Unfinished Business

Here are some of the things I'm working on......since taking the photo, some of these have been completed, so I'm chipping away at the pile!

I've been helping my friend, Loretta, turn one of her sculpted face-masks into a complete doll - here's the progress so far. Top photo shows the mask turned into a head with the features pencilled in and the lower picture shows the head, cloth-covered and painted with the beginnings of a wig. I'll keep you posted about progess and let you know how you can buy one of Loretta's face masks when I get a bit more done.

Winterlude......The Joy Of Music

I have just spent a weekend away on a winter music camp organized by our community orchestra. Around fifty five enthusiastic instrumentalists gathered at Ulverstone for an intensive few days of music-making.

This is Willem van der Vis, from Melbourne, who was our conductor and mentor for the weekend - he managed to squeeze a reasonable facsimile of a Beethoven Symphony from us by Sunday afternoon!

The ensemble

Fraser - a study in concentration.

An uncharacteristic quite moment in the brass section!

A "backache of basses"!

The loneliness of the long-distance percussionist!

There was time to fly.........

.....play a spot of golf

or just stroll on the beach.

It was a wonderful weekend full of music, laughter and cameraderie. Can't wait to do it again!

Biba

Here's "Biba" - she was made using the patterns I developed for the "Pipkin" prototype and her face was pressed from the "Pipkin" mould. I used the same fabric to make her dress and knickers and blue wool for her hand-knits. Shoes are brown leather. I experimented a bit with her wig......I had a small piece of mohair teddy bear fabric that someone had given me. I shaped it and glued it on her head and it makes a great short, tousled wig!
This doll will be in my Etsy store when I've finished making her a little something to carry.

Biba Bedhead!

Working It Out

Clothed and nekkid!

With a view to offering this new "Pipkin" doll as a kit in my Etsy store, I have made a silicone mould from the original "Pipkin" and slightly modified a couple of things that needed improvement in the pattern. From the mould I will make half-completed doll heads to sell with the pattern and instructions. Now I need to write up the instructions in a clear and comprehensible manner, so I have been taking progress shots as I have been making this second doll. Quite a lot of work goes into creating a set of instructions - they need to be clear and concise, but have enough information so that someone with limited dollmaking experience can follow them easily. I find that clear photographs are very important (worth a thousand word, right?)
So hopefully, this will be ready next week or so: meanwhile here is a teaser!

Sharing Art

I've just participated in a fabric postcard swap with ten other people.........this is a great way to share art because each postcard-sized artwork does not take long to create, but each is a complete little entity in itself. as you can see, the cards I made are all related, but different from each other.
I'm now looking forward to seeing what lands in my postbox!

I used walnut ink stained fabric as the basis for my set of cards, over which I collaged fabric and paper elements. I then used subtle washes of acrylic paint and some pencil work to add some colour.
Here they are all together before I sent them off:

........and here are several of the individual cards: