bye bye little guy ...

It's taken me longer than I planned. I'm thinking it might have something to do with the construction going on here at the house. ... ! ... We've had to empty out one room where all the sheetrock will be replaced, and that stuff is 'stored' in various places around the rest of the house. A few things are out of place in my studio to allow electricians access. Now we're having a grand hold on everything until windstorm inspectors can inspect the new room-in-progress where a balcony used to be. But I digress ...

Here he is, finished at last. He stands about 8 inches high, one of the smaller pieces I've made. His head and hands are polymer clay. The bicorne hat is felt and rattail cord with an embellishment of torn fabric and a knot of ribbon. His box is papier mache, painted and glazed with acrylics to complement the fabric of his costume. I haven't named him, but Bonaparte comes to mind... something about the way his right hand is posed.

Today I'll pack him and send him off to Atlanta. Happy travels little fella. I know you're going to love your new home!

back to dolls

Having to cancel my plans to attend ODACA Day in Atlanta this summer made it even more important that I send a helper donation for the event.

I'm working on this little jack-in-the-box-to-be ... as my donation. His box is made of papier mache with a painted design echoing the fabric I'll use for his costume. That piece of felt perched on his head will become a bicorne hat ... Napoleon style. The head and hands are polymer clay for the artist's instant gratification ... paper clay is still my favorite, but for this project it would just take too long! I'm still going to be dividing my studio time between dolls and my new-found love paper arts / collage. Life is full ... check back to see this project finished ...

old photos

I have a new project. I wasn't looking for a new way to occupy my time ... really I wasn't. It all started because I wanted to post that photo of myself at age 2 with the leaf rake. That photo was securely (!) stored in one of my mom's 'magnetic' photo albums that became so popular back in the 60s. I asked her if I could borrow the album for a couple of days, thinking I would just remove the photo, scan it, post it, put it back in place and return the album ... done. Right? Well, I couldn't budge the photo off the page. Couldn't position the whole page on the scanner because the pages are not removable from the album. Googled 'remove old photo from magnetic album.' Read about a couple of methods of removal and used the hair dryer and a flat x-acto blade, and after about an hour of careful, gentle heating and painstaking prying, the photo was free of its prison. Scanned it, photo-shopped out the crease in the middle, cropped it, warmed the color, and there you have me!

What is this new project I mentioned in the beginning? Removing all the old photos imprisoned in Mother's 'magnetic' albums. While I was reading how to remove the photos without damaging them, I also learned that those albums are archivally the worst thing that can happen to an old photo. The acid in the pages and the glue causes discoloration and deterioration of the image and the paper holding it, reducing them ... eventually ... to shreds and tatters! (sorry, I couldn't resist!) And it occurred to me that this would be a good project for my mom. My job will be to remove the photos from the old albums since her poor vision won't allow her to do so safely, and she will enjoy putting them in a new, archivally sound album. And that is a great excuse for a trip to Hobby Lobby ...

If you have any of those old 'magnetic' albums lying around, you just might want to take a look at the condition of the photos inside.

Since you asked, ... you did, didn't you? Ann Bell is an artist in the Houston area. Her art card class was such fun ... like a day of vacation. You show up on time and get to play in her studio, use her stash, pick her brain, and make new friends! What could be better? Learn more at www.annbell.net or go directly to the art card class information at http://www.annbell.net/ArtCardClass.htm. Class size is limited so don't delay!

Such a long time between posts! When I started this blog it was going to be a showcase for my dolls. But ... well, I've just gotten into paper arts and it's consuming me! Thanks to a class from Ann Bell, I'm making art collage note cards and trying to figure out where I'm going to store my rapidly growing paper stash!

This is one of the cards I made in Ann's workshop. Now photography isn't one of my strong suits, obviously. I spent a lot of time behind the camera making sure the image was truly vertical and centered in the viewfinder. This is the resulting photo ... sigh ...

This next card is also from Ann's class. The card stock is the same color as the card in the first photo. More photography shortcomings! The metallic paper in this card is Joss paper, found in Asian markets ... and now on my 'must have' shopping list!

Some corrugated paper, more Joss paper, just the edges, and a snippet of some wallpaper. Again, the cardstock color is the same as the cardstock in the first photo ... just assume that is true for all these images ...



Card number five from the class. Some more corrugated paper, part of a tag, a small figure image from some wrapping paper, a snippet of a page of sheet music ... I love this stuff, and it sure fits in with the 'shreds and tatters' theme I started here. I'll post again ... I promise ... and show you pictures of the cards I'm creating on my own now where I will incorporate images of my dolls and some 'generic' traditional doll images found here and there. More soon ...

After Ike

Wow... two things come to mind today. First, I had intended to add a new post once a week. You can see how long it's been since the first post. Life has been full! Second, and this is the biggie, my title,' shreds and tatters,' ... which took me a long time to commit to, has taken on meaning never even considered before Ike. Galveston could be described as being in shreds and tatters right now. I feel disoriented driving down familiar streets. Piles of debris reduce some streets to a single lane of traffic. Many such piles are mostly tree limbs dragged from yards, twigs and even trunks of ancient monarchs. Other piles contain stained, soggy, broken furniture, rugs, toys, appliances, kitchen cabinets ... remnants of life before Ike. Then there are the piles that used to be houses. This was worse than Rita, worse than Alicia, worse than Carla.

We are blessed. Flood waters did not rise into our home, or my mother's home. Our home is livable, with all utilities and telephone restored. Air conditioner compressors, outside on the ground were submerged in the salt water storm surge and will have to be replaced. My mom's home has running water only, no electricity, no gas, no telephone; so until all those are restored, she can't move back in, so Rudy and I won't be moving back in either for a while yet. I have some photos I've taken of our homes that I want to show you, but can't get them posted from this computer ... sigh ... my sister-in-law Christy's. It's a great computer, mind you, and I'm so lucky to be able to use it, but, I think that because it is on a wireless network and the upload doesn't seem to take. So if you want to see some amazing shots of Galveston, go here: http://www.galveston.com/hurricaneikeslideshows/

I'll see if I can figure out this picture thing and show you some I've taken. Feeling very blessed ...

Blog Day 1

Well, I've been putting off this thing of setting up a blog. Today is the day. Monday, August 11, 2008, I launch myself and my dollmaking... out there.
Why did I choose 'shredsandtatters' as my blog identity? I've given the choice of a blog identity a lot of thought over the last few months, and seriously considered a couple of choices. I'll tell you about my other identity possibilities some day, but the phrase 'shredsandtatters' pretty much describes my thought processes these days ... so much to do, so little time. I hope having a web presence through this blog and having to present a modicum of coherence (is that a word?), will instill some order in an often scattered mind. I know everyone has more to do than the time to do it in, so I'm in good company there.
On another level, the phrase 'shreds and tatters' refers to my style of dollmaking in that I often use torn fabric edges in the finished costumes of dolls I create. I enjoy the visual texture added by a fabric's ragged edges and the air those edges add of the doll somehow being not quite finished with more to come.
I'm so pleased to tell you that I am one of the 7 new (2008) artist members of ODACA, Original Doll Artist Council of America. (You might like to read more about this journey on the blog of whimsymoondesigns, my good friend Angela's creation that is the inspiration and impetus for me to get blogging.) This application for artist membership in ODACA has been a 9-month journey of discovery, anticipation, jitters, with positive and negative emotions all along, periods of confidence broken often by periods of extreme lack of confidence. What a trip!
This new membership is another reason I am taking the step of setting up my blog. As a new ODACA member, I will have a page on their website (http://www.odaca.org/) and really do want viewers of my work there to have a link to another spot on the web where more of my work can be seen.
I'll stop for today, this is getting long and I sure don't want to bore you. Now it's time to figure out how to get some pictures up here. I figured it out and it was easy! Marionette Master is pictured below.
Pictures of dolls past, present, and future to come ...