On to New Projects

I just completed an experimental doll project.  It was a lot of fun in that the medium was papier mache'.  I really enjoy the experience/sensation of working with the paper and paste.  Now that the project has come to an end, I am ready to move on to a new project.  Getting started on something new is somewhat like an artist staring at a blank canvas or a writer staring at a blank page.  I have to pull myself away from staring blankly and start finding my way to filling that space.

My two big projects for the year were to be a large doll that is a Flamenco dancer.  The other project is to create another walking stick.  The problem is that I just completed a doll and I am not that enthused about starting another one immediately.  The primary problem with working on a walking stick is that I generally work on them outside to keep the mess in my studio to a minimum.  Right now it is just too cold out to be doing fine work outside.  I need to have my hands gloves free to manipulate the tools well.  It is hard to find the motivation to get started on something.

One of my plans for the year was to enter some more competitions in the State Fair of Virginia again.  I was on their website this morning.  I wanted to find out what competitions were available this year and what the guidelines might be.  So far, they have not posted the guidelines for 2017.  Presumably, they should not be much different from 2016, but I don't want to start a project only to find that it does not conform to their guidelines.  I had to table that for now.  I will contact them and see when the guidelines will go up.  I hope to have some information soon.  I work on my projects when I have time, and it takes me a long time to complete a project.  I hate to have to be rushed to complete a project.

To give me a little break before I begin my Flamenco dancer doll, I plan on reworking my Jupiter Sphere gazing ball.  As I wrote at the beginning of the year, my gazing ball that had been painted with acrylic paint to look like Jupiter had faded in the sunlight.  I would like to refurbish it in some way.  That will be a relatively short term project.  It will give me a small break from working on dolls so that I can start fresh the new doll with a renewed outlook.   

I plan to use a wire brush to remove all the old paint and repaint it in oven bake enamels.  This ball is small enough that it will fit into my dedicated toaster over.  I have a wire brush already.  I will need to bestir myself to go purchase some more oven bake enamel paints.  What I have is old and dry.  It is not worth using at this point.  I should be able to begin the project within a couple of days.  It will be fairly warm today, so I should be able to work outside on removing the paint.

 I also have another ball waiting to be decorated.  I have been holding off on it because I had a plan in mind that needed a special piece to go with it.  So far, I have not found the piece I was looking for.  I finally have come to the point of saying that I need to come up with a different idea for the piece.  I will be addressing that also, but maybe not right away.  It depends on how I feel after I finish refurbishing the ball.

In the mean time, I will be beginning the sketches for the Flamenco doll.  I plan to experiment with some different materials for the support system of the doll.  I will need to have the pose of the doll figured out before I go shopping for materials.  The doll is the second of two projects are in the works.  I try to keep it to only three projects at a time.

The third project is a quilt project.  A couple of blog posts ago, I showed a quilt I had recently started.  I have made some progress since then.  I will be blogging about the quilt in a few days.  It will be an interesting diversion while I am getting the other projects started.

I try to keep no more than three projects going at one time.  I usually quilt or hand sew items in the evening while sitting down to watch television.  That project does not generally interfere with my daytime projects.  I usually have two projects going on in the studio so I can work back and forth in case one needs some drying time or one can be worked outdoors rather than indoors.  It keeps me from sitting there waiting for paint to dry and I still have something to do in case there is bad weather.  That way I stay busy.

Check back on Thursday for the next blog post.  I should have some info on the progress on the Jupiter Sphere then.