NIADA report 3- wrap-up

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On Monday, after the conference was officially over, there were some master classes. I took one in the morning with Shelley Thornton on pattern making- doll clothes. It was great to be able to see her doll undressed. She showed us how she uses draping and paper towels to make patterns. I have heard of people using paper towels before, but couldn’t really understand the benefit over any paper- well, that is because I wasn’t buying good enough paper towels! The ones Shelley was using are almost like fabric, but easier to tape together- enlightenment!

shelley class

shelley class 2

In the afternoon I took a color class with Charles Batte. He had a duffle bag full of fabric pieces- mostly silk. We worked on putting colors together for a doll palette and then critiqued each others choices. It was very interesting. I’m thinking of making some postcards out of my choices- to see if I can really make the colors work together.

charles class

colors

I came away with lots to think about. Processing….

NIADA report 2

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One event where dolls from the visiting artists are displayed, is the critiques. This is optional- well actually you have to pay extra for it. I didn’t participate in the critiques this year. I didn’t really want to hear someone elses “constructive criticism”- I have enough of that in my own head! These were my faves- These 2 dolls are all felt. They are made by a Russian artist, Alina Tatarskaya. I wasn’t able to talk to her because of the language barrier.

felt girl

blue man

The next day, people displayed the dolls they had made for the gourd doll challenge. This one is by Akira Blount– so beautiful-

akira

Saturday evening was the banquet and we received our souvenir doll. She was done by Shelley Thornton this year. I’ve got her posed here in the hotel with my other dolls-

window

The last conference event is the show and sale for the NIADA artists. That is where you can see the most incredible collection of high end doll and figurative artwork. Here are way too many photos- some pretty bad- and some people are missing. This is what I ended up having on my camera and as always, am missing photos of some work that I really liked.

This is Leslie Molen the newest member of NIADA.

molen

and here is Annie Wahl’s table. She had some busts- she called them “Church Hats”. I bought one… I’ll post a photo later.

wahl

Ankie Daanen

ankie1

ankie2

Charles Batte– I took an excellent color class with him on Monday.

batte

Donna May Robinson

donna may

This was the one piece that Forest Rogers showed at the gallery night and the sale.

forest

tiny babies by Dorothy Hoskins

hoskins

Ima Naroditskaya

ima1

ima2

Tatiana Baeva

tatiana

Shelley Thornton– I took a pattern making class (draping) with her.

thornton

Tine Kamerbeek

tine

and a detail of the foot on this incredible piece-

tinefoot

phew- that’s all for now…

NIADA report 1

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The first event at the NIADA conference is a Gallery night where all the members display one special piece. These are some of my favorites in no special order-

Elizabeth Brandon-

Kathryn Walmsley

2 kitties

Tine Kamerbeek

Ima Naroditskaya

Shelley Thornton

Annie Wahl

I very carefully picked up business cards from lots of the artists’ so I’d be sure to have the correct contact information, but somehow managed to misplace them. I will update links if I find anymore artists websites. There is contact information for all the artist at the NIADA page.

traveling

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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.

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.

sketchbook/mini-portfolio thing project

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So I just did a group of postcards. I had fun drawing little doodles on fabric with Micron Markers. We had a family field trip over to Utrecht to buy art supplies for Peter’s summer classes. Surprise- look what I found! These fantastic markers were on sale, only .99 and in such beautiful colors- So much for Peter’s art supplies!

markers

Well, the new markers inspired this little project that I did today. I was thinking it would be fun to make myself a sketchbook with cloth pages instead of paper. Then, I could snip out little drawings when I wanted to do the applique collage postcards or atc’s. I made myself 2 piles of fabrics and put sheets of freezer paper between each layer of fabric. I machine sewed an edge and then sliced them into sketchbook sized pieces. I’ve ended up with a total of 5, so I am probably set for life.

pads

The fabric “sketchbooks” are way too floopy to use, so I decided they needed some kind of support structure. I made a little portfolio cover to put them in. Here are all the parts layed out. The colors in this photo are accurate- the next photos are sort of washed out. You can see the cardboard covers and spine on the right of the photo.

parts

Here is the front- it has a pocket for my pens and pencil-

front

and the back- it closes with a wrap around tie-

back

here are some pages. You can see the layers of freezer paper. This pad has lots of colors, the other side is mostly white. The 2 pads are held in place with bulldog clips.

pages

and I put a strip of fabric in the back so my little moleskin can have a place too.

flap

I did this using the same technique that I used on this project- wonder-under onto cardboard. I am still amazed.

postcards

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I finished the postcards. They are all in the range of 4 inches by 6 inches.

postcard1

postcard 2

oops- this tree one doesn’t actually have that white thread mess on it…

postcard 3

I thought the doily could look like a wicker chair-

postcard 4

postcard 5

I really like how the tree came out on this house one- I’ll have to play with that imagery some more-

postcard 6

postcard 7

postcard 8

postcard 9

I will put these into my etsy shop when I get back from NIADA. I don’t want to worry about not mailing them when I’m away. They will be $20 each, in case you wanted to know…

Boston evening

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We went into Boston last night for a concert at the Hatch Shell. Such a Boston thing. They were doing Mozart’s Requiem. It was great to hear it again, although I couldn’t quite enjoy it as much as the first time since my kid wasn’t up there on the stage!

concert

We walked over the Charles River at the Mass Ave. bridge to get back to our car. It was so beautiful at night.

river

news and questions

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so busy but so little accomplished!

I went to see Abby last week, to deliver her share of our Super Fluff order- minimum order is 2 cases which is 2 boxes with 20 pounds of stuffing each- the 2 boxes together are about as big as a refrigerator! It is always great to see peoples work and be able to touch everything. No matter how good the photos are, it is not the same. And I was lucky enough to meet the 2 little nappers- what sweetie-pies!

On Saturday, I went to the Somerville Artbeat where I got to see Erica from mmm…coffee and I was actually bold enough to introduce myself. Her new felt creatures were wonderful. Some other craft bloggers were there including Sewing Stars but I didn’t talk to her. Magpie was right next door to them and was giving away fans. I snatched one up because I sure needed one- it was Very HOT!

Daughter Eleanor was doing her thing at the Gay Games Opening Ceremony. I was thrilled to see that Lisa of Bird in Hand had posted pics on Flickr. Later I’m going to see if I can find some more flickr photos of the opening ceremony.

Next week ( 7/26- 7/31) I am off to Minneapolis and the NIADA conference. After that, I am flying into Chicago for a few days. If anyone wants to try and meet-up or has any suggestions for great places not to miss, I’d love to get some input.

I am hoping to get some work done before I go off… we’ll see.

little red ridinghood

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Little Red Ridinghood is done-

red ridinghood

her face-

face6

and body applique-

torso

When I was in New York a few weeks ago, I went to Purl Patchwork. While I was browsing around and drooling on the Liberty of London fabric, the sales person was talking to someone who must have been a beginning quilter. She was showing her how to cut curves and sew them together and then got onto applique. I was listening to it all- not much of a challenge since the store is tiny. She described an applique technique that I’d never heard of before- so obvious and yet brilliant! I don’t think the person she was talking to understood what she was trying to describe, but I got really excited! I just did a 2 minute Google search to see if I could find a good description, but could not so I’ll try to explain.

You have your chosen fabric and then something like a very light not iron-on interfacing for backing. I had some used dryer sheets and thats what I used- they worked perfectly. You put your fabric face down on the backing. You sew the outline of your shape. Clip the curves and trim the seam. Cut a slit in the backing. Turn the little shape right-side out. Now, all your edges are turned in for you- iron it flat. Sew the shape in place.

I knew I had to try it and I did on this doll- on her basket, arms and the lower edge of her hood. It works beautifully. Thanks, whoever it was at Purl Patchwork that day!