Swap Fortune Doll

The Decidedly Different Dolls (3D)yahoo! group is doing their first swap of wee dolls. Dot's received hers from me, so I can show it here now.

We'll also be displaying all the swap dolls on our 3D blog in August, so check it out, too.

Cool-Aberration 2008 - Toben

Here's one of my favorite dolls from Cool-Ab 2008, Toben the Rocker Elf.

He started life with Jen in OH as an elfin misfit looking to "find himself".





I was the third player to work on Toben. Gloria had already started his rocker persona with his wild hair and his guitar. This is what he looked like when he got to NC.

I don't know that I've ever seen a Rock 'n' Roll musician in knickers and a hat like his, but I decided to stick with Gloria's rocker theme. I made Tobe a long garment kindof between a cloak and a duster, put some stars in his hair, bells on his hat, rings in his ears, a peace sign on his sash, and made him his own record album collection. He loves Southern Rock and Janis Joplin.



And here are the pages I added to his journal.



After me, Tobe visited 3 more artists and ended up looking kindof like this. He actually got some more detail added, but I don't have a good pic of him at the very end.

I just love what Kris did to his face - the glasses, mustache and goatee. Too cool.

Goodies in the mail!

I got another goody in the mail yesterday. It's a wee journal from MA. Inside it has a favorite quote from each of the nine participants in Art Doll Cool-Aberration 2009. MA made one for each of us in the project. Great idea, huh? Thanks, MA!

Cool-Aberration 2009 - Sani's Journal

Back to Cool-Aberration 2009. Finished my pages for Shimasani's journal.

First I did a page depicting her two-spiritedness. I thought I was gonna have to trash this page, but I managed to save it and I really like it now. I decorated the page using watercolor crayons and it was too bright and bold. So I coated it with a glaze of sierra tan acrylic paint mixed with polyacrylic sealer. Well, then it was too uniform and dark. So I decided, what the hell, it's ruined so I might as well play with it. So I took a paring knife and started scraping and chipping off the glaze coat. In the process, I took off some of the watercolor and even scraped down to raw paper in spots. This resulted in it looking old and faded and chipped and I love it. Then I added the male and female symbols (paper cutouts) and the text and it was done.


Page 1 folds open to reveal the totem spread. Just kindof a collage of Shimasani's various totems that'll help her in wisely choosing her shamanic tools.


And the last page.


Oh, and don't forget that Yvonne requested a 1" x 1" pic of me for her artist page. Here's mine.

Cool-Aberration 2008 - Precious

Now back to the first Cool-Aberration project.

This is Roslind's doll, Precious as she left Japan to start her journey.





And here's what she went home looking like. Ain't she precious? She's a somewhat pudgy teenage damselfly (female version of the dragonfly).

I was the 2nd to last artist to work on Precious. I added the flower sequins between the big silk flowers.

And I restyled her hair and dyed it red. She is a teenager, after all. And no teenager wants old lady teddy bear hair like she had! Here's what Precious' hair looked like when she came to NC to visit me.

And these are the pages I added to Precious' journal.




I think Precious turned out really cool and I hope Roslind likes her, too. Notice her multiple arms. Roslind attached her original arms to her original wings. And Em made Precious 3 knitted sweaters, each with their own pair of arms attached. 'Cause insects doesn't have jest one pair of arms, ya know...

Fairy Stones

A little over a week ago, I went to Fairy Stone State Park in VA with my brother Dave, his girlfriend Jenny, and her daughter Anna. Anna's the one who's so good at finding shark teeth. Well, she's darn good at hunting fairy stones, too. We all found some, but Anna found the most. Here she is with her haul of fairy stones.

They come in a variety of shapes and sizes.

This is a shot of a fairly decent cross. Little suckers are hard to photograph. If you wanna see what they look like all spiffed up, check out this site.

Cool-Aberration 2009 - Sani

When Sani came to me, she had a full polymer clay head. I wanted to make an elaborate headdress for her, but first I had to figure out how to attach it. I needed a layer of fabric and stuffing on her skull so I could sew all the headdress embellishments on. So, I got my dremel drill out, took a deep breath, and drilled 5 holes into her clay skull. Now, that was nerve wracking. Thankfully, all worked out well and I was able to attach a lightly stuffed fabric "patch" to her skull with glue-reinforced carpet tacks. Then I sewed on a kindof standy-uppy collar around the perimeter so the embellishments would frame her face. Next I sewed on tufts of multi-colored silk fibers unravelled from some cool woven upholstery fabric I had. And also some beige/tan silk fibers from another woven home decor fabric. Then on to the doodads - buttons, beads, bones, shells, a shark tooth, a peace sign, a spiral from an old earring, gourd seeds, brass rings, paper beads, etc. Oh, and a long braid of horse hair that I looped on each side of her face so that the tassel ends stick up at the top.

And here she is all decked out in her shamanic ceremonial headdress.

I wanted to include feathers in the headdress, but they're so easily damaged with handling, and Sani will be visiting 7 more artists before she's done. So I prepared some feathers (from my chickens) that can be added later (to her headdress or wherever), which I'll send along in the fragments envelope Yvonne included in Sani's journal.


I just love working on these collaborative dolls. Now to get busy on my pages for Sani's journal.

Cool-Aberration 2009 - Sani

Okay, so Sani is really Shimasani and is anatomically female. But she's actually a two-spirit, possessing the characteristic traits of both the male and female genders. She's been in training for many years to be the Shaman of her tribe. As Shaman, she'll guide her people in attaining the inner peace that is the only true path to world peace.
As custom demands, the final step in her shamanic training is to go out into the world alone and naked to assemble her shamanic costume and ceremonial tools. Her stay in NC is the first stop on her journey.
Before she could begin her transformation, Shimasani needed assistance from the bat spirit. The bat is the totem of initiation and rebirth and guides the Shaman initiate in correctly choosing her other tools. This is her bat spirit stick made from the vertebrae of the fox (the totem of cunning, wisdom and swift decisions) and the wood of the Mimosa tree (rapid growth).


Sani's major totem is the Peace Dove. I made her a basket woven of colorful fibers to carry her dove in. The dove was one of those chintzy red velvet-like Christmas decorations of yore that I altered. She rests inside the basket on a horse and dog hair liner taken from a real bird nest I found in my yard.





Obviously from all the pics, I'm quite taken with my wee basket. Looks like I need to make a similar one for myself.

Coming soon - Sani's shamanic headdress!

Cool-Aberration 2009 - Sani

When Sani arrived at my house, I recognized the features and skin tone as that of an American Indian. Not to mention that Sani is a masculine navajo name meaning "the old one". The first thing I did was paint his face, and lo & behold, turns out Sani is a she! Her real name is Shimasani (feminine "the old one") and Sani is her nickname.


More developments soon.

Cool-Aberration 2009 - Sani

I've started work on Sani, my first doll of the 2009 Art Doll Cool-Aberration project. Here, again, is what she looked like when she arrived in NC.

I'm not ready to show pics of my contributions yet, but soon.

Wanted you to see all of Yvonne's beautiful journal that will accompany Sani on her journey and will be worked in by each artist. Yvonne made a very cool fabric cover for her journal seen here.

The next pic shows the first page in the journal - a record of what Sani looked like when she left home.

Next is Yvonne's starting entry with the quote she chose to get us started on Sani.

Yvonne also included a page for pics of all the artists in the project. Very cool idea. (And the pics are only 1" x 1", so how bad can I manage to look in such a tiny image?)

Another great idea of Yvonne's was to include an envelope in which she sent 8 tiny charms - one for each of us. We're to choose a charm and then leave a little memento trinket or doodad (what Yvonne calls fragments) in the envelope for Yvonne. (This is actually what gave me the idea to send a tiny doll for each artist in Bravura's vase.)


The blank white pages are, of course, for the rest of us to journal on as Sani visits us - a record of her adventure.

THE DAVE FINALE!

And here he is - Dave in all his glory!

He can't model all his gear at once... Might scare the babes off if he had three dingle dangles! He's already begging to go to Surf City, NC. And he wants a pool table. Sigh. When is the boy gonna get a job??

This collaboration project has been so much fun. I loved working on all the dolls and journals, and I just love Dave and his journal. Thanks to Kris, Roslind, Em, Jen, Gloria and Susan for a memorable experience.

Now I'm off to work some more on Yvonne's Cool-Aberration 2009 doll!

Dave wraps up his journey

So off Dave flew all the way from OH to NJ under the power of his own wings. It's easy when you have two pairs!

I'm still not quite sure what happened with Dave in NJ with Gloria. He won't talk about it much. I'm assuming he got a little out of hand since Gloria's contribution was a box to lock Dave up in. :) Dave a handful!!


In WI with Susan, Dave ate a lot of dairy products and drank lots of beer. (Apparently Susan is more tolerant of that sort of thing than Gloria...)

Susan explained to Dave that what he wants is girls who want a little tail. So she gave him one. :) Since even that type of girl likes a bit of romance, she clued Dave in on increasing his chances by showing up with flowers.



Stay tuned for Dave's homecoming pic!

Back in the States, Dave Continues to Develop...

So Dave returned stateside having acquired many manly traits and skills.

In WA, Dave met Em who decided a manly warrior's chest plate and wings were in order. (For, as we saw earlier, Dave had long admired Pegasus and Superman and often fantasized about becoming a flying superhero himself...)


Even more importantly, Em gave Dave the essential manly equipment. And not just one penis. Oh no, Dave is now the very proud owner of a set of three interchangeable dingle dangles!
Looks like he's ready for any situation that might arise, huh? (How did he manage overseas without these???)
His journal entries capture what was on Dave's mind in WA. You guessed it - babes and boobs!



In Ohio, Jen introduced Dave to a bunch of fairies (the little winged kind, not gay guys.). The fairy girls liked Dave so much (probably that dingle dangle collection of his. :)) they made him an honorary fairy and gave him his own pixie wings.



Coming soon, Dave flies on to NJ and WI under the power of his own wings.