Where Have All My Dolls Gone?

I have been looking around my studio and house wondering, "Where have all my dolls gone? I thought I had made tons?" But, I can't seem to find many. So, I had to take a trip back in time and revisit where they all ended up.
These Three Little Ladies were all sold to different homes years ago. Now I remember that they are in happy places(from left: Violetta, Snow White and Anouk)!


This Lady with the Long White hair was commission by my Printmaking Professor. She was a really big doll. My professor is one my best friends and she has long white hair herself. I wrapped this doll like a mummy to send it to her. We call her "Baba", my professor's nickname.


This group of Cat Bust was made for a special show at a local Gallery. I have sold all of them but one. I love them but, the gilding of all of their crowns took forever. I guess it should take forever!


Oh! I miss these little Faeries! There were more and they all had on Party hats and were have a tea party with with cakes and treats! I made them for a special May Gallery show and sold them all. I am glad people thought they were so fun. The one who bought the little Faerie in the photo named her "Coco". Love that!


This Chitza, a Faerie from South America. Yeah, um, I know where she is. She is currently flying around my house! I did put her in a show, but I brought her home!


This doll is "Deidre"(based on the Irish folk tale). She is the 2nd doll I ever made and I sent her to my best friend in VT.


And this is "Ophelia", the first doll I made. I had to keep her because I love her and I needed to remember how I made her!


This is a doll I made for my twin from the remnants of the fabrics my mom and I used to make her wedding dress so this is her "Bride Doll". It was so fun to surprise her with this!


Oh, the mermaids I have made! Big and small, Dark and Light. Here are few. I have sold these, but I have kept a special one for myself. Her name is Ione and she has dark raven hair and an emerald green tale. I have also made mermaids with hot pink hair and purple tails-that was fun too! Here are the Little Mermaid and Undine.


And, For a Dia De Los Muertos Exhibit, I made an altar to my deceased pets so I had to have flying angel cats and my lovely cats whom I grew up with-these are all in my home now. I need to make more angel cats, dogs and whatever else animal people want!




I sold my first Bird Cage skirt dolls before I could take some proper photos of them-yikers! Imogene is in pink and Matilda is in blue. The best part? Their skirts light up!


So, that's all I can do for now. I have sweet faerie named Aida that flies around my house too and several more that have ended up other places. One Chocolate Faerie went to live with a sick friend. My version of "Tinkerbelle" went to live with one of my Aunts(everyone in my family gets a doll for free-that's just the way it is!). A new faerie I made is one her way to a dear friend across the ocean who is about to give birth to a baby. Sleeping Beauty is still in her bed, but is slowly waking up. The Snow Queen is a bit ticked that all our recent snow and ice has melted.

I did a more recent post of my latest Bird Cage Dolls that I made for a show in October-they are a darker version of Imogene and Matilda and are named Raven and Mina. It has been a slow winter and I haven't felt like I can make much. I think it has been hard on a lot of people. I am hoping that I can create again soon. October was a long time ago!

What's Old is Always New

Lucky me got the new Free People catalogue in the mail about a week ago. I really like this one as all the clothes remind me of what I wore in high school and college-actually what I still wear!

I love Free People's clothes, but whoah, they are expensive. I found my super soft and worn men's Levi's at Goodwill, my cotton lace tops at thrift stores and my black work boots at the shoe carnival(in the smallest men's sizes). I made my own beaded jewelry and braided my own hair.

I was also lucky to have Grandmothers and Great Aunties who kept all their fabulous clothing from the 1930s and 40s. Her is my Grandmother Gingie in her High School Granduation photo. I loved this dress she is wearing! It is a butterscotch coloured check cotton. My other Grandmother, Nonnie, had a dress in a similar colour and check but it had several ruffles along the bottom and on the sleeves. She wore it to her High School Prom. My mom got it out for me and it fit perfectly. So, I wore it to a High School Dance and my Nonnie was so happy.

I hope I have a few pieces of clothing that someone in the future will want to wear(I only have nephews but who knows? My Great Aunt Fagella from Russia was one of my true loves and I have many of her favourite pieces-maybe I will be someone's 'Fagella'). Until then, I will try to keep adding to my collection!

My Auntie Fagella in the 1920s and another look I loved from the catalogue.

New Paintings

I have finished some new paintings. I did these super fast and it kind of shows. I am not so happy about how these turned out. I think I need a little break from art, but my break from art is doing art! I am hoping a friend who is the "Organization Fairy" can come and help me get my studio back together. I just went through a doll and shadowbox/collage/photography frenzy so I need to get everything back together!

The Holidays have been hard. This is the first year for me being single after several years of marriage. It is hard to figure out where I fit in. I was looking back on my yearly family portraits(that I always do around this time) and it is odd how things have changed. I look a little sad this year or maybe just different(ok, I am older-my face is sinking! As my mom said at my age, 'Wow! I have cheek bones!').

I am so happy to have all my Little cats(I call them 'The Littles') still with me-that is a huge gift as they are just such joyful creatures and so funny and loving. Here are some portraits from Christmas and Holidays past which mark my singleness, 2 cats, 3 cats and more, married and then back to single, but always with my little cats-grateful for my "Cat Children"!







And, here is this year's(with all 4 black cats-I started out with 1 and kept finding them as orphaned kittens. I guess I should introduce them in the order they showed up: 1)Pascal Pace Pascal Jean Paul Jean Paul, 2)Tobias Greenmoss, 3)Sister Blackberry Bijou-our only little girl! and 3)Glastonbury Suki Ribina-and, only 1 of them was black as a kitten-one was a bald kitten(!), one was gray and one was brown and cream striped so who knew!).

I am not so happy with it-I look mean! I want to somehow fix my face and I might as well add a "doo-dah" or fun headpiece or tiara on my head because if I can't wear one in a painting, when and where else can I? I suppose I should just wear one everyday and celebrate like the Fae Folk do!