Shelf life in the studio

Shelf Life.

Crystal Collar

An Enchanted Wedding Gift

Last month I had the privilege to serve as a maid of honour at my friends’ Yuxi and Ben’s wedding in Hefei, China. I wanted to make something very special for the couple, because they’re very special people to me. So I made them this wedding portrait in porcelain and bronze to signify their bond to each other, and to Enchanted Doll.My friends, I wish you an everlasting love!

Porcelain legs and Real legs

I had arthroscopic knee surgery, and at such an inopportune time too, because I only have 48 hours left to finish Madame de Pompadour's photoshoot. She needs to ship out to Hong Kong on Monday. I know I should feel more stressed out, panicked even, about being incapacitated right before a hard deadline, but as it turns out the pain meds they have me on are pretty strong, so all I can muster is a mild, detached concern. I hope I don't have a heart attack tomorrow once my meds wear off and I can grasp the concept of time again.

The good news is that I've been discharged from the hospital to recover at home, so all is not lost yet. I'll direct the photoshoot from the wheel chair - Frida Khalo style. If she could make art and attend her show opening from her own bed, I can certainly manage to take some pictures from a chair, with a few stitches in my knee.

I have a feeling it's all going work out OK. But then again, it might be just the meds talking. We'll see Tuesday.

Doll Shelf-life

Hola doll lovers! You may or may not have noticed, but this summer I literally put doll-making on a shelf and left it there for 3 months.

This little favourite of mine has been sitting on this shelf in her fancy Chinoiserie house robe for 2 months, with no one but a tin fish-pet for company. My lovely Pilea plant demonstrates the time's passage quite well, as it gradually swallows her up with its growing juicy foliage. Another month in this spot, and she'll disappear from view!

There have been some rumblings of discontent and a growing restlessness at my prolonged absence and 'abandonment', but I really needed this time off due to a quite severe burn out. I love making dolls, but that is not the only thing I love doing. There are numerous non-doll art projects that have been simmering on my back burner for several years because dolls always took priority. It got to the point where I could no longer paint another doll eyelash or sew another bead on yet another doll dress without feeling sad and resentful and pressured by expectations.

So, this summer of 2015 was my creative break from dolls and my indulgence in other art forms. I built furniture! I designed interiors! I reorganized and cataloged all my beads and began renovating my art studio. I delved into horticulture! I went on wilderness adventures! I hung out with friends, sometimes in the wilderness. I took (and passed) a swift river rescue certification course in Montana! I even ordered a colouring book on Amazon (Secret Garden by Johanna Basford) and spent days laying in the grass, sipping cold beer and blissfully colouring in somebody else's drawings without any concern for my doll output - something I would normally consider to be utterly pointless and detrimental to my productivity! But it wasn't - it was a pressure release valve.

And today I walked into my studio and noticed this doll on the shelf half-swallowed by a plant, and I thought:" Hey you. Long time - no see"...and I began to dream of dolls again.