For all the cat lovers out there...

If you don't laugh hard at this one, you are probably sleepy.
Even if you are not a cat person! :oD

I must add, my family is trying to convince me to adopt another feline.
They are sending me kitty videos, pictures... my daughter is making cat-art...
Will I surrender? ;o)

Listing finally

So thrilled to have new listings again!
I have a little bit of here and there.
Later today I'll be uploading and listing.
Check my OLA, my Etsy and Ebay.
Yes I know... ebay again.
After all the commotion I think some of the dust is settling.
It is scary. A lot of people are going to other places which is good (Like a friend said: "you should not have all your eggs in one basket"), going to other groups, and I guess some are keeping their hopes on ebay.

There's also this new site Doll and Art Live. Looks very nice and it's all dolls.

So, here's Brontë, all finished. She is a posable polymer Art Doll.


She is a little bit of a gypsy.

Enjoying the weather

Being in California, I guess we should not complain about weather, since we don't get the frozen winter other people have, but I need to say... I'm glad it's getting warmer!! lol
I was supposed to finish a IF to post today, but somehow I did not like the result, and the painting did not agree with me, so... another friday with no illustration for me.
As you probably have noticed by now, I get pulled in different directions when it comes to art and creativity. Too often, but I can't help it.
Right now I'm working on paperclay.
Isn't she cute?




I also have started some polymer projects, and I work slow. Mostly because I keep looking at the window and admiring the flowers.
I think when I finish this little one in particular, she's going to be frolicking all over the grass. She just looks like it.

UPDATE:

She is painted, but still need hair and clothes... and shoes...!

Spring is in the air

I love it when the trees start getting all covered in colors and new leaves. The plumbs are all pink, they look so silly this time of the year, but I love it.

I have some very exciting news!
Last month the art site Art And Craft Auctions was looking for a logo and guess who won?? It was great news!
They even opened a new doll area after I suggested it!
They are wonderful and have been working very hard at it. :oD

And talking about dolls, I have been working on the outfits of my polymer dolls.
In my opinion (but I am quite partial!) they look great lol
This is the little one, only 6.5 tall:


I will post a picture of the other one soon.
And don't be shy, feel free to leave me a comment!

Insert appropriate title here

I bumped into THIS wonderful blog posting.
It's regarding the same thing we've been talking about, the crazy ebay changes, just with another point of view, even better. Or should I say scarier?

Viva Ola!
I'll put my nickle in just about any other auction/sales site that will respect me, give me back the fun of listing, and will not tie my hands when the occasional mean buyer attacks.
In my art ID I have been lucky to meet so many nice repeating buyers, but in our other ID, the one where we sell all kind of odds and ends... man, I have had a couple of bidders who'd make a Tazmanian-devil faint.
OK, 'nuff of that!

~*~ ~*~
In other news, I have been working with polymer, and loving it!
I thought I was going to have a hard time making hands and feet, so I started by working on those.... but what do you know?? By the time I tried to make a face, I woke up to reality and no other material I have tried has given me so much ... frustration? LOL
I made some weird looking heads... I messed with them till it looked more like an old asian lady instead of a cute young girl (my initial goal) So I kept making one after the other.....
I realized my problem was the eyes I had baked, and the fact that I was not setting the eye ball deeper into the head. :oP
So I have cut the ball in half and I have added more to the top of the head.
What do you think?

Here I used white clay pre-baked for the eyeballs. I curled the wire because I had nothing to hang her from to bake, so I thought the wire could be her own little stand. It worked.

This is after I painted the face and eyes

For this face I used my pre-baked and pre-painted eyes

I added the eyelashes before baking. It was hard! lol

Options and more options

People like having options and life is about changes.
Yes.
The problem is when someone shoves a change you don't need/want in your face and you have to deal suddenly with unplanned options.
What am I talking about? ;o)
Exactly. ebay and their crazy changes!

So my dearest 3 readers, today I'll post about some of the options out there.
It's like fixing a date for your creations. The current date slaps you in the face when you are not looking, so even when it's nice looking, deserves to sit in the timeout chair for a good while.
The other dates are the overlooked: too short, too skinny, too quiet... but now tons of people are visiting them so let's keep an eye open. And run. lol

* Bidville
* ecrater
* iOffer
* ola
* uBid
*

Amazon and Etsy are not auction sites though they are great options.

There are more places but there's just so much reading one can do, before the eyes start to bug out.
I personally will try with ola and keep my fingers crossed.
No, I don't plan to evacuate and never come back. I have met so many wonderful people on feebay, many of them good friends. But...
People like having options and life is about changes! :oD

Illustration Friday

The theme is "choose" and this is my entry


2.5x3.5, acrylics on watercolour paper

Lots of news!

I am doing the happy dance!
My little Cordelia is the Diva Queen for February in the Art Diva's group!
She was "princess Cordelia" but I guess now she is a Queen ;o)


So all month long she will be in display, along with a cute girl painting from "The wild gipsy".

Also, I've been tagged! ...Twice!! lol
OK, Flora and Sue, I hope it is OK to answer the same 5 questions for the 2 tags?
10 things about myself would be too much for me to reveal LOL
*wink*

1-When I was a little I wanted to be a mermaid and have a twin sister.
Since it was impossible, I decided to start drawing mermaids on my grandma's wall, to the delight of some, and the embarrassment of my poor mom lol

2-I am ambidextrous. No, it's not a religion :oP

3-There's always a bunch projects going at the same time on my table.
Some of them grow legs and walk around by themselves into new inconvinient places.

4-My favorite thing to paint is eyes. Me second favorite is hands.
My least favourite? ... I have yet to find out.

5-I can roll my tongue into a taco. lol (can you??)

I'll have to come back later with my people to tag!

~*~

Right now, in Doll4Art, we are having votes for the doll challenges for the months to come. They will be a lot of fun!
And there's also a goodie-bag give away for the lucky posting in the chit-chat thread, yaay!

Claudia the Crow's story...

Click on the picture to go to her auction.


Your attention please! Do not, and I mean it…. do not eat Mrs. Skeampole’s acorn flour crumpets, for ANY reason. Don’t even sniff them.

Someone put a tricky ingredient in the dough and poor little Claudia has turn into a crow after eating just one bite! Oh my!
Poor little thing! Always so well behaved, such nice manners, always following instructions and flying to follow her teacher’s orders… (sorry, no pun intended….) and now this!
She is still however, the teacher’s pet. (oops, no pun intended)
Some kids started to call her “Crowdia”. She doesn’t seem to mind. She never likes bickering. She just wiggles her little claws and hops away with her teddy bear Paul.
Claudia’s voice was always the sweetest in the choir. Now all you can hear is her constant dissonant caw, but please don’t tell her anything. She enjoys singing quite a bit. Only now she seems to feel more comfortable singing from way up on a tree branch.
It was going to be a hard task finding her a good new home as it was, with her being such a persnickety eater… and now that she has a beak? She really eats like a bird…
~*~
Now, for the details: Little Claudia is hand made, hand painted and her hands and feet are sculpted. I made her eyes with polymer, and she has long eye lashes.
She travels along with her teddy bear Paul. Luckily he didn't eat any of the crumpets.... can you imagine a crow-bear?
hummm, perhaps I need my sketchbook... :oD

2008 resolutions

OK, How is everyone doing in their New year's resolutions? I broke almost all of mine by January the 1st around noon lol

I was kind of upset earlier today because I forgot one of my favorite days yesterday, which is the Dia de Reyes, the celebration of the King Wise Men's visit to baby Jesus.
I love the bread, the getting together and the fact that we can keep stretching the holidays a bit more (good excuse to postpone the dieting) ...if only I remember!
And ALL because one of my crazy resolutions was organizing my little creative space, which ended in this huge thing, everyone involved throwing away stuff and deep cleaning the house.... I guess that takes Spring cleaning off of my list.

Usually I get a yummy Rosca de Reyes, also known as Epiphany bread, with a little plastic baby hidden in it, so the lucky person with that slice gets to make a gathering on February the 2nd. In the past that was when my grandma traditionally picked up and put away her Nativity. Everything else was already gone except for the Nativity set.

Well, back to my resolutions: Besides from creating chaos in my house, I want to post more often, also make some tutorials to help/inspire others just as I have been helped and inspired to learning about dolls, techniques and tips.

I am working on a couple of tutorials, pictures and all, so expect more info on the next few posts! For now I'll post this on doll hair:

As you can imagine, depending on the doll style and personal preference, yarn, mohair, paperclay, wire or natural hair can be used. Each of them has a way to be added, but anything can be glued.

As far as I have learned, for the mohair you have to start (to make life easier) by leaving a spot on the dolls head for the hair, as in "hole" where it comes out of, then glued some of it to the head itdelf.

Now, if you are like me and have a gazillion doll heads with no preparation for the mohair, you can do a couple of things.

One: cut clumps of mohair, glue them flat, let them dry, then glue them like extensions.
Two: glue all around previously cut (and pre-glued together to themselves) all around the head, starting from the bottom to the top, then add a hat or something to cover the last part (If you don't like the way it looks).
Three: pick the ugliest doll head you have around, practice making a hole on top, assuming it is a paperclay head! Then stick the hair in there and press it down.

I insist on having the clumps or strands already previously glued and dried, otherwise you'll find yourself sneezing mohair, all goopy-fingered and with a bald ugly doll with a hole on top.

Oh! For people interested in playing a tag-blog game, join doll4art group and list your "blahg" there, we are getting ready to play!

And talking about bald... Here's a picture of a doll that will be listed soon: Claudia the Crow