Dolls and Other recent art

Here are some projects that I have been working on lately.

"We're Wired" art Dolls

When We were last visiting my mother-in-law , I asked if I could get into my father-in-law's workshop and clean out his "electrical bits" area. Since he passed away 5 years ago, my Mother-in-law has been trying to reduce and clean out clutter and I asked her not to discard anything"interesting" till she ran it by me! Lucky Me!!! She had come across boxes full of transistors and capacitors and other "whatnot" that no one had a use for. Well, y'all know that I wanted it! These girls are the result of a little bit of playing around. Their "hair" is made from the "electrical bit and pieces" as is the head behind the stamped image. I am planning on making quite a few more!! My 14 yr old son, Matthew, says that they look like the 'Borg' from the Star Trek TV series. He just shakes his head and tolerates my art.

Autumn Spirit Doll

Alias- Barbara Bush!!

This is the first art doll that I have ever madefor a swap. The deal was that I was sent the face(unpainted- and therefore, no color "clues") and I had to create a doll and return it to the face creator. Well, I panicked and almost gave up. But then I remembered taht the idea was not to create something that others would create , but something that I would create. I want to create dolls from found objects, not the usual muslin and stuffing etc. On my art space shelves I found a lonely vintage salt shaker that mad the perfect body. After creating a neck from polymer clay and arms from wire coated with polymer clay and painting the face (that took 3 trys), my Autumn Spirit was taking shape! I created her dress from a scrap of fabric and her clock is covered with silk leaves and beads. I am really pleased with her . I am considering submitting her for publication to Art Doll Quarterly. Hopefully there will be more to her story!!
Vintage Christmas Cards

These are some Christams cards taht I created for an on-line Vintage Christmas Card Swap. I made some Christmas themed painted paper towel fusion paper and then added velvet holly leaves and vintage red button "berries". i lke these so much that I think I am going to make some for our family christmas card for this year. So be watching your mail!!

Paper Fusion Decorated Mirror

This mirror began life on a shelf at IKEA, the AWESOME swedish homegoods store that is now only a meer 10 miles away! It cost $1.99- got to love that price!! I used my fusion paper technique with painted paper towels and decorative napkins (the roses) to complete the project. One of these mirrors was donnatedto a silent auction at my daughter, Becca's school and it brought in $28.00- not bad!

Hand made Charms

Several months ago, I discovered a wonderful Altered Arts group in Reston, VA. (approx. 1hr drive North). We meet once a month and we have our own Yahoo group. i have made some wonderful friends and I am really beginning to feel that I can find some friends and Like minded art folks here in VA. I wasn't sure there for awhile! I always forget about how long it takes to settle in and adjust and find any sort of comfort zone once you move.

Anyway, in our group we are having an Altered Charm swap. Everyone who participates has to make a charm for everyone else and then we will trade them in December. There are 18 artists participating so we each make 18 charms. All of the charms have to be made by hand and not be bigger than 1-1.5 inches. They must also be sturdy as we each plan to make a bracelet or a necklace with them. I mad these charms using a flat white disk (clearance table at a scrapbook store). I glued on some of my painted paper towel and a piece of a transparency that had been stamped with women's faces and then put on the word friends. The other side was colored with alcohol inks and a apnsey sticker and the works "linked by art" were added. Both sides were coated with a protective layer of crystal laquer.

These charms are for the same group swap . THis time I used old scrabble tiles and did peyote stitch beadwork around each one. On the back , I covered the felt and stitching with decorative paper and sealed the paper with crystal laquer. I have one for each person's first name and I can't wait to share these with everyone.