Hello Everyone, I’m back again with a new post from Creative Paperclay®! This tutorial will show you how to customise those little peg people that you can find in a pack of four in art stores. Feel free to share your creations with me in the comment section below and have fun!
https://creativepaperclay.blogspot.com/2018/12/how-to-make-peg-doll.html
Hello and happy Friday everyone! Here is the fifth in the series of my monthly Creative Paperclay blog tutorials! I decided to make something a bit less difficult so that the kids can join in without getting frustrated! Head on over to their blog to see how this piece was made with Creative Paperclay®!
Hello everyone!
I have been pretty busy with summer and squeezing some projects in between. Here is my latest tutorial that I put together on Creative Paperclay®’s site on how to create a paperweight. I hope it inspires you to make your own, if so, please email me your creations if you would like for me to feature them here!
I have a workshop scheduled for next week Saturday, October 28th at the Huntington Free Library in the Westchester Square section of the Bronx. In my head, I had it down for it’s original date that was discussed which was November 11th, so it kind of creeped up on me. I pretty much know exactly what I plan on doing, so I feel like I’m prepared for the most part. I just need to round up my materials for the participants. I can’t wait to meet the group that I’ll be working with, it’s always interesting to see what people come up with!
This was my first time participating in an event as large as Maker Faire. I must say that it was a lot of work and that two weeks later, I am still tired and recuperating, but it was well worth it. I met a lot of other makers and got to hear about all the interesting projects they were working on, along with meeting a new audience of people that were interested in my work. I also went home with 3 Editor’s Choice ribbons from the team, I totally wasn’t expecting that. Especially when I felt like I was getting my ass kicked with all the traffic that was coming to my area, that really boosted my spirit 😀
I was super worried that I wouldn’t have enough promotional materials and handouts for my workshop, but I surprisingly went home with a little more than half of everything that I brought with me. I ordered all sorts of things like stickers, magnets, postcards, and even refreshed my inventory of business cards. These will come in handy for the next event that I do, so I’m not going to stress over it. It’s always better to be over prepared than not at all.
I had to make some last minute modifications to my workshop, but it honestly went off without a hitch! I had originally planned on showing everyone how to manipulate thin wire to form an armature with pliers but after second thought, I decided to make it more child friendly for smaller children. I ditched the wires and pliers altogether and swapped them out for paperclips. I just showed them how to link everything together and tape it up the same way I would have with the thinner wire. After that, I showed them how to cover the piece with clay and gave them a handout with more instructions for them to follow at home. When I look back at everything, I made the right choice since there were quite a few small children that were having difficulty with the paper clips. The extra time was definitely to get them up to speed with everyone else so that they wouldn’t feel left out.
My only regret was that I didn’t have enough time to actually look around the festival. There were so many exciting things that I saw on the website and I missed the majority of them. Next year I will have to bring more friends and family to help out so that I could run away for a bit. I would also make sure that everything in my area is set up on the first day before the social party so that I can walk around and see more of everything before the public does.
Seeing everything the night before hand was pretty surreal and sweet! Can’t wait till next time!
This past Saturday was my first and Barnes and Nobles’ first Mini Maker Faire. I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect, whether I would be on a panel or if I would just be demonstrating how I go about making my dolls. Luckily for me they just expected me to show my dolls to people and explain how I construct them. Seemed easy enough, but what I didn’t know was that I would be the first table directly in front of the elevator on the second floor in the children’s department. I love children and all but I WAS NOT READY lol! The staff had to sneak me out so that I could take a break and they also had to block the children so that I could pack up to leave when it was time for me to go. I really enjoyed them, they asked me everything from how I made the dolls to why did they look so sad. One was extremely pro-active, she had her mother take a tally of all the materials I used so that they could pick them up and get to work on making a doll that very evening. Another little girl outed her mom who secretly called my dolls creepy by shouting “I don’t think they’re creepy, I love them!”. She gets a gold star in my book for coming to my defense. Overall, the staff was amazing, the children were adorable and inquisitive and I went home without any of the promotional cards that I brought with me.
I have been doing some more work on the doll that I’m creating for Billy Black over the past few days. I was kind of stuck trying to figure out which face paint to put on him since he has so many different styles that he wears. I decided to use the one that he wore when I met him for our meeting since that seems to be the design that he wears more often. All I need to do now is work a bit more on his mustache and style his outfit, I’m getting a lot closer now.
I had another successful go at the Northside Festival with my larger works! This year it was for two days instead of one AND they offered free over night storage so I wouldn’t look like a crazy bag lady with my shopping cart on the train. There were less kids at the festival to play with the pieces as they did the year prior but the “adults” were taking selfies as usual, I found a few uploaded to Instagram 🙂
I’m looking forward to participating again next year!
I am still hastily preparing for the Bronx Little Italy Art Show. I want to try to focus on more affordable pieces so that everyone could have a little Melandolly of their own. It’s at that point where I’m beginning to feel the crunch, I have about 2 1/2 weeks to try and crank all these little ones out. Wish me luck!
I am very proud to be a part of this upcoming show with the Bronx Arts Factory. The show is curated by Yolanda and Yelaine Rodriguez and they wanted to choose 10 female artists to connect you to the female form and the struggles that women face. I am still working on my pieces but I wanted to share a few of my work in progress shots. The name of this piece is “Women’s Troubles”. I wanted to illustrate the changing roles of women and the problems that they face as they make an attempt to live up to society’s expectations of them along with trying to balance their work and home lives. The show will be at the Andrew Freedman Home at 1125 Grand Concourse, Bronx, New York 10452 from March 6th through April 1st
Melandolly 