without all the drama

 Just a drive by posting to say "Hi Beautiful" I am busy working on plans and pictures for new tutorials. As soon as I get a day without all the drama, I will be posting some new projects for you :)

My muse is a woeful creature lately. There's not an abundance of inspiration floating about my atmosphere. I did manage to create something new earlier in the week, but it was an old sketch, and it took much longer than usual. (insert a big melodramatic swoon here)

Most of my energy has been spent throwing bones to the pack of rabid wolves at the door. Doctor appointments, toss a bone. Bills----toss a lot of bones, but I know they are always hungry. Kid's dramas, and dreams....toss all the bones I have as these wolves are loved and need to be kept well fed! Work....digging for the dusty bone bits that are left in the bottom of the basket. Red Riding Hood is running low on bones.

Oh good grief....I'm becoming a drama queen stuck in her own fairy tale. :)

Anyway, I have had this half baked idea for a doll, and I just can't quite complete the full picture. There's a song, Gepetto by Belly. I love that song. there's one line that says "That kid came over to my house today.....decapitated all my dolls." Silly me I have the song on my MP3 so I hear it all the time, and I keep wanting to make a doll that reflects the feeling I get when I hear that line. Most of my dolls tend to be fat , and sassy gals, and I am having a hard time reconciling my thin unaware beauty, woeful, and resigned girl idea with a pattern. I want to sit and get it worked out on paper, but alas all those wolves won't let me be long enough. Speaking of wolves I must get ready for work. May all you beautiful artists find a balance with your muses today!

10 Percent Rule

Have you heard of the 10 percent rule? The rule states.....You have to be 10 percent smarter than the item you are trying to operate.

Well today my 10 percent went right out the window, and floated away like a dandelion puff dancing in the wind (or hurricane!)

I was absolutely tickled with myself. I spent the day in the studio, and got 2 great new pieces done. ( pat, pat, pat and toot my own horn and all that) This afternoon I take picture after picture. The light was right. Spent a multitude of minutes in shot set up.....etc. I'm sure everyone is familiar with the process. Wait, I'm still patting myself on the back at this point.

Now I'm kicking myself in the butt. I uploaded all those glorious pics, just to open the first one.....*!#* it, it's blurry! What the? Go through the rest one by one.....guess what!?

I forgot the the 10 percent rule, and the MACRO! :)

Creative spark and process

I've been thinking on this a for a while now. I keep seeing the question "What inspires you?" Yesterday it happened to be a huge sparkly citrine. Generally I go digging through my supplies until I see something that makes the lightbulb go on! There's no rhyme or reason to it, just a "Oh! I know what you're going to be!"

I try to sketch out the idea, sometimes that works, sometimes not. Yesterday it worked.:)





Generally what's the most time consuming for me is the framework. Whether its the wire frame base, or patterning out a doll body. I always want to get through this part quick so I can get to the fun part of decorating. It has been a tough lesson to slow myself down on this part of the process so I am not wasting materials because I rushed things.

(tip: cheap clamps from the hardware store make a great set of extra hands!)


I must admit though, even with the most careful work, I still had 2 spots I took apart and redid. Once it was halfway done, I decided to switch out some stones, as the stones I originally put on the piece just didn't quite fit. All part of the process I guess.

All in all at the end of the afternoon, and 4 hours later I do believe it turned out so pretty!





So what does everyone think? :) (hmm this was fun) I think I'll take some more pics of process with the doll I'm working and post that later.

Oh and before I forget......it's Thursday! Tomorrow is Fantastic Friday! Dont forget to go enter on the Baroness' blog (link is to your upper right-->). Drawing is tomorrow morning........YAY! Then it's my turn.......WOOHOO! I love when it's my turn for the giveaway, I have a cool prize for the next one.

All you beauties have a grand and glorious creative day!!!!