Silke Art

Here is a spectacular blog filled with wonderful images of trolls, goblins, fairies and fairytale creatures. Silke Janas-Schloesser's work is just beautiful. And yes there is an Etsy store which includes her 1/12th scale miniatures.

Barbie Redux Call for Entries

I'm not the first person to post about this, but Patricia Anders is calling for entries to a new exhibit at 10 Women Gallery in Venice in honor of Barbie's 50th Anniversary. (Just a few miles from my house! For that matter so is the Mattel corporate HQ and outlet shop.)

The details for participating in Barbie Redux are on her website.

I'm excited about the idea and will be making something and my 9year old daughter who is a huge fan of Patricia's past altered Barbies also plans on joining in. We have a bunch of Barbies set aside for art doll purposes.

Display boxes and stands

Here is a website devoted to caring for your collectibles. Collecting Warehouse a large selection of acrylic display boxes, as well as a glass dome collection that makes me think "miniature diorama". They also carry stands.

I keep seeing commercials for this shoe storage box, that I'm thinking would be a nice storage option for many of my daughter's play and fashion dolls.

At Jack Johnstone's Art Doll guild site, you can find hidden doll stands to give the appearance of free standing dolls.

Green

The Green Dollhouse project has closed, but the book is still available. I wish I had seen the exhibition when it was current. "Creating a Doll's Eye View of a Healthier World". Nice Tagline.

Meanwhile the National Parks Service has free downloadable instructions for making Corn Husk Dolls lurking in a lesson plan.

Orit Dotan's flikr set shows Waldorf dolls of all natural materials - they are all rather lovely.

Planet Pixies are three adorable fairies made of organic cottons, with an ecological message.

Don't forget Earth Hour tonight 8.30-9.30 pm your local time. Lights out!

Paper Cuts

Sorry I wasn't paying closer attention when I got the notice for this in my in box. Closing very soon is Paper Cuts: 200 Years of Black Paper Dolls at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles. There are still a few days to get there before Sunday.

Aesop's Fable

According to Wikipedia, March 26th, 1484 was the day that William Caxton first published Aesop's Fables translated into English. Aesop's best known fable could be The Tortoise and The Hare.

Madame Alexander produced a pretty 8" doll accompanied by a plush hare and tortoise.

Fran Parrigan-Meehan made a tortoise and hare art doll pair in 2007. In a more recent post on her blog, she has listed a bunch of the upcoming doll conference events, many of which she is involved with. I love her painted doll faces.

World Tuberculosis Day

Today was also World TB Day, a disease once called consumption that is highly contagious, and more common that we might think even in the developed world. About 250 people die each year in the United States from tuberculosis.

Florence Nightingale, is just one famous person who died of TB - rather ironic given that she was a the founder of modern nursing.

Techno savvy ladies

Today is Ava Lovelace Day, a day where bloggers all over the world are celebrating women in technology. It is interesting for me, in the context of doll making because it seems to me that the majority of doll designers and artisans seem to be women. Certainly the majority of doll collectors that I know about are women, at least here in the US. My clients so far have all been women. Doll making seems in many ways to be a very feminine art, and many of the collectible dolls, like fashion dolls, seem to be concerned with feminine stuff, like...well...women's fashion.

It seems to me that we doll makers use a lot of technology, and the fruits of technology - sewing machines, polymer clay, cloth from mills, paints and dyes, wire, porcelain clays and kilns, vinyl and molding technologies. Not to mention how we in general have embraced that most modern of technologies the computer and internet to connect, to sell, to teach and to explore.

And yet so often we return to the simplest of technologies, holding needle and thread in our hands.

Meanwhile here is an art doll maker who is not afraid to explore the technology of new materials. Susie McMahon's dolls, figures and sculptures are wonderful. Check out her Redivivus dolls which she has made from recycled material that she has concocted.

Crochet for Teddy

It's nice to have some free stuff now and then. Here's a free pattern for some adorable crocheted clothes for teddy bears. I can see how they could be adapted to other dolls too. The whole site looks useful actually.

I don't mean to neglect teddies, really I don't.

Dolls and Daggers

Legends By Valkyrie are vinyl doll character repaints, mostly in the fantasy genre. On her site are a number of tutorials with photos that look like a good introduction to repainting and related crafts, including modifying the face sculpts and material recommendations. Who knew you could shrink a Barbie head by soaking it in acetone?

There is also a Yahoo group for people wanting to learn techniques and discuss creativity.

International Girls

These Karito Kids are some more of my daughter's favorites. She has a Piper vinyl doll (pictured) and a Ling of the plush travellers. I like how each vinyl doll character has a unique face mold. The high quality wigs allow for hair style play. American Girl clothing fits around the body, but is generally too short. (Time to make some new patterns.)

All dolls come with a story book. A portion of the proceeds from every item is donated to one of several international charities. The buyer can go online with their serial number and choose where to direct the contributions, and there are also several online games.

Loopy

Yeah, I just love these dolls with their bizarre faces and twisted stories. I'm waiting for the Loopy Boopy Uma Therman portrait, or perhaps Bette Davis when she was very young. Is it the magic of New Orleans infusing them with their character? I wish I could have been part of the ADO Travelling Doll project, and I'll look forward to seeing the final results of the collaborations. She has a well stocked Etsy store too.

Apple Hill

Apple Hill Dolls are rather lovely. They are made from paper clay and needle felted wool. They have a distinctive otherworldly look. Maybe it's the winter chill in New England.

Paper Mache

I don't speak Spanish, but pictures are an international language. Lotty Weinberg has a Colombian website with many pictures of the decorated paper mache figures and sculptures that she makes - that is I think she makes them. They are lively and colorful and fun to look at anyway. Don't fail to click on each year at the bottom of the page for more figures, mannequins and relief sculptures.

Super

I just like the look of Super Junk. I enjoy the friendly style, and I like the dolls she makes a lot. Japanese style in California.

Limericks

Happy Saint Patrick's Day. Here are some porcelain dolls in Irish traditional costumes, hand made in County Limerick entirely from Irish made parts, including the fabrics.

Lotz of Carved Dolls

Here is a great collector's resource, that could lead to hours of happy reading. Lotz Doll Pages form a comprehensive collection of great information about carved dolls of all kinds, vintage and new and of all nations. I particularly enjoyed reading about Chinese Dolls of Hope which have a sweet quality about them.

Aunt Manny

Not only dolls, but many other decorative crafty objects are available through Aunt Manny's Creations, all primitives with the patina of created age. I enjoy the folk art primitive aesthetic, and now is the time to enjoy her new spring creations, like the pictured Egg Fairy from her visually appealing blog. Lots of personal stories and links to upcoming events there too.

Orphans

I've been a bit busy, and I am going to stay busy for a few days, so I'm going to post a website that is a wonderful browsing opportunity. Mrs. Blathersby's Orphanage for the Unattractive and Mentally Unsound is an online doll club for the makers of the sad, the bizarre and the lonely in dolls. Mrs. B. is acceptant of their quirky creepiness and sometimes twisted stories. From this site you can access the members' Ebay sales and Etsy stores as well as the blogs and the websites of the makers, some of whom have already been featured here.

Mrs. Blatherby herself looks rather stern. I hope she doesn't find it presumptious of me to include her here....

East Coast Art Retreat

Here's an mixed media art conference/retreat with an art doll contest and exhibit attached. Art is You is running October 8-11, 2009 in Cromwell, CT.