Bottle Doll Published!

My doll, She Emerged Triumphant From Her Exile (To the Attic), was chosen for publication in Art Doll Quarterly Magazine's Bottle Doll Challenge. I'm thrilled, of course! Here's a scan of her page in ADQ. (She's the top doll.)



There are some really great bottle dolls in that issue of ADQ. You need to check it out.

Black Tie in a Box

Last time I showed these guys, they didn't have feet. Well, now they do, complete with tiny upholstery thread shoelaces. The shoes themselves are acrylic painted poly clay.


These have come along slowly over the past coupla years. When I first found the skulls, I was amazed at how much they resembled tuxedo clad torsos with hands in pockets. First I made them little paper mache heads on sticks that slide down into their skull torsos. A year or so later, I made the paper mache bow ties. Just recently, I added the shoes and called them done!

I really love these little guys. I love the skull torsos. I love their misshapen little noggins. I love their black & white-ism. So much so that I gave them a special display box to live in. I was hunting for an appropriate glass-fronted box when I came across the perfect one for FREE! It was a Wild Turkey display case that arrived with the Plexiglas broken in shipping. (I work at a liquor store.) I brought it home, painted it, gave it new hardware, had a glass pane cut to fit, and Voila! My Black Tie guys have a home.

Off to Florida!

Nah, not me. Just a coupla dolls I sent to an old school friend who lives in Florida now. We've recently reconnected via email. Who knows, tho - I may have to ship myself down there sometime so we can do some thrift shopping together...

This doll is fabric and fibers wrapped on a stick with a poly clay face. Also some feathers, beading, stitching, skewed acorn boobies, copper wire,,, She's about 7 inches tall.


This is one of the goddess dolls I used to sell at the coffee shop. Fabric wrapped stick, nut head, beads and other metal doodads. I think she's about 7 inches not including her extended arms.

Kiss my Hand with a 'Kiss my Ass' Attitude

That's what this queen has. She's my latest creation (and a long time coming, huh?). I'm not a real prolific crafter. :) And my photography skills seem to be gettin' worse instead of better. I HATE taking pics of inanimate objects. Oh well, here she is as best I can do with my limited motivation and even more limited skill in the art of photography.

I was just starting this doll when I read that Art Doll Quarterly magazine's next challenge is Bottle Dolls. So I'll probly mail her off to them as a challenge entry sometime before September. Anyhow, I started with a cruet bottle. I was eyeing it up, thinking the cap would make a good crown, when it came to me that I could also use the bottle as a skirt. From there, of course I started in with the paper mache...



Her crown is filled with tiny dried roses from my garden. Her hair is regular old household string painted, and adorned with decorative tacks.


Her bottle skirt is also filled with my dried rosebuds and petals. I created a bottom ruffle with an upside down glass dish that is painted on the underside and embellished with a string of glass beads.


I did some texturing on her paper mache torso and gave her a collar that resembles leaves or petals. Also a 'clump' of glass beads at her neckline.


Her waist ruffle is paper mache that I molded over the glass dish used as her bottom ruffle, topped off with some tulle home decor trim and a couple dried and shellacked rosebuds.


Small oyster shells made great hands.


The old queen looked kinda lonely, so I made her a fuzzy wool doggy with a tiny macrame and beaded collar, french knot curls on her head and tail, and tiny seashell ears. She's mincing around on a metal 'ribbon' leash.


The queen is about 14 inches tall and her friend, Sir Floof, is only 2 3/4 inches tall. I think I'm gonna title this piece "She Emerged Triumphant From Her Exile (to the Attic)". (Yeah, I know it's long, but I've always loved long titles.) The reference to her attic exile is cos she has a kind of chipped and marred antiquey look to her patina.

Yippee!

I finally got my copy of the Summer 2011 issue of Art Doll Quarterly magazine. Why is that so exciting? Cos two of my tiny dolls were chosen for the Tiny Doll Challenge feature! So, of course, my issue got lost in the mail. And then the replacement issue took it's own sweet time getting here. But, finally, it's here - my first ever published dolls. Alas, published under the wrong name - Gail Vanderbout as opposed to the real me, Gail VandenBout. But, whatever... they's mine!

Here's a scan of 'my' page:


And... my little fortune doll even made the Table of Contents page! Next up, Cover Girl! Hee hee.

Poly Clay Magnets

Made these polymer clay magnets for my brother to enclose with the computer boards he's donating for prizes in a contest.

Paper Doll

Well, I decided to try making a paper doll for a change. Here's the start of my first.


She's an 8" tall (legless) flapper (I love flappers!), and is actually made of cardboard with a layer of paper mache and some fringed fabric at the hem of her dress. More later as she progresses.

Meet Audacity

Got a new art doll collaboration starting up! Art Doll Cool-Aberration 2010. This time there are seven of us participating and we'll wrap up in May.

Here's Audacity, my doll start, and her travel journal. Audacity is a paper mache form built on a stick, not quite 7" tall. She's sporting an old decorative metal hardware piece.




Her journal is also paper mache and 7.5" X 4.5".





I'll be sending Audacity off to Mary Anne in Canada very soon. Can't wait to get my first doll from Yvonne in Texas!

Totem Dolls

Messing around with paper mache again. These little totems are decorated with colored sections of the newspaper. Twine hair. The larger one (about 5" tall) is a rattle. The small one woulda been a rattle, but I got impatient and dried him in the microwave, and he ended up not having a hollow inside after that. Oops. :)

A Black Tie Affair

Animal skulls, sticks, paper mache.

Happy Birthday to ME!!

My little paper mache Birthday Queen.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's my little paper mache Valentine Queen.

Happy New Year!

When we were little, my Mom bought a 'birthday angel' for each of us four kids. The angels were about 5 inches tall and each held something related to the birthday month. I still have my angel who's holding a heart, since my birthday's in February. Now I've decided to make myself a set of 'special occasion' dolls, a doll each for New Years, Valentine's Day, my birthday, St Patrick's Day, Easter, May Day, July 4th, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Instead of angels, I'm making little paper mache queens about 5 1/2 inches tall. This is my first - The New Year's Queen.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Just a little icicle angel I made for a friend.

Peace doll swap

Here's the Peace Doll I received from my swap partner, Brenda. She has the cutest little feet in tiny sandals.

Christmas Icicle Dolls

Made these ornaments for my brother's girlfriend and her daughter to hang on their tree.

Pretty Package

This is what I found in my mailbox yesterday.



I love that Shawn (my 3D swap partner) wrapped the package in gift wrap. Such a pretty surprise to find in the mailbox. And inside, a pretty Christmas angel.


Thanks, Shawn!

Peace, man

The 3D group hosted a doll swap to commemorate 2009 being the 50th anniversary of the peace symbol in the US. Here's the tiny doll I made for Leslie.



I happen to love peace signs, so I had several kinds to choose from.

I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my Christmas and Peace dolls from my swap partners. You'll see 'em right after I do. :)

Christmas is upon us

This is the Christmas ornament doll I made for the 3D group swap.



I was making an angel, but she reminded me of a mermaid... So I decorated her with real seashells that I painted gold. Her face is an earring I picked up in a thrift shop, and she has a spiral halo and a wing of painted chicken feathers.

Princess Bitchinbrat

Princess Bitchinbrat
was certainly that,
her utterances all curses.

Even from birth,
she lacked in mirth,
and scared off all her nurses.

She had no mates,
and nary a date.
In fact, from her all hid.


Queen Mother despaired
lest she never pair,
and, indeed, she never did.