The prize resin doll for Birthday Contest winner!

Last week I took a few days off engraving my new porcelain doll codenamed: 'Madman P', to finally finish making a resin doll prize for this year's winner of my annual Birthday Contest. It was a welcome change for my engraving hand and my routine after a few months of doing basically the same thing. Even art can get boring without variety.

I had spent oh, maybe 2-3 solid days fighting with all of my mohair to make a wig for this girl. With the drought going on right now, it was so static-y and frizzy....and with the glue drying so wonky, I basically just wanted to set everything on fire in my bathtub and watch it burn. But, as usual, it all worked out in the end. Can't make a good doll without a good struggle, and this doll turned out extra-good! Stay tuned for more pictures next week.

Lace-Beading

I do love to bead me some lace!

But I hate it when this happens!

Enchanted Doll ebay auction 2014!

It's that glorious time of year again, folks! The annual Enchanted Doll ebay auction is coming up this November! Can you guess which doll will be auctioned off this year? You get one guess. Here's a clue.I'll be posting more progress photos as we get closer to November. The exact date of the auction will be announced soon. Are you as excited as I am?

The before and after silver bead caps

 I've spent the last few days finishing off my most recent doll Theodora Rex, which is based on a historical Byzantine Empress. I've been failing to arrive at the final composition that resonates with my inner vision of her, having constructed, tried and abandoned several different accessories to compliment her jewelled head piece and her collar of gold. I believe that when the solution to an almost finished piece proves to be stubbornly evasive, then the problem is not just with details - There is something fundamentally wrong with the whole thing from the bottom up. The best course of action at that point, is to stop tweaking little details, identify the 3 main elements essential to the composition, strip away the rest and start layering supporting details from the beginning. Yes, it's pretty upsetting having to destroy several days worth of work, but sometimes it's not just the right thing to do, but the only thing to do. Destruction is a form of creation.

These sterling silver filigree bead caps might be the key to unlocking my composition problem. I embellished them with tiny seed pearls and gold-plated them to look more Byzantine. Theodora is already wearing them, but something else is still missing there...I'm gonna call it a 'soft' finish for now and see if she 'speaks' to me in the days to come about what else she needs.

It's time to move on. 

Making Empress Theodora doll

She'll be premiered at Spectrum fantasy convention this weekend in Kansas City, along with two other new dolls. I won't have anything for sale at the event this time, but we will be giving away posters and if you come, you will be the first ones to see the new dolls!

Oh my god, I've got so much to do today...

Just when I think it stopped raining...

...It starts right back up again.

What, another mystery doll?

This lady is from the Byzantine Empire. Her, I'm going to show you the moment she is finished! My completion target date is end of March. Stay tuned.

Watching the Snow

Just another day at work. There are five new and ongoing metal accessory projects visible in this picture, some completed and some nearly there. You will see them very soon. And I think you will like them. Very much.

My new home studio and kiln room!

So, on top of making new dolls for the Vogue photo shoot next week, I'm also right smack in the middle of moving to a new place. My new work studio is pretty awesome, but it's been kind of ridiculous with everything happening at once. Timing is not ideal, but that's the only way we could meet the deadline. For the last two weeks I've going back and forth between the two places since my new studio is not set up yet, and I won't even get a chance to do it until after I get home from the shoot, because our last moving day also happens to be the day we have to catch our flight to New York. We'll just throw all our stuff in the new apartment and leave for the airport. Sort it out later. Sleep later too.

I'm pretty excited about the kiln room too. Having been a spacially-challenged city-dweller my whole life, I'm thrilled to finally have a room just for my kilns. Feels so decadent. Can't wait to try it, but in the meantime I've got some wigs to finish. I'm coordinating their colours to the product being advertized. Can't tell you what it is yet, but it's gonna be awesome!