Bravura Personified after her third visit

Here she is looking grand and snooty. She just left Karma who added her clay face, headdress, and ribbon flags to her skirt.





Sadly, Karma didn't have time to work in Bravura's journal. I'm pretty disappointed since the art journals are as crucial to the project as the dolls. She's promised to send some pages. I really hope she gets around to it so my journal doesn't end up with a hole in the middle.

On the bright side, that's the only dissapointment in the project so far. The players are really going all out in adding to the dolls and journals. Go check out the dolls' progress at http://artdollcoolab2009.blogspot.com/.

This may make you jealous...

Here's the thing you might covet... if you're into rusty metal treasures, that is.



A couple years ago, I bought a 5 gallon bucket half full of old cabinet and drawer pulls and embellishments at a nearby junk yard. Some of the stuff is junk, but there're lots of nice ones like I've shown. I'd planned to use some on birdhouses, but (of course) I haven't gotten around to building more birdhouses yet.

Well, today I wanted to make some doubloons for Em's doll, Persia the Pirate Queen. So I pulled out the decorative metal hardware to emboss and stamp the polymer clay doubloons. Here's what I've made so far.






The doubloons above are about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. I painted them with gold and antique gold acrylic paints. Then I was having so much fun, I decided to make a larger one.



This one is 3 1/2 inches in diameter. I used a hodgepodge of the metal designs to emboss it and then made the V (for my last name) over the embossed surface and embossed it, too. Not sure what it's supposed to be - just a pretty to stick in a display case, I guess.

Momiji Swap Doll

And here's the cool momiji doll I got from Jeanne in the Decidedly Different Dolls (3D) group swap. Momiji dolls have a secret compartment where a message can be concealed. Jeanne used a pill bottle. She made the head by paper mache-ing over a styrofoam ball that fits over the screw-on cap. I can't believe she did such a nice, detailed face with tissue paper paper mache. I love her little bobbed hair do.




Here she is with her head off and the message Jeanne included revealed.



I'll be storing my shark tooth collection in my momiji doll. So I'll have treasures inside a treasure!

Gift in the Mail!

Check out this gorgeous beaded bracelet my friend Jeanne sent me! I love this bracelet. I'm keeping it in my new display case when I'm not wearing it. It's too pretty to hide in the jewelry box. Jeanne makes gorgeous beaded dolls, too.




And look at the sweet little matching clasp she used. Perfect!

More Unearthed Treasures

This is Eugenia. I made her a couple years ago and just rediscovered her in my display case. I like Eugenia - she's tiny (less than 4 inches), but huge on attitude.

Forgotten Treasures

Found these cute little booklets when I was sorting thru my treasures for the new display case. I made these several years ago. The covers are handmade paper I made with dried flowers. And the lavender is my homegrown lavender, pressed and glued on. I believe these covers are all sealed with wax. They're about 5 1/2" X 4".

This is fun!

I bought an old glass front cabinet a year or so ago and I've been meaning to fix it up to display some dolls and other treasures. Well, I never have done anything to the outside of it, but this weekend I did a quicky job on the inside so I can use it. It had a horrible picture of a hot air balloon glued onto the inside back wall. I got rid of it by collaging over it with pages from some old farmers almanacs and sealing with shellac. I had a small open curio shelf that just happened to fit perfectly inside the cabinet.



This morning, I filled it up with treasures. There's still room for more small swap dolls. The cabinet is on my fireplace mantel surrounded by some paintings done by my mom and her father.



It was lots of fun going thru my treasures and organizing some of them in the new display box.