Traveling Doll Project: two other dolls

Today was the unveiling of the other two dolls that I will be working on as part of the Team Docka for the Traveling Doll Project. 

Here is Simone by Spiritmama:

And here is Payten by Mealy Monster Land:

Payten is already home with me, and I have lots of ideas of what to do with her.... Click on the images to see the blog posts about each doll.

Traveling Art Doll: Peregrina

I've finally finished my doll for the Art Dolls Only Traveling Doll Project!

 

This is Peregrina, a "blank" doll to be sent on to Mealy Monster Land (Nicole) and SpiritMama (Waxela) on our mini travel doll challenge! 

She's made of cloth with paperclay, painted with acrylics, and stands about 14 inches tall. I debated whether to paint her face, but in the end I couldn't resist. It also seemed that she should have some undies, so I painted them on her as well.

So off she goes with her diary to Waxela tomorrow, where she will spend a month, then she will be sent to Nicole. 

 

Each of these artists will give her their creative touch, and she'll eventually end up back here. 

In the meantime, I've received Nicole's contribution, Payten, shown here posing with Peregrina. I've got a month to work on her and then send her to Waxela, when I'll get Waxela's doll from Nicole!  Some of the groups are as large as six or seven, but I opted to join a mini group of three this time around. I can't begin to imagine how Peregrina will turn out, and I've got my creative juices flowing to figure out how to start on Payton. I think I'll start by getting out the paint brushes.... 

A little more about Peregrina. It's a name that means "pilgrim" and is the subject of a beautiful song composed in Mexico in the early 1920s by Yucatecan poet Luis Rosada de la Vega with music by Ricardo Palmerin. It was commissioned by Felipe Carrillo Puerto, progressive governor of the Yucatán in 1922, for his love, the San Francisco journalist Alma Reed. You can read more about their tragic love story here, and you can read the lyrics to the song. I haven't found an English translation yet, but you see it run through Google's web page translation here.

Here's a video of the famous Jorge Negrete singing Peregrina with scenes from the movie El Rebelde (Romance de antaño) in 1943.  

Of course, I realize that adventures can change in mid-stream and Peregrina may take on a completely different personality, but it's always fun to start with a story!

Web Site Update!

Getting all this attention from the One World One Heart (OWOH) blog event has inspired me to update my blog and web design.  (Scroll down through a few entries below to find the giveaway.)

So my web site now has a new look, as well as the masthead for this blog and my Etsy store. A couple of very late nights (and procrastinating on other projects I should be finishing) found me tweaking and photoshopping into the wee hours.  It helps that I have created new dolls over the past few months to add to the imagery!

If you're interested in seeing the art dolls I've made, or the Sasha dolls I've customized over the past few years, you can go the the "gallery" section of my web site for slide shows.  The one thing I still need to do is update Tilily Tangerine's traveling images. Soon, I promise. 

Many thanks to all the visitors to the blog and sweet comments. I have also enjoyed visiting other OWOH blogs - what a great bunch of creative and inspiring folks! 

Timepiece and Bluebird

I thought you might enjoy seeing a photo of Timepiece (recently returned from her gallery show) and the new little Bluebird.

 

Timepiece is about 19 inches tall (if she were to stand). I've got a couple more small dolls in progress, as well as some medium-sized (14-inch) ones.

One World One Heart: Bluebird

One World One Heart (OWOH) is an international blogging event that was begun three years ago by Lisa Swifka of A Whimsical Bohemian.

 

It's about meeting other bloggers and exploring their work, whether they are an artist, a writer, or have other interests. And as you visit each blog, you may leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for a "giveaway" item from each blogger.  I'm running a bit late (the event started on January 25), and at this point there are over 960 bloggers participating. But I have just now finished and photographed my very first giveaway doll! (I'm number 974 on the OWOH list.) Drumroll, please...

 

As are most of my dolls, she's made from paperclay, cloth, and mixed media, and is painted with acrylics.

 

She's a little thing - measures about seven and a half inches tall. Here she is in my hand for scale. One of my challenges with making the art dolls is that they take me a LONG time to sculpt. So this one is barely sculpted - I just made a couple of indentations for her eyes and that's about it.  The depth of features is through my painting, which is much quicker for me than sculpting -- especially at this tiny size.

 She has a little bluebird painted on her torso, along with a tree branch that is starting to bud for spring. Her hair is made from burlap strands. I loved the way Nancy Wiley's new Alice in Wonderland looked with the burlap hair, so I had to try it for myself.

Little Bluebird has wings painted on her back. 

Okay - here's what you have been waiting for.  Just leave a comment below in the comments section for this blog entry to be entered into a drawing for her, along with a way to get in touch if you're the winner - your blog link, or an email if you're not a blogger. One comment per person, please!

I'll use a random number generator (I've seen how many comments can accumulate on the other blogs!) at the end to pick the winner. The event HAS BEGUN and ends at midnight on February 14, 2010. I'll pick the winner on February 15.

If you like my art dolls, feel free to friend me on Facebook or visit my artist fan page. 

Mother Goose

Perhaps Mother Goose is an imaginary character who made her way into children's poems; perhaps she was a real person in Boston who sang jingles to her children and grandchildren; perhaps she was a French queen who spun tales.

 

The rhymes and stories that are attached to her name have survived for hundreds of years, traced back to the seventeenth century.  Each of us carries some Mother Goose in us. From Pat a Cake to Three Blind Mice, from Humpty Dumpty to Old Mother Hubbard, these simple rhymes often bring up memories of childhood.

My Mother Goose is more about the flight of imagination that is stirred by hearing tales than about the old lady herself. We have different images in our heads when we hear stories or rhymes, whether nonsense of reality. I love the image of Mother Goose riding through the air when she "wanted to wander":

Old Mother Goose,

When she wanted to wander,

Would ride through the air

On a very fine gander.

Jack's mother came in,

And caught the goose soon,

And mounting its back,

Flew up to the moon.

  This Mother Goose doll wears a hat that imitates the Canada Goose; her boots are painted with goose feet. She has a painting of a goose holding a book on her torso; feathers cover her arms and her back so that she may fly. The Canada Goose is quite beautiful with its white marks against the black head and neck. Brown feathers make up its wings while its body is covered with a pale brown down. The Canada Goose winters here in New Mexico - we can often see them in fields near the river.

 

The doll is about 14 inches tall (if she were to stand), and is articulated with buttons and beads. She's made from paperclay (head and torso), air-dry modeling clay (her hat), cloth, acrylic, and other mixed media. Her hair is black Tibetan lambswool.

 

She sits on a shelf which is painted with a couple more geese and words from the poem. She's available in my Etsy shop: Allegromelody.etsy.com -  please let me know if you have any questions!

Art Dolls Only Traveling Doll Project

I'm thrilled to be featured today in the Art Dolls Only Traveling Doll Project Blog! I sent them a self-portrait taken in my kitchen with a couple of my dolls.

My digital camera has a little screen that flips around, so I can set up the picture field. Then I put it on timer, reach over and click the shutter, and have 10 seconds to compose. A remote control would probably make it even easier.

I'll be exchanging dolls to work on with Waxela of SpiritMama and Nicole of Mealy Monster Land. We each start a doll and send it on to the next artist, each contributing to the final project and ending up with our own doll again after it has been in the hands of other artists. It will be fascinating to see what we come up with!