Cute as a Button

The idea for these original button-face dolls came to me in a dream. I was walking past the sale bin at a local fabric store when some big, sculptural, sassy German buttons in gorgeous colors started flirting with me. "Sorry, I'm in a committed relationship with a couple thousand other buttons already at my house," I thought. As I turned to go, the last words I heard as the store door closed behind me were a whispery "final clearance." I didn't look back. I woke up the next morning, though, haunted by a dream of those buttons with little polymer clay faces on them. I'd been completely hijacked. I went back to get a couple of the buttons to see if they'd stand up to firing the polymer, like I didn't already know it was fate. And then I went back and bought all the rest of those final clearance buttons, just in case everybody on the planet was going to want their very own button-face doll. I designed the prototype, and as I was working out the kinks in the pattern, the stories started coming into my head. Buttons and stories. Dreams and feathery boas. Beautiful fabric and satin slippers. Art, life, joy.

Walk Across

The long faces of the mountains are
blue with Sunday stubble,
some old neck’s
twin below in the
rocks, skin sagging
over brushy hollows,
melting along the arroyos and
tendons. Never mind.
Youth is death’s
flimsiest disguise.
On the lake the sun has laid down
silver so thick
you could
walk across to the other side.

Art, art, and more art

If the weather is a little gray where you are or you're feeling unspired, spend a few minutes checking out the Bridgeman Art archive, http://www.bridgemanart.com/. This is a broad, deep, and completely amazing collection of images of all kinds of art, available for viewing just by registering. It's searchable and easy to use, and it's guaranteed to take you someplace you've never been before. I've used it to research figure types, period costumes, or individual artists-- or just to browse--many times. Prepare to have your socks knocked off by this incredible resource!

Col. Filbert's Time Machine

Time Travel

It's my birthday today, at the beginning of a new year, and so, thinking of both the past and the future as we inevitibly do at this point in the calendar, it seems appropriate to post my just completed piece, Col. Filbert's Time Machine. He was made for the Central Texas Art Doll Sculptors' doll-in-a-year challenge and will accompany me to the national meeting of the Original Doll Artists Council of America in Anaheim in July. My fellow CTADS member, artist, and pal, Karin Otto Burfict, took the fab photos. See her incredible work at http://karinottoburfict.com/.


The time machine is made from an antique wooden clock, a belt/tie rack, a silver cruet basket, and an unfinished photo frame. The Colonel is sculpted from polymer clay and has a soft body built over a wire armature. His boots and aviator cap are glove leather, and his navigation system is constructed from a variety of watch/clock parts, scrapbooking ephemera, and metal and wood findings.

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.