little arty crafty crow

taking my mind of the pain

2010-01-01T21:09:00.001-08:00

Here's a little something I'm playing around with. Burlesque themed girls. Mixed media drawing.
It's been such a l;lousy start to the year. On the 30th of December I woke up to a nasty tooth ache and booked in to see the dentist. They took a 180 degree x-ray and what a creepy sight it was! I've never had any problems with my wisdom teeth which is a wonder because all 4 teeth where growing in all the wrong directions!!! Now I don't mind having them out but because Tasmania is such a small state I guess the specialists are few and far between and I have to wait till July to see one! In the meantime I have to take antibiotics and pain killers....lots of pain killers. I just hope that I don't have to take these drugs all the way up to July as they make me pretty grumpy, nauseous and tired...but other wise not to bad. So in between feeling like crap I'm drawing happy pictures of party girls, dancing and swishing their skirts!

doing battle with my Angel

2009-12-26T15:20:00.000-08:00

My shabby angel still in progress. I'm liking the final stages the best where I get to drip paint all over her. My new favorite color combinations are hooker green and copper. I used these two together in the background . The gold paint ontop was applied with a palet knife. I think her head is a little to big for the body. I tried to enlarge her hands a little as it is always a good guide the the hands should look like the can cover the face. I extended her elbows and made her a little chubbier. I have never painted someone with blond hair this is very rare, she was going to have black hair but I always do black hair ....I wonder why:)
And there is the Goth Angels to still do so I'll get to be in my comfort zone with dark hair and gothy themes.
Back to work for me....Love to get these paintings done before the year is out!!

Little Angel dancing!!

2009-12-23T22:42:00.000-08:00

I've been baking all morning getting the deserts ready for tomorrows Xmas feast extravaganza. Inbetween waiting for doughs to rise and buiscuits to bake, butter to melt I stole a few moments to paint and finish of my little angel. The best part was the gauging and scratching such a great way to remove stress.
I've enjoyed this class so much that I've decided to sign up for another next year!!
Cheerio!!

christmas card for you!!

2009-12-22T15:40:00.000-08:00

Thank you every one for taking time and joining me this year. It really has been an enjoyable time meeting new people, making friends, sharing each others creativity, its been a hoot!
Have a Wonderful time with family and friends, food, wine, dancing and creativity...all the good things in life. Keep safe and see you all in the next year for even more fun, excitement and new things!!

100 followers, Suzi Blu and ANGELS

2009-12-20T23:05:00.000-08:00

Did you all see, look I can't believe it...100 people follow me here on my little ol' blog. Thank you Fran for being my 99th follower and to Sandi from Bearly Sane Bears for being my 100th follower! And to all my 100 followers have a safe, fun and exciting Xmas with your family and friends. Eat lots and be merry that's what holidays are for!!
As the year is ending I've a few things to tell you. I've joined an online painting group...see on the left hand side you can see my big button for Suzi Blu's lesPetit Acadamy!
So much fun and I've learned a bucket load already! I found out about SUZI BLU through Jess from Little Dirt Lane, she looked like she was having way to much fun there so I decided to join in....and wouldn't you know it there were so many other doll makers there that I had meet from my other groups! All busy working away at creating beautiful and creative work. And there are people from all over the world there...and quite a few from Australia.
What I love about this class is the use of different types of medium. I've always wanted to try but never knew quite how to go about it. so I just stuck to what I know. But now I can see there are so many possibilities to push my own work in ways I only could imagine.
So here are some of my works in progress.......

a little bit of wood burning

collage and paint of wood

Angels!! They are Angels... I joined the Angels workshop... something is missing though maybe I need a to wear a pair of angel wings while I paint...

I was very nearly tempted to do batwings on both of them...hmmm maybe I'll do that for the GOTH ANGEL!

Off I go. big day tomorrow, my brother has organized "High Tea" for our Xmas get together....I've been working on drinking out of a china cup (instead of paint jar) with my little pinky sticking out..I have my hair to do, and then decide what to wear...been living in grotty work clothes for the last few months.

Oh there is new stuff to check out in my Etsy shop and my studio is bursting at the seams with new dolls and secret stuff for the new year.

Bright red Star, Danita, Ruby Victoria and Little Dirt Lane

2009-12-13T14:40:00.000-08:00

The Bright Red Star, a wonderful collaboration of 16 ETSY artists. You can find it here.
I was very impressed with the look of this and the story is pretty sweet. I would love to make something like this, perhaps with local artists.
Cute as a snowman's buttons.This little snowman was just too irresistible when I happened upon him over at Little Dirt Lan e, I think she had just listed it on him on her Etsy shop.
I knew I had only a little time to get to him before he was gone forever as there were other interested parties!
Not even two weeks later he was here with me smiling and smelling so sweetly. I found out later that it was actually the tag that was the source of the sweet aroma.
You really should visit Little Dirt Lanes blog and Shop, her dolls are heartbreakingly beautiful!

And here are my two favorite Santa's the one in the front is by Danita, always so inspiring to see her work and read her blog. Her irresistible Etsy shop is here!

Oh NED!!

2009-12-10T15:44:00.000-08:00

Came home to find Santa had left an early present under our tree!

I don't know how he managed to lie there without knocking everything over. Usually he is such a big oaf!
He looked just to cute that I didn't have the heart to shoo him off. I guess he spotted that bit of sun coming through the windows and he thought that looked like a toasty place for a little kip!
Needless to say I removed everything around him before he got up.

meet Rusty Annie

2009-12-09T15:03:00.000-08:00

Looks like I found her in a little dirt lane outside a pig farm in Richlands!

Made from an old hessian sack I found in the green house, some rust nails from a friends fence,(I did ask him first before I removed them, oh now you all know I have a thing for rusty objects). Her nose is a piece of rusted metal found in our rusted metal stash. She is stuffed with remnants from my sewing.
Today I'll make her a little dress, hmmm I wonder what colour will match her complexion?

A little peek at our xmas decorations

2009-12-08T13:05:00.001-08:00

the beautiful stick tree that my BF made for me. I just love it. NO messy pine needles, though I do miss the smell. Actually the tree was made to display my Xmas ornaments at the market stall. some of the ornament are hanging on the tree.

A few of the snowmen I've bben making. Honestly the weather we are having here in Tasmania I wouldn't be at all surprised if it snowed on Xmas day.

More pics to follow!!

Best swaps ever!!

2009-12-03T16:15:00.000-08:00

Wow where do I begin. there is SO much to show and tell!
Lets start with this morning. It was such a beautiful morning that I decided to go for a run. Ahhhh,I guess nobody knew that I'm a keen jogger? Well the jogging trail is so close to my house and it is through beautiful bush lands often filled with birds and wallaby's that scatter into the bush as you approach. Anyway just as I was jogging back I spotted the postal van doing the rounds of our street. It wasn't long after I arrived home when I heard a knock on the door. Hmmm I wonder if it is the post man. AND IT WAS!! Boy it what a big parcel, I wonder who its from!
It's from Barbara! Wow already! Mr Snow man came to take a peek too! Could this really be my Elf swap that Vivian organized. Wow it sure looks big!

IT IS!! WOW LOOK at HER, I can't believe it. She is big and beautiful and I love her!
Look at her face, those gorgeous lashes and her beautifully needle sculpted nose!

She has made many new friends and will most definitely be a much cherished doll in my home!
Barbara also included some beautiful fabrics all in pretty pinks and pastels!
I can't show what I sent Barbara yet as I don't think her parcel has arrived just yet!

But I will show you what arrived yesterday for an Xmas ornament swap I entered with my ADO group. We had to either make a naughty or nice one and get either a naughty or nice one in return. Of course I choose to make and receive a naughty ornament.
My swap partner was Susie McMahon, truly a gifted artist and she lives in Tasmanian!
She teaches doll making not only in Australia but also in the USA, Her Izannah Walker dolls are just exquisite as to are her fantasy dolls. so do you think I was a little perturbed by about making her one of my grungy dolls. Well yes a little, but I also thought it was time to push myself and try something a little different for me.
I went through some of my sketches and some of you may have seen this character before, Wicked William, from a series of black and white illustrations.

I sculpted him out of Supersculpy, painted him with acrylic and pastels. I'm really happy with how he turned out and even more so that Susie really liked him!
But what did I recieve??
'Oooo', said the Snowman. 'It must be from the Queen, Look it is stamped, Royal Post'.

We all gathered round to take a look at what was inside. 'It's a girl' sang all three snowmen!

How lucky can one girl be! This beautiful doll was made by the very talented Yve Hoosen.
Such detail and gorgeous fabrics. And yes she is naughty, but that is between me and Yve:)
Again I'm just over whelmed by the generosity of these artists!
But wait that's not all. A little while back My friend Severina and I decided to do a swap between the two of us. She really like one of my little doll cats and I just adore her jewelry!
If I could I would by every item in her shop and drown myself in her jewels! As it is I wear a piece everyday and two of them are my good luck charms that I wear when I'm out on business or funerals. I've bought a beautiful choker, a pair of earrings and an Edgar Allen Poe mourning brooch. AND I STILL WANT MORE!!
Severina made for me a mourning brooch with one my childhood hero's a person I think who has made me what I am today, Vincent Price!!!
What a great year this has been. Well It's not over yet and there are still so more stories to tell!

Vintage Xmas

2009-12-04T20:24:00.000-08:00

My advent calender has been in our family for ever. My mum brought this with her from Austria. I know there is another one, maybe my mum still has it.
There are lots of little windows to open and my mum had a story for each illustration. But my most favorite one was for the 6th of December which is children's day. We kids had to polish our shoes and leave them under our beds. In the morning, if we had been good, (which we always were), our shoes were filled with lollies. I was always so amazed and still am as I've never seen these lollies before and always wondered where they had come from. To this day I still look in candy stores and see if I can spot the ones that St Nick/parents bought for us to put in our shoes! I remember as we got older, I was so disappointed that we no longer kept this tradition going. But I have the calender to remind me of these times and great stories to inspire my art and illustrations.

Bigger than Ben Hur!!

2009-12-01T22:57:00.000-08:00

Little Black Crow's gone mad, (too much sniffing of Xmas pudding and Santa's beard).
She is having a big Xmas sale at her shop on Etsy. Hurry on down and grab a bargain!!
New items will be listed throughout this week!
Here is a little peek at what's on offer!!

Elves
Annie and the white Rabbit

Gingerbread Men!!

Handmade Hobart market weekend

2009-11-29T15:52:00.000-08:00

The view of the the hall from the stage

The weekend finally arrived and 2 months of solid stitching and painting all came together for my first market stall in years.
Even though the weather was pretty lousy, heavy rain, wind and cold. I knew that Tasmanian's being a hardy bunch would brave the elements and support their local artists and crafts people! And they did.

Little Black Crow and friends

My stall was set up in the middle.

a very dangerous position in more ways than one. Just before we set up our stall we came dangerously close to being seriously injured. the lady behind us had a very heavy display board not very well fastened to her table and it came crashing down in between my boyfriend and I , glass going everywhere. Uninjured, we cleaned up and carried on as if nothing happened.
And the ice was broken, so to speak between us and the stall holder and we had polite conversation for the whole 2 days. the other dangers where posed by who was selling opposite me, Jo from Bird and the Fish, Narelle from Ruby Victoria, Rosie from Notions and Edwina from Little Snoring! Even my partner Pig found it hard to resist.

Penni, one of our illustrious organisers for the market. also a friend and fellow knitter.

Jo, with her scrumptious yarns, Bird and the Fish

Marita from Moderately Me

Look how well we did with our purchases!
I only wish that Jo had stayed there for one more day so I could have made up my mind to which one of her yummy yarns I needed.

All in all we had a fun time and I learnt a great deal about my work and peoples reactions to them. It was good exposure for my work and for myself after months and months of locking myself away and working hard making my dolls and other wares. I'll certainly be doing more markets in the future. Next time though I will need to take a large sktch book with me as I ended up doodling doll designs in my log book!

A bear on the side

2009-11-17T20:19:00.000-08:00

Couldn't wait to introduce everyone to my new little bear design. She is just over 4 inches tiny!
So far she is the only one I've made. But I'm pretty happy with her. I like making the traditional bears but this one is more me! So watchout sor her buddies on Etsy in the new year.
Just about finished with all my dolls for the year and for the market, yippee...oh still got to work out how I'm going to dispaly my work. I have some ideas and in the process of building a few things. I'll have to do a few mock ups at home before the event.
In December I going to show case some peoples work that I have been buying through out the year. Can't wait to put them up. Christmas on the web this year has been so exciting and I've been a bit naughty and splurged on a few things but they are all well worth it as you will all see.
Okay thats it for now...still have to finish off a few tiny clothes and paint a few snowmen!

Treasured Gingrebread Men

2009-11-11T20:39:00.000-08:00

These happy little fellas will be for sale at the Handmade Hobart market at the end of the month.

The design came about from a cookie cutter that has been in the family before I was born.

It belonged to my dad, who worked as pastry chef in Austria.

I've never seen another one like it. So the other day I rang my mum up to ask her weather she knew where my dad had found this cookie cutter. To my surprise she told me my dad had designed it himself and had it made for him by a friend of his who worked with metal and owned a shop in Austria. I was so amazed that I had never know this story and really makes me treasure my fathers cookie cutter even more.

Since my dad died 26 years ago, every Xmas I always make gingerbread men in memory of him.

The Random Ten

2009-10-29T15:07:00.000-07:00

Tony

Ruby

Audry

Bess

Bert

Greta

William

Annabell

Bobby

Ginger

oh and TEN more

2009-11-10T16:41:00.000-08:00

I love it!!

2009-11-08T17:35:00.000-08:00

Finally warm sunny weather, it's just brilliant. Last night Pig and I had a little impromptu barbecue....and yes we did chuck prawns on the the barbie!
Beers, wine, ouzo, what a night!

And today its back to work, but that's alright cos' I'm loving that too. Just finished and listed two more Xmas decorations/ornaments...one vintage style black SantaCat and Mr Snowman!!

Gotta get back to work....I've a table full of more Xmas dolls and ornaments. A few secret projects and oodles of doodles for new dolls next year!
One last thing before I zip off . A big thank you to all my new followers. In the last few weeks my list has grown so fast. I'm really very appreciative to all of you that have signed up, take a peek at my work and make comments!!

Veronica Vampire

2009-11-06T18:29:00.000-08:00

What a morning!! First of all I had to do battle with a moquito and spider infested pond. All the fish died a long time ago. It was in the part of the garden that we, well apart from the cats hardly ever go. So it became overgrown with weeds, blackberries and worse ivey! I don't mind spiders it's the tics and scorpions that I loathe..fortunately I didn't see any. Anyway it's all been cleared and the plastic and water removed. So now we have little garden hide away that I think I'll just plant out in ground covers.
Anyway that was my weekend priority out of the way and now I'm back into the studio working on lots and lots of different dolls and ornaments for my little market stall at the end of the month. So if you find yourself in Hobart on the 28th and 29th of November with an urge to shop for handmade items get yourself down to the Handmade Hobart Market, St Peters Hall, in Harrington St between the hours of 11 - 4pm.
But the best news is that I've finished my little mini monthly vampire challenge for my Art Dolls Only group.

Veronica Vampire, 'it's just a little over bite', Veronica's

mum used to tell her.

My first full polyclay doll. I used super sculpy, wire armature, acrylic paint and black died sheep's wool roving for the hair. The hair I glued down little strands at the time.

The wip photo's shows glass beads for her eyes. I chose to make them out of sculpy too and shaped them to fit her eye sockets.
As much as I enjoyed making her I think next time I'll just make the head and hands out of sculpy and make a cloth body. I have a deep love for stop motion and some of my favorite characters are from Rankin/Bass's Mad, Mad Monster Party. You can see the imperfections and the hand made quality to the puppets, it's terrific. I approach my dolls as if the where 3D drawings. Drawing onto them ans scuffing them up.
Another thing I guess is that I just always seem to draw my little girl characters wearing a Wednesday Adams dress and a little widows peak...some would say that they also resemble the artist...well I was nicknamed at one work place as Eddy Munster!

Little Vampire girl in progress

2009-11-01T15:16:00.000-08:00

My little vampire for the ADO mini Vampire challenge. Still need to make her hands and hair. She was fun to make. Her body took the most time to make.

Happy Halloween!!

2009-10-31T16:04:00.000-07:00

Calling all doll detectives!!

2009-10-30T13:55:00.000-07:00

Last night I was treated to a wonderful surprise by a friend. He opened up a roll of bubble wrap and out fell these 6 wonderful antique cloth dolls. The dolls belonged to his wifes mother. However she has no recolection of them from her childhood and was surprised to find them amongst her mothers things after she had passed away. My friends wife's mother lived in the UK. But I'm not sure if that's where they came from. I'd love to find out more about these dolls.If anyone can help with information about these dolls it would be fantastic.

Little red Riding Hood

her clothing has lots of layers from her cape, pinafore, dress and lacy knickers.

Her little straw basket is very well made as are her limbs. Click on the photo for a larger version and take a look at her hand holding the basket.

Little Red's rear

Little Red Riding Hoods, face detail

I just loved the little detail to the socks. I'm thinking that the shoes where painted ontop of the socks with a gloss paint.

the smallest cloth doll in the collection, 4inches

Couldn't quite make out what was used to embellish the fronts of the hand painted shoes and socks. It looked like wire coils.

This doll was about 5inches.

wool hair

Could she be Gretal or a German costume doll?

Beautiful fine sewing on her clothing.

And who is this gentleman?

He looks to be like a hunter or Shakespearean actor.

Very fine needle sculpting on the face. Black velvet cloth was used for the hair.

Just look at how clever these hands where made!

You can just see some wire poking through where the cloth has worn.

8 pink ladies and 2 sailors

2009-10-29T01:25:00.000-07:00

Flora

Petunia

Candy

Chloe

Pete

Kim

Bell

JuliaJeff

Julie

the last little doll, Julie I've dedicated to my friend Julie who died 3 years ago. This little elephant is the 48th one I've made and is the same age that Julie was when she died. I finished her yesterday morning which was her anniversary. Apart from leaving all her friends and husband behind she also left three lovely cats. I've put a little dedication to her on the back of the label that can only be found if you peel the top layer off or if it was x-rayed! Julie never saw my dolls which is sad as she loved bunny's.

SantaCat has arrived

2009-10-28T18:40:00.000-07:00

What a busy, busy, busy time of the year this has been. Not only having family "issues" to deal with but trying to concentrate on getting my art business up and running. These last two months have really been the most productive, exciting, disciplined time.
I've come to the conclusion too to stop making the elephants and bunny's for a while and start making some brand new dolls. One of my new additions to Etsy this afternoon is SantaCat! go check him out there are more photo's of him there. I'll be adding some more Xmas decorations soon. There are some Snowmen people, and more animal Santa's plus a whole lot of other odd ornaments.
I'd love to stay and chat more but BF is about to come home and the place is a mess....I don't know how it happened but doll bits are everywhere!! Gotta Run!! Cheers.....oh one more thing 10 new photo's will be up this evening of my new 50!!

The Big 50

2009-10-27T21:05:00.000-07:00

Guess what? Today I finished my first 5o dolls for Xmas orders. Yeah!! I'm so happy I've even managed to finish before the end of the month. But not only did I finish 50 dolls, 50 names where also given. I had to print 50 logo's, coffee stain and bake 50 tags, then tie each tag to those 50 dolls. Oh and not forgetting my 50th sale at ETSY!
Now as fun as it would be to show you all fifty dolls, I won't because then I would have to take 50 photo's of 50 dolls and that would be boring. Plus I've already started work on another 50 dolls, but not bunny's and elephants. I think I will stop making these for a bit as its starting to feel like production line and that's not what my work is about!
So I'll start posting 10 photo's a day.
Sit back and enjoy.

Charlie

Lynette

Emily

Karen

Denby

Helen

Trish

Trevor

Sue

Roy

My personal favorite is Trish, I love her little school girl look. All these dolls will be for sale locally here in Hobart. I'll be putting up some Xmas dolls soon in my Etsy shop.
Another big hi and thank you to all my followers, boy can't believe there are so many of you!!
And a special thank to Blue Berries in the Field for another blog award! If you don't know of Monique's work go take a peek.