Teaching at NIADA School, San Francisco, June 2013

Just a quick update to let everyone know that I am teaching an Anthropomorphic Doll Bust Sculpture Class at the NIADA School immediately preceding the Conference in San Francisco, June 2013.

There are a range of fascinating classes being taught, and the conference is always a friendly crowd and great programs, and as the website says: "It's not just for members!!" Come Join Us for a great time in a beautiful city...

I will be posting a few 'teaser' articles over the next few weeks to promote the class and also hope to be offering similar classes in the New York-Tri-State area, so if you know of a venue you'd like me to look into, please feel free to drop me a line at doters369@gmail.com !
I will basically be teaching students how to prepare and sculpt stoneware clay into slabs and hollow cones from which to create their own one-of-a-kind anthropomorphic busts on which to base a doll.

I will cover various species of animal heads; birds, mammals, reptiles, fish; and we will be exploring character, surface detailing, and incorporating high-fire ceramic stains into the clay before firing. The two-day class will conclude with demonstrations in hand- and feet- or shoe-sculpture. If students arrive at a set of doll parts that they like and want to preserve for the trip home, access to her studio kiln has graciously been offered by Stephanie Blythe, and we'll let the finished pieces dry, and  fire them for any students that are staying through the end of the conference. An added 'bonus' for conference attendees: I plan to offer a free demo on my process of waxing fired wares before assembling them into finished dolls, with preference given to students' work created in the class!

More forthcoming; I am presently working up figures for the upcoming NIADA Conference and will have updates soon!

New Work on my Etsy Shop

Running around like a madwoman with too many (just enough) projects. Writing about what i'm doing seems a superfluous luxury right now. Just DOING it at the moment and will hopefully have a moment (when the mad rush thins a bit) to pop in and embroider it with description and explanation where any might be needed.

Below is a tray of recently finished stoneware busts and limb sets for my Etsy shop. More coming. Working too on several commissions and the initial throes of a lifelong dream: taking Animation Classes at NYU... more on THAT as soon as i finish my Final Project for the first class: Concept Art &Character Design. I'm stressed, have resorted to the worst of my eating/sleeping habits as i careen from one project to another, and am loving every minute of it. The thought of trying to work in time to blog about it seems fairly absurd. So why not?

NIADA 2012 CONFERENCE, STAMFORD, CT; Sept 27-30

I WILL BE THERE!!

(More to Follow; i'm scrambling to get ready now, but will post a few teasers as the weeks go by...)

Details on the conference are to be found at:

http://www.niada.org/info.html

Off we go!!

Dusting Off the Blog: A Peek at "Nellie Also"

Well it's been ages. No excuses, and a brief apology... irons in the fire must make room for one more. Without further ado, a brief visitation to my worktable for a glimpse of what's coming to doters.etsy.com.

I am inexplicably and delightfully visited by a herd of lovely people from all over the globe who commission GOATS from me; of both regular and anthropomorphic persuasions); the newest 'kid' on my block is named Nellie, and she's getting fitted with a wardrobe of 1940's style dresses constructed out of vintage fabrics. This Nellie is a reprise of a commission done for a collector in Washington D.C., who's a sheer delight to collaborate with... more on her shortly.

The first of three is a sweetheart dress with a shawl collar done up in a swingy black fabric dotted with jazzy orange graphics that look a bit like balls of yarn... Above is a sketch and swatch, along with a glimpse of the dress in progress, below. Once the collar's on, i'm making a smart shrug of that bright, yellow-orange heathered wool to the right of the swatch fabric above. This ensemble also gets a sheer black organza slip that will share double-duty with dress number two...

...which will be an elegant mix of black and silver shot silk and linen with a rose motif on a pieced bodice, and a floral sailor-inspired ensemble, which will show up next post.

The Imaginarium Team on Etsy

Proud to announce: i'm on The Imaginarium Team on Etsy! --And so eager to dig in and get acquainted!! Team Leader Priscilla http://www.readbetweenlines.etsy.com/ very graciously included one of my new reliquary pieces in a new 'all-Imaginarium' team treasury... check it out here!

More updates soon to come; i'm so inspired by the talent on this Team!!

Be It Ever So Humble...

My Etsy shop is still a fledgling thing, and i'm just starting to dip my profile into the more communal aspects of this shopkeepers' social media hybird thing known as Etsy; namely the Teams. I've recently joined three: the EMT EtsyMudTeam, BeautifulDreamers OOAK Art Dolls, and AnthropomorphicOnEtsy. The EtsyMudTeam has launched, thru one of its leaders, a collective where I, as an Etsy shop owner, can mark certain of my items for donation, whereupon all proceeds of that item's sale (minus PayPal fees and shipping costs) go to the Leach Pottery's Japan Relief efforts.

I've personally experienced some comparatively minor flooding in years past, and i know what it is to walk back into a house filled with mud and mold and ruined family heirlooms and start picking up the pieces. But when i watch the ongoing devastation of the poor people of Japan, just as with Katrina's victims, I'm horrified. The loss is so massive, it overwhelms me.

Because I currently live in a warm, dry home for which i'm grateful every day, I'm donating 100% of the sale of all my little birdhouse ornaments to this relief effort; please check them out, and if you've a warm, safe home you're grateful for, consider buying one of these birdhouses, offered individually or in sets, as a reminder of your connection to all those whose homes were swept away by the earthquake/tsunami in Japan earlier this month. And if my little birdhouse ornaments aren't your thing, please check out the EMT's other donated pieces. They're beautiful, every one.

While one purchase, by itself, will not fix everything, i do know firsthand that recovery from devastation of any size is incremental, and every little bit helps. Please pass these links along to your friends and family, colleagues and associates. You can also donate directly to the American Red Cross Japan Relief Fund here. Thank you.

Fellow Anthropomorphiac: Beaumont Studios

Just found the blog of a fellow Anthropomorphic Artist on Etsy, artist Olivia Beaumont, whose work i've been admiring for months now. As i'm still a green blogger, i'm putting her button here in a post, and will figure out the "Links I Love" gadget later...



Her work is a fine blend of intellectual arrows and emotional targets and i'll admit right now that i'm a bit envious of both her mind and her talent. Brava, Ms. Beaumont!