Northdixie Designs - Dixie Redmond

Izannah Walker Workshop Class Members' Dolls

2010-03-10T18:03:00.007-05:00

I feel like such a proud mama! The slideshow above is of the dolls made by class members in the Izannah Walker Workshop, using my Izannah Walker doll pattern. One class member aptly described the group's work in this way:

"...everyone has their own voice
and handwriting which shines through!"

If you missed the sign-up for the spring session of the Izannah Walker Workshop, I will be offering a second session in the fall of 2010. So email me if you're interested and I will put your name on the list for the class, which will be $60 for membership. The membership tuition includes patterns in PDF format, numerous tutorials, membership in the online forum, I promise you it is worth that and much more.

The Power of Before & After

2010-03-08T11:02:00.011-05:00

I am a sucker for Before and After pictures. But when you think about it, it's really what artists do. We take raw materials and make them into more than the sum of their parts. A poet takes the rawness of individual words and arranges them in a particular order to convey a picture. An artist takes paint and canvas or pencils and paper and conveys an image that our mind remembers.

And Beckie Farrant saw what this sad blue chair on the left could become:

Before & Afters are really what life is about. It's about choosing to change. Do you feel like the sad 1970's dirty blue chair on the left? You can become the chair on the right. We do not have to stay the way we are. We often choose to, but we don't have to.

Belly Buttons and Lazy Eyes

2010-03-07T16:56:00.002-05:00

One of my family members emailed me and said I did not have crossed eyes as a child, that I had a "lazy eye" at times and had an operation to straighten it out. A picture of me at two years was sent by email to prove the point.

Ways to Improve As An Artist

2010-03-07T06:28:00.015-05:00

Look Honestly at Your Work
Get Honest Input
Try Something New
Make Something You Won't Sell
Look At Others' Work
Don't Look at Others' Work
Look at Art Outside Your Area
Admit Your Weaknesses
Build on Your Strengths
Make What You Love

Seth Godin's posts, my own attempts to improve my work, teaching my Izannah Walker Workshop online class, emails from two artists, and reading The Handmade Marketplace by Kari Chapin prompted me to write this post of ways to improve as an artist. See the list above? This is not exhaustive. There are probably 10 to 1ooo more ways that are just as important. These are the first things that came to my mind:

Look Honestly at Your Work

As artists we can fall in love with our own work. After all, we nurtured it and birthed it. It's our baby. We're like the mama with the cross-eyed child. We don't see the crossed eyes - we see the child. We don't notice the child's eyes are crossed until she walks into porch posts. (True story - I had crossed eyes as a child and had an operation when I was 5 to correct it). If your work is walking into porch posts, then maybe you need to honestly ask why. Sometimes we're not able to see the why ourselves. We need an outside opinion.

Get Honest Input

How to get an honest outside opinion? This is tricky. Sometimes artist's online groups can do this, but I think people are cautious about typing up opinions of others' work and that becoming viral. Most online forums lean more toward an encouragement mode. So how can you get honest (but kind!) feedback about your work?

First of all, ask for it.

If you really want honest feedback, be ready to receive it. And maybe pay and work for it. Travel to get it in person. And if you ask for feedback, receive it with grace. The other person is giving you a tremendous gift by really looking at your work. It's a risk on their part.

Try Something New

Step outside of your usual artistic arena. If you're a painter, try sewing. If you're a quilter, try paper collage. If you're a doll maker, try printmaking. It will give you skills and a viewpoint to apply to present work.

Make Something You Won't Sell

It's important to make works that are totally experimental. If you feel that you have to sell every little thing you make you will start to gear your creations to what you think will sell. This can cause you to avoid making mistakes which sometimes lead to discovering new techniques.

Look at Others' Work

This is tricky. You have to approach it with honesty to understand why someone else's work is selling for $400 and your work sells for much less. There can be lots of reasons for this, and sometimes it might have nothing to do with the artwork. Usually I find it's because someone has really pushed to learn something that I have been lazy about. Sometimes it's because they've been at it longer and are better at marketing. But most of the time it's because they've put loads and loads of hours into honing their work. I remember once asking an artist dollmaker how she got her paperclay so smooth. I thought she had a secret paperclay smoothing tool that she could give me the link to. Guess what? Her secret tool was that she carefully fills all the little pockmarks by hand, sands afterwards, fills again, sands again....her secret is hard work, and not being satisfied with pockmarks.

From a selling point, if everyone is making blue potholders and you make a blue pot holder it's going to languish in the sea of blue pot holders. How can you make a pot holder with a different spin than the hundred out there already?

Don't Look at Others' Work

As in don't copy it. Once I made a creation that sold for $200. "Whoo-hoo!" I said. I was so excited, even though I had put 70 hours of work into it. The next week someone listed a creation with the same hallmark features and practically the same copy in their listing description.

If others' work is selling high, and your work is similar, give them a mental high five if they do well. There are all kinds of forces at work that affect the pricing and selling point of works of art. Looking at what sells high will tempt you to do a copy of that particular work. And it won't have the same spirit, because it will read like a photocopy of a photocopy. Don't do it.

Look at Art Outside Your Area

This relates to trying something new. Look at work outside your discipline. If you're a painter, look at a doll show. If you're a sculptor, go to a film festival. Broaden your horizons.

Admit Your Weaknesses

If you're weak in an area you can improve. Not a good sculptor? Take a class in that. Need help with sewing? Buy a sewing book. Improve the areas in your work that stick out in a bad way.

Build on Your Strengths

On the other hand, you don't want to have a lot of strong weaknesses. I've found that painting can cover a multitude of sculpting sins. Or vice versa. Play to your strengths in what you create.

Make What You Love

If you choose to do things you love, chances are you will get better at it, because you will enjoy doing it and put the time in to improve. If you hate something, that's what will come through. If you hate painting but love sewing fabric then what kinds of creative areas will be your best fit? Quilting and fabric arts come to mind. If you hate sewing but love gluing then maybe you will make paper quilts. Making what you love will give your work a kind of joy that will be irresistible to people.

Well, that's what's on my mind very early on a Sunday morning.

Any thoughts?

Making Decisions

2010-03-05T06:28:00.009-05:00

Someone said in an email they liked how I just "just do it" in reference to my video attempts in the class I'm teaching. Anyone who knows me well - like family and my best friends locally - would laugh or at least smile at that. Because I take an incredibly long time to make decisions. And what looks like I am "just doing it" results from lots and lots of conversations with myself and pep talks. My sister stood beside me in Gymboree a long time ago while I took a half hour to choose a baby shower gift. :-) I dither, which results from being a worrier. What if I choose the wrong baby undershirts???

A question I read a long time ago in a book called "Yes" or "No": The Guide to Better Decisions has helped me numerous times when deciding to try something or not:

"What would I do if I weren't afraid?"

Asking this question cuts through the mustard, so to speak. This question is especially good to ask when you're about to try something new, which artists must do or we start cranking out stale copies of past work. If I weren't afraid of making the wrong decision, or failing, I might do more, try more, etc.

Seth Godin's post today is related to this. Read it.

Works in Progress

2010-03-03T16:20:00.005-05:00

In addition to the usual mom works in progress I have also managed to sculpt a few Izannah Walker inspired dolls while videoing sculpting tutorials for the Izannah Walker Workshop. When I'm sculpting, I talk, and it's amazing some of the things that I say. Artsy talk like "Trust the process" or "Don't be afraid to be a beginner" or "You don't need to worry about mistakes, because you're making a commitment to your work."

I'm making a pattern for boys' clothing (which is why one of the dolls is wearing red pants. Here are a few closeups of the works in process:

The doll above is in process. I like this picture.

This doll above is going
to be covered with stockinette.
It was painted as a boy but I decided
to do some experimental painting
before I add the knit covering.
A mixture of venetian red gesso
and black gesso makes for
a very rich dark brown.

The doll above is inspired by a doll in Helen Nolan's book. She will also be getting a layer of stockinette and then will be painted.

My Studio Makeover

2010-02-27T06:03:00.019-05:00

My "studio" aka painting area is a hallway at the bottom of the stairs in the cellar. A few weeks ago I posted my before picture of this spot. It's a 6 x 8 foot space that is a pathway to the laundry area. All of the things I was using for storage were leftovers from when we moved into this house 5 years ago. My painting table was a metal garage shelving unit with various crates and closet organizer shelves stacked on top of it. It wasn't working really well for me. So I decided to study what was working and what wasn't working and to fix it up as a reward for working really hard for several months on my Izannah Walker Workshop.

What was working:

Having a dedicated spot for painting that is separate from sewing.
Keeping items like paint, colored pencils, gesso, etc at hand near the table.
Plastic drawer units to organize pencils, markers, etc.

What was not working:

The tower of shelving units on top took up the working space on the table.
I was storing things in this area (quarts of paint) that did not need to be stored here.
I needed to make some decisions about what I was going to focus on art wise. You can't do everything (although I like to think I can).
Things were getting lost at the back of the shelves in the metal storage unit
I needed to throw some things away (packrat alert!)

My $75 plan was:

Hang two shelves above the shelving unit/painting table and get rid of the tower of make-do shelf units.
Clean off the metal shelving unit and only store there what I actually use.
Hang a shelf on the right wall to act as a painting easel for larger works.
Skirt the shelving unit
Get some boxes or baskets or bins to act kind of like "drawers" on the metal shelving unit. So if things were in the back of the unit I could get to them by pulling the bins out a bit.

Here's before and after together...

What I actually did:

Cleaned off the metal shelving unit and only stored there what I actually use.
Hung two shelves above the shelving unit/painting table and got rid of the tower of make-do shelf units.
Hung a shelf on the right wall to act as a painting easel for larger works.

Mission Creep:

Then came a moment of decision.

After I had hung the shelves I realized how much I hated that metal painting table. It did not inspire, truly. I was constantly catching my clothing and hands on the metal edges of it. It was wobbly, and I wasn't even sure it was going to survive moving back to the spot it had been. So I decided to replace it. This went beyond my $75 plan, but imagine how happy I was to go to Lowe's and see they had butcher block rolling carts at a deep clearance price of $79. The red cart below was also on clearance and I bought it for $35. So all told I spent about $280, which includes the three carts I purchased and the shelving and hardware. All the other storage items were ones I had on hand. And I found lots of rolls of tape! It is so much better and brighter!

My easel area below:
a shelf on the wall as an easel,
a rolling veggie bin as a painting cart.

It is so much more workable

I am a happy girl!

So now to get working!
Notice the closed door
in the picture below
at the end of the hallway?

That's my sewing area.
My mom told me
not to show that
on the internet.

At 47 do I need to obey my mama still?

Rising from a Chair

2010-02-26T19:45:00.009-05:00

Rising from a Chair

Move toward the edge of the chair. Place the left foot a little in front of the right with the weight upon it, and rise gently as if a string attached to your chest was lifting you little by little up to the ceiling.

The above paragraph came from the book 300 Things a Bright Girl Can Do. The writing in this 1903 book is hilarious. I like to look through these old books through Google Books to find old sewing information and old craft ideas. Another book that's interesting to look through is The Girls' Own Toy Maker. Homemade Toys for Boys & Girls from 1915 presents how to make toys from wood and cardboard.

Thinking Small

2010-02-22T10:08:00.004-05:00

www.maidatoday.com

I've been thinking small lately. I've been talking about being a beginner a lot in the Izannah Walker Workshop, because some of the members are brand new to sculpting. As artists we often want to skip over the beginnings and get to the big finish. Well, truth be told, it's not just artists, that's a people thing. We enjoy the BIG finish, but don't often see that the BIG Finish is not possible without the small beginning. The thumbnail sketch is what gives birth to the epic painting. A drawing on a napkin becomes a dream house. A chance phrase overheard in a coffee shop becomes the title of a writer's greatest work. These are seeds, small beginnings. They are acorns which grow into mighty oaks.

There's a verse in the Bible (Zechariah 4:10) that says, "Does anyone dare despise this day of small beginnings?" Seth Godin says that Small is the New Big. I started something small today called Maida Today, which stands for "Making Antique Inspired Dolls & Accessories."

Worth Repeating

2010-02-18T06:15:00.002-05:00

Some things are worth thinking about again and even repeating aloud. I am not naturally an optimist, I have to work at choosing it. It is gray and dreary and February and I'm not feeling optimistic today. February does not have the promise that March does, with occasional rainy days that let you know that Spring is around the corner. So I have to take the time to remind myself in the form of gaudy Gerbera daisies.

"Sin is behovable (unavoidable)
but all shall be well
and all shall be well
and all manner of thing shall be well."

Julian of Norwich

Doll Earectomy

2010-02-16T11:35:00.004-05:00

The following is one of the video clips I've made for the Izannah Walker Workshop. Nothing like doll surgery to keep it real.

Passion & Fear & Balance

2010-02-15T13:45:00.000-05:00

Sunny Bates on Linchpins, Passion and Fear from Seth Godin on Vimeo.

Giveaway Alert and Happy Valentines Day

2010-02-14T07:44:00.005-05:00

Joee is so funny. Read her post.

and just for fun....a movie montage on love...

Tools Matter

2010-02-13T12:00:00.005-05:00

I was talking with an artist recently and the subject of technique came up. There are artists who believe that only expression matters, and technique does not. Only the process matters, and the end product is what it is. When I was in art school 20+ years ago one of the professors described an artist saying, "He probably uses a triple zero brush." This was not a compliment. The fact that this artist took months to make a painting was something being derided. Somehow I internalized something from that conversation without knowing it, thinking that small brushes were instruments of evil. So I've spent years trying to paint things with big brushes that are impossible to paint with big brushes. It's a kind of artistic Sisyphean challenge.

Doll making has unveiled all this for me. Because the truth of the matter is, the kind of lines I want to make can't be made with a large brush. Using the right tool for the right job is important.

Helen Pringle Doll on Ebay

2010-02-10T20:19:00.006-05:00

A doll making friend of mine is downsizing her doll collection to make room for life's other ventures. This is a very beautiful Helen Pringle doll. These don't come up very often on Ebay - in fact I've seen more Izannah Walker dolls come up on Ebay than Helen Pringle dolls. So if you love Helen Pringle dolls then click here to check out the auction for lots of closeup pictures.

1930's Graffiti Tabletop

2010-02-09T13:09:00.004-05:00

Featured on Anonymous Works

and available at Stephen S. Powers

Advantage of Being Disorderly

2010-02-06T20:43:00.002-05:00

"One of the advantages
of being disorderly
is that one is constantly
making exciting discoveries."

A. A. Milne

Cleaning House (Studio)

2010-02-06T09:22:00.003-05:00

One of the reasons I have postponed cleaning my painting area is that it requires making some decisions. Am I going to use the mica dust/flakes that I've had for 3 years and used once when I made a snow-woman creation? What about the wooden 70's canisters I was going to use for some mixed media project? And the old lamp base that doesn't work?

At the heart of these questions is "Where do I want to go with my art?" This led to thinking about what kind of creations are/will be timeless. There's a lot going on in the art world that makes me think "Cool!" and then I wonder if it will be sitting next to an 80's country geese collection at a garage sale sometime in the future. It's not that trends are bad, but you can get lost in them. I do think there is value in really studying the historic traditions in art and folk art. And there's also value in paying attention to what's going on around you.

As I clean my work area I am asking myself "Which items will I use to make a creation that is timeless and uniquely Dixie?"

The Joy of Learning Curves

2010-02-05T09:19:00.005-05:00

Learning something new can bring frustrations but it can also bring a lot of joy. I love learning new things. Right now I'm in a learning curve of beginning to do video instruction for my Izannah Walker Workshop Class. It is one thing to put a doll pattern out there in a 2D way, and it is a whole new world to try to show the making of the doll. I bought some software yesterday which will hopefully help me to be able to edit the clips. Here is one that I made - and believe me I see (and hear) all the problems. I have black countertops (not my choice!) which sucks the light out of the room. You can hear my oldest guy with autism clapping in the background and the sound of the heater and maybe the dog. It's a learning curve, and will be a fun one to learn how to edit and add better lighting, etc. And I know I will get better at it!

There are 10 more days to sign up for the Izannah Walker Workshop.

Izannah Walker Workshop Tutorials

2010-02-02T12:51:00.002-05:00

Today I took all the individual pages of tutorials from the Izannah Walker Workshop and combined them into one document. All together, it totals 81 pages of detailed tutorials. So now my job is to go back and see how I can edit it so it is smaller.

A Fun Side to Pattern Designing

2010-01-29T20:47:00.006-05:00

One of the fun parts of designing a pattern comes when the pattern is in the hands of the artists. I didn't realize that one of the rewards of designing this would be to see what people do with the pattern. It is great fun! I'm putting together a place on the Izannah Workshop blog to post pictures of the creations that people make with the pattern. But I want to mention Judy Daigles' doll - she did a great job with the doll, and an outstanding job with the sewing the dress. Click here to see Judy's doll on Ebay.

My First Doll from My Izannah Walker Pattern

2010-01-26T06:53:00.006-05:00

I tried to capture the feel
of the original doll below
in making the pattern,
as well as the feel of the moment.

I have gotten very close
with certain parts of the pattern.
But I have learned there is
always room for improvement.

But I like her just the same.

There is still time to sign up for the
Izannah Walker Workshop.
Signups are open through February 15th.

Jackie Hendrick's Izannah Walker Doll

2010-01-25T19:46:00.007-05:00

Izannah Doll by Jackie Hendricks of Plain-n-Simple

My friend Jackie aka Plain-n-Simple sculpts beautiful Izannah Walker-like dolls. I was so thrilled when she agreed to test my Izannah Walker Workshop pattern for me. Here's a link to Jackie's blog. The doll above is what she made! Isn't it beautiful? A little birdie told me this doll is going on Ebay tonight! I've seen original Izannah Walker dolls and Jackie's dolls capture the essence of the original dolls. Click here to see the Jackie's Izannah on Ebay.

Izannah Doll
by Jackie Hendricks
of Plain-n-Simple

Simplicity in Clothing Design

2010-01-24T09:05:00.003-05:00

I posted this on the Coffee with Tea blog, but decided to repost it here. Partly because I love the pictures, and partly because I think it would be helpful to all you Izannah-philes out there.

As a girl I remember going to the fabric store and looking through the pattern books with my mom and grandmother. One company is "Simplicity" patterns. The idea, is that it would be simple enough for you to make it. When you look at some antique garments, though, you appreciate how simple designs can actually be. They were designed to use the least amount of fabric, to have an ease of fitting that would make the garment fit a variety of body shapes and to be simple enough that a girl could make it. But it could be embellished with trims, etc. to customize it as well.

In the mid 1800's there was a classic simple dress style - as in the pictures above and below that was basically made of rectangles with clipped corners. Here are a few examples from old tintypes. Both boys and girls clothing...

Here is a Guideline for making an 1850's dress.
Click the Graphic to go to a written tutorial.

Recently I was making a chemise pattern for a doll. I consulted my Coleman's Collector's Book of Dolls' Clothes for a mid century chemise pattern. It's design is so simple it is beautiful - kind of the under t-shirt of 160 odd years ago. Here's the pattern laid out.

And here are some antique versions.

Simplicity is a beautiful thing.

Artisan, Artist, Folk Art, Fine...

2010-01-23T05:41:00.006-05:00

This beautiful tile can be found at Dovetail Antiques.

Artisan, artist
Folk art, fine
Which is the path
that I'll call mine?

Remember jump rope rhymes and jumping rope? Do kids do that anymore? One day I was driving to visit an antique folk art doll, and on the drive there I was thinking about paths I'm taking as an artist. I made up the ditty above on the drive. I like to sing and write, too.

Collage by K. C. Willis

The ditty came back to me in a discussion in the Marketing Mindset Workshop being offered by K. C. Willis. I used Christmas money to give myself a gift of a class on marketing for artists. :-) There is a special introductory price going on right now, so click here to check out the workshop. K. C. has other kinds of workshops on collage and mixed media - so click here to visit K. C. Willis' blog.

I have two artists in me - the one that enjoys folk art craft and then the person who likes to smear the paint around in a fine art way. For the longest time I felt like one negated the other but I'm beginning to realize I might be able to let them both live ;-) Both these paths are mine, and one informs the other. But it would be really interesting to find a way to integrate them. This is a good kind of problem.