I'm Still Here :0)

Greetings on this brisk winter morning, the last of 2017. I can't believe I haven't posted since the beginning of November. Well, to be perfectly honest, I can totally believe it :0)

Since I last checked in I've completed 3 additional classes, which is why I have been so quiet. I have 10 more to go before I graduate with my degree in Business: Human Resource Management. I plan to complete those 10 classes by September so it is going to be a long, busy year.

With that said, I will be participating in the 2018 Polymer Clay Challenge being hosted by Katie over at Kater's Acres. This will be my third year participating and while I haven't completed 52 of anything, each year I do more. This year I am going to continue to focus on sculpting heads. I love all the personalities that I create.

Here are some of the ones from this year

I smile every time I look at them. I'll be posting a recap of my 2017 projects next month along with plans for 2018.

I haven't finished my Ball Jointed Doll yet but she is sitting front and center in my studio (if you look in the top picture in the top right corner you will see her). I have a lot of ideas for her costume and keep gathering Steam Punk supplies. I did work on her a bit yesterday, I had to tighten the elastic that holds her legs on. Next up is to sculpt a new arm and new feet for her, then the costuming will begin.

I am also working on a new contest entry for Art Doll Quarterly's next contest. The theme is Haunted Fairy Tales. This is right up my alley and I am really excited about it so I took a break from studying yesterday to work on making some zombie eyes. I'll post more about that later this week.

I will still be here. Time management is something that I am getting pretty good at, along with knowing what is important and worth the time and what to let go of. I know that I have to make time for the fun and creative, along with family, friends and health, or I will burn out and not be able to concentrate on school.

Ball Jointed Doll Update - Makeup!

I have been working hard to complete a macroeconomics class and haven't had too much time to do anything fun. Today is my final... wish me luck :0)

Here are the most recent pictures of my Ball Jointed doll.

She has makeup! Yes it is gold and dramatic. She is a steampunk girly after all. I may add a bit more eyeliner but not until she is costumed. I still need to style her hair and will then start on her costume. I have a pile of cool things to play with once I get to that point.



Her left arm is getting replaced before I make her costume. It isn't seated properly in the shoulder joint and I want to fix that before I move on. I love that I can fix things like arms, hands, feet... without destroying the doll.

I am very happy with how she is turning out. I won't be able to get to her for at least another 2 weeks due to my crazy schedule but I'll get to her!

Ball Jointed Doll Update - She has Hair!

This project has been fun and I've learned so much while creating this doll. When I make another one there are things I will do differently but overall I am pleased with how she is turning out.

I didn't get her done in time to enter the contest but I'm OK with that. I had too much going on with my family to worry about finishing a doll and I didn't want to rush her costume.

I was happy to get to work on her this week and now she has hair!

I've never made a wig cap for a doll before. It was not difficult, just time consuming since I had to wait for it to dry before I added the hair.

Wig Cap - Drying

Wig Cap - Cut to Fit

Hair! 

Profile 

Hair - Dried and Ready for final Styling

I am very happy with her hair. I will be adding some smoothing oil to it - just a tiny bit - to tame it and the will be adding some curls on both sides of her face. She will be getting some steampunk goggles or a top hat so I won't be doing anything to the top of her hair.  

Her face still needs to be painted, her wig does come off so that won't be a problem! Aside from the initial wait time, making the wig was simple and I love the possibilities of changing her hair.

Next steps... face and body painted then costume. We are in the home stretch. Once she is done I will be working on a Pirate to go with my mermaid for Art Doll Quarterly's "Ahoy Matey" contest and then a doll for their "Haunted Fairy Tales" contest.

Thanks for stopping by!

Steam Punk Ball Jointed Doll - Update

With everything going on there was no way I would be able to finish this sweet doll before the contest ended but I am going to finish her.

Here she is with her "wig cap" drying. She is not happy right now but soon she will have lovely red hair and that will make her very happy. I may do another wig just for fun and give her sassy blonde hair. I figure since I am going to all the trouble of making a wig instead of gluing the hair directly to her head, I may as well make 2 wigs - because I can!

Here are some of the fabrics I found. I don't know if I will be using any or all of them on her but I am really excited to get her costume done. I also have a box full of leather, lots of gears, watch and clock parts and fabulous other metal embellishments to use to create her Steam Punk outfit.

Once I finish her costume I will be going back and redoing her left arm, her hands and her feet. Her left shoulder joint is off so her arm sticks our at a weird angle, her hands are too big and her feet are too small. That is part of the beauty of the Ball Jointed Doll. I can fix those issues without destroying the doll. I can give her more expressive hands, change her hair, arms, legs, hands, feet... I can continue to work on improving this doll - forever! I won't, but I can :0)

The nice thing about that plan is that I will be making a removable costume which takes me back to my cloth doll roots. I used to make cloth dolls with lots of different outfits for my daughter. She was nowhere near as fascinated as I was with dolls...sigh!

I'll post more about her once her hair is done.

Update to Updated Week 34 Head - She is Painted

In this post I showed you the changes I made to my week 34 #2017PCChallenge head. I added more clay to "flesh out" the face and it improved it immensely.

I finally got around to using the Genesis Heat Set paints to paint her. I've haven't really used these paints too much so this was an experiment. I found that I need different paint brushes so that I have better control and I also need to mix some different colors for blushing before I do this again. Since I love to shop for tools I will be paying a visit to the craft store soon.

Here she is:

Before Adding Cheeks

Cheeks Added

Using Genesis Heat Set Paints

There is always a learning curve when you learn to use a new medium. These paints are interesting and give a sheer, realistic color to the face. I will need to add additional layers to get the look I want but overall I am pleased with my first real shot at painting a face with these paints. 

2017 Polymer Clay Challenge Update

It's been a fun and crazy year so far. A lot has happened on the home front, some good, some not so good but I have still been sculpting away. I think next year for the Polymer Clay Challenge I will be working on making dolls out of all of these heads. I am getting quite a collection of heads in my studio. Some a fantastic, some are interesting and some are odd, all of them are mine and I am happy with each of them. Every head that I create teaches me something.

I made the eyes for each of the following heads using a technique developed by Apryl Jensen of Makingfairies.com. She is a very talented artist and the tutorial for Luminescent Eyes is free with a $30 purchase on her website. Here is a link to her tutorial page.

Here are some of the heads that I completed for the #2017PCChallenge that I have not posted yet:

Lush lips. Green Eyes. I'm thinking red hair! I may have to add some more to the lower part of the face to balance out those lips but we shall see once I start playing with hair. She doesn't look as odd in person, the angle of the picture makes here look stranger than she is!

Love those lavender eyes! I'm very please with this one. Not sure who she is yet but I am sure she will let me know soon. 

This is a happy elf. He came together pretty quick. 

Another happy elf. This one will be getting more freckles. This sweet elf was born while I waiting for my husband to get our of surgery last week. She is smirking, maybe because I was spread out on the table in the surgery waiting room playing with clay while all the other people were sitting quietly, reading or watching TV. I got some odd stares but sculpting soothes me so I didn't care! 

Zombie Doll Swap - What I Sent

***The package finally arrived yesterday so I am re-posting what I sent****

The package I sent for the Yarnigras Swapper Spot Party Zombie swap should arrive today. Since the person I sent it to has no idea it was me I wanted to share what I sent out.

I give you Bride Zombie

I had such a great time making Bride Zombie. I felt a little bad that she had to be a zombie but she loved her dress, even after it was gored up!

Included in the swap package with Bride Zombie was a fun Halloween jar with a sculpted pumpkin on the cork, one of my 3" sculpted pumpkins and some fun goodies - Halloween tissues, giant googly eyes and a couple other silly things.

As always, this was a great swap and I am so happy with how this zombie turned out.I had a very hard time sending her on her way. Hopefully her new mom will like her.

She is fully pose-able and stands on her own. Her veil is removable and she also has a bouquet of roses. Her dress is made from a ribbon embroidered lace that I purchased in the fabric district in Los Angeles a couple years back. It was exactly what I needed for Bride Zombie.

Before Baking

Before Costume was Zombified

 Close up of Bride Zombie after painting and costuming

Exposed Brain... Of course!

Back view and boquet

Halloween Jar with sculpted Pumpkin cork

With Veil

Thank you to Val at Yarnigras Swapper Spot for hosting amazing Zombie swaps! I am so honored to be part of the group :0)

Swap Package Delivery Delayed

I am so disappointed. The package that I sent has been delayed. I don't know when it will be delivered so I pulled the post off the website until it arrives. I will put it back up as soon as the package gets to its new home.

Zombie Swap Received!

My swap package arrived from the Zombie swap and it is so amazing!! It contains some pretty darn fabulous things including a fantastic Birthday girl zombie doll complete with gift and birthday balloon (:0) So Happy) as well as a box of shrunken heads, a zombie head wine cork, a super cook cork pumpkin, a Brains apron, Frankie's fingers pens and a couple of spiders. BUt wait... there is more, there is a song... a Zombie birthday song - swoon!

I had so much fun opening this package. And the coolest thing... Val... the hostess WAS MY PARTNER :0)

Swap Package

Amazing Zombie Birthday Girl

Shrunken Heads

Cork Pumpkin

Wine Cork :0) LOVE

Frankie's Fingers Pens - Totally taking these to work

The birthday Song - yes I've been singing this all day!

Yarnigras Swapper Spot Zombie Doll Swap Update

Here is a sneak peek of the zombie I am sending to my swap partner. She doesn't know that it is from me and I don't want to give too much away so this is all I am posting until she receives it!

This was taken before being baked and painted. It looks a LOT different now. I will post a completed picture once it arrives at its new home :0)

Once Upon a Steampunk Fairy Class with Deb Wood!

I am so excited! I bought myself an early birthday present. I am going to be attending a live sculpting workshop with the amazing Deb Wood in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida in April 2018 (my birthday month!). Deb Wood is the artist behind Enchanted Hearts dolls as well as the International Art Doll Registry.

This class is being hosted by another amazing artist, Adele Sciortino, the creator of A for Artistic online store/classroom and an artist whose dolls and costuming are extraordinary! If you are not familiar with her website you should really check it out. Here you will find are a large variety of online doll making classes for many different doll making mediums(fabric, clay...). The site is beautiful and the classes that I have taken through it are well throught out, thorough and worth every penny spent!

I have wanted to take a class with both of these talented artists for many years and I am really looking forward to this. The fact that the theme is Steampunk makes it even better! I will post my preparations for class (shopping for steampunk themed supplies - swoon!) as well as pics from class once I am there. Thanks for sharing in my excitement!

Ball Jointed Doll - Sculpting Done

 Sculpting Complete

Well, she isn't perfect and she doesn't stand on her own (yet) but I'm pretty happy with her. I am going to make some adjustments with the elastic to see if that will make a difference but my main goal is to make her wig and start costuming! The theme for this contest is Steampunk. I have so many ideas, now to translate them to a costume.

 

Standing - not quite on her own

You'll have to excuse my messy studio! I have been working on several things at once and it shows. I am leaving next week for my daughter's wedding so I am hoping to finish her this weekend. I'll post pictures once she has hair and then again with her costume!

Ball Jointed Doll - Update

She is coming along. I have some work to do before I can finish her. The leg elastic needs to be lengthened, her hands are too big so I need to make new ones and one of her shoulders is too big so I will redo the whole piece. The most important thing that I found is that her neck needs to be reinforced so that it does not crack. I had her legs strung and her head on and I noticed a crack starting along the neck line of her head. I will be reinforcing the neck ring and then painting and blushing everything so that I can string her. I think I can get this done today. Once she is strung I will start on her wig cap (one more thing I've never done :o)

This has been an interesting process. I've enjoyed learning how things fit together, what I need to do to help things fit together and most importantly how to string the elastic which shows me more things I need to do to make everything work together.

To be completely honest, I never thought I would try to tackle a Ball Jointed Doll. I always though it to be beyond my skill level. But I saw a contest on ArtDolls.com... and I bought the kit... and I watched the videos.. and while it is very time consuming it has been fun and I have learned that if I push myself my skill level increases.

I have several other projects that I need to get started on asap so I hope to at least finish sculpting and building her today! (fingers crossed). I'll update as soon as she is standing!

Zombie Doll Swap 2018

I will be participating in Yarnigras Swapper Spot's Zombie doll swap again this year. The theme for this year's swap is Party. So once I find out what kind of party my partner wants her Zombie to attend I will get started. I love sculpting zombies. I get to experiment with texture and gore.

Val has been hosting the Zombie Doll swaps for quite some time and I have had so much fun making dolls for the challenges. There have been fairy tale zombies, Alice in Wonderland zombies. Pin Cushion zombies and many more.

Stay tuned... I'll share more as I get started.

Updated Week 34 Face

Last week I posted about my 2017 Polymer Clay Challenge head for week 34. I was happy with it but there was just something about it that was nagging at me. So I grabbed it and took it outside to look at it in the bright sun.

The face was FLAT! I had to fix that so I added cheeks.

 Before

 

After 

After 

 I'll be painting this one and hopefully finishing up the Ball Jointed doll this weekend.

Bowl Swap - Complete

I received my polymer clay bowls from the bowl swap this week.

I am really happy with them. They are all different and each used different techniques. Seeing the possibilities has been great.

Here is a sample of the bowl I sent:

My Design using a swirly cane

Here are the bowls that I received in the swap.

From above

WOW! So pretty. Delicate Silver Paint

Reminds me of a Mermaid tail

Inside of the Mermaid Bowl

Lovely Iridescent Wavy Bowl

With a beautiful textured bottom

I'm glad I decided to join in on the swapping fun. Not only did I have a great time making bowls, now I have some different bowls to learn from.