Nina's Dolfi is here!

My daughter Nina has saved all her money to buy this limited edition Japanese doll called a Dolfi.

These are resin dolls that are jointed to move into any position with hand painted faces and custom eye color. This one is 18" tall. They are shockingly expensive. Some sell for several thousand dollars. This is one of the cheaper ones and it was close to $400. It took almost 2 months to get here and it comes naked. This is a boy doll! Very androgenous, just like the male anime and manga characters. My daughter is extatic.
The nice thing is Nina has become extremely interested in sewing. For the last week in preperation for the dolls arrival she has been making clothes, learning how pants and shirts are made. She has so many costumes that she has designed for the anime characters she draws. Now she wants to learn how to make them.

Wicked Good!

Yesterday we went to see a performance of Wicked with a homeschool group at the Oriental theater in downtown Chicago. This gorgeous historic theater is only 3/4 of a mile from our loft. What incredible fun, I am so glad we had a chance to see Wicked before it leaves Chicago. We can hardly wait for Spamalot to make it's debut here in the spring.

In response to Terry's question "Does he design them or follow traditional directions? " Ty does both. My son is always searching for books that have more advanced designs that he hasn't seen before to master. This is getting harder to do, I think we are going to have to start ordering books from Japan. He has such a good sense of the form and construction of different origami bases that now he often designs his own. He was just showing me a frog he made that has 8 legs (like some freakish result of a polluted environment), and he has also designed a nautilus with multiple tenticles, variations of winged dragons and several other forms. We were lucky to find an origami society that meets not far from us here in Chicago, so Ty has finally found others who share his passion for origami.

Everyones comments have been wonderful for Ty to see. I think he might be getting closer to making that blog.

Ty's Origami

My 12 year old son loves to do origami. He has been doing it since he was 4, I want him to make a blog so he can show all of the things he makes, but so far I can't convince him. So I thought I would showcase some of his work on my blog instead.
Notice the penny next to the gold lizard to get a sense of scale.

Abby's new sweater

I just finished knitting this turtleneck sweater for Abby from my recently dyed sock yarn. Wearing a sweater around the house is a must for this little girl in Chicago. She wears this under her jacket when she goes outside and she still shivers.

Happy Valentines Day!

This cactus was on the hillside by our old house in Los Angeles.

Altered Book

The last time I was at my sisters house, she pulled out all her paints, glazes, rubberstamps, gel medium, scraps of paper and magazines and I made my first altered book.

Deb gave me a book she had picked up on the discount table at a book store to use as my "canvas". The florentine background on the cover is a paper napkin, I cut out some pictures from magazines to make my madonna and child and painted the blue robe with a glaze, scratching in the stars with the pointed wood end of the paint brush.

The Madonna image was an acrylic gel medium transfer from an ink jet print. I love the distressed look that happens with this transfer method.
One of the fun things about working on an altered book is using words or pictures that are printed on the page and incorporating them into the design.


On the left page I cut two pages with an x-acto in a decorative way and then painted each one with gold glazes and glued them onto the preceding page with gel medium. The right hand page is about 1/4" thick stack of glued pages with a window cut into it. I glued a mini book I made from the cut out pages inside the opening.
I have business cards with pictures of my quilts printed on them. These were a perfect size to cut up and glue into the mini book.

This is about 1/3 of the book, I am going to post the rest of the pictures of the book over the next couple days.

Here is the next third of the book.


The next three spreads use fabric that I made in a workshop with Niki Bonnett when I lived in Austin. Niki has a fun workshop where you create collages on transparency film and then run fabric ironed to freezer paper through a xerox machine.

The angel was xeroxed onto organza.

A few days before we had made artist trading cards. So I glued my cards into the book.

This page has little windows cut in it like an advent calendar that reveal more pictures of my quilts.

Doggy bag

I started knitting this bag a year ago and set it aside. Yesterday I finished knitting it and felted it. She looks a little unsure about this bag thing, but I think the serape look suits Abby's ethnic background.

Artella Magazine

My sister Deb is second in command for a cool magazine called Artella this is a really unique publication. They bring writers and artists together in collaboration to make a full color magazine that includes tipped in photos, coins, and stamps scattered through out the magazine to be used in your own collages. There is also a full page of vintage imagery that can be used for collage work as well. This issue came with a small gorgeous package of handmade papers from Nepal. I have never seen a magazine with so much special care taken to produce. There is no advertising in this magazine what so ever. it is amazing that Marney has been able to keep pulling this off. This issue has 3 or 4 pieces by art quilters (including one of mine). The Artella website has so much to explore including a store for lots of fun things you can purchase for those ATC's, artist journals and altered book making. Artella also hosts some pretty cool ATC swaps and once a year an awesome creativity retreat to really get you inspired. One more amazing thing about this publication, all its creators live in different states, the whole thing is done by internet and phone communication.

Ay Caramba! I am crazy!

This is who came home with us from drama class yesterday.
Her name is Abby. She is a tiny Chihuahua who loves everybody. I fell in love with her during the two hours my kids were in class. It ends up her owner felt like she would be better suited to a family where she could get the attention she wants. She is nine months old and very playful between naps. How could I resist?

Happy Birthday baby!

I can't believe my baby girl is turning 16 today! Wasn't this picture just taken of us the other day?

New Yarn Swift

I just ordered this swift from Joanns.com with a 50% off coupon which made it a major deal. I was so surprised when I opened the package and I pulled out a box from Lacis in Berkeley. This is a high quality wooden swift! Now I won't have to wind yarn on my knees anymore.