)
Slowly mouse over the link until the te box appears. There is a small ? in the top right. Click on that and you get taken to an opt out page.

Thank you for your patience, and I can't see them now.

Text Dis-Enhance

OK Blogger has put Text Enhance into my blog - I may have allowed it, but it was unintentional on my part.

It's annoying and sometimes the links are counter to what I might have wanted to post - to commercial sites I haven't visited or considered. Nor am I sponsoring any of the "survey for a gadget" links.

If you hover over a linked word and it says "powered by Text Enhance" it is NOT my link. Click at your own risk.

Meanwhile I am going to try and take it off, but I have to research how.

That is all.

All Dolls Are Art 2012

Registration has been open for a little over a month for the next All Dolls Are Art conference July 26-29 in Austin, TX.

The theme of the conference is "World of Make Believe". Oooh, luscious.

The teachers include (wait for the trumpet!) Arley Berryhill, Annie Hesse, Marilynn Huston, Angela Jarecki, Fran Parrigan-Meehan, Lisa Renner and Christine Shively. Like a who's who, isn't it?

There are various other activities including a Pin Doll swap, sales floor and exhibits, and events to benefit Austin Children's Shelter, including a silent auction.

Yoborobo

In the cause of the holidays, and as an antidote to a certain commercial mass produced doll that leaves a bad taste in my mouth - all to do with creating fear in children - I've been looking at Elf Dolls.

I just found this terrifically cute Etsy store of seller Yoborobo. There are some sweet elvish monsters in cloth and felts as well as some very pretty and bargain priced little jointed polymer clay dolls.

Maggie Iacono to be Honored at IDEX

Maggie Iacono of Maggie Made Dolls will be presented with the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award by Dolls Magazine at IDEX in January, 2012.

A NIADA member since 1993, Maggie is inspirational not only because of the delicate beauty of her ball jointed pressed felt dolls, but also because she has managed to create a genuinely prosperous business that supports her family from doll artistry. Or to put it another way, she makes a living as an artist, doing what she loves.

Congratulations on the well deserved honor.

Black Eyed Kids Kickstarter Project

OK not dolls, but I know that there are a lot of Goth and Creepy doll artists out there who would dig the theme and visuals of this young lady filmmaker. I mean seriously - look at the poster right? She wants to make a horror movie with a microbudget. She has three days to go and she needs just over $4000 to get her full funding. Can you help by pledging any small amount and/or spreading the word?

Disclaimer: I don't know Sunshine personally. I just like to encourage enterprise and creativity in kids. Plus in her You Tube profile she talks about all my favorite books as her own!

Embroider Everything Workshop - book review

For the first time, I've been asked to review a book that might be of interest to doll makers. I'm so happy to be able to report that the book is beautiful!

Sewist Diana Rupp, creator of the Sew Everything Workshops, including her prior book of that name, has written "Embroider Everything Workshop", a comprehensive guide for beginner or aspiring embroiderers.

My late mother made counted cross stitch, producing about eight sweet embroidered bibs for my newborn and two crib blankets that were so pretty that I hung them. My daughter is now 12, and considers these to be her family heirlooms.  In a world where machine embroidered articles are available at many stores for very little money, I understand that the true value of embroidering monograms on dishtowels, or making small patches for your kid's jackets, is the love imbued in the process. Diana describes embroidery in part as meditative, and I have to agree that I feel that too when I embroider on my dolls and their costumes.

The work is a comprehensive introduction assuming no prior experience, and includes needlepoint, smocking and counted thread cross stitch as well as freehand linear and chain stitch based embroidery. Personally I would consider myself more than an absolute novice, but certainly not a proficient. So although I had some familiarity with some of the basic stitches, there is a lot more in the book that was new to me, especially the tips and tricks interspersed throughout.

I appreciated the clear diagrams of stitches in the first one third of the book, and the detailed information about different kinds of needles, threads and canvases. I learnt a lot of new stitch names, and enjoyed the historical info about embroidery and textiles that is featured along the way. Diana Rupp's passion for her vocation comes through in personal snippets about her journey and preferences.

The rest of the book is how-to projects designed for beginners to practice their new skills. Most of these are short and accessible for gifts, useful home wares, and a bit of fashion using different embroidery techniques. My favorite project in the book is the embroidered pet portrait, making an absolutely custom piece of textile art based on a photo of your pet, and demonstrating the skills to make custom embroidery designs from any photo. This is the kind of work that no mass-producing factory situation can duplicate.

Finally there is a series of brief Appendices detailing finishing, blocking and display techniques, some fonts for monograms,  and a useful index. The book is bound in one of my favorite crafting formats, the way I want my book to be bound when it is published, with a lay flat hard cover over spiral bound pages.

The special extras are an envelope of 48 pretty iron-on transfers as patterns and a pull out stitch practice card into which you are invited to poke holes. I'm not certain of the utility of this last item, since it is considerably stiffer than fabric and would not really facilitate some of sewing stitches. However it could be used as a template for practice stitches on fabrics, or a portable stitch guide.

So all in all, a useful, informative and pretty addition to a textile artisan's library.

Paper Doll books publisher

I love vintage style paper dolls, because I've been a costume designer. Historical paper doll books are such a fun way to do your research into historical costuming. I also like going back to original sources, like period magazines and other visual media - but paper dolls are just fun.

Here is Paper Studio Press. They have a bunch of very pretty looking paper dolls divided into categories, including movie stars and fashion eras. I'd like to use them in collage work. Read the Artists' bios to learn another secret of their charm - the dolls have been painted by some terrific illustrators and much of the art is vintage. The artists themselves almost all seem to have shared a childhood passion for paper dolls and art.

You Tube Cornucopia

I've only just come to realize what a tremendous resource You Tube can be for doll artists. A search of the phrase "art dolls" produces 19,600 results. Many of these video producers also link to artist's sites and stores.

Tutorials are very popular. Still Moments Nursery, a reborning studio, is one such producer. Nikki Holland has uploaded almost 300 videos on the Still Moments channel including many tutorials and how-to's filled with tips and tricks.

Others are more like news magazines, such as this mini-documentary from Russia Media rounding up art doll making in Russia with interviews and beautiful visuals, or this visit to a doll museum collection in Toronto (above).

Doll artists can make a video slideshow galleries and catalogs of their work, set to enjoyable music, like this adorable one from past featured Cart Before the Horse, or the sublime Anna Zueva.

Collectors show videos of their doll collections or visits to conventions, while stores display their merchandise.

Looking at all these, I suddenly feel like a luddite who has yet to step into the 21st Century. I have a video camera, and editing software.

Do you have favorite You Tube videos about dolls or doll making? Please share in the comments!