Almost Done

This year has been busy. I completed my Bachelor's degree then moved right into a Master's program. Fortunately, the program I am in allows me to work at my own pace. Since I am totally focused on school, I will be done by March. I am really looking forward to having a life again! I miss my blog, I miss sculpting and I miss relaxing ;0)

I will see you soon...

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

I hope your day is filled with love, laughter, family and friends!

Debbie

Employable Zombie Swap... Meet Brit

It's been a while since I posted. My dad has been in the hospital since early October and I am half-way through my Master's program so its been a bit of a rough time.

Here is the zombie that I received in the zombie swap:

Brit the zombie Hair Dresser

Zombie Swap...

I had such a great time with my zombie doll for Yarnigras Swapper Spot's zombie swap this year. It was sent to it's new home on Saturday.

This year's swap was for "employable" zombies. We chose three professions and our swap partner selected one them to use as the zombie's theme.

My partner sent me the following list:
Nurse
Pilot/Flight Attendant
Secretary


I almost went with pilot but I went a different direction.

Now that she has arrived to her new home I can share some pictures...

Meet Josie... Zombie Nurse

  These swaps are so much fun. Not only do I get to make (and receive) a zombie, I get to shop or make other fun things for my swap partner.

 Above is the package I sent. I made a pumpkin. The scrapbook paper was too fun to pass up (I got one for myself as well) and the mug!! Oh boy, I love that mug.

New Etsy Shop Coming Soon

 ArtsyZombies

I am SO excited. I have been toying with this idea for a while now and have decided to open an Etsy shop devoted to zombies! That is right, an entire Etsy shop filled with one-of-a-kind sculpted zombies.

I am almost done my zombie for the Yarnigras Swapper Spot Zombie swap and once I send it on its way I will be working on a couple for my new store, ArtsyZombies. The shop is open but the only thing in it is one of the tiny dolls I made a while back, she is a cutie but not a zombie. I had to add a listing to open the shop :)

The picture above is my current shop icon. If you are familiar with my blog this is my Cinderella's Revenge sculpture. I haven't decided if I can part with her or not so she isn't in the shop.

I'll be updating policies, FAQs and the storefront this weekend.

Thanks for stopping by

D

2018 Zombie Swap- Employable Zombies

I am so excited to once again take part in Val's Zombie Swap. This year we are doing Employable Zombies... gardener, chef, fashion model... I can't wait.

There are still a couple of days left to join. If you want to get in on the fun head over to YarniGras Swapper Spot

New Zombie

Here is my latest zombie. I can't wait to paint him and see him "come alive" ;0) He will be 12 inches tall when I am done. I am not sure of anything else yet but I am sure he will tell me as I go along.

My Tribe

I spent the past week with my local sculpting tribe. As I was drafting my post about the work I created in the Kate church class I was thinking about how much "more" I have become since I took my first sculpting class.

It was a fluke! I had just joined a doll 'list' through yahoo groups and the very first week I saw a post about a doll class. I read through it and saw that it was in my town so I did an internet search for the Artist... Wendy Froud. as you can imagine I signed up immediately.

Not only did I fall in love with the art form, I feel in love with the people. Artists are a special breed, they push the limits, try new things and engage. Just being in the room at that first class was powerful. My first doll was not pretty. I had the least amount of knowledge in that class but I knew I had found something special.

The class introduced me to several local artists and I was invited to be part of a local sculpting group. Nothing formal, just a group of artists interested in the art of the doll. We get together once a month. Sometimes we work on projects, sometimes we just talk.

These women have become my friends, my artistic tribe. I admire them, enjoy their company and get to share their lives and art. Some of them are very well know in the Doll Art world, some are accomplished artists in other mediums, all of them are amazing. It has been an honor and privileged to be part of this group.

My art has brought me so much. I realized this week that every class I go to brings new people into my life. Some for a small time, some for life. My artist tribe has changed me. I have learned to push forward with my art, bend the rules and leap over boundaries. I've been exposed to new styles, new techniques, new materials and so much more. I've grown as an artist and as a person because of my tribe.

I am more because of my tribe. More confident, more engaged - not only with the art world, but with my family, and overall I am more present in my world.

Thank you to all of the people who have been part of my art world, those who read my blog, those whose classes I have taken and those amazing women that I call friend!

Class Progress

I love taking classes from world class artists. I have been so fortunate in that respect. I have a friend who knows people :0) and she seeks out artists and brings them to our area. From her I've also learned to seek out artists that inspire me and I look for classes taught by them. Traveling to a class and meeting new people who love the art of the doll as much as I do is fantastic!

Since April I've had the privileged of taking classes from both Deb Wood and Kate Church. Two completely different women with different styles of art, both of which are amazing.

Their styles of teaching are similar and different at the same time. Both of these talented artists are genuine, friendly and funny. Both share their talents, ideas, tips and tricks with others. They don't hold back. If you ever get the chance to take a class from either of them - TAKE IT!

Here is a picture of my project from the Kate Church class. I will be finishing it up this weekend and will post a picture of the final project then.

I am thrilled with this project. These two classes have re-energized me. My skills have improved, I am more confident in my work and I am having fun with my sculpting.  I am ready to start working on my own designs again!

Kate Church Class

Image from the NIADA website

I am so excited! I will be taking a 3 day doll make class with the lovely and talented Kate Church this weekend. We will be making a doll sitting on a wheeled animal(similar to above)... I promise to show you my project once it is done.

I have taken several workshops from Kate and I am looking forward to this one. She is generous and kind and shares so much of her knowledge.

Check back soon for a picture of my project.

New Toy!

Cricut Maker (image from Joann.com)

For graduation my mom wanted to get me something fun, something that she knew I would enjoy but wouldn't buy for myself so she got me the Cricut Maker die cut machine.

I have an industrial die cut machine from when I owned my retail store but it is old and heavy. Don't get me wrong, I still love it but this new machine does everything that my old industrial machine does and more. It is also lighter, quieter, and much smaller. Hobby technology has finally caught up to my beloved Pazzle pro.

The only thing I don't like about Cricut is their design space software. It is very limiting. To create new designs I still need to use my Pazzle software or Adobe Illustrator. I will learn their software but I'm sure I'll be using my own software since it is much more powerful and once I design something I can upload it to design space... an extra step but so much easier than trying to work in design space.

Overall I am thrilled with this new toy. I've already created a cutting file for a top hat to fit the size dolls I make. I need to make a few adjustments to the pattern but it cut beautifully and I can resize it to the exact size I need.

I see lots of fun ways to utilize this machine in my sculpting. Mostly for making clothing. I am working on a bustier pattern and a skirt pattern. Once I get a basic pattern designed I can customize and resize it as needed. Now if I only had a few weeks off work to play!

Next up... heading to a Kate Church class

Steampunk Fairy Pictures

Here are some additional pictures of the Steampunk Fairy I created during the Deb Wood class in Florida. 

I'm back... Steampunk Fairy Class pic

I am finally able to relax... I finished my degree. I'm heading to Las Vegas soon to walk in the graduation ceremony. I am taking the summer off and then we'll see. I may go back to complete my MBA, I may not :0)

Below is a picture of the steampunk fairy I made in the Deb Wood class I took in Florida. To say my skill level increased is an under-statement! Deb is an amazing instructor. She didn't take over, she instructed. When I had a problem or just couldn't' figure something out she would show me, but she would not do it all for me. 

I am thrilled with how this turned out. I am looking forward to sculpting more often now that school is over. 

I will post more pictures of class and this amazing fairy soon.

Now that school is over I am going to finish the ball jointed steampunk doll.

Thanks for sticking around!

Quick Update

Lately my life has been crazy. I seem to say that a lot but this time it was truly out of control. In March I had to make an emergency trip to Virginia because my dad was very ill and not expected to survive, fortunately he did and is now home and recovering nicely! He is the most amazing man I know and I am so thankful that he is on the mend. I'll be heading back to Virginia later this summer for a fun visit :0)

Being off work, unexpectedly, for over a week left me way behind. It took me a week to catch up. We just started our busy time (which goes through September) so I haven't stopped since I got back.

And then this....

I leave on Tuesday for Ft. Lauderdale, FL to take part in the Once Upon a Steampunk Time class being taught by Deb Wood and hosted by Adele Sciortino! I have wanted to take classes with both of these amazing, talented ladies for a long time and next week I will be!

I will try to post while I am there. I am super excited to be a part of this class.

Hopefully once I return I'll have more heads to share!

Thanks for stopping by...

D

2018 Polymer Clay Challenge Weeks 7, 8 and 9

I spent the past week sitting with my dad in the hospital. Fortunately his prognosis is much better and he is hopefully on the road to recovery. It will be a rough road but his goal is to get strong and as healthy as he can. That works for me!

While sitting in the hospital I managed to complete several heads for the #2018PCChallenge.

Here they are:

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

I am not sure what happened with week 8, he is a bit out there and the clay is dirty. I think if I clean him up and sand him a bit he will look better. Once they are painted and have hair I think they will look a lot better. It looks like I need to add a bit more skull to week 7 as well. 

One thing I realized, I am not as fond of the light clay as I am the darker clay.

These are not really my best work, but considering where I was and that I only had a few basic tools to work with I'm pleased. 

Cinderella's Revenge

I am happy to say that I did finish my Haunted Fairy Tales project. She is a bit gruesome but I like her. 

I sent her pictures to Art Doll Quarterly for consideration on the 15th (nothing like cutting it close). I am so happy with the way she turned out regardless of whether I make it into the magazine or not. She was fun to create. Apparently I had a mad scientist laugh going on when I was taking her pictures :0) I'm just so pleased with her. 

Cinderella's Revenge

Wicket Step-Sister

Zombie Cinderella

Heading to Virginia

My dad has been in and out of the hospital over the past 3 weeks so I've been a bit stressed out and haven't done much other than work and school (and my Cinderella zombie). Last night he had emergency surgery and thankfully is currently resting and comfortable.

I am heading to see him and my mom on Monday. Life is fragile and way too short and I need to be there.

Once he is stable and home I will be sculpting again and definitely be posting more. Before I leave I'll share the zombie Cinderella that I am submitting to Art Doll Quarterly.

Thanks for  stopping by ;0)

D

Zombie Cinderella Costume - Unlikely Source

I love to costume my dolls. It takes me forever because I want everything just right. I get hung up on the size of the print on the fabric, the way it drapes, texture... I drive myself crazy.

Which is why I enjoy contests, classes and challenges. I don't have time to overthink. I just have to move forward.

Since the Haunted Fairy Tale challenge is due by March 15th and I have a tough class to finish and a trip to So Cal to see my man before then, I do not have time to waste.

Imagine my delight when I was at my local thrift store and found this darling dress:

It is just perfect for my sculpture. Not as it is of course, but the fabric. The great thing about the size of art that I work in is that I can take a child's dress and make 3 or 4 costumes out of it for my sculptures.

This little dress has several layers of fabric, each one different. I can't wait to show you what I do with this :0) It looks more "blue" in person.

Outer Skirt

Under Skirts

Shoes for a Zombie Princess

I'm currently working on a Zombie Cinderella for Art Doll Quarterly's Haunted Fairy Tales challenge. After this weekend she has hands and feet!

Her shoes turned out better than expected. Obviously they need to be aged and zombified but now she has her "glass" slippers. The best thing is that she stands on her own in her heels!

Next up... fleshing out her body, painting her hands and feet, adding hair and then costuming. I'll be posting some info on her costume later this week.

D

2018 Polymer Clay Challenge Weeks 5 & 6

I am on track with the 2018 Polymer Clay Challenge. I have been trying to take some time for myself so that I don't burn our studying!

Her are my sculpted heads for weeks 5 & 6

Week 5

Week 6

I am very happy with how these turned out. 

I have a special project that I am also working on. Zombie Cinderella :0) Check back soon for the progress pictures.

2018 PC Challenge Week 2 Zombie - Painted

Week 2 - Painted

This guy fought me. He didn't like the bruising, he didn't like the color. He really didn't like anything I did at first, so I wiped it off and started over with more yellow, more purple and some red. He is much happier this way. I need to wipe the paint film out of his eyes and then he gets some hair.

Weeks 3 & 4 of the Polymer Clay Challenge

Here are the heads I sculpted for weeks 3 and 4 of the 2018 Polymer Clay Challenge. 

Week 3

Week 4

My week 3 head needs more chin. I'll be adding that this weekend. Week 4 needs a little more chin and a tiny bit more cheeks. I'll work on that this weekend as well.

Overall I am pleased with them both. I'm planning on adding hair to these two and maybe on the zombies. 

Speaking of zombies, my week 2 zombie head is painted and will be posted tomorrow.

Week 3 of the 2018 Polymer Clay Challenge - Soon!

Just a quick update before I run out the door... again.

I have my week 3 head sculpted, I just need to take some pictures and he will be uploaded!! Just a regular guy this time, not a zombie.

I am almost done week 4 as well. I am home this weekend, sort of, so I will get some pictures loaded.

Week 2 zombie is painted, he'll be posted as well.

See you soon :0)

Sunny Southern California!

As you may (or may not) know, my man is currently working in sunny So Cal. While he may occasionally miss me, the weather there gives him something to brag about. I got to go see him this past weekend and had such a great time! He took me to some of the interesting places he has found.

Mexican food and margaritas - YUM!

Tide pool full of little crabs and a giant red starfish

The beach... also called dog beach

Bird of Paradise at San Fernando Mission

I had such a great time. So much so that I rarely took any pictures. He took me to Knotts Berry Farm - so much fun, the San Fernando Mission (amazing), a cool local brewery housed in a warehouse and so many more places that I can't believe I only took a dozen or so pictures and only 4 worth sharing. I wore my fitbit and did almost 20,000 steps each day that I was there. Yes, we were busy and it was awesome.

The beach was lovely, almost as lovely as the 85 degree sunny weather. The beach he likes to walk on is called dog beach locally because it is dog friendly. It was fun to walk along the beach and see dozens of dogs happily playing on the beach and in the water, no aggression, no fights, just hanging with their humans. It was wonderful.

The tide pool is on this beach, it is at the base of a large pile of boulders. Each boulder is as tall as I am and the lower ones are covered in mussels. It was pretty awesome to see and that starfish was easily as big as a large dinner plate!

I am ready to go back, especially since it is supposed to snow here by Friday morning.

I'll post more sculpting pics this weekend... right now I am still wishing I was in So Cal!

2018 Polymer Clay Challenge Week 2

I know I am a bit late posting this but I was in sunny Southern California with my hubby :0)

Here is my week 2 head. It is sculpted but not yet painted. I'll paint him this weekend along with my week 3 head.

The difference the paint makes is amazing with the zombies.

Exposed brain - Of course

Droopy mouth, scars, one exposed eye

I like him. His eyes look too cool to be gross. They are almost bronze looking, I have no idea how that happened. I will be experimenting with zombie eyes again soon. I am thinking more yellow, less red, and maybe a bit of lime green. I'll keep you posted. 

New Flickr Album link

I created a new Flickr album for the #2018PCChallenge. The 2017 album is no longer linked form the blog but is available on my Flickr site. It is located on the left of the site with this picture. You can also click the picture to get there:

I have 2 zombies in the new album, I consider both of them week 1 heads since I created them both on the same day. I'll have another zombie in there this week. 

2018 Polymer Clay Challenge

Yes, I am super busy, yes I am planning on finishing 30 college credits between now and September 30th, yes I know that my time is limited BUT I had to join. This will be my third year participating in the challenge and I plan on doing more than I did last year. Since I averaged about 1 head per month, give or take a few, I think I can do more.

I will once again be sculpting heads for the challenge. Last year, the challenge did exactly what I thought it would do, it helped me expand my skill. I am willing to try new things because I am always making a practice head. I am always making more. If I get super busy or have a contest/challenge/swap I work on what I need to and then get back to the challenge. I refuse to stress myself out over something that I love ;0)

Soooo, you will see more heads this year, maybe next year I turn them into dolls!

Zombie Eye Experiment Part 2 - Zombie Heads!

I had so much fun sculpting Zombies over the New Year holiday.

Here are a couple that have been painted. I am very pleased with how the eyes look. Still not as creepy as the pictures, but not bad. I may have to do some more experiments to see if I can get them more monsterish.

The second one really is gruesome! I noticed that I always droop the same side of the face. I'm going to try to mix it up a bit next time. We'll see how that goes.

Making these guys was fun. Next I'll need to do hands and feet for them and then make them into dolls. One of them may be used for the Art Doll Quarterly Haunted Fairy Tales challenge. Once I start fleshing them out a bit more I will know if either of them will work.

Stay tuned :0)

Zombie Eyes - Don't read if Zombies freak you out!

For the next Art Doll Quarterly challenge I am working on a zombie fairy tale doll. For this challenge I decided to experiment with the realistic eyes that I learned to make to see if I could make zombie'esque eyes.

Before I got started I did an internet search for Walking Dead Zombies (I'm a fan) and found some pretty gruesome zombies!

Here are the two that really caught my eye and totally grossed me out! So of course these are what I am using as an example.

I have a close up of the eyes in the top picture but they are truly horrible and I just couldn't make you look at them close-up. The artists who do the makeup for the zombie cast in the Walking Dead are truly amazing.

Anyway, I wanted to make eyes that are creepy and more monster than human so I went with yellow and red for the iris. Since the eyes I make are so small you really don't get the type of detail that you see in these pictures but I believe that they will give me the effect that I am looking for.

I choose a cad yellow and medium red to start with. I finely chopped both colors separately then added very small bits of the red  to the yellow and chopped it again, making it the bits even smaller.

Zombie Eye Experiment 1

Eyes Ready for Color and Clay

Ready for Clay and pupils

The above are ready for the iris clay. As you can see I also made some non-zombie eyes. I really enjoy making eyes this way.

I experimented with yellow, red and gold as a base color for the eyes. I think all three work. 

The eyes on the right also glow in the dark

Glow in the dark zombie eyes (Radioactive Zombies?)

I really like these!

So here they are. I think my favorite are the larger set but I am very pleased with all of them. I am ready for the Zombie Swap this year and I think I'll be able to get the look I am after with some of these eyes. Check back soon for a picture of a zombie with these new eyes.