All Dolled Up

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At The Vincennes University Transfer Art Department in Vincennes, Indiana.

I will have 5 dolls in this show if you happen to be near and you want to see them in person. Here are the details in case everything is a bit too small-

All Dolled Up

Nichol Brinkman, Paola Colombo, Jessi Halliday Mesalic, Mimi Kirchner, Jess Quinn, Jennifer Strunge

Thursday, February 9 – Thursday, March 1, 2012.

Artists’ Reception: Tuesday, February 21, 11am – 12pm. Reception will be held in the Shircliff Gallery.

Artist’s Lecture: Tuesday, February 21, 2pm – 3pm – held in the Shircliff Auditorium, Rm. E101 in the Shircliff Humanities Building.

Gallery Hours: Monday – Thursday 8am – 9pm, Friday 8am – 5 pm, Sunday 12pm – 3pm

Nichol Brinkman, Curator’s Statement:
As with most interests in life, if you dig deep enough, you will find there is an entire sub-culture full of fellow enthusiasts. Through the All Dolled Up show, Vincennes University has given me an opportunity reach out to a select group of my heroes from that softie-making community. I have chosen these artists to showcase their work based on their sense of whimsy, imagination, design sensibilities and refined craftsmanship. I have been amazed and inspired by each of these artists, and I am thrilled to be able to exhibit along with them. I hope this show captures a child-like sense of wonder and awe in everyone who views it.

girl in red

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There is something special to me in these girl dolls. They can be the hardest and the most satisfying.

Her skirt is made out of dark red corduroy. It comes from a Laura Ashly dress that was my favorite all through the 80’s. There are so many pictures of me holding a baby, wearing the dress. Then it snagged on something sharp and ripped. I put it away, thinking I’d somehow figure out how to repair it. Now it is time to give it a new life.

tattooed lady

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I am diving into the pile of unfinished projects. This lady has been watching over my desk for several months. Unfortunately she wasn’t seeing much since she had no eyes or any other face parts.

I tried something new with her hair and I’m happy with the result-

I sewed a separate piece in a sort of crescent moon shape and then sewed it onto the back of her head.

Body details-

I am hoping to focus on all the UFOs (unfinished objects) this month. That means it will be a month of a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Sounds like fun! Who knows what I will discover and where I’ll end up.

Thanks so much for all the suggestions for more listening. So much goodness! Also, I am going to spend some time thinking about and working on expanding the patterns for my little girl doll. This is a good time of year for me to do that. I’ve already started a list of things I’d like to make for her. Thanks for the encouragement!

I’m fueled by audio

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I am a bit at loose ends creatively and my love of audiobooks and podcasts is something I’ve been wanting to write about for a while.

First though, a photo-

I had a little job to do that involved revisiting the Purl Girl pattern and making 3, similar to the ones on the original post. They’ve been sent off and we’ll see where they go. It made me wonder if I should revisit and expand this pattern- you know, a whole wardrobe, different hair-dos and some accessories. What do you think?

I work best when the talk-y part of my brain is engaged with narrative. I talked about it here. I used to listen to NPR talk shows, many many years ago, but at some point discovered audio books at my library.  The selection of audiobooks was limited and they were all on the same shelf so I was discovering all kinds of topics that I’d never have picked up in book form. Then, some time around 2007, I discovered podcasts. There seemed to be a bloom of them in the art/craft field. I loved listening to the interviews of other artists, doing essentially the same thing as me. I can remember feeling (and maybe even saying out loud to my IPod!)- that is just like me, that is how I do it too, that is what I think too! Then, sometime a year or two ago, the shows just dried up. I can’t complain- people were making them because they enjoyed it and then they moved on to other things. Or they needed to make some money. I miss the interviews so much. Last summer I actually went back to the beginning of CraftyPod and re-listened to all the shows. It was like visiting old friends and it made me wonder what many of those people are doing now.

CraftyPod is trying out paid subscriptions for her new shows. Diane is still working out the kinks in the system but let me say, I am thrilled that the podcasts are back. I jumped at the chance to subscribe and I hope lots of other people will too- for purely selfish reasons. I want my Podcasts!!! There are lots of fantastic interviews still available for free. It is like a history of the internet craft movement. And yes, she interviewed me way back in 2007!

There are other podcasts I listen to and enjoy, most somehow affiliated with public radio. Here is my list of favorites, all of which are available through ITunes-

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn– this used to be Sound of Young America, which I loved. He has changed the name and the format slightly and I’m not 100% convinced that I’m liking it. This is an interview artists show- the fun thing for me is that most of the artists are people I have never heard of- comedians, musicians, film directors. Jesse Thorn does very intelligent interviews and it is fantastic hearing smart people talk about their creative work.

Cast On– this is a knitting show. I don’t knit anymore. I know, weird. But I like listening to Brenda’s take on things, life in Wales and the music she chooses.

Craft Sanity– this is one of the podcasts that used to be very active with lots of great interviews but has slowed down to a trickle. If you haven’t heard them, there is many hours of great listening here.

Radio Lab– I have learned some amazing things from this show- the kind of information that I spend months thinking about. Things that change the way I view the world. I love it when I see there is a new show.

Science Friday– what can I say. I love it. And the videos on the website are always amazing!

Story Corps– short bits of people lives.

The Memory Palace– these are short and not posted very often but are gems when they appear.

This American Life– of course.

Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me– um, yeah and I follow them on Twitter too.

Are there more that you’d recommend? I’d love to hear about some new ones!

I still spend most of my studio time listening to audiobooks. I am lucky to have access to a very large library network and can get all kinds of great books. I just finished Bill Bryson’s At Home (13 cds!) which I really enjoyed. I am way too cheap to buy from a place like Audible.com. I just don’t get the whole idea that you spend $15 and you have nothing you can pass along to someone else. Also, at the rate I go through the books, I’d be broke in no time. So thank goodness for the library!

a summer girl fox

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I love this dress-

I know I would have wanted one like it when I was little.

This fox is definitely not dressed for camouflage. I love the bright colors in this plaid. I tried to pick up some of them in the sweater and her purse.

This is the last fox for now. I will continue to work on my goal of finishing up the mountain of partially finished dolls in my studio. I’m not sure what it’ll be next…

back to a professor fox

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I am so pleased with myself. I was able to use the jacket pattern I made for the fox in madras with just a few tweaks, and make a jacket for this fellow. And it worked perfectly- Hurray for spending the time to figure out how to do it right!

I believe he is studying entomology.

fox in madras

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I did it! I wrangled the dratted bleeding madras into a jacket for this dapper fellow.  If you follow me on twitter, you might have seen that I had a bit of a plaid jacket meltdown. First it was the plaid- it always seems, when I am cutting out the project, that working with plaid is going to make everything much easier- after all, a grid is part of the design. But in reality, all the littlest mistakes are glaringly obvious.

I managed to get all the plaid matched up but my first jacket ended up being a total failure. Here is a confession- most of the time I have no clue what I am doing. I start in and assume I will be able to figure it out. When I’d gotten to the point of having spent many hours trying to get it right, I realized that I needed to step back, take a deep breath, whine a little and do some other project for an evening. Next day I pulled out a human-size jacket, all my basic sewing books and a few books that have doll-size patterns for jackets. I spent the morning trying to get it all figured out and drawing up a new pattern.

In the afternoon, I started over. This time it worked out better.

This fellow looks very familiar to me. I am sure I have met his human counterpart on several occasions.

Here is a sneak peak at the vest lining.

My 1960’s fashion fox couple-

These 2 will be heading out to Indiana for a show at Vincennes University. The show is being organized and curated by Nichol Brinkman of Pink Cheeks Studios.

spring fox

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She is dressed for Spring even though the calendar and the weather are not there yet.

Her dress is one of my favorite Liberty cotton prints.

I was just going to put a bow at her ear but then changed my mind and gave her a pill box hat.

Finally, I can start my flickr set of dolls 2012!

things were really different back then

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I’m working away but nothing to post. Also, I’ve got some topics I’d like to write about but that will take a lot of time and I’m not in the mood. So, this is a pop-in post!

I’m taking apart some old shorts- isn’t this label amazing?!

These were from my parents. I thought I remembered my mom wearing them in the 60’s but the label makes me wonder if I am remembering wrong.

And, speaking of memories. My brother scanned a ton of old photos after my Dad died last summer. When I look at these, all I could think is- real life in the 50’s and 60’s was a lot different than tv or the movies.

Yep, pajamas on the line. My sister and I wore them later with the feet cut off. (mid-50’s)

Galoshes and snow pants. And a kite? I have no idea! (late 50’s)

 

Cotton bathing suits and not knit cotton either! (late 50’s)

And, VERY matchy-matchy! Not to mention, petticoats. (late 50’s)

 

Playsuits and pixie haircuts.(early 60’s)

Happy, productive and creative weekend everybody!

 

 

studio reshuffle

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It’s that time of year. The studio needs to be cleaned and the Stuff needs reorganizing. I try to figure out what I am actually using and make it easily accessible. I also try to go through all the fabric regularly, getting rid of things I will probably never use. I call this turning the compost. It’s only kind of a joke. I now have three bags of fabric that I’ll be taking to my crafty meet-up next week. Give-away time!

Here are some in progress photos because it’ll be a while before everything settles into place again.

It all started with a large bookcase that needed to be moved out of another room. I always need more shelves so I took out the measuring tape to see if I could fit it into my studio. The reshuffle began! I moved the bureau towards the window (of course there was already something there- out into the hall that stuff went). The bookcase that was already in my room was emptied and moved across to it’s new place by the closet.

It is now filled with books, tea cups and cotton fabrics, mostly toiles and other tattooed people components.

The new (to my room), bigger bookshelf fits perfectly. I’m filling it back up with the books that were in the other bookcase plus other things of course.

Then I decided that I needed a new way to store all my other cotton fabrics. I have been using them a lot more this year and the bins under the table system was just not working. One trip to Ikea later and you can see my new drawers. Here is a better photo-

This is great! I can see all the fabric easily and there are enough baskets to put all kinds of goodies that have been in piles or in bins that I trip over every time I walked through the room.

The plastic drawer bins and the small wooden bookcase on top of the fabric drawers used to be where the bureau is now. Are you confused yet?

I have had this little set of metal drawers sitting on the floor for about 1 1/2 years and I now finally have a place for it. I filled it up with beads, charms, sewing notions I’ve collected for robots and papers for making tiny books.

There are lots of little problems that I haven’t quite figured out yet. An example is my thread rack- I like it where it is but I know it will slide right off at the worst possible moment so I need to figure out how to attach it to something. And then actually do it.

And some real life desk pictures. I started working on some tiny worlds. Then I moved on to something else. Yep, I just piled them up, as much out of the way as I could push them without bothering to put them away. Because I’ll get back to them any minute, right? Okay then.

And that poor tattooed lady. I have a ridiculous number of unfinished dolls in my studio right now. I should try to focus on finishing them up. Somehow it is sad to see them all waiting for me. If I just worked on finishing things I would probably be busy though February at least! It’s good though too- it is an easy way to start in again because a lot of the decisions are already made. So, time to get back to work!