Grand Opening This Sunday Evening!

OOAK, handmade art dolls...

Come over to DOLL TOWN 

this Sunday evening, February 27th

for the Grand Opening... @ 7:00 p.m.

Yup!  I have three for sale...

"The Guardian of Hope!"

In the still of the night

on the far side of the slope...

shrouded by the darkness

stands the Guardian of Hope...

Waiting in the shadows

watching and seeing all...

cloaked in autumnal splendor

not a single nest can fall...

I have finished all of the details

(including the addition of this original poem)

on this gourd doll... for the 

Art Doll Quarterly Gourd Doll Challenge.

She will be mailed off to California on Tuesday!

The poem is my feeble attempt to help "explain" 

the whole idea of this guardian, the nest, 

and of course:  "hope!"

Her head is a photo transfer on fabric
with a bit of paper clay underneath the nose 
to give her face a little depth and dimension. 
(she looks like my grandma!)

Enjoy... Daryle

Gourd Doll Challenge!

Art Doll Quarterly will be publishing the Gourd Challenge Dolls in their Fall 2011 issue... I am hoping to finish "The Guardian of Hope" in time for the entry deadline (coming up quick!)

"The Guardian of Hope" is made from a photo transfer on cotton knit fabric, using a vintage photograph from my stash of long forgotten souls!  I stretched the fabric over a basic paper clay form that I built up, intentionally trying to form the "smile lines" on either side of her mouth. Then I hand colored the details.  Her paper clay hands STILL need to be painted and distressed.  She looks like she's wearing white gloves at the moment! Tsk, Tsk!

Her body is a "birdhouse" gourd that is hollowed out, cleaned, and then I layered it (the inside) with paper-toweling using a white glue & water mixture for added texture. I still need to add a wash of color to the inside...

 

The outside of the gourd is covered with a paper napkin, using the same white glue & water mixture.  The natural finish of the gourd shows through the translucent single-ply napkin nicely.  I cut the little bird from a piece of pine, added wooden dowel legs, and placed him on the wire & wood perch.  

  

Each Day is a Good Day... to Share a Little Love! XO XO

Shhhhhh... Don't Tell!

We are trying to keep this 

"under our hat"...

but it would appear that 

SPRING is on its way!

We spotted these daffodils... where once there was snow!

Warm Wishes... Daryle & Katie

The Fable... is Finished!

Aesop was a master storyteller...

"The Man and the Satyr"  

teaches a moral worth remembering!

(see our January 22 post for the fable)

He was so much fun to work on!

This was my first ever 

"cloth over clay" application...

what a "stretch" ( Ha! literally)

Cheers! Daryle

The Fable Unfolds...

My favorite part of the fable

of the Man and the Satyr...

is when the man blows cold air,

in an attempt to cool his porridge.

And the satyr exclaims; 

"I'll have nothing to do with a man 

who blows both hot and cold

with the same breath!" 

I found this set of of small, rusty

spoons and bowls 

at the Ranch Hope Thrift Shop... 

the same day I began working on this!

Here's a close-up of his wool felt

waist-coat jacket and vintage crochet lace vest.

Then and Now... the Memory Keeper!

Work on the "Memory Keeper" began back in mid-November... starting out with a three-drawer jewelry box.

I finally have found the time to add some scrap-booking papers to the box "body" and sculpt that paper clay head he's been waiting for!

His eyes are a pair of vintage black shoe buttons.  His black derby is molded felt. His upper arms are wooden craft finials... he is patiently waiting for his hands!

I had this old pocket watch in my stash of "stuff." It seems to suit him and the whole notion of a "Memory Keeper"... as time goes by.

His head needs to be gessoed and painted. He will wear a rather dapper Victorian paper collar, and his hands need to be sculpted... and then he's just about ready to hold some memories!