So a friend of mine has been doing this online swap thing called “swap-bot” for the last few months. You basically find a swap (or create one) that you would be interested in doing, sign up for it, get assigned people to exchange with (you get something from one person, but you send your thing to someone else), and make or buy the items for the swap and then send them out. She loves it. Shes done potholder swaps (handmade), bathroom stuff swaps, candy swaps, all kinds of stuff. So she decided to set up her own swap: clothespin dolls.
She’d been trying to get me to sign up for a while, but for some reason I never got around to it. Well, you can’t not get around to it when its your own friend’s swap! And, hey clothespin dolls sounded really fun. So I signed up.
A few weeks later I got a package from Alaska in the mail. I looked at it and was like, Alaska? Why am I getting a package from Alaska… And then I opened it and it was the best surprise–my first swap! Check him out below. Hes sideways (Sorry) but check out his little straw hat, and his overalls, and his tiny fish on the pole. If you look real close you can see that hes fishing for half-grown chickens in the pen below him!
Well, this gave me the inspiration I needed to make my dolls! The next night, being all done with jewelry-making for the day, I went around my studio, and started busting out all my diverse art supplies: fake flowers, felt, rhinestones, paint, ink, vintage plastic doves–you know, the usual art supplies. Having covered my drafting table with pretty, colorful things, I started making my cats.
I don’t know why they had to be cats. I just decided it and so it had to be so. Cats in fancy dresses, although one dress is fancier than the other. But they have matching rhinestone collars! I think they are both Siamese cats. But not twins. And they both have matching pet birds holding paper messages. Perhaps they are homing pigeons and they will send messages back and forth to each other from their new homes. I will be sending them off this week, I just need to come up with names and perhaps a tiny history for them first.
I really enjoyed making these dolls. I think they were a form of three dimensional doodling. I spend most of my art making time making jewelry, and often the same jewelry over and over again (which I enjoy making, don’t get me wrong) so I kind of forget how to create new things. It was really fun (and kind of challenging) to work those different brain muscles. I think I’m going to keep doing swaps to keep working my brain out!
She’d been trying to get me to sign up for a while, but for some reason I never got around to it. Well, you can’t not get around to it when its your own friend’s swap! And, hey clothespin dolls sounded really fun. So I signed up.
A few weeks later I got a package from Alaska in the mail. I looked at it and was like, Alaska? Why am I getting a package from Alaska… And then I opened it and it was the best surprise–my first swap! Check him out below. Hes sideways (Sorry) but check out his little straw hat, and his overalls, and his tiny fish on the pole. If you look real close you can see that hes fishing for half-grown chickens in the pen below him!
Well, this gave me the inspiration I needed to make my dolls! The next night, being all done with jewelry-making for the day, I went around my studio, and started busting out all my diverse art supplies: fake flowers, felt, rhinestones, paint, ink, vintage plastic doves–you know, the usual art supplies. Having covered my drafting table with pretty, colorful things, I started making my cats.I don’t know why they had to be cats. I just decided it and so it had to be so. Cats in fancy dresses, although one dress is fancier than the other. But they have matching rhinestone collars! I think they are both Siamese cats. But not twins. And they both have matching pet birds holding paper messages. Perhaps they are homing pigeons and they will send messages back and forth to each other from their new homes. I will be sending them off this week, I just need to come up with names and perhaps a tiny history for them first.
I really enjoyed making these dolls. I think they were a form of three dimensional doodling. I spend most of my art making time making jewelry, and often the same jewelry over and over again (which I enjoy making, don’t get me wrong) so I kind of forget how to create new things. It was really fun (and kind of challenging) to work those different brain muscles. I think I’m going to keep doing swaps to keep working my brain out!
