So-So...

This is the doll that I made for the Mother Earth Challenge for Cloth Paper Scissor. She's so-so, but I thought I'd go ahead & enter her. Why? Well, because she is all beads! Even the face is beaded. AND this is my own pattern. Let me tell you, working on such a small measurement requirement was tough. I can sew small, but this was SMALL! I wanted to do an assemblage piece that was three dimensional, and it worked. And yes, I made all those leaves one at a time. Not the prettiest doll I've made (what am I talking about, I don't do pretty), but she's cheerful.


Speaking of challenges...I actually know the person who won the Use The Muse III. I have a doll that Susan made me a couple years ago. Check out the other love pieces of work. We bought a kit from Scarlett Larson & had to make something with the beads & the what she calls "Muse" which this time was a copper butterfly. I had the hardest time as stupid me didn't read all the instructions when I first started to make it & was working on a doll...then I reread the instructions & saw it had to be jewelry. YIKES! So I had to rip all the beads off the doll and try to come up with something in only a weeks time. Taught me to really read! I'm not sure if I'll do the Use the Muse IV in the future. I thought the price of the kit was a little high for the quantity of the beads. But then I'm into cheap beads, so that is probably my problem.

I'm also thinking about my Bead Journal Project for 2010. I need to get those jars out & clean them up. I'm planning on going to a couple doll making conferences this year. I've already sent my check for the Gala here in Ohio, but have to think about MM&M in Kentucky. I'd love to go, but have to figure out if I have the time off. I better decide soon or else the spaces will fill up. Patti Culea is teaching there, and Judy Skeel has a cute puppet class in the evenings. Plus, it will just be nice get away. I have to figure out my schedule this week at work.

Speaking of...we finally hired a new tech! After four months we are full staff again...AND...I made a suggestion on training new people to give them more experience in multi tasking and was approved to come up with training schedule for off shift techs. Now that was a huge surprise to me as lab people are so stiff & traditional. But times are changing.

Scottie jewelry...finally

Scotties started me on this road. True! I wasn't interested in the internet back in 1989 until Chris told me there was a group called Scottie-L talking about their dogs. I joined and was hooked. I met so many people from that group, and they have changed my life. When I first started to make beaded jewelry 8 years ago, I did square stitch Scottie bracelets. I made so many of them that I got sick of doing them and haven't made anything since then. UNTIL...NOW! I've been playing around with poly clay and made a few cabs using some of my vintage Scottie button collection. So here are a couple things that I made. The earrings are a mold that I made using a very old Scottie button that has celluloid disease and was crumbling to pieces. So I decided to make the mold and keep that image with me. I made earrings from it. The second is a brooch that someone gave me many years ago. I thought is so cute and worked well this the earrings. Right now, I'm working on a Scottie bracelet just for me! And have ideas for other Scottie theme jewelry. So watch out Scottie people...I'm on a roll. BTW, these are going to my Terrier Twin from the AngelScot Yahoo Group.

I see that the deadline for BJP has come & gone. I think I read that we'll have over 200 people in 2010. That made me really think about what I want to focus on for next year. I have a theme. It is called "Secret Treasures". I want to recycle all these beautiful glass jars I have and make them hold keep sakes that I'm so afraid I'll lose if I don't find some place to put them. What kinds of treasures??? Well, I have a brooch that my Great Grandma Gray use to wear. It has lost some of the rhinestones, but I still want it & would be so upset if I lost it. I also have SkyeBlue's puppy teeth and last name tag. There are other things. Some silly, some great, all treasures to me.

Use the Muse III

In three days the big reveal for the Bead the Muse III and there is a give away from ArtBeads.com.

This was my first time doing the challenge. I think for me the hardest part was to think how to take the "Muse" and try to incorporate it into something that if seen without my name it would be recognized as being "Dot". If you don't know me, then I'll tell you what that is...a beaded doll! But the rules were that it had to be some piece of jewelry. Yikes, even more of a challenge. So for me I had to make a doll small enough to be a brooch, could handle the size of the Muse & incorporate the other seed beads into play. I used my Palm Prayer doll form as the base & made a piece filled with the colors of Autumn which was when I made it. I enjoyed the colors & had fun working with the fibers. Don't know if what I did was unique enough, but I sure did get a kick out of adding that Muse!


My boss gave me 5 copies of This Week Westerville that had the article about my beaded dolls in it. My sister got 5 more, so I have enough for me & to share. I sure hope that more people consider voting for the Land of Odds challenge. All the dolls are just wonderful.

dot

Newspaper article

Here is the link to see the article that Jennifer Nesbitt from This Week Westerville wrote about me & my beaded dolls. She came to interview me about my being a finalist in the Land of Odds Earthern Mother beaded doll challenge. It was so much fun & now I actually have a bit of local publicity. I really liked the article and think she did one bang up job. Now to get people to vote on the website.

Here is a picture of me holding my Global Warming doll which started my thoughts about Rachel Carson and Silent Spring. I also have "Getting Motivated" in my arms which was my piece for AFIC. And yes, that is my work area with all my beaded dolls hanging on the wall behind me. They give me inspiration!

Rachel's Dream again

So what in the world is this???? It is a picture taken from above to show Rachel's Dream as if you were sitting in the limb of a tree looking down at Mother Earth painting the flowers. Why am I showing this? Well, I have some exciting news. Last night I got an e-mail and a phone call from a reporter from This Week Westerville which is our local community paper. She asked if she could do a feature article about me & my beaded dolls. You know I said yes! So tomorrow afternoon she & a photographer are coming to do an interview with me about Rachel's Dream & my other beaded dolls. We chatted on the phone a bit & when she asked me what was my influence while working on this challenge, I told her about how I'd been interested in Rachel Carson ever since last year when I was working on a Global Warming doll. I gave her a quick little talk about Rachel & how to me she is the Earthen Mother of the Enviromental Protection Movement, and how our world is a much much better place due to Silent Spring.

SO....I had to clean up my studio which was a disaster after this past week of the magazine article & teaching two classes. Dogs were major stink! so they all got baths & of course, my gray was showing...so now a quick color for me. Whew...I'm excited & can't wait to see their expressions when they see all my beaded creations.

On another note...my baby brother closed on his new house today. YEAH! He has to be out of his old house by Saturday at noon. Looks like my SIL won't be cooking a thing this year.

New doll for publishing

So here is the doll for the March issue of Doll Crafter & Costuming...whew! I have never done a doll so fast from start to finish. Thank goodness I actually can live up to my blog name. The new editor asked me if I could share a beading technique with the readers...naturally I said yes, but I only had 14 days not including time to ship to them. I tried several new patterns which were dimensional, but Chris reminded me that I should simplify things and instead of trying to teach the whole shebang, to concentrate on only a few things. So I pulled out an old "pancake" pattern from my folder of doll forms that work for me, and started there. I actually got to play with a few new products that I learned about while at the Bead Unique Retreat. I really love the Wire Lace and decided to not encrust the doll's body with beading, but to use this wonderful product. Then the face (I made this BEFORE) & became sensitive to the product, but I love the product so much. I'm going to let Chris do all the Magic-Glos work for me. And can you believe...ME making people sew individual pieces to make the fabric skirt. Let me repeat that...Fabric skirt! Not beaded...fabric. Yep, I'm laughing too...who would ever believe I'd sit in front of "Hal" and make wee bitty fabric leaves. HAH! The beading techniques for the article is the hair which I just adore. Nice close up picture too. It is with my old Nikon CoolPix 950. People at work laugh because it is SO BIG...but it takes awesome close up pictures to be so old. I used the bead mix soup that I bought from Beki from Whim beads. And I also wrote about doing a single bead edging technique. Chris has come up with brand new 3-D graphics for me. I'm hoping to get him to digitize all my graphics for the future...can you tell that is a hint! But here she is Blossom for Spring!

Ideas on how to bead faces