Becky Holloway's Willow WispTake 2

It has taken me ages to complete my second doll from Becky Holloway's Willow Wisp pattern which I have been working on since the summer. I have plans to do a third as well. What I love about this pattern is the form of the body, beading and the chance to play with shear layers. It is such a romantic pattern; look how those legs peek out. I skipped some of the sculpting suggested in the pattern because I like to look she has with out the sculpting. I also changed the shape of the wings to more of a moth shape. She is an evening fairy after all. If you get inspired, the pattern can be picked up from Dollmaker's Journey.

Christmas Revels and Beautiful Calligraphy

This weekend I went to the DC Christmas Revels. I love the Revels and have been going yearly, since I was introduced by my husband's Boston based family. For those who don't know, the Christmas Revels takes their theme from a culture, researches the cultural customs from the area, and then has a play based loosely on these songs, stories and dances. In addition to the cultural theme the Revels has several standards. There is always a variation on the play St George and the Dragon, Morris Dancers, the cast and audience singing and dancing to the Lord of the Dance at the intermission, an excerpt from a letter by Fra Giovanni and a poem written by Susan Cooper, The Shortest Day which is always followed by calling out "Welcome Yule!" and finishes with all singing the Hogsmead Carol together.
This years Revels was one of my favorites. The theme was French Canadian and I have to admit I do not have a connection to the culture and did not have any expectations outside of my usual good time. I was very impressed by the singing of Riki Schneyer. She has a beautiful, smoky, warm voice. I strongly encourage you to check out the Revels for next year.
During the intermission, I went down to the sales table and LOVED the calligraphy by the artist Cari Ferraro. One can see her work at her website www.proseandletters.com. The picture in today's post is from one of her beautiful holiday cards and is used by permission.

Rememberance of Grandma

This is a picture of my Grandma in 2000 holding her great-grandson Aden. She died November 24th this year. She has an obituary at Pursel Davis. Grandma was a poet, defender of justice, and a lover of books. She taught me how to sew and I made my first doll clothes with her. I was very close to her; she will be missed.

Another set of scarves

My time has been very limited lately so I have only been able to do a little art here and there. I did take the time to dye another batch of scarves. The first batch is mostly sold out (Artists on the Avenue). Hurray! Aside from these scarves, I have been participating in a round robin group for about two years. The face you see above is only the 2nd paperclay face I have tried to sculpt. I am not sure I like the medium...maybe I need more practice. The doll is a Trow or a kind of troll.

Happy Fall Mosaic

This weekend I went to the Takoma Park Art and Humanities festival. I had a great time making this little mosaic card. An acquaintance of mine, Arturo Ho, is the lead artist of the Takoma Mosaic Project. This is going to be a great project involving the whole community to make community space more attractive. I hope to join them and am inspired to do some mosiac in my own house. Supplies can be found at Maryland Mosaics. Check out thier gallery for ideas.

Santa!

I made this Santa while living in Ithaca, NY and have never posted a photo of it. This Santa is of my own design and his body is a modified stump, that is, a stump body with boots attached. His skin is dollskin (a kind of polyester knit) and his beard Tibetan lambs wool. His hat is an infant sock. Santa measures about 1ft tall. I may try to do another of these Santas soon. Or maybe a troll version? Photos taken by Annie Zygarowicz. Doll copywritten by Penney Hughes.

Scarf project

September was a slow month for my art due to several changes in my life. I did get to do one significant project at the end of the month. A couple of friends and I got together, pooled our procion mx dyes and did tub dyeing as well as tie dying. This picture is a sample of the scarves I dyed. The scarves are velvet cut silk/rayon. We increased the temperature of the tub water for the silks and then added our cotton items when the water cooled down a bit. After I rinsed the scarves I then added another color from our squeeze bottles to give the scarves visual dimension. These will be for sell at the shop Artists on the Avenue.