New Creative Paperclay Blog Post!

How to create a Elkey_Instagram-Recovered

Hello everyone, I hope you are having a great weekend! This week’s post for Creative Paperclay’s blog tutorial series was inspired by the upcoming election. I wanted to create something that would hopefully inspire people to go out and vote instead of get ready for Thanksgiving dinner. The piece that I made is a combination of a donkey and an elephant to represent both the Democratic and Republican parties. See how I made this creature here! Hope you all go out and vote this upcoming election day Tuesday November 6th!

My Latest Post on Creative Paperclay®’s Blog!

Art Dolls, Completed Dolls, Publicity, Work in Progress

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!

How to Create an Artdoll Bust

Art Dolls, Completed Dolls, Publicity

How To Create an Art Doll Bust_Instagram

Hello everyone! Here is the second in the series of my monthly blog tutorials! Head on over to Creative Paperclay®’s blog to see how this piece was made, or click here for the direct link to the tutorial!

Now Sponsored by Creative Paperclay®!

Art Dolls, Completed Dolls, Other Art Projects, Uncategorized

How To Create an Art Doll In a Frame_Pinterest

Hello Everyone!

I am now part of the design team for Creative Paperclay®, so I will be posting tutorials on their blog on the 4th Friday of each month! My first post for their blog series demonstrates how I created this Art doll in a frame. Head on over to their blog to see how it was all put together!

https://creativepaperclay.blogspot.com/…/art-doll-in-frame.…

Big News!

Art Shows, Uncategorized

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I’ve been accepted into the World Maker Faire convention at the New York Hall of Science! I’m so excited, and I can’t wait to update you all with my work in progress shots of me preparing for my booth!

Travis, the Malendolly :D

Art Dolls, Completed Dolls, Uncategorized, Work in Progress

So here’s an update on this piece. He was originally going to be a commission for another artist, but that fell through by the time I was just about done with him. I decided to finish working on this piece since I don’t have too many male dolls under my belt. The biggest challenge for me with working on guy dolls is the styling, there’s very little room to hide imperfections. The clothing such as pants and shirts have to be pretty much tailored to fit, unlike a dress that can be loosely wrapped around and sewn in place. Another thing that I don’t bother too much with is the ears or the head shape. Most of the time I just put hair on my pieces, so getting the shape of the back of the head to be perfect and creating ears isn’t usually a concern for me. I am also terrible at sewing, so I find the notion of making pants extremely intimidating. With this piece I had to just face my fears, whip out the sewing machine, figure out how to thread it without help from mom, put my big girl pants on and get the job done. I must say that I love the way he came out, I need to get more practice in with creating more MALEndollies!

Trying Out New Things

Art Dolls, Uncategorized, Work in Progress

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I have been on a quest lately to try out stronger, weatherproof materials that I will be able to handle without using special equipment. In this round, I have been playing with cement and mixing it in a metal pot. I put a thin coat over a clay figure that I created for the sake of experimenting. I like the rough texture of it, but I would like to be able to smooth it out a bit more than I already tried to do here. My next material will be stucco as I have been reading good things about it and how it’s a bit easier to work with.

First Mini Maker Faire at Barnes and Nobles in Forest hills!

Art Shows

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.

New items Coming to My Etsy store… Soon

Uncategorized

I have a load of new items that will be slowly trickling into my Etsy shop over the next few weeks. (I take a really long time to list items, they need to be properly photographed and documented). The influx of items is a result of an outdoor art show in The Bronx’s Little Italy area being a total washout! It was such a sad day, there was little to no foot traffic and there was at least one artist that I know of whose art was damaged by the rain. Thankfully there was a 99 cents store nearby where I was able to get a beach umbrella to shield the few pieces that I did choose to put out. No Melandollies were harmed in the making of that show. There may be a second or third date scheduled for it but in the mean time I’m putting my new pieces up for sale in my Etsy shop. Getting ready for the show made me realize a very important thing, I work much faster than I think I do. In about 3 months time, I cranked out 18 small wall pieces/ornaments, 9 dolls in frames, 2 busts and about 20 small people in bottles. There were plenty of late nights and events that I had to miss but in the end it made me realize my capabilities. At one time it would take me 3 months to create 2 dolls, boy have the tides turned! Well in the mean time, you can check out the few items that I currently have in my Etsy store. I will keep you all posted when I add my new pieces to the shop, hang tight!

Fare Well Soho!