A Sneak Peak of my latest creation.

Today I thought I would show you a sneak peek of what I've been working on. I've been finding myself a little bit overwhelmed with the amount of ideas popping into my head lately and each project seems to stirring up more ideas. A little while back I had the idea that I would like to create an art doll using some sort of printmaking technique. I had a couple problems because I've never printed on fabric with anything by silkscreens and I'm not a great sewer. You may have seen in my previous post that I've figured out how to reclaim my ability to silkscreen at home with inexpensive materials. Here come the ideas....

For this project though I wanted a linocut look to my doll and I was fully prepared to figure out how to use my press to print on fabric with a thin lino plate. Instead I did my image planning with my new Bamboo tablet, created a black canvas and treated it like a virtual lino block using the scratch tool as my cutter. The biggest advantage was being able to redo my "plate" and fix up any wayward "cuts". This doll went through numerous changes because I found that even though my initial image was fine 2-D, it was horrible when it went to 3-D. I made numerous trial dolls and it was great that I failed so often because I got to learn so much about sewing. Later I decided that my dolls needed some embroidery so I took to learning some of that too. But my dolls needed some pretty buttons and beads in their hair so I took to learning about polymer clay so I could make some of my own. I've now grown an obsession with polymer clay so don't be surprised to see some of it pop up here. Can you see how my brain is getting filled with ideas?

In the end I created five one-of-a-kind art dolls complete with embroidery, beadwork, individual skirts, handmade buttons and beads.  My girls wanted to play with these dolls but with all the small pieces on them they really are just for display.  Of course I already have other doll ideas in my head. I will be trying to sell these at an up-coming craft show in Vancouver next month.
I would love to hear your opinion of them.