DollsArtCats

First, Belmont Prairie. It wasn't the most interesting reserve we have visited..it's basically a large vacant lot with native plants. It would have been a nice walk, but someone put down 1/2 mile of decorative cutout cinderblock for the path surface-- which had to be the most uncomfortable walking surface known to man. We left and went to the Maple Grove Reserve instead, and then to the mall for shoes. The mall has ants. Big ones, that move their heads. I blame the crumbs from the food court. And finally today the mailman brought me a box of mermaid parts, some assembly required. I got these in a trade and I made out like a bandit..there are even the "shell ears". No one ever sells the Soom Cass shell ears..even if they have sold the rest of the doll, they keep the ear decorations to put on whatever doll they have left. All I am waiting for now is the head. I have the torso, I just have to locate the box it is in.

...Ride on cars. Trader Joe's parking lot, near Hinsdale, Ill.

I'm a big fan of HerrZog's work, and this is why--this doll head is about the size of the palm of your hand, and look at the incredibly delicate patterns painted around the eyes. The skin is "bronze" and when Soom released it I was curious how easy or difficult it would be to paint on it (and have it look nice). It looks very nice. Vesuvia is a beautiful sculpt to start with, but HerrZog also chose amazing eyes to go with the red wig and the bronze skin. Even the eyelashes are carefully selected to go with the rest of the painting. I decided to rehost the image rather than link directly--it's always a question of which is more polite, taking bandwidth or lifting images :o HerrZog's Flickr

I have all these cool 3d models, it occured to me to put it with some doll photos. I liked how this one came out. The castle in back is a model by Danie and Marforno. Alejandro's face is done by Laura Buff.

Just open the head by taking off the head cap, turn the latch, lift off the head, put the new head on, turn the latch again, put on the head cap and the wig, and you are done! Shushu is not amused. She thinks the Miyu should get her own damn body.

I got paid, so what do I do? I go buy a head. But I already have the body, a Soom Galena body, one of the pink batches, and there are only a few Soom girl heads that match. I really wanted a Soom Cass head, (the mermaid), but she sold very slowly as a Special Order and I never see her (or her head) on the market..until yesterday, when Goth/SF artist Krowbar decided she needed money and put this on out on the marketplace: http://www.flickr.com/photos/krowbar/6885712960/in/photostream My first thought was ...I love the faceup, but maybe not the scars? But the more I looked at it the better I liked it--I mean she isn't a sweet little mermaid, that is for sure. Krowbar kindly will be adding lashes to her before sending out, as I hate sticking lashes on. Krowbar is also smart and funny and fun to write to. If you look around her Flickr there is a Queen Lora fullset on page 2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/krowbar/

Another doll person who reads my blog wrote to me and said "Fishcake! I have some crystal balls in my garage like the one in the Philadelphia Museum! Would you like one?" :o And so thanks to this kind person, I have my own ancient Chinese crystal ball, and the one in the Philly Museum is safe. I am amazed and grateful!

ArianneO2 also does faceups..I have a couple of hers and I wouldn't mind having this grey Galena, but I think it's at Arianne's to stay. :D Here's a gallery of her work--she also does action figures and a lot of other art. http://arianne023.daportfolio.com/

I made Kalypso, my Fairyland Shushu, a yarn wig--it's very delicate since it was spun around some purple thread, (which I pulled out), and now it is held together with just a little friction between the strands. Next time I think I will make stitched wefts to keep it all together, but for now she finally has a blue wig. She still needs her real clothes--this little DollZone dress doesn't fit too well.

This one was a struggle because I had no good references for the character; I found a stock photo for the torso but that was it. All I can say is I think I am happy with it now, but I may look at it again in a month and wish I had changed x and z. I do like his hair. I just hope I don't have to draw him again because redoing those tatts would be a project!

Ok, so you may have heard about the peeing on Pooh, the religiosity,the scamming of galleries, the drinking, the heckling of Seigfried and Roy, ...well, here's the rest of it, a nice remembrance from Randy Gallego's blog, with a sample of what Kinkade should have been painting all along. http://blog.gallegosart.com/2012/04/goodbye-thomas.html Probably how Kinkade would have liked to have been remembered, too. Also Gallegos has this kick-ass painting on there. Somebody already bought it, sadly. http://gallegosart.com/detail.asp?product_id=rg_unpub_the_balance_of_power

http://deavivente.com/ A friend who knows I like ball-jointed dolls sent me a link to Anya Kozlova's Deviant Art page, and from there I found her home site. I love the "artist at work" photos--I had not realized you can sand porcelain at the bisque stage and that makes sense..all those little joints need to fit together perfectly. The finished dolls are small by bjd standards, around 30cm, so that makes all the details even more impressive. I enjoyed how much Kozlova loves doing these dolls, too! This picture is unrelated and this is not my cat, it lives at my brother's house. My cat would not do this for 2 seconds, but Justin walks like this every day. I am not sure Justin is really a cat.

An old picture--he has since been replaced by my Denzel, but I occasionally miss how easy the 60 cm Delf Moon was to haul around. He was also in pretty rough shape so I never felt constrained to be super careful with him. I did sell him to someone who really, really wanted him, so that was nice. Poking around I found a fun doll tumblr: http://elsiiblog.tumblr.com/page/4 There is a photo of the original wings the Soom Beryl came with, and on page 3, under the photo of popped balloons, was some very, very funny text. I think I would like Elsii.

From the Merriam Online Dictionary: At Soom I found a nice Gneiss Made of resin and sugar and spice And though an excellent deal I find at each meal I can only afford to eat rice. Well, I have trouble digesting wheat, so that is really why all the rice ;)Gneiss is the New Body version of their SuperGem girls, and the first to be released on it. Because she was released after the Female Free Choice event, not many people still had the funds to order her, and some are a little wary of the new body's performance and styling. (she has the same large neck issue my IoS does, and the wrist balls are large as well). I am sure there are some engineering flaws in her, but the chance to own a new version of the SuperGem body was well worth putting up my tax return for. And I like her face--I think the same artist that painted my SO Galena is doing Gneiss as well.

These guys are making it hard to mow the lawn--there are at least 50 of them at any given time, sitting on dandelions in the lawn. When I stop pushing the mower they sit on my feet. I need to look up their exact name in the bug book. My Galena/Beryl hybrid is here and strung together, and now she needs painting and clothes like everyone else :D. She stands amazingly well when the wind is not blowing and the cat is not trying to kiss her.

A while back I had to do a cover with the Philadelphia skyline on it, and I had no photos handy. I could have gotten in my car and paid 4.00 for tolls and 3.00 for gas, so instead I got a not-great photo from istockphoto for 5.00. But I was so annoyed at the whole thing that this weekend I took the photo that I would have used on that cover, and I am putting it up here for anyone who needs it. The tip of the Comcast building is clipped, but you are a Photoshop pro anyway so that won't be a problem. And below is a couple of free bonus pix: Download link (blogger tries to keep you from grabbing files) http://gypsyreggae.com/Freebies/PhilSkylineBig.jpg Buildings on Broad Street just below City Hall. Easier download: http://gypsyreggae.com/Freebies/Beaumont.jpg Philadelphia Waterworks, Schyukill River and a 5k charity walk in the distance. download: http://gypsyreggae.com/Freebies/PhillyWaterworks.jpg William Penn on City hall and his laptop (actually I think it is the...

The Philly Art Museum is huge (they hire something like 45 interns each summer, though K was not one of them) and there are only a few items in the Museum that are not of the highest quality. I'm not sure the crystal ball is fine art, but it is the one thing that if they gave me a shopping cart I would take away with me, along with a couple of the Indian statues (they are doll-sized). There is also a carved ceiling I like, but that would be a little unhandy to get in the car. There is also this painting, which somehow ended up in there too. I can't decide if it is hilarious, tacky, or both: It does have a Bad Cat, though, so it might go in the cart. And here is K sitting on Social Consciousness: And finally Arianne's Limwha Elf, which I got to visit in person. I tell myself they are hard to pose and I don't need one. But hers is lovely. This is "Aphrodite":

An artful billboard in Center City. I took a lot of building pictures but only a few were worth keeping. Here is Thomas Eakins studio (and his art supplier). And a nifty light in a lobby: And a mysterious painting of chickens in the same lobby. It's very well done, I think it's Chinese and modern because of it's insecure location in the lobby, and the "English" name signing it, like a Starving Students art item. (The "students" often sell their paintings in hotels like this one to the public, and they are painted in China by very talented and very underpaid artists). Despite it's provenance, once can't help but wonder "why chickens"? And last, K goofing around on the Avenue of the Arts...

Philadelphia Cat does not look at humans, even ones tapping on the glass. Found in an antique store window, early Sunday morning.

I flew to Philly Thursday to see K's graduation show, go to a doll meet, and visit friends. The gallery "closing" was a great success. I left the food alone so there would be more for everyone else but it looked spectacular, one of the other students catered it. Here are the gallery grads: K first: Totally stolen from K's facebook: Rebecca: Victoria: Ayla Jayne: The art was inspiring, I especially liked Ayla Jayne's brushwork; it made me want to go home and do some acrylic painting again.

..the doll, not the weather, the weather is beautiful! Though Rain is another doll who needs a wig update; this wig is a little large. My current problem with him is that Immortality of Soul has said she is not interested in re-releasing the "G" or "S" heads anytime soon, so he's become a very valuable doll. (His "G" head is only one of 20, and he is a complete IOS doll, not a hybrid, with his box and papers) so I am afraid to take him out and mess with him. Next update will be late Sunday, I am still working on "Brother Gods". So.. many... tattoos on the main character...*_*

I was mowing and saw this bee, and when I took out my camera and got up close I was amused at the undignified way it was sleeping. As soon as I took the picture it woke up and flew away, probably annoyed. I thought it would be more comfortable sleeping in the middle of one of the million dandelions in the lawn, and after that I mowed carefully, just in case the bee had resettled itself.

Here is the painted Jessica head--in person her lips aren't quite so orange, but I need to put another coat of gloss on her to tone it down, and to make her eyebrows heavier. I should have mowed the lawn instead, but maybe I will do that this afternoon.

..had a head in there, a very loose one--not even a copy of the Korea Times was stuffed in there for padding. I ordered this head before I said no more heads ;). It's an Iplehouse Jessica, and I took off part of today to paint her since I don't much like blank heads laying around. Not that I do a great job painting them, but it's better than blank. She still needs me to make her a wig and clothes, like everyone else here; and she is on a Super Gem body at the moment.

http://www.rusclothing.com/russian-shawls/wool-shawl-146/n--ppshwlwf-146-325-18/ I am putting this here so I can find it again. Once I get paid my next paycheck, either a scarf or a shawl is going to be ordered. I just don't know which one yet...

We went to the Springbrook Prairie Reserve today instead of mowing our own prairie. Needless to say, it was windy, but there were redwing black birds: And a toad like the one in our own backyard! It was a pleasant Easter.

I saw an otter I saw an otter! A real one in Geneva, on the Fox river, below the houses on the opposite bank. A lame photo but a fun moment. More Geneva photos: And finally, lunch: Kuma's in Naperville..twice now Kuma herself has come out to see if the food was good for us!