Wow, it has been way too long since my last blog entry.
(Dusts website off)
A lot has happened over the last year – yes it’s been almost a year since my last post (yikes!!). Mostly lots of stressful stuff regarding my family, our home, and our personal finances – and all of that stress has made it difficult to find as much time as I used to for doll making, let alone blogging. But I’m here now to say hello!!
Those of you who follow me on social media will have already seen my latest doll and it’s this jolly little fellow that I’ve chosen to write this blog post about.
First of all, if you remember back in July of last year I wrote about wanting to try my hand at some realistic fantasy type dolls. I took some online classes by Wendy Froud, practiced a little with some cheap clay, and then went ahead and made some fairies. My first fairy turned out great. Certainly better than anything I’d created thus far, but I think somewhere along the lines of the second and third fairy things took a bit of a nose dive. They didn’t really match the vision I had in my head at the time. I had ventured out to try something new and it didn’t go as well as I’d hoped and I got discouraged and for a little while gave up on that idea.
Well, the good thing about inspiration is that though it can disappear for a little while it never truly goes away. As an artist, when you get ideas they stick in your brain, sometimes gnawing at your insides, until you create them and bring them to life. Thankfully, this is what happened to me.
The idea to create fantasy art dolls came back to me about a month ago and has been eating away at me ever since. So I finally made the decision to take a break from my usual work and try it again. And that is how my first troll was created.
Isn’t he sweet?? My goal with him was to push myself to create a more detailed face, with more expression, and though I know he’s not perfect I think he turned out wonderful. His sweet little expression makes me smile every time I look at him.
Oh and I had so much fun with his costuming. I got to take out all my fabric scraps, rip and tear and distress and tea dye until everything looked just right. His hair was also a fun new experiment. Instead of tibetan lambswool like my regular dolls, I used faux fur. I think his wild and crazy doo is just perfect!!
And now I have so many more ideas running around in my brain, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to keep up with them. I plan to continue making more trolls and eventually I have ideas for more fairies and maybe even some pixies.
Trying something new is always risky, but I knew that this was something I had to do. Regardless of whether or not anyone else liked what I created I knew I had to follow my heart. I knew that by taking steps in a new direction that I could lose followers and while I certainly don’t want that to happen I know that I have to stay focused on what I want to create, not what other people want me to create. And I am so glad that I had the courage to – I’m so in love with my little troll friend. I cannot wait to make more!!
To those of you who had hoped to get a custom Voiceless doll – I apologize. I will not be making them for the time being, but once I’m ready to open things back up for commissioned dolls I will be sure to let everyone know. Be sure to take a look at what I have in stock in my shop as there are plenty of Voiceless still looking for homes.