This is what I’ve been up to lately: working on this new doll for the group show in London at the Show Studio gallery. The exhibition “In Wolf’s Clothing” will open on September 9th and will run throughout the London fashion week and until the end of October.

The gargoyle in the shot for composition purpose only. It doesn’t come with the doll and I didn’t make it. It’s a bookend by Windstone, that I grabbed off my bookshelf as I roamed my place in search of fresh photo props. It worked out perfectly. I don’t know why I never noticed it before. It’s like it was waiting for this specific doll to be made to suddenly come to my attention.

I’ll post more pictures of her within a day or two. Too tired now. Must sleep. So much exciting stuff is happening this month…..You’ll see.

Well, I have some news about Enchanted Doll. It was supposed to be a great news which I was really looking forward to sharing and celebrating, but it has just turned sour for me.

For a few months now I’ve been eagerly anticipating the August 2010 issue of the UK-based, avantgarde fashion magazine LOVE, because it was supposed to feature an Enchanted Doll modeling a dress by Louis Vuitton. This Enchanted Doll’s name is Buela and she is in private collection. I was not only excited about Enchanted Doll being the face of Louis Vuitton, but also about it being shot by Mert and Marcus, which is amazing. But my joy has turned to disbelief and disappointment when the issue came out and I discovered that the magazine has not credited me for my work.

Enchanted Doll brand is not mentioned in the feature, as if the creator of the doll is not important. They’ve taken my doll’s identity away from her.

Imagine if a magazine photographed Barbie in a designer dress for commercial use in mass media, slapped a different name on her, such as I donno, Katie or Buela or whatever, and then left out the fact that this doll is Barbie by Mattel. How do you think Mattel would react to their product being used this way?

I am upset and rather offended by this turn of events. The photograph was not taken by me and the doll is no longer in my possession, but she is still my intellectual property. I don’t know how such a reputable magazine could do something like this and I intend to find out what happened. It might be just a very unfortunate mistake, but the damage is done.

So, there you go. Enchatned Doll or possibly some other doll is modeling a Louis Vuitton dress for LOVE magazine.

Hurray?

I met one of my favorite contemporary artists and fellow Vancouverite Camilla D’errico this week! I found out about her work when I was still in art school, and it’s been inspiring me ever since.

We’ve been planning to meet for some time, but our busy schedules kept getting in the way. We rarely seem to be in the same city at the same time. Finally, we went out for some gelato in Yale Town, Vancouver and talked for hours about art, dolls, Helmet Girls and True Blood. Apparently, she is also a fan of the show. I had a deadline to finish a wax model the next day, but I couldn’t tear myself away-she is such an engaging and an easy-going girl. We seem to have a lot in common, her and I. And I was pleasantly surprised to find that she is my height! Well, a little bit taller, but it was so great to be the same eye level with somebody for once.

I’m so happy to finally know the person behind the art.

So, I’m a West Coast girl. And a city girl on top of that. But, contradictory to loving Down Town, I am a big nature lover as well. That’s why I LOOOOVE going camping in the summer. My favorite place to go is Bear Creek National Park on the Okanagan Lake. When we were new immigrants in Canada, my parents and my sisters and I used to go there every summer, but now my sisters are too old and too cool to hang out with their folks, and so the annual camping tradition at Bear Creek park has been carried on mostly by Chad and I. And I have to drag Chad there while he is kicking and screaming.

I don’t understand that. It’s such a beautiful place. I guess it’s because there is no Internet connection there. I kinda missed it too. He is a good sport though, once he gets used to the idea, though he always manages to get sick while we’re there. This time he had to get a prescription of antibiotics on the second day of camping after developing an infection promptly on our arrival. Therefore, he didn’t swim very much. Poor Chadasaurus.

That camping ground is very difficult to get into because it’s incredibly beautiful, and we had to fight for our reservations for a whole week, 4 months in advance.

This time we went with another couple instead of my parents, (Apparently my parents were also too cool to hang out with me) and we had loads of fun. We swam in the lake, we explored, we climbed, we visited local vineyards and honey farms, we swam through a canyon to secret waterfalls, we relaxes, we watched a wicked thunderstorm and we speed boated. One time we even thought we saw the legendary Ogopogo monster while we boated, which is said to inhabit the enormous Okanagan lake much like the Loch Ness, but upon further inspection we realized it wasn’t the coils of the prehistoric serpent we were seeing, but a wake of the waves generated by the wind. It was pretty scary though for a few moments, because it looked like something alive was slithering in and out of the water. I see how some people could mistake that for some sort of a creature from a distance. Perhaps the waves are the only real basis for the whole, centuries-old myth.

This is me on one of our Bear Creek Canyon expeditions. You can’t see it in the picture, but I’m standing on the edge of the water fall. I’m scared of heights, and I didn’t want to venture too close. We had to navigate a river bed with low water levels which was littered with enormous boulders and log debris for an hour to get to a remote water fall. My friend lost her shoe to the swift current on the way. I wore aqua socks ( kinda like rock climbing shoes) and could scale treacherous rocks with relative ease, although I was always scared of breaking my legs. The creek runs with glacier water and is very cold, but in the overwhelming heat of Okanagan, the coldness was welcome. It was awesome.

Oh, and I also had some henna done right before we left. Like my doll, Silk Road.

Does anybody know any other beautiful camping sites with adventures?

The Silk Road. 2010
$15,000 USD
A one of a kind, ball jointed, Porcelain doll with intricate engravings of the henna motif on her limbs. Her one of a kind Sterling Silver headdress weighing 36.5 grams is assembled from multiple, prefabricated components and set with 17 Fresh Water Pearls.  The detachable Natural Mohair wig is magnetic and a decorative Glass dome display is included with the doll.

The Silk Road will become available for sale on August 7th, at the Artful Henna exhibition in the Art Not Terminal Gallery, Seattle, USA. You can contact the director of Artful Henna exhibition Kree Arvanitas for purchasing inquiries at artfulhenna.com

I’ll be posting some more close ups and portraits of Silk in two other wigs (not included) on August 7th, on the opening night.

I’ll be away until then and will not be available to answer any questions in regards to this doll or the show until I return to the studio. For once, I’m unable to bring my laptop with me. You can certainly write me while I’m away and I will address any inquiries as soon as I’m back. Enjoy the pictures. Ta Ta.

Today I’m finishing a new, one of a kind tattooed doll for the Artful Henna group exhibition at the “Art Not Terminal” gallery in Seattle, USA. The Opening night gala is on Saturday, August 7th. The show is centered around the theme of henna motif and I’m very excited to be a part of it, amongst the many talented and renowned artists who work in this highly decorative genre.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend the opening night due to a scheduling conflict and will have to go to Seattle at a later time to see the exhibition.

This is an up close shot of a work in progress henna tattoo on the left hand. This is the most intricate tattooing I’ve done up to date and I’m very pleased with how much detail I was able to fit into the tiny hands and feet of the doll. It wasn’t easy and my own fingers ached from the tremendous strain of engraving on such a small scale. I’m very anxious to see it completed, as it’s been a year since I’ve done my last henna tattooed doll. I simply love the aesthetic and the diversity of henna and wish I could make many more dolls with it, but the complexity of engraving it takes a lot out of me. That’s why I have to space out my henna projects quite a bit.

I’ll be posting another shot of henna close up tomorrow and pictures of a completed doll, along with the purchasing information on Sunday.

Finally back home in beautiful Vancouver (pictured in the background) after my Berlin show + travels.  The show went great (it was taken down on July 5th) and I feel so refreshed from our travels that I’m exhausted. I need a vacation from the vacation.

Now that we’re back, there are so many exciting things to work on. So many projects in my head that I don’t know which one I want to start on first.  Along with exciting new ideas that I want to work on, there are also a bunch of loose ends to tie up from existing projects (an idea for Cosmos Exploratum Genesis‘ costume came to me while hiking in Switzerland).

First things first though, I’ll be finally sending out the prizes from the Enchanted Doll Birthday contest.

Setting up the final shot of the Fragility series before packing away the dolls for the flight to Berlin. Those last two weeks were such a blur of sleepless nights and working-like-a-zombie-days, that I don’t remember much of what happened. I don’t even recall how I finished the last couple of dolls. Short term Amnesia. Really. After I got some sleep in Berlin and recovered a bit, I was pleasantly surprised that they turned out very nice.

I think I’m wearing my airport clothes in the shot.