A new beginning!

Welcome to Story doll™.

Everything is still a work in progress but I’m happy to finally start sharing more of what I’ve been working on since last year.

I wrote in my blog about my decision to stop making cloth creatures due to hand pain issues and proceeded to switch to clay.

I’ve posted WIP photos of my progress…
My first poly-clay doll
Luntian
More WIPs
More characters…
The Faith Box

I’ve been holding off on sharing the full story about it all because I’ve been doing research on the right clay paint, web design, and learning things I need to learn. After spending months on all that, I realized that I will never be done with research and learning new things so I might as get started with unveiling my mystery project…

Here’s the working mastheads I’ve made so far…

Choice A

Choice B

Choice C

Everything is a work in progress at this point. Here’s hoping I’ll be finished with the major CI work by the first day of the new year, and so it is!

Happiness!

In process…

Its been a while since I posted. I never thought it’d be this difficult not to talk about what I’m working on. I decided it best to keep everything under wraps until its all done.

Been waiting for stuff I need to keep going on my mystery project so to help shorten what seems to be along wait, I hankered down to read Keith Lobue’s e-book…

Find it here.

These kept me occupied and inspired, too…

Invigorating. Find it, here.

Find it here.

Now off to make more leaf flowerbed…

See this large, here.

Happiness!

More renewal…

After painting the sewing table and experienceing a surge of creative energy from it I decided I need that for my drawing/ sculpting work station. too, so I spent the weekend painting my work table.

Here’s some WIP of the process…

See this large here.

Now my other work station looks like this…

See this large here.
A big difference from its former hum drum state…
See this large, here.

So on to new pursuits. Ha-hah!

Happiness!

Infusion of new energy…

Yellow sunrise, that’s the name of the color that I painted my formerly black sewing table with…

Have a closer look…

See this large, here. I used this yellow on cream vintage wall paper I found at a yard sale late last summer.

Now my sewing station look so much brighter and filled with creative energy!

See this large, here.

Far cry from its former dim state…

Here’s the WIP photos…

See this large, here.

What a break that was. Exhilirating! Michael De Meng is right when he wrote, “You don’t have to make art to be making art.”

Next, my drawing/ sculpting table! Ha-haaaa!

Happiness!

My last cloth creature…

Magiting is the Filipino word for valor. Its a griffin commissioned by Lore Knutson. It is also the last cloth creature that I am making.

Here he is ready for a test flight with my little Egg as the pilot.

Now that its finished, I’m spending the next weeks doing face up of some resin doll parts and dolls to rest my aching wrists. Then its on to paper clay and polyclay doll and creature projects. Yay!

CTS and tendonitis is not fun but switching to clay is so much fun so its all good.

Meanwhile, off to bed I go.

Happiness!

Transitioning…

I’m currently working on the last cloth creature. A dragon named, Luntian, the Filipino word for the color green.

Years ago after I spent 2 years to work on some 24 pieces of dolls and creatures for a solo show my hands began to ache. So much so that I ended up undergoing what turned out to be months of acupuncture pain management. I stopped making dolls altogether for a year or two and would occasionally make a doll or two during summer breaks or Christmas breaks.

Early this year I began to make cloth creatures and had made it along with making doll clothes a source of income. While I enjoyed it immensely, the pain in my hands, fingers, shoulder and elbow began to increase.

I dislike naming any sort of pain that I experience or talking about it. Its like doing so compounds it and makes it more real. As much as I would like to use magic thinking on this I have to deal with the pain.

When I first gave up making cloth dolls, it was an emotionally painful decision. Today, however, it is not because I have other options. To cut down stress on my hands I can switch mediums. Now that I am in the US, I have access to paperclay, polyclay and other clays that I can use to make dolls and creatures. I can even make other things from these mediums, like objects to embellish and furnish tableaus or assemblages.

See this large, here.

Here’s to a great year of making cloth creatures and a coming year of creative adventure using clay.

Thank you for your continued appreciation and patronage of my work. In the words of Sally Fields at the Oscar’s, “You like me. You really like.”

Happiness!

My first elephant…

Here she is…

See this large, here.

Here she is in full regalia…

See this large, here.

See this large, here.

Her name is Mabait, the filipino word for kind.

She’s now on her way to her new home in Pasadena, MD. Say hi to Gita for me, Mabait.

Happiness!