I learned tonight that I love hanging out with other artists because it validates my craziness and makes me feel like I'm not wasting my time. ♥!!

Also, tjoshae showed my how to knit last Quilting and I think I might like it. a lot. like I need another project. O_O

and here's a list:

Etsy - a good site for selling work, but you have to pimp it yourself and not depend on people just coming across it. It's a really good idea to have a link on your profile to a mailing list or journal that interested people can sign up and get updates on. Also? You get more traffic if you can link it to a blog where you post work in progress pictures and announcements fairly regularly, and if you can manage a regular schedule of product, like 2-5 items a week/month. It keeps your shop fresh and people coming back. (This is something I need to work on! but it's great when I keep up with it.)

Gallery Sites:

Deviant Art - good visibility and a fair amount of traffic. Also a great way to meet like minded people. Can be a bit on the young side, but there are some really fabulous artists on there. (and it's international too! yay!) I recommend watermarking your work, but I recommend that anyway for anything posted on the internet. :/

Elfwood - a scifi/fantasy gallery site. rather well done and moderated.

Epilogue - a higher end scifi/fantasy gallery site. must be juried to gain entrance. (I haven't tried this yet, but I know a lot of fabulous people who have pages here.)

Website stuff:

I use google groups for my mailing list. I'm still working on it, but google has been good to me for other groups so I'm sticking to them.

TOS Domains are a cheap (under $10 a year) domain hosting and mail forwarding service. I've used them for my 4 names for almost 6 years now without a problem *knocks on wood*

Art:

OOAK Guild is a forum where I wish I had the time to be more active in than I am. It's your best stop for one of a kind art doll information for artists and collectors.

Concept Art is a MASSIVE concept art forum with contests, instruction, galleries and forums. They also have a convention and workshops every now and then.

Threadless is an ongoing t-shirt design competiton with fabulous t's (my wallet hates my wardrobe) and cash prizes for winning designs.

Misc:

Ravelry - a knitting and fiberarts community that is made of complete awesome. If you and think of it, there's a topic for it.

That's all I can remember at the moment. Any other sites y'all would like to pimp? Where do you go for art stuff online?

Caffinatedly,

Jane

At this moment, I'm at World Fantasy in Austin and I have nothing to do! I did bring the salamanders that I started last month, but I think I'd really rather be doing something else right now. :P (so really, I *do* have something to do, but not something I *want* to do. :P)

***

So before I left, the lovely miss crochetfinger dropped off about 20 greeting/note cards with her lovely photos of my stuff on the front, and I should have them up in the Merch section of the website. Whoot!

***

and stuff.

and now I go and get some lunch and take a couple pictures before heading back to do my volunteer shift.

^__^

~Mixed Media~
(2006)
sculpey, wire, leather, moss agate, velvet, tape, sinew, fur, mohair, acrylics

This is Amelia! She's a paerie fincess and is my proof that I can sometimes make lovlies that are not so creepy. ~_^ She is 30" tall and very poseable. ^__^ She likes tea and pansies and is very good at scolding. (she practices in the mirror. yes yes.)


( More pics under here! ^__^ )

She's up on Ebay now. Linkie Linkie

lovely photography by the equally lovely crochetfinger

Good lord. His horns are actually cooperating now. yay.

hopefully I'll have him baked today and sewn tonight.

mossdragon

bjd start! and so it begins~ yey!

( Doodlie Doodlie Doodlie )

can you tell I have stuff to do? why yes! yes I do.

::sigh::

**

And in news of the cracked. I am hormonally losing my mind and am not fit for civilized company. really. but I keep throwing myself at poor innocent people who aren't expecting the spaztasticness.sorries. .____.

But today has been much better and not as many things went horribly wrong like the past day or so... and then I found the real crack. (mommy...)

So, the other day I came across this page, and then saw this linked from doll_art and I am resisting the crack. Really I am. Really. really really...

And then I came across this and especially this one. oh. my. god. *______________*

and the piggie on this page.

Ohgod. Kill me now. (I deny all reports of my searching down the materials and finding them not that unreasonable and the techniques just needing tweaking and playing with and and... OMG THE CRACK!!! I AM NOT GOING TO TRY AND MAKE A BALL JOINTED MODEL OF SLEIPNIR!! I SWEAR TO PEOPLE WHO WON'T HOLD ME TO IT! at least not until I've tried it out on a Huntress first. ._______.)

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More links:

and the suggestions in these tutorials make it look a lot simpler since it's using styrofoam and fine air clay, and I found the La Doll and La Doll Premier at Polymer Clay Expressfor about $10US for 500gm. ^__^ and the stuff they use for finishing the art versions of the dolls (as opposed to the vinyl ones you can buy already assembled) is a traditional ground shell powder that can be easily replaced by using Acrylic modelling paste. (I haven't done my research these past couple days, no, not me! :P) ooh! and there are tutorials on how to re-string the vinyl dolls that I think will help a lot in drawing up a design.

AAah!! and I also researched the beginnings of the BJD craze and found the wikipedia entry on Hans Bellmer and his doll porn during the WWII era, and a thing on Doll Party 15, which makes for an interesting comparison.

And I just need to order the materials and find a good supply of fine grain floral foam and I'll post pictures of my trials and errors and hopefully the pieces that come out of it here. ^___^

but first! I have 6 other projects to finish and a website to update. eek!!

***
and yes as my ocd researching finds out more and I try things out I'll make use of my digital camera and post process pics. I'll curb my perfectionism now and make a blanket warning that although I may be able to put a lot of detail into sculpting, when it comes to photographs, my hands are shaky as hell (and piss me off) so some of the pictures might be framed a bit odd or be a tiny bit off. I'll try to keep the weirdness to a minimum, but I'm not a photographer. :P

Mostly this is for my own reference, but I'm also recording this because I can't find a lot of references for folks exploring ball jointed art dolls. (Susanna Oroyan only has a page on them in Designing the Doll. I was surprised that there wasn't more! :/) and also due to the lack of information out there, I'll post links to interesting sites I find. (and I'll probably repeat myself a lot, 'cause I do that. :P)

I've found that most of the best sites are in japanese (go figure ~_^) and I'll post those too, but I'll state for the record that my knowledge of the language is just barely enough to scrape by, so I won't be much help in translating them other than "click here for the link." eek!

***
also also, although I think that Dollfies and SD's are pretty and all that, I'm not very interested in the dolls themselves. I'm very interested in the articulation and the process of ball jointing and the traditional japanese dollmaking techniques that are used on them (or in their design) and in the art dolls that have been inspired by these techniques. all of the processes that I am recording are for the purpose of creating a ball jointed art doll from scratch and sharing the arty love. ~_^

Aaaaaaaaaand, if anyone has any links or techniques to share, let me know! I am compiling materials and information do begin experimenting around the first of July. ^__^ (and maybe I'll have one to take to World Fantasy in November. ^__^


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Some of this slightly X-posted from bleaknimue

Ju-Ju's dental work Eek!	Poor Ju-Ju! It'll get better.
EEEK!	See? all smoothed out.
and Baked! and Nekkid! >_>