If you ever get the opportunity to take a workshop with Tim Holtz - JUMP on the chance. I took his Assemblage of Flight altered bird workshop this past Friday. Not only is Tim a fabulous teacher, with his classes paced well, but you don't have to bring a thing - everything is provided - tools, work surface, paints, surface and more embellishing goodies than you would ever dream about. Tim had collected all sorts of vintage goodies on his trip to Paris for us to use - jewelry findings, castings, clock parts, plus lots of his Ideology line.

Tim encourages everyone to create their own pieces using their creativity and imagination, but he is right there to assist with how-to or suggestions. Mario (who did a lot of the preprep work for us) was there to patiently drill any holes exactly the size, depth and location we wanted.

In addition, Tim graciously allowed us to purchase (at a very reasonable price, I might add) vintage props that he found in Paris as well - antique binoculars, cameras, rusted tins, crochet balls. I bought one of the binoculars (complete with case that I will use on another project) for my bird to perch upon.

Thank you to Monica, Stamp Asylum for bringing Tim in for the workshops, to Tim for his sharing his creative mind and talents and to Mario for being such a great helper.

One of the ways EDAC keeps the cost of their conference down is by auctioning the table centerpiece dolls that are donated by attendees. Last year Lisa & I both created one. This year the theme is Magic and I created a Wizard, collaborating with Vicki. I sculpted the face, hands, feet and "carved" staff and Vicki created the clothes. Once she did the clothes, she passed him back to me to give him hair and put him on his base.

Lisa & I started a tradition (though not required) last year when we exchanged handmade gifts prior to attending the Enchanted Doll Artist Convention. She made me a fabulous handmade book that I use to chronical my EDAC journey and I made her a traveling tool case.

This year our dear friend Vicki is joining us (for more fun!) and I made the three of us purses to carry. They have polymer clay faces with beading around the faces, done on rayon batik. We'll be able to carry our wallets, cell phones, room key & lipstick in these lightweight bags.

I got the idea to do us traveling sewing kits for our pins, needles, etc. I found some canvas fabric and drew the faces (just like I did the shoes) and colored them with Prismacolor markers. I then used heavy duty iron on interfacing and backed them with felt. I sewed bias binding around them & added ribbon to tie them.

I also found some great luggage tags at Michaels and personalized them for us with our images.

We are all very excited about attending the conference next month! More about it later.

I found some really cool sprocket gears by Tim Holtz at Michaels. When Vicki & I were at the Grapevine Bead Show in May, I saw some beads
that just begged to be made into jewelry combined with those sprockets. Here is the necklace & bracelet I made. I used a freeform peyote & right angle weave to create the pieces.

I saw some shoes at a local store that were kind of cool, but more than I wanted to spend and the designs weren't exactly what I wanted. However, it did spark an idea so I went in search of plain white canvas shoes. I found the first ones at Target and later at Walmart. My friend found hers at DSW & the slipons I got were from Old Navy. Once I obtained the canvas shoes, I went to town. I normally sketch a light pencil outline prior to adding color with Prismacolor Permanent Markers. I do the detail lines with a Sakura Micro Marker (and some other ones that I have that are no longer on the market). When my friends saw the first pair, the custom orders started flowing in and I'm having a great time doing these shoes. Later I'll show you the tote bags I did as a fund raiser for the doll artist convention I'll be attending next month.

Once my friend Lisa saw the shoes, she had to have a pair, so she commissioned me to do her a pair. Since we are attending an art doll conference this summer, I did doll faces on her shoes.

She loved them! Here are both the front & back views of her shoes.

Our friend Vicki is also attending the convention this year and wanted a pair of shoes of her own. She doesn't care for the lace ups, but found a pair of Keds slip ons that she liked. As Vicki is a master gardener, I did her shoes to reflect her interests.

The first image is at the start of the process, with one shoe detailed and the other with just the color.

One more image showing the side. Once I did the shoes for Vicki & Lisa, I loved the slip on style and also the doll faces, so I found a cheap pair of slip ons at Old Navy and did my own doll face shoes to wear at the convention.

Start of doll shoes without any of the detailing - just the basic color laid out.

Finished shoes with detailing.

Lisa had the idea that the shoes might look good just black & white. I wasn't sure, but the last pair I did was a different canvas. It wasn't working doing the pencil lines first, so I laid in the basic lines with the permanent detail markers. I figured I would do all the lines & detailing first and then add the color. Picture shows shoes in progress. Once I finished them, though, everyone seemed to love them as they were - so I'm leaving these black & white. I'll be selling this pair.