ADA hosts several ornament swaps each year and we just wrapped up our Christmas Ornament swap. So many great ornaments were made in all different mediums and styles. So, without further ado, I present to you the 2012 ADA Christmas Ornament Parade!
We had our very first Halloween Ornament Swap here at ADA and we had a blast with it. Each ornament was so creative and different. We drew names and swapped. Are you ready for the ornament parade? Here we go!
Made by Sherry Hall
Made by Dreamed by Arlene
Made by Trish Powell
Made by Debb George
Made by Patty Woods
Made by Darel Medley
Made by Toddy Madsen
Made by Debbie Lotrell
Made by Jennifer Tobicoe of Sassy Pack Rat Studios
Made by Moriah Betterly of MLB Studios / MLBetterly Art
Aren’t they all fabulous??? We’re taking sign ups now for the Christmas Ornament Swap. Are you a doll maker? Wanna play with us? Hop on over to Facebook and join our group!
Moriah
Jen here with the latest ADA challenge. It was to create a doll in any medium you’re comfortable with in the theme, “Silent Film Star”. Share your WIP and finished photos with us! This challenge runs from July 1st through Sept 30th
Although 6 people signed up only one finished the challenge. Life happens and I’m one of those 6 who just couldn’t do it so I understand. Lene Walton finished her doll, so I want to share it with you. I just love it!
Lene Walton’s entry into the Silent Film Star challenge… Oliver Hardy.
Lene says, “Admittedly, this began life as Charlie Chaplin, but my 7 year old son was adamant that it looked more like Oliver Hardy and, y’know, I think he’s right. I think it’s the tie. This is the largest doll I’ve ever made, the first time I’ve used a wire armature, and the first time I’ve made a face this way! He stands at 13 inches, from the soles of his feet to the top of his hat, and will shortly be residing in my son’s bedroom, whilst he nags me to make Stan Laurel to go with him… o_O” 
For those of you who are only familiar with Laurel and Hardy together, Oliver Hardy started in the movie business in 1910 as a movie ticket taker and by 1915 had made 50 short silent films. He usually played the heavy or bad guy.
In 1927 he was teamed up with Stan Laurel and began the classic double comic act that last nearly 30 years.
Lene did such a wonderful job on her doll and I hope there will be nice comments for her work. I don’t know if Lene has a shop but she can be reached through our group.
ADA’s second challenge of this year is in full swing. There is plenty of time to join in and I hope you will!
Here’s the info:
Create a doll in any medium you’re comfortable with in theme, “Silent Movie Star”. Share your WIP and finished photos with us! This challenge runs from July 1st through Sept 30th.
You can share your WIPs photos on the ADA Facebook group page. At the end of the challenge we’ll post the finished creations here on the ADA blog.
We will be announcing the ADA Fall Challenge soon so if you aren’t able to join the Summer one we hope you can join the Fall Challenge.
This challenge showed the diverse styles and talents that are apart of Art Doll Artists and I hope you will enjoy seeing the Vintage Circus/Sideshow Challenge creations.
I’m happy to present to you the challenge creations. First up is Hoopie Wanamaker. Hoopie was the first to complete the challenge with her lovely Snake Charmer
“I had this lovely lady on my worktable just waiting for an identity when the sideshow challenge was posted and I knew immediately what she wanted to be, and I can keep adding snakes as fabric and time allow!!” – Hoopie
The second artist to finish the challenge was Valerie Wurtz. Valerie did a sweet circus bear and circus dog.
Traveling thru Europe was a wonderful Vintage Circus…
BlueBear was a famous bear to see…children came from miles around whenever the wagons pulled in town. One time in Germany a little girl and her dog went to the show to see the famous BlueBear perform…the little girl was so excited to see the circus and the awesome bear, she snuck back behind the curtain when the show was over just to try and meet the BlueBear.
BlueBear looked up and saw the little girl and her doggie…BlueBear smiled really big when he saw Doggie…you see Doggie was his old friend from years ago…they were so happy they danced and danced around!
The last to finish just in time was me, Jennifer Tobicoe. My challenge piece was a Vintage Trick Rider.
Matilda Tillmann was born into a moderately wealthy family and was one of 9 daughters. Her 8 sisters were great beauties and were much sought after for marriage by handsome, rich and dashing young men. As sister after sister headed off to wedded bliss, poor Matilda became more and more depressed. Her parents were concerned yet practical people who decided to spend Matilda’s dowry on a horse since she loved to ride and honestly knew that they’d never be able to marry off this daughter with that face. “Now Matilda can take care of us in our old age and have a good horse to keep her company” was the thought of her parents.
A fortnight later a Circus arrived just outside the village. Matilda begged her parents for permission to go but decent people did not attend circus performances. So Matilda snuck out with the household staff and had the time of her life. She watched the trick rider who wasn’t very good and thought “this is for me!” She snuck out again the next afternoon with her horse and showed the Ringmaster what she could do and was hired right away. Matilda became very happy, famous, rich and had many dashing lovers despite her face. -Jennifer
Better late than never….
Moriah finally finished her piece. A Bearded Lady Doll!
The ADA Summer Challenge is already underway and I hope you’ll join us!
Jen here with Friday’s studio feature. The lovely Arlene of Dreamed By Arlene will give us a tour of her creative space today.
When Jennifer asked if anyone would like to show off their space, I wanted to immediately. The room I am about to share with you is the only room I have ever had to myself. I grew up in a small apartment in Queens, NY with 3 sisters, and married very young and had my first child by 20. There has never really been a time in my life where I could retreat to some place that was “mine”, where I could arrange things the way I liked without worrying about taking up too much space or encroaching on someone else’s space, or putting my things in harms way. When my oldest child moved out a few years ago, it was my opportunity to take the small spare bedroom and turn it into an art room. I actually struggled with feeling selfish for this, that maybe the room would be better utilized as a family room, or a spare bedroom to accommodate company – after much discussion, in the end, with the support of my beloved husband, the room became mine. All mine. Mine, mine, mine. And I love it.
First rule to be observed when entering the art room – Don’t Piss off the Fairies!
We took a fairly small room and after tearing up the rug and putting down a laminate floor, my husband built a bench from plywood – sanded and stained it – we bought storage cubes with cubbies in them to lay the bench across, creating a work space with lots of storage on both ends. I bought leather “baskets” that fit perfectly in the cubbies so I could slide them in and out to access stuff.
I have everything I need here – a lovely heater my husband and I bought for my mother when she was still living in NY – she moved south and gave it back and it fits perfectly in my room. I love the “fake fireplace” effect – it makes my room very cozy at night.
I couldn’t show off my room and not show off my KelbyCarie tool caddy – it’s always close at hand when I’m sculpting, and I love how it holds all my little “treasures” – the walnut shells, tacks, buttons, shiny things, where would I put all that without my caddy?
There’s a sewing machine, which needs to be put back together, a small light box next to it for taking pictures, a toaster oven for my polymer projects, and shelves and a book case to store things in.
Note the dowel rod of ribbon that’s laying across the sewing machine basket – I am planning on making something cute and whimsical to hang that from on the wall, just still trying to figure out what. Gnomes? Maybe..you’ll have to watch my blog for signs of that project.
Back to the tour, yes – the lighting is track lighting on two sides, the paint job was done white on the walls that the light was going to reflect on, with the one orange accent on the wall with the window, so the light does not get “sucked in” by this darker color.
I have lots of books here, not just art reference books, but the books I love to read most, my fairy tales and children’s literature, along with mechanical books that I just find so fascinating, as well as magazines, mainly Art Doll Quarterly and Miniature Collector, as well as lots of music to listen to while I work. Yes, this is my special space and I hope you enjoyed the quick peek!
You can see Arlene’s work here:
I found this great series of tutorials on YouTube. In the videos, the instructor teaches you how to make fairy wings, bat wings, gargoyle wings, etc etc for your dolls. I hope you enjoy watching them!
Hi all! Jen here today to share my own studio. No one wanted to be featured on Friday the 13th but it’s just another day to me so I decided to use my own studio as a fill in for today.
Here a bit of background on my studio. My brother is getting a divorce and needed somewhere to stay and get his life together so I recently gave up my larger back bedroom studio and moved into my 60′s era small dining room. It took some juggling and getting used to but now I’m happy in this space.
I live in one of those houses that the dining room and living room make an L shape, so my 1st worktable butts up against the back of my couch.
2 of my worktables are made from doors in the house that we took down so free for me. The 1st worktable sits on top of my old dining room table. It’s mostly being used as a catch-all space right now. I hope soon to get that all cleaned up! The dog bed is there. The purple bins are also storing catch-all things. Behind the purple bins are other bins that hold all my decorative yarn, random body parts and my patterned and embossed felt.
This is my second worktable and my main sewing station. One day I hope to paint the doors white and put trim around the edges but hey it works for now. This door sits on an old table base that was given to me for free. I love free! I store my yards of felt in these bins. My neighbor was throwing these bins away! I grabbed them and they are happy with me…and free!
The door behind the table can’t be used but leads into my kitchen.
These are the shelves above my sewing table. I’m currently re-working these to be more organized…lol, me organized?…too funny! I got those great photo boxes on a 50% off sale at Joann’s right after Christmas. They are fabulous! I have them currently labeled Easter, Halloween, Christmas and have trims, buttons an other holiday related items stored for easy access instead of digging through boxes and bins looking for things. Yay me! Look I am organized!
The top shelf is dedicated to art I’ve either collected of received in swap and giveaways from some awesome artists. It’s a bit bare cause I re-organizing there too.
In the corner is my shipping station. It’s a piece I had already. It holds boxes and envelopes and junk like that. Above that are what I used to use as display shelves for my finished work. Most everything has just been packed away. I needed the room for supplies.
The worktable below is my clay and paint table. It’s one of those folding party tables. I borrowed it from my mom and never gave it back..so free! Really it’s o.k. she gave it to me. It’s perfect cause it washes up so nicely, although you can see I haven’t done that recently!
As you can see I store things in whatever nook and cranny I can. On those empty 2 walls on the far right I hope to hang art….one day.
My computer desk. Received the drawing table as a high school graduation gift…oh so very long ago!…and yep free again! I’ve carried it with me for years refusing to throw it out and wow am I glad I held on to it. Nothing else would have fit this space. A wooden shelf below holds my awesome photo printer. I slide it out when I need it. Yeah I snagged the shelf from the neighbor’s garbage too. I got the desk chair at a rummage sale.
This giant wire shelving unit was purchased for another business I used to own, so while it wasn’t free I already had it and it fits perfectly here. It holds my scanner/printer, fabrics, extra trims, inspiration books, my pattern binders and lots more. I’m reorganizing this right now too. The very last thing in my studio is my giant office filing cabinet. Yep it’s completely full of client files, taxes and other stuff. Saw it at a rummage sale and my mom, gosh I love my mom!, bought it for me. Oh and there is a hutch beyond the file cabinet. I plan to start using that for storage soon too.
Here’s a shot of my studio from my living room so you can really see how small my space it. I literally roll my chair from table to table when working. It’s very compact but it works for me!
You can find my work at:
This tutorial is an excerpt of a DVD workshop. It covers customizing a pattern for arms to accommodate different poses.
Jen here this lovely Friday morning to share with you the studio of Kimmie Lovin.
My workroom was originally the smaller of the 2 bedrooms in our cottage sized house. After a few years I outgrew that space completely and we decided that the only answer was to switch the rooms. We have a basement but my Husband is a musician and uses it for his studio. Two creative people living under one roof is a challenge both space and storage wise.
The switch was made one year ago almost to the day. Even though my work is often called dark I wanted a light and airy vintage style room. One day I would love a really large well lit creative space to work in. But the reality of it all is that no matter how big the space I will find a way to clutter it up. The bigger the space the bigger the pieces and more flea market and garage sale finds I can jam into it.
Here are pictures of the room right after I put it together and the photos of it one year later. The evolution of my work space. Although size and space are always an issue I am very happy to have my own room to work in.
It definitely had a nice bright airy feel to it when I first put the room together.
A year later I have replaced the too high desk for a 4′ x 3′ folding table and plastic drawer carts for storage. I bought myself a real sewing machine and the peg board as cool as it is really doesn’t get used as much as the lazy Susan does on my desk does.
This is my computer desk ( look how nice and clean and well organized it was a year ago).
Here it is today. The reality shot. A desk that is worked at everyday.
I swear by these plastic storage drawers.
While I’m working on my art dolls I like to keep all of the stuff I buy and find for each one in labeled boxes. It keeps me organized when working on more than one project at a time.
This is my must have. A piece of kiln dried wood with nails driven into the top. You can buy the kiln dried wood at Michael’s Craft Store.
I bake my doll heads and hands in the oven with this and paint and store them on these as well.
This was the best item I bought while garage sale shopping last year. A vintage secretary. I got it for $75.00. It’s stuffed with lace, trim and fabric.
Here is now, surrounded by piles of fabric and all sorts of misc. items. I still love this piece.
My TV cabinet and spiffy new bed for my Doggy Ziggy. There is a Television in there. I like to listen to it while I work.
Not much has changed on this end of the room. Ziggy loves her bed though and keeps me company while I work.
So here you have it. One year ago.
And one year later. Definitely a lot more cluttered than I would like but it’s a space that is worked in and enjoyed everyday.
Thanks so much to Kimmie for showing us her creative space! She sure makes full use of every inch she has.
You can find Kimmie’s dolls at: