Making Cloth and Clay Dolls with Creative Paperclay

Folk Art Doll by Dixie Redmond
Featured in Prims Magazine

The use of creative paperclay has exploded over the last few years. Paperclay has even reached the Martha Stewart Living studios. Here's a video of Martha using creative paperclay to make ornaments.

And here's a link to the project instructions at Chez Martha.

I first heard about using creative paperclay several years ago.  Many doll makers originally learned from Mary Vlasak about applying creative paperclay directly over cloth. Mary was a very creative, honest and sharing doll maker who lived in Australia. I appreciate artists who are teachers as well as creators. When I first began making cloth over clay dolls Mary Vlasak used to send cheerleading emails telling me what was good and ever so kindly telling me what I could improve. These are the kind of people we need in our lives as artists.

My Izannah Walker Workshop pattern uses Creative Paperclay as the sculpting medium over a cloth doll.  You can view paperclay tutorial videos  I developed under the videos tab at the top of this blog.








Robert McKinley was one of the pioneers of using creative paperclay. If you see any of his books or videos at a book sale snag them immediately. They aren't huge, but the instructions are so wonderful. I wish that these books and videos would be affordably reprinted for artists who are new to paperclay.








Doll by Jackie Hendricks
Jackie Hendricks of Plain-n-Simple makes amazing Izannah Walker inspired dolls using creative paperclay in a cloth over clay technique.

Michelle Syllvia of The Blackberry Briar was recently featured in the new magazine Prims. Her bird dolls and moon dolls have such an incredible spirit.

Jane DesRosier started a whole group based on the phrase "Cloth and Clay Dolls."

E. J. Taylor, a longstanding and outstanding doll maker uses paperclay.




Other artists who excel at using paperclay? Cindi Ciampa, Rebecca Kerin of Cobbler Cottage, Deanna Hogan, Susie McMahon....the list goes on and on.  

This post has been a bit like a "State of Clay Nation" ;-) It's wonderful to see what people are doing with this simple and easy to use medium. Do you use paperclay? Have a tip to share? Please leave a comment.

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Every once in a while, it's time to stop time and take stock. It's important to look at where you've been and where you hope to go. About a year ago, I set some goals for myself. One was to take all the measurements and pictures I've been able to gather from seeing original Izannah Walker dolls, and design a pattern for making an Izannah inspired doll. I had posted about the desire way back in 2007. It's so good to be able to look back and say that I've done that.

Dixie Redmond's Izannah Walker Pattern

E. J. Taylor, a fabulous doll artist, is going to be leading an "in-person" Izannah Walker Workshop using my Izannah Walker pattern in the fall of 2010 at the American Museum in Bath England! This is very exciting! So if you are located in Great Britain this is a wonderful opportunity. Space is limited, so be sure to sign up soon.

For those of you not in driving distance of Bath, England, don't forget to sign up for the online Fall workshop.

DC Trip Condensed

We took 573 pictures while in DC. Lucky for you, I've condensed the trip for you to a few. On the first day my older son and I went into the Smithsonian National Portrait Museum. He likes museums - they're quiet and we were having a good time looking at pictures. I stood in front of the folk art sculpture above, almost forgetting Alex was there when I heard him ask,

"Should I ride that?"

At this point I found a nice bench for Alex and I to sit on and discuss whether or not he should ride the priceless folk art sculpture. It went something like this:

Me: Alex, that sculpture is priceless, and we don't won't to break it.

Alex: Oh, so it's not worth much because it doesn't have a price.

Me: No, priceless means that there is only one like it and you can't ever get another one just like it.

Alex: Oh!

Me: And when we're in museums, we have to show respect. (This line was repeated often during our trip to DC). We can look with our eyes and enjoy that but we can't ever touch the paintings and sculptures.

The funny thing is, I can't get the image of Alex riding a bottle cap covered giraffe out of my head. Wouldn't it be fun if it came to life and he really could ride it? I think I need to make a painting of it. And there wouldn't be a jail involved.

This picture was taken after we had walked
for miles and miles and miles in the drizzle
to get to the Lincoln Memorial.

My younger son didn't believe
how big the statue of Lincoln was
until we got there.
This picture captures
how big the story is.
Powerful.

As we were leaving the Lincoln Memorial my son said,

"Mom! Mom! Come look at this!
We're standing where Martin Luther King
gave his "I Have a Dream" speech."

The boys at the Washington Memorial.

Arlington.
No words can express my thankfulness.

We met up with friends at the Smithsonian Museums.
Chris got this picture of all 4 of us together.
It was a great trip.

Jennie Cell and Thornton Dial, Sr.

Jennie Cell began painting when she was 50 years old. I'm so glad she did. You can read more about Jennie Cell here.

"Art ain't about paint,
it ain't about canvas,
it's about ideas.
Too many people died
without getting their mind
out to the world."

Thornton Dial, Sr.
1993

Things You Say to Your Kids

Before I had kids, I had a list of things I would never say to them. They were collected over the years from watching parenting in action, an.

What is wrong with you?

Are you listening? Then answer me...

If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times...

Don't talk (or other colorful variations)

Do you want to be a hobo when you grow up?

Do you think I'm made of money?

This is not about you...

I do not exist to be your housekeeper...

You will not get into college with grades like that....

AFTER I had kids, here are some of the things I've actually said:

You can't do everything!

Stop talking!

Put down the light saber and do your homework!

Do you want to be a hobo when you grow up?

I am not your maid!

And who is going to pay for this?

This is not about you...

When you grow up,
there will not be someone there
to bring you the things you've forgotten...

(except maybe they'll be wildly successful
and have a personal assistant)

There's a time for talking
and a time for listening,
guess which one this is?

It just goes to show that until you're really in a situation, you have no clue how you would handle it. The proof is in the pudding, my friend. I do try not to say some things and have been mostly successful. I also try to remember to say other things like

I love you
and thank you
and you did a good job
and I like spending time with you

I need to remember these things because traveling with kids can bring out the beast in a parent.

Taking a Trip

The last trip we took as a family was when we drove from Maine to Rochester, New York to visit the Strong Museum (er....National Museum of Play) so I could take pictures of the Izannah Walker dolls they had. It was a great trip! The last time we flew on a plane as a family was in 2006 to go to my granddad's 100th birthday celebration.

This time we are heading to Washington, D. C. I am having to remind myself we are not moving, we are vacationing, to cut down on what I pack. If you've gone to DC with kids and have recommendations, please make them. :-)

I'm looking forward to doing a lot of walking.

A Fun Idea for my Living Room

I love some of the ideas that people have given for my living room design dilemma. I got the nicest email from Nancy Gerber of Atticbabys. She's one of my doll making peeps. The picture above was attached to her email. What an awesome idea which I hadn't even thought of. I will definitely be using this as a springboard! Thanks, Nan!

After looking over the base cabinets I thought maybe I could install some roll-outs in the cupboards for storing the DVDs and Videos. There's a lot of wasted space in there. Of course, even better (later!) would be to install a new lower unit with drawers designed for storing the VHS tapes. Or scatter the storage in end tables with drawers...

Autism Awareness: My Living Room

UPDATE - Since I posted this I have gotten ridden of the palmetto chair and we will be replacing the couch.   A chair will replace the loveseat.  I want to totally rip out the 80's storage and replace with something lower so that the TV (which is not shown in above picture) can be at a better viewing height. 

Hyacinth, friend of Pioneer Woman, has a team of designers helping her out. Oh, Hyacinth. I do see you need the help. Really you do. I mean, zebra rug? But don't be stingy, huh? Share the love. I've been trying to come up with solutions for my dark living room. We just moved in 5 years ago. ;-)

I'm artsy, but somehow when it comes to my living room, I get stumped and walk away. I've done this for 5 years, since we first moved into this house and plunked the furniture in a place that doesn't block traffic and stocked the shelves above the cabinetry with our tremendous collection of VHS tapes. Yes, VHS.

I have a boy who just turned 17. That boy has autism. He is sweet and sincere and also honest to a fault. Last week he told me I don't have as many answers to his questions because now that I'm in my 40's my brain doesn't work as well as it did in my 30's. Ouch, but true. He has the ability to remember incredible details. As in, his brain has a catalog of every video we've ever owned. He still loves to watch many of these videos. It's getting pretty hard to find functioning VHS players now. Yet we soldier on.... ;-) So my living room must house this amazing collection of VHS tapes. This is where authentic living comes in.

If you go to my links blog, you will see I have a whole section on "feather your nest" which lists fun decorating blogs. Melissa, of The Inspired Room, has a post today on white slipcovers, which was very timely for me, because I had been planning on covering my well-made but tired couches with drop cloths. But after reading Melissa's post about white slipcovers I am reconsidering. Why?

white slipcovers + 2 boys + 1 dog =

Too Many Discussions
About Keeping the Furniture Clean

But I still have a goal - I want to lighten and brighten this room up for very little money. I want this room to be warm, comfortable, cozy, fun, homy and not so dark feeling. I want it to serve the needs of my family, which means storage of the beloved VHS tapes and keeping the fish tank.

Here are my problems, and if any readers have suggestions for solutions, please make them.

Problem #1 - I must, yes must, keep all these old VHS tapes. They have a kind of fun colorful vibe, but the storage is hard for him to get back on the shelf, etc. I need some other solutions and I would like to HIDE these in an accessible way for my son. If you have inexpensive, easy to use and do solutions, please leave a comment. I want this house to work for my family and look homey, too.

Problem #2 - I bought good furniture 18 years ago. It's entirely functional although timeworn. They've already been reupholstered once. I just had them cleaned. I can replace the cushions and slipcover them (I know how to do this, although it takes time). The fabric needs to be inexpensive, though, and washable and sturdy. But not white. The giant chair in the right was an inexpensive impulse buy. It is the appropriate scale for a hotel lobby. It IS comfy but quite imposing. It's staying for now.

Problem #3 - Yes, the woodwork needs to be painted. That's on my list of "things to do which cost little money but will make a big impact."

Problem #4 - awkwardly placed windows above. One of the windows straddles between the living room and the stairway/foyer. It was designed to look good from the outside, though! I can't figure out what to do with these windows for coverings that won't draw too much attention to them. They need to be in the background.

Problem #5 - 1986 cabinetry. See above. We want to get a larger TV but this is kitchen counter height and would make it too high for ergonomic television watching. Because the couch is about 5 to 6 feet away from the cabinet. A larger TV would also make it harder to get the beloved VHS tapes down for my child with autism. I had thought of replacing this cabinetry with drawers below. That would be good for a future plan, but for now I'm trying to come up with lower cost solutions. I can sew and paint, but woodworking isn't part of my skill set (yet).

Problem #6 - the empty corner where 1970's misfit furniture congregates. See below. What I want to do is to put a round table, a light or lamp there, and a couple of chairs so that it would be a good place for game playing or homework doing.

A closer look....

Problem #7 - Giant Fishtank. See above. Slipcovering it is not an option. It's the price of love.

Problem #8 - This room has multiple doorways, windows, cabinetry that breaks up every wall except the one behind the loveseat. So I'm having to float the furniture away from the walls. I cannot figure out another way to do this.

Inventive inexpensive solutions welcomed. We sided our house last year and have to buy a new furnace this year so the furniture stays. I know there are some really creative minds out there!

Blogger in Draft Template Designer Review

This doll's face expresses my present feelings about Blogger's Template Designer. I love many things, but my eyeballs have been practically erased trying to figure out how to customize it for my needs. After years of messing around with HTML to try to get my blog to have 3 columns, change the background, center the blog title, etc, Blogger released a great new tool called Template Designer, where you can choose how many columns you want in your blog, etc. and ta-da there they are. Easy peasy. I LOVE so much of it. But now some of the old tricks for customizing my site won't work. So.........if you know how to do the following in Blogger's Template Designer, please let me know. I think it has something to do with CSS.

1) Center the BLOG TITLE. Why can't this be the default option? It makes more sense, Blogger, because so many people want to put their own logo or banner at the top centered. Blogger, you seem to be in love with the align to the left option. Is that something that the young and hip like to do and only older people like to center things? Am I missing something here? If I want to insert an image I'm finding ways around it by making the blog title have 0 pixels and then inserting a gadget below that, but it creates a funny space at the top. I wonder if the 19 year old Blogger Designers are laughing with glee at how many people are trying to get around this.

2) Background Images. If you're going to go to the trouble of giving us this nice new tool, please please please make it easier to add my own background image. Ning can do it - there's a little box for Upload Your Own Background Image there. Why can't this be on the background page? What's the reasoning for leaving this out.? A sweet deal with a photo company? If you really want to give a flexible tool, then this must be part of the Template Designer.

3) Blogger Navigation Bar. It's not pretty, Blogger. It's no Izod alligator - not a status symbol that people want to display. I'm using a custom domain and I don't want it to be there in such a prominent spot. Could you make this a movable thing so it's placed somewhere less conspicuous? If you really want to bring people to your service please make this have a much less visible option - like being place in a sidebar down low.

I guess I need to learn CSS.

Works in Progress

Poor Miss Honor Goodfolk, my Izannah prototype, has had to do ALL the hard work lately. Just because she has arms, she has had to model every new garment I've been working on for my Izannah boy doll, below. I'm not sure she is too happy about it! Her brother, Isaiah Goodfolk, is below. As soon as he has limbs, Honor will be happy to get back into her pretty girl clothes.

Doesn't he look like Sheldon Cooper
from the Big Bang Theory show?

I've been working on a jacket pattern as well as a pants and shirt pattern so that workshop members can make clothing for a boy doll. It is slow going because I get a very picky in the process. I'm trying to design a jacket that would be inspired by period clothes, but also be easy enough for the average seamstress to do. I made the prototype out of wool that I got from Searsport Rug, and added a little bias tape at the edges to bind the seam. The bias tape is not hard, just painstaking. I was so glad when my friend Edyth reminded me to check my stash for some rug-hooking wool fabric. It was perfect for this jacket pattern. I think I'm going to change the closure method at the neck to something different. It's difficult to get the bias small enough so that it has the right drape.

A detail of the bias taped edge:



And here is Miss Prototype again.
She has been through a lo and deserves a vacation!

Antique Pasteboard Toys

Joee of the Cart Before the Horse Duo posted a lovely little jelly bean box template on her blog. so I've been playing around with this and thinking of all the fun things you could tuck inside them. Which got me to looking around on the internet for other paper box templates. And that got me to thinking about some of the antique books on Google Books. Which reminded me of the antique book The Girls' Own Toy-Maker that I found there. There is a whole section on folding pasteboard (cardstock, cardboard) to make boxes and houses and furniture and even fly traps from 1860. It's amazing what you can make from paper! If you make the cottage, please let me know, I'd love to post a picture of it.

Seth Godin Again

Seth Godin posted today

"The best thing to say to an artist of any kind might be, "someday, people will think what you did is really important."

If it's popular with everyone right away, it might not be art, it might just be good marketing. But if it earns attention and respect over time, if it wins over the skeptical, then you've really created something."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You never know, really, what the future life of a present action will be. Am I choosing to do something important with my time? Is it just urgent importance or will it have lasting importance?

Perhaps the most important thing one can do in life is to encourage another person to achieve their potential. Who were the encouragers of people that we revere, that history calls important? Perhaps they are as great as the people we know and read about. Who encouraged unlikely Abe Lincoln to continue in politics? Who supported Lister in his work to get surgeons wash their hands between surgeries with carbolic acid?

So these are the things I'm thinking about on this Easter morning. No conclusions, just thoughts, while I drink my 3rd cup of coffee. :-)

Three Words

Did you read the book Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert? I read the book and was very engaged by some of it and truth be told there were a few times I wanted to say, "Elizabeth! It's not always about you, okay?" But of course that's what the book WAS about. ;-)

Elizabeth was able to find three words that told the story of that season of her life. Which makes me wonder, if I were going to choose three words to describe my journey of the past few years what would they be? I noticed when I tried to do this there was always something physically real popping up in the trio of words. I made myself stick with one syllable words which are verbs. Here are a few combinations I came up with...

Clean, Drive, Paint
Push, Leave, Rest
Trust, Pay, Enjoy
Trust, Choose, Sew
Choose, Learn, Hope

After I made this list it struck me that perhaps I could choose the three words that will describe the next season of my life. Of course not everything is in my control, but some things are - maybe two out of the 3?

What three words
describe your journey?