Monday, December 26, 2011

   It is Dec 26th and I have been cleaning out my art room getting prepared for the new year. Oh how I wish I was more "spartan". I would love to have lots of uncluttered space. Throw throw throw things away! Have got to get that chi flowing! Have been cutting faces and ideas from magazines and taping them to a big board because if I don't keep then right in front of me I forget that I wanted to use them. Found the most wonderful Asian face to use to model a new head, can't wait!!!

Saturday, December 24, 2011




It is Christmas eve 2011. I am looking forward to a wonderful year, God willing. I finally have some real experience with making porcelain dolls behind me and I am ready to refine and improve them. I will experiment with all sorts of different methods and styles. I will meditate and open up my mind to the new and strange. Strange I think is a misunderstood word because it seems to imply something bad. What it really means is something out of the normal realm. Maybe original is a better word? We all like original. Maybe I'll go look these words up!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Monday, July 18, 2011

The Name I have chosen *Orendadoll*

Orenda

"A supernatural force believed by the Iroquois native Americans to be present in varying degrees, in all objects or persons, and to be the spiritual force by which human accomplishment is attained or accounted for".
This is the name I have chosen for my doll company. I would love to possibly be able to give a tiny spark of life force in each doll if possible, a tall order! It also describes what I have always felt. That there is a life force in all objects, flesh and blood or not.I think the power of this life force can be increased with intention and with love, love of creation, all creation.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Looking to the Future

I have not posted in a while but I've been working working working!!! I feel I'm close to finally having a sale-able doll. I will be putting my small much improved mermaid on ebay in the next week or so.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Well I finally made her and it was a lot of hard work. I am very pleased but not totally satisfied. I need to use springs in stringing her because elastic just does not do it, the tail is too heavy. There is such pressure because I have a lot of debt and a lot on the line. I want to start putting dolls up on ebay but I won't until I have worked out all the bugs. My boyfriend has been paying my kids to do all the housework so I can work. He has faith I can do this but he can't prevent my house from being forclosed on.And even if I lost everything as long as I can eventually make a living from my dolls I should be O.K.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

A Good Day!

Well I got all the greenware in the kiln this morning, whew! I am exhausted! Did 24-7 work and managed to go from proto to porcelain in one month!
Then I went to a little art festival in town today. They had the usual paintings, pottery, hand made soap, nothing spectacular. Then I came upon a woman who was selling her paper clay figures that were just soooo fantastic! And she was selling so cheap! I told her she MUST get on ebay and get what she really deserves which is a lot more money! She said she would try it. She is also giving lessons and I am definitely going to take them, excellent!

Friday, April 29, 2011

K-Day tomorrow!!!

Kiln day, tomorrow the pieces go in for the porcelain firing! I spent the day cleaning the pieces up and checking the fit, trimming where needed ect.... David managed to pull me away for lunch at a place near the ocean. It really was wonderful to get away from my working frenzy and relax. We ate outside where it was sunny and breezy and a lovely temperature. I took scraps down to the beach afterwards to feed the seagulls and other assorted birds. I threw them up in the air one by one (frenchfries) but there are no gulls today, very odd. They can usually seeing a flying french fry a mile away but not today!
Anyway I'm tired!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

All is going as planned!

Well I've been letting my molds dry while enjoying the Easter holiday. I did work however in testing the molds that seemed dry enough. The first casting is always full of soap and no good but it's good to get that first casting done with! Oh I do have some difficult molds that are hard to cast and I may have to rethink their configuration. We shall see!!!

Friday, April 22, 2011

Well I've just about finished making the molds of my new Mermaid doll. I have high hopes with this one but you can never be sure until it's in porcelain. What a lot of work mold making is and I'm happy to be over with it for a while! I am grateful to my boyfriend who took care of a lot of things the last few weeks so I could continue work at a steady pace.

Monday, April 18, 2011

O.K. Ready set GO...........

Well I have been working and working on my new prototype and I am quite happy with the results! I should be making molds soon but I need to fix a few things and then put her scales on. That is always a little bit of a challenge.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Took it off!

I took my mermaid off of ebay. I'm just not satisfied with her yet! I had 3 watchers so that was nice but I took her off anyway. It had not felt right. So now I'm going to do a whole new prototype (yikes) with a very different tail. I have to! It's going to be great!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Decided to take a chance! What the heck!

Well you know what? I decided there are going to always be things I'll want to change about my work which is natural. I've decided to list my little mermaid on ebay and take a chance and see how she is received. I started her out at a reasonable bid price and we will just see what happens.
I'm rather excited!

The boohoo day

I have to say I'm a little despondent today. I realize all the work ahead that I must do to do things really correctly and I tried to explain it to my boyfriend with a diagram since he never quite understands the whole process of mold making and the master mold making and the TIME it takes to do all this. Everyone is so anxious for me (kids included) to finally have something really up to my standards so I can get beyond this stage. It just takes time.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Friday, April 1, 2011

Well I can't sleep! Got this darn dead beat Dad situation going on and money is getting tight. I had great hopes of getting a doll on ebay this week but the doll still needs more work. I don't really mind working more on her, in fact I enjoy it, but I hate to feel this pressure on myself to hurry up and get a product done to sell! Pressure can at times help me get things done but not in this type of situation because I need to take my time in figuring out the next steps and do them right. I don't like to rush. Oh well, life rarely follows my script anyway ha ha! I think I will spend today cleaning up my art room and clear my thinking, then on Sunday start doing some adjustments to the doll and order springs purhaps.

Finished! For now......

After working all week I finally got my mermaid done, whew! I'm quite happy with her but of course also notice the stuff I have to change about her. Some day I will finish a doll and not have an immediate urge to change things! But that day has not come yet. Not that I won't always want to improve but I'd at least like to get to the point that I find the doll acceptable to possibly sell. I don't think that's too far off though.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Will I actually have a finished doll?

Well I put enough parts in the kiln for three mermaids and when they came out I had parts enough for just one really good doll. I am very excited that I may have a doll, my first, on ebay this week! It is so hard to work this small in porcelain without breakage. It's breakage while being cleaned and smoothed before firing that is the real problem. I think I may do too much cleaning before soft firing, I don't know, I have to find out the balance that I need for the best results.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Mermaids!

Well I have been working on a mermaid. Granted, I have been, well, all over the place when it comes to what exactly kind of doll I want to be making. I think fairies are great and I love elves but what I most wanted to be as a little girl (besides a horse) is a mermaid. I wanted to be able to swim under water without having to breath air! My Mom worked when I was a kid and she would drop me off at a community pool and I would spend all day there quite happily pretending to be a mermaid in a imaginary world. I would clench my legs together like they were a tail and I would pump my legs to swim. If only "Splash" was a movie back then I would have been enthralled!
Anyway. I am trying to make a doll that can sit as a mermaid, easily. I have so many mermaid stories to portray with my dolls! It's very exciting! But where do I start? One mermaid at a time! Hopefully very soon I will put one on ebay. :)

Friday, March 18, 2011

Working like the wind!

Wow I worked like the wind today! I m getting better at making hands! Hands are VERY important. It's one of the major points people seem to focus on with any doll. And why would they not? The implements of humanity and objects of beauty if made elegantly! Left the molds out in the Sun to dry, won't be long now! Can't wait to pour the porcelain!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

A New Beginning

Well I'm pretty excited about the new molds I have made for the new doll. This time I pretty much tested a lot of the joints to make sure they worked BEFORE I made the molds! But some things working out will only be known when the doll is porcelain, such is the nature of this type of doll.I have taken much care in the design and mold making, I pray that it pays off! I don't want a bunch of parts that I worked so hard on to just not fit properly, UGH! I also really want to make another pair of hands just to have alternative hands. I hope to keep improving them. Everything seems so pains-taking long in this process and while I love to post pictures of each step, I think I will be a little more selective and keep some things to myself until everything is complete.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Playing with paint

Well I spent the day painting the new porcelain heads that I have made and adding to the older ones. I am a true believer in trying everything, meaning color combos. I believe that to truely learn you cannot be afraid to ruin your work, to push the envelope. I've been using black eyeliner and lashes, deep red lip color all in an effort to see what works and does not for my purposes. I now think I will go more subtle, browns, pastels just to experience it. I have been experimenting with bisque tone china paint no.2 and no.7. They are the colors used to blush the face and body. No.2 is (peaches and cream) and no.7 is (raspberry). I have set up little tiles with numbers and have a list on paper of which no. tiles are what color. There are also different mediums to use whether you are going to use the color for blush (area medium) or for eye liner (line and ultra line medium). That's it for today!

Friday, March 4, 2011

Today I am waiting for my new kiln to arrive. I needed a smaller model so that I can do small jobs without having to fire up my larger kiln. I have to complete my china painting on my doll parts before I can put them together. That should be interesting! I am also working on learning to make wigs for my dolls and that's been kind of fun. The heads look so much better with hair!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

A new awakening!

Oh sooooooooo much has happened since I have last posted! I have been working and succeeding in producing my first porcelain doll! You shall see!

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About Me

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I have studied painting and sculpture and still enjoy doing both though sculpting seems to have the dominant spot in my life right now. I have won Doll magazine's "Award of excellence" two years in a row 2013-2014, in the artist ball jointed doll category. I have also won "best of show" this past year at the Orlando Museum of Art.