January Challenge Revealed: Art Doll

Here she is, my first art doll. Not at all what I originally envisioned, but that's ok. It's even different a bit from the second idea I came up with! I tried to make a cute girlie face but it just didn't feel right, I still think this girl skull is cute though.

I may add to this one still, I'm thinking a couple more strands of beads.


February's design challenge theme is : Alice in Wonderland

I've been accepted...

to the Brookside art annual!!! I had to read the e-mail twice last night when I got it. This is my first juried art fair, I'm so excited. Now I really have to finalize my booth display set-up and get it looking sharp. Worked in the studio for a few hours this evening and cut out all these skulls. There is really nothing quite like being in the studio working and listening to some good music. I felt really happy tonight.

January Challenge part 2

I've been working and RE- working my art doll necklace. This is the first form that I started, I loved the way it looked at this point. But, then I started putting on the paperclay...

not so happy with the way it was going. I had the body covered then pulled it off and decided that wasn't going to work.

Now I have a new sketch and with only this week to finish it I hope everything goes much smoother. I've never used paperclay but have wanted to try it for awhile. A large part of this challenge for me is to try new materials and techniques that I might not normally give myself time to experiment with since I feel that when I'm in the studio I should only be making my Urban Jungle Jewelry line. The clay is kinda tricky to work with but I really liked how nicely it could be sanded and shaped after it was dry. I will definitely keep messing around with it. I came up with some more ideas for the dolls dress last night but think I'll have to save that for another time.

Did a little sunday antiquing and found some good stuff, including a couple of street signs. The sign with the arrow I am actually going to keep intact and use in my booth display. Thought it would be cool to have it underneath our logo pointing down to us in the booth.

January Challenge

January has been good so far. I had two deadlines for the month and made both of them. I picked up a few magazines this week including the new STUFFED. I've always thought it would be fun to make a doll so I decided that would be a good challenge for my January design. Luckily, I have tomorrow off work so I can spend a good portion of the day working on this since I 'm getting a late start on this month's challenge.

If you have any design ideas let me know. It could be a style of art, particular artist, movie, anything. Kelly sent me the idea of Architecture which I think is great and will definitely have that as one of the themes this year.

What should I make?

I thought about giving myself a monthly challenge over the holiday season and thought tonight, "Darn January is almost half over already, I'd better get busy!" I'd like to start each month with a different theme and design/make a jewelry piece fitting to it. I definitely want to do a Steampunk theme and probably Alice in Wonderland. What do you think? Please leave your theme ideas in the comments. I'll announce this month's theme over the weekend.

* Remember: always wear your safety goggles in the studio when cutting and soldering!

FRUSTRATION!

Here's my little photo booth. I have been experimenting with the camera and backdrops these past two nights and getting really frustrated. I used to shoot on a black background but think that looks a bit too stuffy for my Etsy shop. I still use the black background for submissions to art fairs but have been trying to come up with a look that's less formal but still professional for my shop and promo materials. I bought three different gray papers to try out this evening and think I like one of them. I'll have to re-shoot tomorrow night and switch photos out in my shop to really see if I like the look.

It's late so think I will just crawl in bed, read a bit of Alice in Wonderland and hopefully get some sleep. The sleep thing hasn't been that great this week, UGHH!

The making of a Blue Bird

I did some work in the studio this weekend, wanted to make a new design for this year. Here is what I came up with using a piece of a road sign, a license plate, brass washer, copper and sterling sheet. I love using cold connections such as rivets.
Felt he needed a little something more so I took a piece of sterling and with a foil candy wrapper pressed the foil texture to the silver and cut out a smaller wing to add to top of the license plate.

Now he's ready to fly off to my Etsy shop.