Birdcage Fairy
    I've gotten on a series where I'm using birdcages in my art dolls. Unfortunately this is not the time of year to find birdcages. I'm either going to have to hit garage sales, flea markets or wait until spring merchandise comes in for additional cages for more dolls. The first doll is in Houston, awaiting the Treasures of the Gypsy challenge at the Houston Quilt Show.
     I had the pleasure of meeting Amy Labbe of Art-i-Cake at Michaels Leadership Conference. What a truly delightful, creative, unique and original lady! Certainly a kindred spirit of my good friend, Jo Pearson! Jo gave me one of Amy's crown pendants from the Art-i-Cake line available at Michaels and I had a couple other components in my stash as well. Amy saw pictures of some of my art dolls and appreciated them. I told her about the crown and my plans to create a doll using the crown. Here is the first doll (I got a second crown and plan on doing another one). I used additional Art-i-Cake pieces in the cage portion of the doll.


Wiring the Body

Adding sculped head

Costuming

Inside cage detail





Finished Fairy (minus wings)

Finished fairy with wings



Getting Ready for ADAA
It's almost May which means the All Dolls Are Art Conference is only 3 months away! The theme this year is The World of Make Believe and I can't wait. It is going to be so much fun. Vicki & I completed our table favor dolls and they are on a shelf in my studio waiting to be packed for the conference. I got the idea from Pinterest for the fairy jar centerpieces for the opening night Welcome to the World of Make Believe festivities that Vicki & I made this month.
I've still got to make my costume for opening night, pin dolls, stuff for my sales table, stuff for the goodie bag and finish my banquet centerpiece doll. I started the centerpiece doll yesterday and it is coming along nicely. Better get back to work, the conference will be here before we know it.
There's still time & space for you to join us, all the details are here All Dolls Are Art Conference
Here are some of the fairy jars and the table favor dolls.

My friend Vicki gives me with Linda Ravencroft Fairy Calendars, which I hang in my studio every year. As an artist & hoarder (aren't they the same thing?), I always save my calendars - in fact I have a dozen or so in a bookcase. I decided that I wouldn't do that to the fairy calendar. I really like the images and don't think they should be relegated to a bookshelf. I have a big box that I've had for years (from the same company as the oval boxes that I did on Jan. 2) that I've kept waiting for the "perfect" idea. Throughout the years I've had one idea or another, but have never followed through with any of them. It came to me that I could use my favorite images from the calendar to decoupage on the box - which is what I did. First I based the box with a mixture of glazing medium, pearlescent, white & a touch of gold paint. Next I stenciled a background design in a light beige shade. I used Golden's fluid acrylics to sponge a background to coordinate with the prints. The cut-out images were decoupaged on the box. To ground the whole thing & tie it together, I used a two-step crackle to create eggshell cracks on the box and antiqued it with a transparent raw umber paint. As this box is very large, 12 x 12 x 12, it will be great storage and the calendar images can be enjoyed for years to come.

A little over a year ago I took a workshop with Kathy Davis. While I knew I loved working with polymer clay and I had taken to sculpting in college, Kathy awoke my love a creating dolls with her workshop. I would highly recommend her as a workshop instructor - it was fun, informative and rewarding. I'm hoping to be able to take another workshop from her soon.

In the workshop she taught for our guild, we were to create a fairy or elf. She told us the doll would let us know what it wanted to be. She was right! Mine are Forest Folk. The bigger one was created in the workshop and the little one was created later.

The fairy with an attitude is one that I made for myself. She will hang in my studio from the branch over the front window. She didn't really get an attitude until I added her hair - it popped out then. The hair is perfect for her (thanks to my friend Candace for the boa pieces). This sweet fairy was make for a coworker's new baby. The parents are involved with the Scarbourough fair and have done their little girl's room in forest & fairies - what a lucky little girl. This fairy is made to hang and I thought would make a perfect gift for them.

Over the holidays I created fairies to give as gifts to my Mom & Aunt (they are twins). I did the blue fairy for my Aunt and the green & mauve one for Mom.

The bodies are cast from a mold from White Gothic Studios. These are the fourth & fifth fairies that I've made - I'm still learning, but I've discovered I love making them. Each time I make a fairy, I think I get a little better and learn from the previous mistakes. I'm really hoping to take some classes or seminars to learn more about sculpting.