Gypsy Doll Progress

I am close to completing my Gypsy doll-just some finishing touches remain to the costume and the painting of the scene on her skirt. Oh, and finishing the wig and adding jewelry-ok I'm not as close to done as I thought!

Halloween ADO Challenge

Well, it's been fun doing the ADO challenge I had 2 contributions-one is Lucrezia Borgia who has brought her own special concotions with her. She is paperclay and is mounted on a vintage pincushion. I love to research historical fashion and I think I get why people like Renaissance Fairs now!

Victorian Gypsy Doll Update

My Gypsy doll is slowly coming together-I have assembled her and her costume is cut out and pinned together. Next I will be painting the figure and then sewing on the costume. My theme is the story of a Victorian era Gypsy that has fallen on hard times and is singing about her younger days on the road. Her once lavish costume is patched but she is still beautiful. I missed the deadline for the competition due to a family members illness but I am still enjoying the process. Actually, I found the materials a little too bright and new looking for my taste so now I was able to dye them and stain them with walnut ink to tone them down. It's been more fun now that I don't have a deadline to meet.

Back In The Swing

I'm back from my vacation finally and re-entry has been challenging! My day job which is too tiresome to even describe takes way too much energy away from creativity. I am still working on my latest doll which I will post some pics of shortly. In the meantime here are some pics of my antique dollhouse collection-one is from 1890 and was handed down to me on my 10th birthday-it has my name engraved on a little sterling plate on the front door. The second house is hand made and newer and houses my larger scale furniture-it's neat because it has an elevator and 2 roof gardens. I like the European style of dollhouses where the scale is mixed and there is no attempt to look like real life-I am all for fantasy! I have renovated both houses that were in tough shape, painting, papering and constructing some pieces when I either couldn't find them or couldn't afford them. You can see I'm running out of room so I am keeping an eye out for another house. I hope you enjoy the pics.

Back At Last

I am back from vacation at last and am so excited to be asked to join the ADO group! I am looking forward to connecting with other artists. I have some work in progress which I will post as soon as I unpack!

Living In Florida-Tropical Times For Now

Freckles and Peabody say it's way too hot-temp average is 92 degrees. I am currently living in Florida and here are some shots of my garden-I am trying to return to NE as this is an artistic wasteland but the plants and animals here are wonderful! I hope to do some more tiny paintings with tropical themes inspired by the colors I see outside.

Gypsy Challenge Doll Progress

I have been starting on my entry into the Gypsy Challenge and have decided to post my progress as I go-here is the initial form-I used a wire armature,foam, cotton balls and some bubble wrap to build the form and then covered everything with heavy paper and masking tape. I tried something new for me-pre made papier mache-I usually just build with strips of paper and Mod Podge. I don't know if I like it-it has a very rough surface I will have to sand down and it is taking forever to dry-3 days so far. The head is made of a foam egg covered with foil and paperclay. Right now she looks like the man in the moon!