March 30, 2012

Dollhead from Sweden

This is the dollhead I received from Christina in Sweden!! It is so exciting, because I am supposed to make his/hers feet and hands!! So cool!

New project: Many artists are making one doll!

I am participating in a new and exciting project. We are 7 different dollmakers from both Denmark and Sweden, which makes a part of eachothers doll. Sound exciting? It is! Let me explain: We all make a dollhead, and sends it off to another in the project, whom makes hands and feets, and sends it off to the third person, whom makes the body and so on. In some months my dollhead, according to our plan, will return to me, and I will get to have a doll, that so many have contributet in making!

Now, we just started, and this is my head:






I used a foamball and some paperclay (LaDoll), acrylic eyes and som "Decor Lack" from Marabu. Now I will send it off to Hannemette  http://www.kunstloftet.dk/. I hope she will give it some cool hands and feet :-)

By the way, something sad happened today :-( I had to take my beloved furfriend Merlin to the vet. He made some weird choking sounds and smelled like a dead bird in decay :-) I got really scared but the vet put him under seduction and took a look in his mouth. Nothing stuck in there, but he had a big red wound on his tongue... Thank God, just some virus infection!! The vet gave us some painkillers and some pencilin, and in a week he will be back to normal. I am so happy! It totally freaked me out to see his weird behaviour. I also got a bit sad, because I now realize that he accually tried to tell me, but I didn´t understand... He would sit on my lap and look me in the eye, making those sounds and refuse to eat... Poor little thing. I didn´t understand untill today, after he refused to eat his favorite snack! Then I phoned the vet at once!
Here he is, still a bit sleepy:


March 21, 2012

New cloth doll book

I just got back from a nice visit in Norway, and the mailman had delivered a parcel while I was out of town! I ordered " Anatomy of a doll" by Susanna Oroyan after a fellow dollartist kindly recomended me to read it, after reading about my  struggles with the cloth doll design.


I read a lot on the internet, but somehow, it is really nice to own the book, right? I usually order the cheapest one, and very often I buy used books too. Recently I recieved an old artdollbook with original sketches made by the former owner! I just love that!  
Very well, just wanted to share this very good book! It will help me figure out all the well kept secrets that other cloth doll artist know and use. 
My next book purchase must be this;


The Faemaker by Dawn Schiller. It comes out in August 2012. I must find a way to get that one signed :-)

March 09, 2012

I went a little wild with this lanyard...


I don´t play with beads much anymore, so if I pull out all my boxes and drawers, I tend to get totally lost and want to use everything in one single project :-)
I am a professional kindergarden teacher, and therefor use a lanyeard every day. In the past I have own several: in fabric, leather, plastic and more, but I kinda figured that it would be possible to make it a piece of jewelry? I like it, and I know the children will love it to :-)

New cat




I love to sculpt cats. They are graceful and funny at the same time. I have so much enjoyment just by silently observing my own three cats. Yesterday my Merlin came running inn from the garden, with a wild look in his eyes. I could tell he wasn´t present in there at all. He was lost in a wild bird chase, and he still had the bird (Blackbird) and half of the branch in his mouth!!! I chased him around the house, up and down the stairs armed with a waterspray and a broom, while he was growling with his mouth full of feathers and leafs......
Oh my God - I felt terrible for that bird. I love Blackbirds. They sing so beautifully. At the end I chased him out of the house, and closed the door after him. He then arranged himself outside my window in the studio, and guarded his pray for a long time, growling and spinning.
OKAY! I know I must understand the nature´s way, and I also know that possibly the bird was a gift for me (some experts say, that´s right!), but I hate it when cats do that. I get hysterical and feel like kicking the cat´s bum all the way out of my house... Later the same evening we kissed and made up. (But I still could smell the bird...) Here´s a pic of the rascal:
Merlin The Grey, the big birdhunter.

But I was to tell you a little about the new sculpt :-) Okay, it is made from paperclay. Eyes are acrylic from Hong Kong, and it is painted with bright acrylic colors. It also got a matt varnish, but somehow it is still a bit glossy. I was going for a stray allycat-look. I really liked it befor the painting including the eyes, but something happened after the painting... I still like it and are willing to show it here on the blog, but there is something wrong.... and I think it is the plastic eyes. Somehow I always end up with being irritated when I use them. They signal.... plastic! What do you think? 

The sculpt was a fullmoon gift for my beloved. We celebrate our love on every fullmoon. Yesterday we went to the cinema and saw the movie "War Horse". WE cried a little and enjoyed it very much, especially the part where a english soldier and a german soldier, in the middle of the warfield under a white flag, cooperates in removing all the barbwire from the bleeding horse. That was beautiful. 

March 08, 2012

I recieved a swap today!

Look what the mailman brought me today:
It is a handmade beautiful stringbag made by the talented Berit Lynge Lassen
It was inspired by the danish faitytale "The snail and the rosebush" by HC. Andersen. 
Thank you soo much Berit! I will keep something very special in it!  

March 01, 2012

New painting

I am an active member in this dansh group of creative and artistic people:


The group do some swaps, where you sign up to send a member a piece of art that you made yourself before a selected deadline. The theme this time was HC.Andersen (The danish storyteller, you know?). I had decided to make a doll inspired by the story of "The ugly duckling", but I had to change my mind, because I could not make the clay dry in time for the deadline. I made a painting instead!
This is my interpretation of this old story:

The duckling sits under the moon and wonders about the injustice in life. He was hatched from an egg in a duckfarm, and was being mistreated by the other ducks, because he was different.  Little did he knew that in a short while, he would become a beautiful swan and find his place in this world, but not before he had to go through a lot of challenges.
The text: "Life is the only teacher or school" is a HC.Andersen quote.
I think it turned out quite nice.