Doll FINISHED!

So I finally finished my doll.....and I think overall for my first one I did alright. There is a lot of detail I tried to capture in the photos...hopefully they translate but I doubt they will....describing her is as follows....the base is an antique turn of the century cast metal base, it was originally a flag stand so it is very sturdy and heavy. The dress itself is fake embossed leather bodice, with feather like cutouts that lead down to a detailed lace finish....the sleeves are a sheer shimmering blue translucent fabric over some blue detailed cotton fabric with a flower motif. The top of the bodice is finished with lace and crystal and glass bead detailing...the headpiece is a polymer clay base with crystal and glass bead details as well, and the back has long tentacle like feathers sticking out the back. Her wings are totally made of real feathers on a wire base...so they do move around a bit. The scale she is holding has a detailed hand sculpted/painted heart and on the other side a real feather. There also is a silver belt with mother of pearl and silver accents....the doll itself is a polymer clay as well and all hand painted by me. Tons of details to this little lady....I have a lot of different influences with this piece from Egypt. The first influence is Anubis who weighed the heart of a person after they came to the underworld, he would weigh the heart of a person against Ma'at, the goddess of truth, who was sometimes depicted symbolically as an ostrich feather....so I combined the female with the male in this instance and not to loose the connection with the feather I gave her wings. In the story of the scales if the heart was judged not to be pure the heart would be devoured by Ammit, a female demon with a body that was part lion, hippopotamus and crocodile. If the persons heart was devoured they were not allowed to continue their voyage towards Osiris and immortality. So basically the more evil you were, the more heavy the heart. Once Ammit swallowed the heart, the soul was believed to become restless forever; this was called "to die a second time".

I am so fascinated with all this story telling and intricacies of the Ancient Egyptians its easy to become inspired by them. The dress itself I wanted to be more feminine and structured. So I referred to the Tudor period of clothing. The time period of Queen Elizabeth the first, and this time period goes from before her influence as well typically the dates are 1485 and 1603. Yet I concentrated more on the end of that time span which was when she ruled. She was such a strong female figure, and a take no guff kind of woman I thought that costuming would fit my doll/goddess perfectly. 

So yes, it is a wide combination of things with my interpretation, but I enjoyed it...I hope you like the photos and appreciate the time that went into this...for my first attempt at a doll...I am pleased with the result. BUT I want to hone in on my sculpting, dressing and painting skills and that takes time...so there will be more dolls to come....

New Shop....new endeavor...

So I have officially opened my shop....I have been making things for about a year as I have previously mentioned...just to keep my creative juices flowing...so I make some crafty/cutesy stuff....but it has all gotten me motivated to do some real involved deeply inspired work, and that cant be a bad thing....I am however working on another mini painting...considering the last one I did in the last post was so well received it inspired me to keep going....gut without further adieu....here is the link for my store...please visit.....http://www.etsy.com/shop/Rabbitinthewindow

Finished....

So here is the final product of the mini painting/drawing....its a combination of an ink drawing, acrylic painting and watercolor...I had a lot of fun doing this one too....I am just producing lots of little works...just keeping the artistc energy flowing....not trying to come up with any masterpieces whatsoever...not trying to put that sort of pressure on myself just now...just trying to keep producing work...any work...any form...anything really...I have learned by talking to a lot of successful artists to just produce work, no matter what it is...and your path as to what you are good at, or what you find inspiring will rear its head in your work, make itself known and develop into your own style...so taking that advice to heart, trying not to take myself to seriously, or be to harsh on myself I am just simply producing work...any work really.

Also launching my Etsy shop tonight. Don't expect any genius work out of this endeavor....I just enjoy making little cutesy things and making things for my nieces and such...so nothing too amazing...just some ideas/projects from gifts I have made people and such...and I have always gotten the token...."hey, you should make this stuff and sell it"...OK, fair enough...I will and see how it goes...so I will post that link later and you can check it out for yourself and see what  you think...I dono...its just something I am having fun with...I may add a section of actual work I want to sell..I mean work that I take serious as my own, but for now...its all in the name of creating for creating sake....and simply enjoying it...

Final mini painting/drawing below....

Keeping busy....REALLY busy!

So I have actually been busy as of late working on things....also setting up my Etsy shop. Oh yes, believe it or not...an Etsy shop. Over a year ago I started on small craft like projects to get me motivated to do art once again. So I sewed, painted and crafted my way to getting to the meat of doing real work again....so I have bins of things I have made, from plush toys, jewelry, masks and other things just to get my creative juices flowing. It has been a long hard process for me after my fire I lost my way in life a bit....I think when I lost all my work, equipment and everything I owned I lost a big part of how I identified myself as an artist..and something in me sort of died in that fire. Yet in a good way too, a lot of baggage was left behind with that fire, and it also gave a new rebirth on how I see and interpret things...although its taken almost five years to get to this point, I honestly wouldn't change it for anything. I was able to shed a lot of inhibitions that prevented me from growing as a person and an artist...I have just had to find my way back to core of me that makes me a creative person. The part of me that has been there all along, since I was a young child drawing at a very young age....the passion is back, and oh how I have missed it, and am so pleased to find it once again. Its like peace has been restored to my soul.

OK all that being said, I am still working on the painting with the girl and the birds...but I am really enjoying these small drawing/paintings I am doing....I have a story behind them from where I got the ideas from, but I will let that reveal itself as time goes by, so just for now, enjoy what I am starting to create as I am....

And as its finished, I promise I will take a better photo, than an instigram photo...although, I am so addicted to instigram now!!

Update on the bird girl....ok thats it for now...

Just a little something...

http://statigr.am/viewer.php#/detail/252225529081950469_181243515