Art Dolls Only... and ME!

This has been a real banner week for me. I was accepted for membership in Art Dolls Only, a group I have been following for several years, wishing I might someday become a member of their "inner circle" of artists. This is a huge honor. I'm humbled... but so excited!

ADO supports and encourages doll artists of all kinds... with widely varying styles, from all over the world, and provides them a means of promoting their work for sale. They sponsor regular doll making challenges, based on various themes, and welcome the general public to participate in many of them. In 2010, they did a challenge based on Alice in Wonderland characters, for which I made my Mad Hatter doll.

The current challenge is based on the Mexican Day-of-the-Dead... and specifically, we're doing Catrina calavera dolls, in the style of a famous illustration by Jose Guadalupe Posada. A Portland-area friend of mine, Lulu Moonwood Murakami, is also an ADO member and her beautiful work is featured on this image, promoting the challenge:

I'm hard at work getting my own Catrina ready in time for the Day of the Dead-line (pun intended!), November 1st! Here's her lovely calavera (skull) so far. I started with a large walnut shell, covered that with Creative Paperclay, then sculpted the final layer and facial features from Super Sculpey. Lots of work to do!

Just two days after I got word of being accepted into ADO, I got my business license paperwork in the mail... so I am legal and ready to go. Etsy shop will open next week, if all goes well!