I’m out here in the Minneapolis regional area somewhere, at the NIADA conference, meeting new people, seeing amazing dolls, having a fantastic time. I got to town on Wednesday and met up with Kristen of Kleas on Thursday. I had connected with her online through an atc swap and some emails. When I told her I was going to be in Minneapolis, we planned a rendezvous. She showed me around to some fun neighborhoods of the area that I am sure I never would have found on my own. This is Hunt & Gather in Edina.

I was so tired I was probably mostly incoherent, but Kristen wrote an incredibly nice post about our afternoon here, if you want to check it out. Meeting people through my blog has been a real treat for me- an unexpected benefit. Reading blogs becomes so much richer when I have a face to attach to a written voice.

Yesterday I got together with Abby from While She Naps. This is a first for me- meeting someone in person, who I’ve connected with through blogging. It was great! She brought me this wonderful little owl-

and she went through my piles of too much fabric and went home with 2 bags… I am hoping she will come back soon and take more! I got to see her sweet new little doll– I loved the patchwork technique and excellent color choices.

We talked about blogging, what it has added to our lives, which ones we read, the people we have connected with and why. Things we’ve learned, what you can or can’t say in emails or online. It is so great to have a person I can visualize, connected to a blog I read.

Hey, it’s been a year! I can hardly believe it. I am feeling proud of myself! :-)

I would describe myself as being a late adapter in anything technological and also rather phobic about writing, and I have managed to not only do this for a year, but have really enjoyed it. I have looked back to see the finished and the unfinished projects… the finished one got their own link, the unfinished ones are what I am thinking about. So now for a boring rehash-

There were the 2 dolls from antique patterns-here. I think I learned what I needed to know by sewing them together. Then I lost interest, and never felt the urge to dress them.

The gourd head dolls– well I finished the middle one. That turned into Sadie. The other two? Who knows, I might get back to them.

These guys never went anywhere. Not surprising… I’m just not interested in the whole polymer clay sculpting thing. Also, a scale I’m not inspired by.

I never bothered dressing these dolls that I made at WOW!04. Although I learned what I wanted to learn from the class, doing something from someone elses’ pattern and in someone elses’ style- not for me.

I find these bodies interesting. I actually finished 3 dolls from them- Autumn, Minnie and Tallulah, and have 2 dolls in progress. That is pretty good in my picture of things.

Now why didn’t I ever finish this recycled bag bag? Hmmm, gotta get on that.

I never did finish this bag either. Gee this list is getting kind of long.

I never got Golden Baby to a point that I was satisfied with. I recently showed him to a friend for a critique, which was very helpful. I think I know what I need to do now, so he might show up in the finished project file after all.

I have loads of things I consider active projects- 4 ladies– yeah I know there are only 3 in the picture.
And these 5 heads.
Also several knitting projects and softies and , and, and… so many projects, so little time!

Helen writes- How did we get to dolls? Why dolls? Can you answer that? I can’t. Why the
kinds of dolls we do? We’re both making vintage dolls. We have both done
funkier dolls in the past. Why vintage dolls? Why dolls at all?

me-
I know inside my head, I’m just not sure I can explain it.
Dolls? I have always been interested in figurative art- not at all by abstract. My brain works towards the figurative- when I look at abstract, I see figurative. I have always been most interested in depictions of people- in any art. Painting, sculpture, life-drawing. When I did pottery, my work was all about fitting a figure onto a 3-d space or form. How to put a figure inside a bowl, on a plate, around a cup. That was what drove my interest. I have always had a desire to make dolls in the back of my mind. I am sure I was thinking about it even when I was in Art school. I just never seemed to have the time to explore it and to be honest, the guts. Right before the fire, I was so sick of doing the pottery that I decided to take a sabbatical from it. I started painting and print-making. On my list of things I would explore was dolls. It wasn’t until after the fire that I tried my hand at it. Once I started, everything else dropped away.
I love the 3-d, the materials, the high level of craftsmanship that has grown for me. I love turning a flat piece of fabric into something with life! Every figure has it’s own set of problems that need to be worked out, so there are constant challenges. Plus, I collect stuff- and everything I’ve saved over the years can be used with the dolls. It seems to incorporate everything I am interested in, inspired by and curious about.
Vintage? I started out thinking about wooden dolls, like the wood artist mannequins. Also, I was working to dress two antique porcelain dolls of my MIL’s. I was taking every book about dolls out of our library, but mostly historical. I was and still am, very interested in the old copyright drawings for dolls like the Izannah Walkers and the Chase dolls. I never even looked at any patterns that other people were doing until I joined the doll club and then took a Gail Wilson Workshop. That was about a year after I started, and when I was getting very serious about it. I think that was when I found and joined VCD. I like making the vintage dolls because I feel like I learn a lot by using the original patterns- like reading a book in the original language or something! Sometimes I make the dolls I wish I could afford to buy. If I had unlimited money, maybe I wouldn’t bother! I don’t know… but I think I would because I am so curious about them. It takes me into their place somehow- When I was taking care of my in-laws in the fall of 2002, I was very focused on dolls of 1910 – 1925. It made me feel more connected to my MIL who had Alzheimer’s.

I’ve been having an email discussion with someone I’ve never met through one of my online doll groups. It has been an exercise for my brain…

about why I am blogging-
I am thinking a lot about connections… I worked in an Artist studio building for 11 years and then it burned down in 1999. Since then, I have been working at home. The real tragedy of the fire (for me) was the loss of community. I have found it to be irreplaceable. I have been searching ever since. One attempt to find a community has been my blog. So far it hasn’t generated anything, although I think it has been a useful tool for me- helps to have a place to record progress, and writing out ideas and thoughts help make me think more clearly. I am a bit writing phobic, so pushing myself is good. I tend to get WAY too isolated, working at home, alone. It is not good for me.