Well, I'm back at it! My mistake last time was choosing the wrong medium for me. I have always worked in cloth, but thought I could just as easily work in resin. Not so! The last attempt just led to misery and lack of fulfillment.

This time I will use my true medium--cloth. I am sculpting heads in oil clay. When they are ready, I will make a plaster mold of the face and use that to make a paperclay mask. I will sculpt a full body in Apoxie Sculpt and use that to make my cloth body pattern. I will hand dye my Kona Cotton in skin shades. The mask will be covered in fabric and then colored with paints and pastels. I will buy ready-made wigs for now. I am still contemplating painted vs glass eyes, but I'm leaning towards painted eyes. My favorite dolls have painted eyes.

I am very excited about this new venture! I hope I can find fans and buyers, lol, but I have faith that if I follow my heart, the rest will come.

I have decided to discontinue my doll making attempt. It's just not something I can keep working at. Maybe I'm a little too scared. Maybe I'm just tired.

I'm returning to an old love: 16" Kish girls. I'm going to sew for them, maybe make some patterns for sale, we'll see. I'm really a tailor at heart, I just wanted to sew for my own doll since no one else was making it. But I can be happy sewing for the 16" girls.

I'd love to make shoes. That would be awesomeness.

Anyway, that's why I'm selling my pressure pot and compressor. Maybe I have a buyer, maybe not; tell all your friends.

I'm looking to sell my 10-gallon resin casting pressure pot. I paid about $700 and I will take offers.

simon@purpledolls.com

I've decided to change my business name from Purple Dolls to Purple Crafting. It leaves room for me to do more than dolls. I have a huge interest in woodwork as well as dolls. Plus it sounds a little more masculine than having dolls in the name.

I've been doing a lot of mind work on my doll. I've decided to tentatively try jointing the upper part of the doll. I'll work on it a bit and see what I come up with. I've made arm and leg "bones" from armature wire and Apoxie Sculpt and I'm going to try baking Sculpey Firm over them. Lots of work to do!

I did something exciting yesterday. I've wanted to take a quilting class for 15 years now at the local AWESOME quilt store and I finally signed up for one! I finally fell free to truly trust and follow my heart. I feel super great.

Well, I'm starting again. What is this? Fourth? Fifth time to start all over? I think I'm closer to what I really want. Each time something improves in technique, so it's never a complete waste. This time I know about using Apoxie Sculpt and I know how important it is to meet my doll's measurements in order to fit into reduced people patterns. I'm going for a cloth bodied doll with resin parts.

Here is the base for my torso model. It's made of cotton batting strips. I'll cover this in Apoxie Sculpt and then use it to drape my body pattern and to form the chest plate.

I'm in conflict again over what kind of doll I want to make. I'm in love with the half scale girl, I'm sticking with that. Which means a 24" doll. I really like dolls that are of one kind of material, but I'm considering a cloth body with resin parts. I really want to get my dolls out on the streets and I want them to be affordable. I'm so frustrated right now, and to top it all off, I'm not even certain what size head I want to make. The head I started for this body looks too small now.

Aaargh!

I'm beginning to feel inspired to work at my doll again. I usually keep her covered and I uncovered her today. I like her shape--it's very little girl-ish. I just need to fill in the bumps so that I can get her smoothed out. Armeleia sent me some Apoxie Paste and I've been putting off using it because it seems so messy! lol I think it's going to happen this weekend finally.

I also need to do some major work on the head. I will probably start all over again but with a solid clay head. The foil center never ever works for me.

I have been obsessing over these new dollies! Something inexpensive I could sell at an artist street fair. Saturday Market if I lived in Portland. All parts would be solid except for the torso. Sculpted-on shoes probably because I don't want to mess with removable shoes. Velcro fasteners on the clothes. As much as possible to keep the price as low as possible. Yes. More obsessing...

I'm taking a little break from the dolls for a while. I've wanted to re-take my math classes for a couple years now and I think I'm finally going to start that project this Spring. I'm reviewing some of the prerequisite math right now and giving less time to the dolls. I'm hoping (at least today--could change this fickle mind tomorrow) it might lead to graduate school. But right now, I'm just refreshing my memory.

I've been thinking about making an inexpensive doll that I could sell at street markets to non-collectors. Resin and jointed, but not ball jointed. Something easy. Maybe with changeable eyes. Something that can use inexpensive shoes and socks and wigs. We'll see. I may try sculpting in Super Sculpey since I have so much.

Any thoughts?

btw, I've been chronicling December dollmaking efforts on the Joint.

I've been thinking a lot about the role of dollmaking in my life. I may have a job opportunity with a three year commitment. That means I wouldn't be able to have a doll business for three years. But I begin to think that maybe having a doll business isn't really a possibility anyway. Maybe just an intense hobby. I find myself wanting to focus on the sewing more and more, probably because of the pressure I feel with the December challenge on the Joint (which I inflict on myself, of course). I see several stages in making this doll a reality. First simple joints and a junk cast, a refinement and joint advancement, rinse and repeat. And I'm OK with that. I was just hoping for it to happen sooner than that.

It's really important for me to make money, and the doll isn't going to do that anytime soon. I'm getting used to that idea.