Chen Fu's Lovebird

I made Chen Fu's Lovebird for my final ODACA jury. I'm packing him up tonight to send to the collector who bought him at the meeting in Chicago. He's about 18 inches tall on his base. His face and hands are polymer clay, he has overpainted glass eyes, and his beard, mustache, eyebrows, and queue are mohair. The lovebird is epoxy clay.

The Countess of Checkered Past

This is the piece that I made for the ODACA second round jury. The full title is "The Countess of Checkered Past Ponders Her Next Move." She is about ten inches tall, seated, and made of polymer clay with a soft body built over a wire armature. I used more than a dozen different fabrics or trims in her costume and stand, from hand-dyed lace to vintage sari silk, and her rollerblades are sculpted from polymer clay. She sits on a column of real checkers, and her hat is a stack of black and red checkers hand-sewn from miniature hat straw. While the Countess clearly has made some interesting choices in her life, she's looking ahead, not back, and she's ready to hit the track again . . . just as soon as she decides which direction to go.

It's Official

I'm just home from Chicago and so happy to report that I am now officially an Artist Member of Original Doll Artist Council of America (ODACA). This past year's odyssey of creating and critiques has truly been a growth experience, and although I have learned much, I know in my polymer clay bones that I have only begun. As a part of three supportive and amazing groups of artists--CTADS (Central Texas Art Doll Sculptors), TAODA (Texas Association of Original Doll Artists); and now ODACA--I look forward to new work, new friendships, and new adventures. I hope to be posting more regularly, and I also hope you'll be following as I showcase some older pieces as well as works in progress.

Meanwhile, if you're going to be in Houston over the next few weeks, I'll have two pieces in a show, Dolls Now, at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) that opens on July 31. There's also a reception on August 5, if you're able to stop by.

Shelly the Singing Dragon

Wow, it's been an incredibly long time since I've posted, but a lot has happened in the past 16 months. I haven't been idle, so the next few posts will feature some of the things I've worked on lately. Just over a year ago, I joined an amazing group of talented artists who belong to the organization Central Texas Art Doll Sculptors. I couldn't begin to tell you all I've learned from them, but I'll show you what I made at the first retreat I went to. We were all using an armature for a snail doll, but of course, coloring outside the lines, I decided to make a dragon. Several especially cool things happened to make this piece unique. First, I had taken with me a package of small shells that, as it turned out, seemed ideal for the dragon's spines. Then CTADS member Karin Otto Burfict asked me if I'd like to use her dragon scale tool to finish the skin. I didn't even know there was such a thing! And the glitzy dried stems that Marilynn Huston had brought were the perfect touch to represent the dragon's song. Shelley the Singing Dragon has been waiting almost a year to make her debut. She hopes you like her!