What a Month!

So far this month,I've had major dental work done; started several new projects for the holidays; tried to learn about

how to use my new embroidery machine with little luck and feel really behind on all the things I wanted to produce for this
Holiday season.

MJ is working on drawings for our first Pet Shop of the Old Ones coloring book. I'm designing a flying monkey and some special dragons; as well as trying to
get a couple of new chihuahuas and a few Futhark cats done too. I just sold Miguelito a few days ago. I'm working on a new kitty his size in red. I want to call her Ruby Tuesday.

This little fluttercat and Ruby have the new glass eyes I got from VanDykes. I'm really liking them because I don't have to worry about the glass eyes changing color or scratching so easily.

I hope I can get everything done. We'll see what happens .

Censorship as a Marketing Tool

I've been surprised how much fuss there has been lately on Etsy about censorship. I have no problem with someone not wanting to see certain things. That's fine by me.

I really didn't need to see that poor dead bat in that Twinkle Twinkle... piece, but if someone wants to use dead animals, bones or recycled fur or leather in their work, I have no problem with them doing so. I don't feel the need to be their jury. My wanting to cry when I saw it was my problem.

My husband MJ does pin-up art as well as many different types of illustrations and I realize this is something that can upset some people. I think his work is beautiful and others might be offended. I understand .

I wonder if it would be a good idea if we did have filters so we could screen out things we don't want to see. Deviant art has a system of filters that are simple to use and I use them myself when I want to bypass something.The on-line community is so huge and diverse that finding something you don't like is pretty much guaranteed. I don't think getting hundreds of thousands of users to agree on a set of rules is the only thing we need. Search tools that work and can be set to filter out the things we want to see or avoid are really needed.

The idea that sellers are trying to get things banned so that they will have a better chance at selling their work was brought up in one of the censorship threads I was reading. It's an interesting idea and I see it as a definite possibility. The worst problems I've had with someone objecting to my work was a doll/plush maker. I just decided to take it as a compliment and move on.

It's sad if fear of competition plays a part in another seller trying to get certain art banned. So many people on Etsy are new to selling and to the Internet and trying new things is scary. I used to hide my dolls in a closet. It's taken me several years to be able to be proud of my work and be able to accept all of the comments, good or bad, that have come my way. So I understand fear, but I don't understand attacking others to overcome your fear.

I hope that Etsy makes the "not" function more obvious for inexperienced Internet users if they don't set up filters. The idea of a new member e-mail packet with helpful hints that is automatically sent when a person joins Etsy might also help inexperienced people. But I guess in the end, time and experience will hopefully help people develop the confidence a person has to have to be successful.

In search of the Perfect Eye-The Next Step

When I started making dolls, I just used beads for eyes. Eventually beads weren't good enough. My husband MJ brought me some cast off resin eyes that they sometimes use in "background heads." They might not have been right for film, but they were perfect match for my style of working.

I love these eyes in my pieces, but they are time consuming and expensive to make. I haven't wanted to give them up, but I found VanDykes Taxidermy www.vandykestaxidermy.com/catagory/1
Their prices for glass eyes are much less expensive than the resin ones. I was worried that I would have to choose from a set color list, but they offer clear glass eyes with just a pupil.

I'm thrilled that I can still have custom color eyes. One nasty problem with the resin was that the pigments would sometimes react over time and change the iris color. I'm not going to have that problem with glass.

My favorite part of the planning process has to be the color matching. These material swatches and eyes became this little green bunny Dunwich for LibraGear
It will be nice to choose colors and not have to try and anticipate what the resin may or may not do six months down the road.

So now I am again at a crossroads in my work. The glass eyes that I am beginning to use now will still have a hand done quality and be more durable. But in some ways, I'm going to miss my resin eyes.

The Concept of Beauty

I've been creating these sculptures like Winter Sky for a couple of years now. They're fun, slightly odd animals , but they're more than that too.

When I was a kid, I always wanted a doll like me. I have cerebral palsy and my right arm and leg are atrophied. It would have been nice to have such a doll and say to my friends..."This is me"

When I was training to be an art teacher, I worked on a study with pre -schoolers. The younger a kid is when he or she is introduced to people who are different the more accepting they can be. From what I saw, a kid has a set idea of what is normal by the time they're 6 yrs old. And in a way that's scary.

Most parents want to protect their kids of anything unpleasant or strange, but aren't they doing more damage than good?

I started my dollmaking career creating dolls that were human, somewhat realistic and disabled in some way. They either scared people, offended people or were deemed ugly. A person with Downs Syndrome or Cerebral Palsy looks a certain way... that's just the way it is. Are they really UGLY or just not the standard beautiful? And does it really always have to come down to looks?

I've wanted to be a working artist since I was 5 and crayolaed my Grandma Bartlett's dining room wallpaper. She told me Dad to back off and that I would be an artist. So I decided to figure out some way to make appealing physically different dolls. I finally decided my best option was to work with fantasy or mythological people and creatures.

So far, I've had fairly good success and have only come across people who are afraid of my stuff on random occasions. I figure they're probably the same people who would be upset to see any kind of doll that isn't physically perfect. Hopefully I'll be able to keep promoting the idea of relative beauty and it eventually helps people expand their ideas on what is beautiful.