Blackbird Marmalade

Omg! I haven't updated this in sooo long!

2008-01-23T04:26:26Z

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

Updates and stuff...

2006-11-03T18:12:04Z

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.

^__^

Amelia - Paerie Fincess

2006-10-12T02:03:50Z

~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.)

>

She's up on Ebay now. Linkie Linkie

lovely photography by the equally lovely crochetfinger

mossdragon - WIP

2006-10-11T21:16:19Z

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

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

mossdragon

BJD birdthing - test #1

2006-09-25T02:08:36Z

bjd start!

and so it begins~

yey!

Goblins!

2006-09-24T19:28:40Z

Baked Goblin Stew

and the nasty pan I bake them on... ew.

these are the last three of my goblin forms all sculpted and hashed up. ^__^

So, when I finish these, I'll have made 14 goblins! eek! ^__^ Time to make more goblin forms!

Goblins - Leather

here's a couple pics of the leather I'll be using to finish these goblins.

Goblins - Leather

unlike the other 11, these last three are going to be light colored. I also have some red foxfur that I might use for their hair and stuff. ^^

Zombie Dudes!!

Armatures waiting to be headded! :P

aaaah!! they're taking over my lappy!

Doodle Things

2006-07-06T21:01:32Z

Tree Boy!

a Piggie Ghost

Doodle Monkey. eek!

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

::sigh::

Imp - Sylph - Art Doll

2006-07-03T23:55:40Z

Original One of a Kind Impish Fae Art Doll

by Artist C. Jane Washburn.

Impish Fae - Sylph

~mixed media~

(2006)

This is Sylph. According to the wikipedia, "a sylph is a faux-

mythological creature in the Western tradition. The term "Sylph"

originates in Paracelsus, who describes sylphs as invisible beings

of the air, his elementals of air. There is no substantial mythos

associated with them. As alchemy in the West derived from

Paracelsus, alchemists and related movements, such as

Rosicrucianism, continued to speak of sylphs in their hermetic

literature."

But she can also be described as "the mystically, chemically

condensed humors of peevish women." I like that definition better

and am sticking to it. yes.

Her head is hand sculpted from polymer clay, her body is a sturdy

wire armature sewn together with deerskin, buffalo skin and

artificial sinew, and her eyes are round mother of pearl beads. She

has sewn leather and wire wings and she was finished up with a nice

sealer and acrylics.

She is 7 inches tall and her wingspread is ~10 inches.

Sylph comes with a signed tag and is the newest member at Blackbird Marmalade

Creations.

She's up on ebay now. ^_^

Thanks for looking!

Jane

Dude, I'm insane. I want to make a jointed Norse Pantheon. ._.

2006-06-09T19:04:10Z

**

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. ._______.)

***
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. ^__^

***
Some of this slightly X-posted from bleaknimue

Ju-Ju's Progress

2006-06-09T04:16:56Z


Ju-Ju's dental work Eek!	Poor Ju-Ju! It'll get better.

EEEK!	See? all smoothed out.

and Baked! and Nekkid! >_>

blackbird_diary @ 2006-06-05T00:13:00

2006-06-05T05:13:36Z

more proto-hunters
waiting to be fleshed out. ^_^

Goblins in process...
4 stages of goblins.

blackbird_diary @ 2006-05-30T22:22:00

2006-05-31T03:22:57Z

an experiment with super glue and Hunter wings

an unclear picture of the active corner in my workroom.

Ghosties - the Bride & Cherie

2006-03-22T04:45:40Z

I finished her this weekend. ^^ She seems a little confused, poor thing!

And this is Cherie. She's one of my favorites. Her eyes are dark amethysts. ^^

Hunters in progress..

2006-03-15T23:26:34Z


Hunters in waiting... the white guy's name is Jeremiah. the navy guy's name is Max. and the Fishie Guy is Lew. yes. they should be finished this weekend.	Jeremiah wip he still needs paint/sealer. his eyes are hemetite, his body is leather, and his ruff is foxfur.	Jeremiah wip he's a scaredy thing!!	lew wip his eyes are amazonite and match the teal leather I'm sewing for his skin. :)

Lew wip I detailed him during the Oscar party. :P so he's really detailed!	Lew wip and he stands by himself! hee!!	Max wip this is max. he's all grrrr... and he doesn't like belly dancers. poor grrr... Max. :pets him:

Bone Woman - WIP

2006-02-12T20:50:08Z

I've changed her a lot since this picture. she has real rodent teeth now and a mottled skin. And I just baked her, so I should be able to finish her today. :)

here's a pic of my workspace when I was working on her teeth.

work space

Birth Sketches

2006-01-31T16:25:08Z

Warning: Really Really Really rough sketches. More doodles than anything, but I think I captured enough to remember what I wanted to work with.

blackbird_diary @ 2006-01-21T07:55:00

2006-01-21T13:59:50Z

proto-hunters. :)

more stages later. right now half of them are wire and foil, the other half have floral tape skin and hands. :)

and vertabrae. yes. XD

The Two Hunters are finished - finally! :P

2006-01-16T11:28:30Z

yay sad guy's done!! and I put a sealer on the Jester.

the jester guy is about a half inch shorter than the sad guy. :)

and now I can go eat.

yay done!

(and continuing on with the rest of my list...)

***

Aaaaaaaand, I've just started 8 more Hunter armatures. 3 of them are children. ^_^;

(and I've named the sad grren guy Vine and the jester Eli. I'm *so* bad!! now I'll never be able to sell those two! ::sigh::)

Hunters

2006-01-15T18:48:45Z

I've decided/discovered lately that I need to find some way of strengthening the "bones" of my Hunters. Maybe by using a thicker gage wire or just wrapping them tighter. Which got me to thinking. I think I need to find a good anatomy book, like a medical photo one, not just an artist's anatomy. and maybe a couple vet books.

I've started a Root Thing Anatomy sketch book and I think I need more references. I'm guessing that in the next couple months, I'll have a system of laying down the muscle structures in leather to make larger Hunters.

It's not that I don't like the little 9" bendy guys, but I have Plans! and I look at the idea of giving them Bones the way I always give them Teeth, even if the mouths are closed. It's all in the details, man.

Leather Journal - Commission

2006-01-15T18:45:56Z

I've finished the book that alana_scyleia is giving to amra_the_lion for his day of birth. :) yay!

Handmade Leather Journal


front detail the bookmark has knuckle bone (tali) toggles. the closure is twined and braided sinew (waxed flax thread).	front detail the closure has six strands of twined and braided sinew (waxed flax thread).

back inside view the cover is made of two pieces of leather sewn around a wood and leather insert.	inside view the book holds up to a ream of standard three hole punched paper.

front inside view the paper is held by three leather thongs, like a three ring binder.	front view the cover wraps around the front to protect the pages from rubbing and gives it a finished look. :P

front view the bookmark is adjustable and can mark two places if needed.

Root Things - World Fantasy

2006-01-15T18:42:45Z

there are 13 in all. whew!

Rat Doll - Gift Doll

2006-01-15T18:41:03Z

I finished her just this morning. :) and now I am tired. and must find a way of delivering her to beautiful_trash. :)

and stuff.

Rat Doll
mixed media
sculpey, leather, rabbit fur, fox fur, sinew, mohair, blue agate, plastic, acrylics, copper
(2005)

-- gift --

She's a gift for a friend and a Dream Doll, as she is the description of a dream. Her cloak is rabbit fur and her mask is a wounded rat. Her eye is bruised to match th emask that she wears. She is completely anatomically correct under all the leather and sinew. ;) She also has little sleeping mice in her transparent tummy.

Cleatus and Tree Dolls - Challange

2006-01-15T18:38:04Z


Say Hello, Cleatus. "Hello Cleatus!"	Twig Thing - Cleatus Detail mixed media sculpey, twigs, sinew, leather, emu feathers, acrylics (2005)

Root Thing - Tree Doll Swap the second tree doll for the goddess dolls swap	tree doll swap both dolls for the goddess doll swap. :) (and my to-do board behind it...)

Hunter - Forest Lord - Commission

2006-01-15T18:37:31Z

Teaser - Hunter Forest Lord - 12" tall leather, sculpey, wire, tape, acrylics.

base and finishing touches to come.

Root Thing - Crowthing - Gift - Link

2006-01-15T18:36:48Z

New root thing! this one is for my ericness's birthday. :D

( Crow Thing. hee! )<= fake cut to his journal! oh noes!