SEPTEMBER SONG

MY September song is usually a loud, frantic clashing of unfinished projects.  I really need to put aside my current doll (she of the Styrofoam head) since she has no deadline, finish the re-design of my Christmas stocking pattern then get cracking on Stella Skelly, because she has an ADQ deadline of March 15.  But with the holidays taking a big chunk of that time, I will have to pick up my pace.

AND - I'm working on head number THREE for current doll.  The original gourd head was too big.  the second head - of Styrofoam - was a good size, but I sanded it until it was TOO SMALL!  I'm now working on my very last small Styrofoam egg.  If I screw this one up, the whole thing gets put away until after Christmas.

GOT TO LISTEN TO MY GUT --

I KNEW her head was too big.  But I kept working on it.  I painted her face and hair pattern.  I'd put glue on her neck and before it could dry, pulled her head off the neck.  There are times I simply don't listen to my gut - the voice in my head - whatever.

SO.  since I have no smaller egg gourds than the one that now resides in the "spare parts" box, I've cut down a small foam egg and covered it with clay.  Maybe it will be dry tomorrow.  I really hate using the soft white foam because it simply can't stand up to the man handling I tend to give it.

I will eventually get this new head finished - or make yet another if necessary.  Of all the dolls I've made, I've given up on only one and she could still be salvaged.  She is the victim of my inability to think far enough ahead - like I had to cut off both of her hands at the wrist because they were molded to her hips which left no way to get her slacks on.  Chalk it up to just one more "self-taught" lesson

ROAD BLOCKS AND DETOURS

I seem to be making zero progress this week.  Right shoulder so painful it interferes with my driving and wakes me at night.  Aspercream and OTC pain pills offer only temporary relief..  Consequently, I'm getting very little sleep and can't stay focused on anything.

Wound up last week with a package from my sister in CA.  She belongs to a sewing/craft group and always checks the members' scraps after class.  She collects those pieces she feels are big enough for making doll costumes.  She checks out neighborhood yard sales and snaps up anything - usually a piece of fur or jewelry - she feels I could use.  When there is enough to fill whatever box she has on hand, she mails it to me,   Receiving that box is like having an extra Christmas or two each year.                                                                                                 

I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO

I've been invited to  a quilt group meeting the second Thursday of each month.  Being a doll maker,  I may or may not fit in, although the president makes stuffed animals and toys.

Well! 43 quilters showed up as well as ten guests.  There was a social hour of sorts, then "refreshments" although I felt like a glutton for taking a small helping of everything but the sweets which were just store bought coffee cake.   I was introduced to the doll maker, although she isn't the current president.  She too, had a book of dolls she'd made that she carried with her.  Her book is much thicker than mine.  But she makes cloth dolls which can be made much faster than those sculpted from clay.  If I attend the next meeting, I'll take one of my dolls for "show and tell" - the fairy queen perhaps, since I have five or so copies of the ADQ issue it appeared in that can be shared with groups for the evening.

So - I will attend another meeting or two, offer copies of my teddy bear and Christmas stocking patterns, and have offered a Tea for Two gift basket as a door prize for the November "Tea and Scraps" party, but I don't see me becoming a dues-paying member.        

FLYNN IS IN !!

Flynn didn't win any prizes at the Houston Doll Show, but she DID get published in the fall edition of Art Doll Quarterly.   She was a finalist in the Superhero Challenge.  Flynn now lives in her permanent home with her owner.

HAVE I REACHED MY LIMIT?

"I am dying - just as I am about to learn the alphabet of my profession."
                                                                                         Michaelangelo

I don't know if he actually said it, but I can certainly understand how he must have felt if he did.  Dispair, panic perhaps, when you realize your eye sight is fading or your hands no longer have the strength or reach or sensitivity they once had.  When you can't recall things you KNOW you know.  People laugh and call such episodes "senior moments"   But they can't see the fear you feel when those "moments" seem all too frequent.

I suppose the above has been brought on by the difficulty I'm having with my current doll.  Her face has been particularly frustrating.  I'm trying for the narrower face and slim, straight nose and cinnamon skin of  North Africa.  Arab, perhaps.

 What I do know is that I've chosen a warm, butterscotch yellow for her gown.  I want to applique large embroidered flowers from hem to over one shoulder.  Several flowers at the shoulder will be stiffened with a backing of some sort to form a large semi-ruffle.  Hopefully, it will be very dramatic.
The flowers I'm using are decoration cut from sheer curtain samples.  The colors run from a pale cream to a soft sienna and from a pale yellow to a faded lime green.  Fusing sheer fabrics together will be a new challenge.                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

HOW MUCH IS THAT DOLLY IN THE WINDOW?

I've often thought that if I charged just a dollar an hour for my time spent making a doll, I probably wouldn't have a one that would cost less than $100.  That price wouldn't include the cost of fabric, threads, trims, glue, paint, clay, etc.  Clay is the most expensive product I buy, and then, I use it only for the finish layer.  I make the primary clay myself.  Chop sticks are cheaper than dowels and I have two huge storage bins full of fabric, most   of which was given to me.  So, as a rule, I don't have to put out a lot of money per doll.  I DO have to put in a lot of hours.

Which leads directly to the question of how much can I reasonably charge for a doll?  They are often imperfect - with crooked noses  and ears that don't match.  And my sewing skills are  sometimes downright embarrassing - but the finished costume looks good - if one doesn't go snooping  under skirts or tugging at shoulder seams.  I don't use molds and make my own patterns.  Time consuming tasks, to be sure.

So what is the "rule of thumb" these days for pricing one's creative work?   We've all heard of the starving artist.  I think that artists "starve" because the average person never stops to think that artists have mortages, car payments and bills like everyone else.  They seem to think that because the work looks so effortless and fun, it must be a hobby and of little value.  They're wrong, of course.  A good artist, like a good doctor, will spend her/his life learning - new techniques, new equipment, or just something that grabs their curiosity.   It's all relevant, it all has value.  It's worth the price you put on it.