The Show is Hung!

Two years ago our doll club applied to the Fairbanks Art Association to have our own show in the Bear Gallery. We had to go through a juried process, complete with slides of our work, a formal biography, and other rigamarole. To our delight we were one of about 10 artists chosen for shows this year. Hard to believe that the two years has passed and this Friday is opening night. Today three of us spent 7 hours hanging the show. It was an interesting experience to say the least. We started out with a empty room - I don't think we knew enough about the process to be intimidated by it. We certainly had no clue it would take that long to set up! Let me tell you all about it ...

The first thing we did was set up our artist statements. They are right inside the front door and they look great. Since we had to have them on the upper half of the wall we balanced it out with the Big Girl on the bench. The gallery is in the Civic Center in Pioneer Park. Pioneer Park is the biggest 'tourist attraction' that we have. We are pretty sure that there will be tourists posing to have their photos taken with our Big Girl.

We had over 70 dolls to deal with so we put them all out on the floor. It looked pretty overwhelming. They are mostly unpacked in this picture.

We knew that we had to make an artisic display, not like what we'd seen in magazine photos, where all the dolls are crammed together on tables. We put all the dolls that could be hung on the walls together. Then we started grouping the dolls by genre and color. It started to look a little more manageable. Then we started moving the walls and pedestals around. Put some dolls up. Took them down. Moved the walls and pedestals around. Put some dolls up. Moved them to different pedestals. Moved the pedestals around. You get the picture.

We didn't have a lot of pedestals. We actually had more dolls than we could fit on them so we had to get creative. One of the girls had bought six little chairs which could hang on the wall. So one wall is filled with dolls sitting on these chairs - it looks awesome. Anything that remotely looked like it could be hung on a wall was. They even made me put two holes in the back of my Time for Fun clock doll and hang her on the wall. Luckily the body was a paper mache box, so no major damage was done, LOL.

The art association folks will light the show. You can see in this photo that the lights are way off. We are nearly done - that's Dalonna sitting down. We started getting drained - both physically and creatively after about 5 hours. But more people helping would have made it more difficult. Some of the exhibit went together very easily, other parts were very difficult. We wanted the dolls to compliment each other and I think we did a great job.

What we did will be 'tweaked' by the art association's head honcho - we're told she has an 'eye' for this. Hope she doesn't change it too much! Here's a couple more photos. I'll take proper ones next week when the lighting has been fixed.

This wall has a fairy castle, 3 dragons, and a 'wizard'. She's not really a wizard but she fit, LOL. The placards aren't up yet in these photos - but each doll has a card with the name of the artist and the name of the pattern designer (if any).

This shows the Seasonal Sisters by Kris Knutzen. This photo can't be enlarged. I have to tell you that Winter has a bigger butt than her sisters. I thought that was hysterical!

A few tourists snuck in while we were setting up. It was interesting to watch them. They weren't quite sure what to think, LOL. Ah well. It will look fabulous on Friday so wish us luck with our opening!

She's a HOOT!!!!

Well, maybe she'd really be a hoot if she was an owl instead of an ostrich. But she's done and she was a lot of fun to make.

Swing is done!

It's amazing how long a simple thing takes when there is drying time involved! This project had paint drying time, epoxy drying time, more paint drying time, and then varnish drying time. So even though the hands on only took about an hour at most - it took most of the day before I could say it's done.

Click image to enlarge - it has a neat paint job that you can't see really well in this little photo.

Just a swinging ...

I'm still messing with that Ostrich Showgirl. I decided that she needed a swing. Mainly because my doll club has a show next month in the Fairbanks Art Association's Bear Gallery and they said if we can hang a doll from the wall or ceiling we can display more dolls. So I challenged myself to make one from purchased materials. I think I did pretty good.

I will probably write instructions on how to make this. I have some ideas about benches too. It's not completely done as I have some embellishing to do still. But I'm happy with it. I will take a close up tomorrow and post it.

What did she do ?????

Ya gotta have a sense of humor when you live with a fiber artist!!!

This is what you see right now when you go into the guest bathroom. This is my hand - in wool felt. I'm using Dye-na-flow to color the felt and the colors are running. Hope I don't have any visitors!!!

Face just about done ...

It's taken me two days to get the face to this point. It's a very interesting process and unlike any that I've had the opportunity to try before. I have learned to love my pastel pencil now. I tried doing a face with all pastels a few years ago in a Patti Culea class but I had the chalks instead of the pencils. It was impossible to draw with those so it was a very frustrating experience. The pencils are a whole other story though.

This face uses paints, watercolor pencils, pastel pencil, prismacolor pencil, gel pen, pigma pen, and probably a couple other things I forgot, LOL. I think everyone who takes this class will learn something they can incorporate in their own art.

Ostrich Showgirl

I am testing a pattern (well, really an online class) for my good friend Natalie Hamade. So far I have the body sewn and stuffed and the hair finished. Take a good look at the hair .... can you guess what it is?

I'm not going to tell you ... BWA HA HA. It's not fiber and it's not clay. It is a totally unique process and it's very different and very cool! You'll have to go to Doll Street and sign up for her class to find out. I'll be posting more in progress pics as I move along. Today I will be painting her face - 44 pages of photos - Natalie shares ALL her secrets!

Another doll I'm proud of

my daughter Jeanna ... high school graduate .. Class of 2006 ...

Too many DIPs

Too many projects going on at once. I don't know what to do first, LOL. Actually I have to work on my friend' Natalie's Ostrich Showgirl as I'm testing her for an on-line class. This doll is going to be a lot of fun. Then there is the paper doll who has her undies on but no clothes. The two clock dolls. Probably have more projects hiding here and there too. Like the Flat Stanley Round Robin doll who is in her envelope under my sewing table. Sigh. Plus I'm two months behind for the Member of the Month gifts for the Embellished Circus. I'm never going to get them all done. Ack. Anyone else do this to themselves?

Dead heads

I have decided that we doll makers no longer have practice or reject heads. Since our excess doll parts end up in the bone yard all excess heads will henceforth be known as dead heads. Dead heads should be displayed in a basket with tie-dye material. Playing Grateful Dead music in the background is strictly optional.

Altered Magnet Tutorial - UTEE

I went to the dentist yesterday - something I'm sure everyone just LOVES to do! On my way out I picked up a little magnet for my refrigerator - you know, those magnetic business cards that companies use for advertising. Well, when I got home I found that they were SO thin that I had four of them, not one. I wasn't going to return them and I sure as heck don't need four of them so I altered the extras.

Want to learn how to make these? Just keep reading!

Now I'm not going to tell you to steal some magnets from a local business but you might already have some. I mean magnetic cards someone gave you not that you stole. Sometimes I get these in credit card solicitations, this would be a good use for that trash. Anyhow - get hold of a magnet or two.

Supply list:
Thin paper, glue, paint, clear embossing ink pad, Clear Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) , Gold Ultra thick Embossing Enamel, Pearl-Ex powders, black ink pad, stamp, embellishments, heat gun.

The UTEE is found in jars in the scrapbook section of craft stores. It is like embossing powder but in bigger particles. You can get it in different colors but I only have two.

Step 1: Obtain a magnet. This one's cute, huh?

Step 2: Glue some tissue paper or mulberry paper onto the magnet. Paint the paper (I forgot to take a photo of that step). Pretend this paper is painted Lumiere Halo Blue Gold. Trim paper.



Step 3:
Once the paint is dry, pat the magnet all over with the clear embossing ink pad. Then pour some Clear UTEE on it. Shake off the excess and melt with your heat gun. Melt until the crystals turn clear.



Step 4:
The clear UTEE should be pebbly looking. Pat the embossing ink pad on the magnet again and add another thin layer of the clear UTEE. Shake off the excess. Now take a few different colors of the Pearl Ex powders and sprinkle it on the magnet. I just put a toothpick in the little jar, picked up a tiny bit, then tapped the toothpick so it fell off onto the magnet. I used a pink, a copper, and a gold.



Melt the UTEE. I use a low temperature heat gun so everything doesn't fly everywhere. It doesn't have much of a fan.



Step 5:
Take your stamp and ink it up with the black ink. If you use a pigment ink it won't dry out so fast. Then take your clear embossing pad and ink the middle of the magnet. Take the gold UTEE and pour some in the middle of the magnet. Make this fairly thick because you're going to stamp into it.



Step 6:
Start to melt the UTEE. Make sure the stamp is nearby. This is going to take longer than before. Starting to melt ...



Melted all the way. Looks pretty, eh?



Step 7:
Take your inked stamp and press it down into the **HOT** UTEE. Leave it to cool.



Step 8:
When it is cooled off, remove the stamp.



Step 9:
Embellish! I wrapped some wire around the magnet and glued a butterfly to it. I used E6000 glue because I'm not sure what else would stick to the UTEE. Don't bend the magnet much or you might crack the UTEE. You'd never know this little piece of art started out as a silly little tooth washing it's 'hair' . That will be our little secret!

Feel free to share this tutorial. Just be sure to give me credit ...
copyright 2006 - Judi Wellnitz

Back to pin dolls!

Our doll club is having a show at the Bear Gallery next month and we can sell things in their gift shop. So we are working on pin dolls. We are supposed to make some tomorrow night at doll club but I thought I'd make a few today.

These are all leftover heads. I'm running out of good heads to use - I think these were about the last of them. From left to right: Head from a Wood Knot - an online class from Allison Marano. There was nothing wrong with this head - it was such a strange looking piece that I thought I had done something wrong. So I made a second one and it looked exactly like this one. I gave it a hat and it was done. Easy. Middle one was a head that I had started in one of Patti Culea's Face Painting classes. She hasn't been up here for a few years so I guess it's kind of old. I finished coloring it - gave it some petals and called it done. The last one was from another on-line class - think it was Makiera with Angela Jarecki. She was too prim and proper for the figure. But she's fine for this.

Click on image to enlarge

More fabric postcards

Made a couple more postcards for the third round of swaps in my Posta L'arte group. I have no clue where I come up with some of my color combinations ... lime green and orange? See what you think of them ...

Click image to enlarge

So this has nothing to do with the postcards. How many of you listen to music on an iPod when you sew? I hear a lot of quilters use their iPods and listen to podcasts and stuff. I have one, it's not an iPod but a Rio - same thing, different flavor. I only seem to use it when I'm on an airplane or going fishing. I have a book on it that I've been listening to for over a year now. Maybe I'll finish it this summer. So ... do you iPod or don't you?

Into the light

Good news! Even though my Ott light is out of warranty the company agreed to repair it under their warranty program. So for $10 plus shipping I will be lit up again. Yay! So much better than trying to fix it with epoxy putty or something. It's so nice to find a company with great customer service!

Sewing in the dark

My Ott Light broke today. Which really stinks because it is ultra expensive to replace and it's too old to be covered by their warranty. Of course it breaks two days AFTER I could have replaced it with a 50% off coupon from JoAnn's. I was sewing when it came crashing down on top of my machine. Broke my cute little bumblebee porcelain figurine too. I can't believe the plastic cracked and broke like it did. Today just wasn't a good day - took my dog to the vet and she needs about $1500 in surgery . Plus I didn't make the measurements for my pant leg correctly. I'm wasting some expensive material. So .. I quit for today!

Before the break

The break

Posted by judi at 5:58 PM | Comments (4)

Sleeve done

I decided on a sleeve cuff finally. I chose an oval design and beaded the edges. I don't normally bead anything because I really don't like to bead but the picot stitch is a pretty easy one and goes fairly fast. Fairly fast for beading. I think it still took nearly 4 hours to do both cuffs - at least it felt that way, LOL. Now it's on to the legs. I have some ideas for a pants pattern and I'll probably mess with that for a week too.