The Nature of Glass Exhibit

Last Saturday Dennis and I went to the Desert Botanical Gardens here in Phoenix to see The Nature of Glass, Dale Chihuly art sculpture exhibit.

This was his first exhibit in an outdoor desert environment.



It was 107 degrees, hotter than the hinges of hell or what I think hell feels like having never been there. The exhibit was spectacular and worth it. It was our own fault we should have gone earlier in the season. If we had we would have gone again to see the exhibit in the evening also, because they light up the glass sculpture at night. I’m sure that would have been incredible to see also.

All the glass sculptures were mixed into the desert landscape they truly looked like they belonged there. The colors, imagination, craftsmanship and the incredible talent…WOW!
I would recommend if one of his exhibits is ever in your area, it’s a must see.

Dottie My Dog Lady-The Pup of the Party

Dottie was a lot of fun to make. I made her using a kona cotton layer with the dot fabric over top for her body and legs. She has black silk pants, and a dress made from a batik fabric. Her scarf was knitted with toothpicks because I wanted the smallest gauge. My poor hands were nearly crippled up after that.
I monogrammed her clutch bag with the words Doggie Bag, I sewed on a bone shape button for closure and attached a leather strap so her purse could go around her neck. She also has a black velvet choker collar with rhinestones. Her nails are painted and she is truly the pup of the party.

My Clients Best Friend

Just before Christmas last year, I received an order for a custom doll my client wanted a special gift for a very special friend. Of course I said I would love to make her a doll. She didn’t show me a picture of her friend she just said she has: Long brown hair, brown eyes, loves purple, has long legs, wears short skirts, has big boobs, drinks martinis and plays cards.

I immediately went to work on her. I started with body and head from one of Patti Culea patterns and she was modified from there. I sculpted a couple of heads so my client would be able to choose one. When she picked the one she wanted she said, “this face looks just like my friend Mary”.

I sculpted her so she would have a belly button and also a butt crack. I made thong underwear with lace on them. I added larger size breasts to her body and gave her a tattoo on one of her boobs. I made her a ultra suede wrap around mini skirt with leather trim with ultra suede shoes to match. Her top was made of white stretchy fabric the front was low cut to show off her great boobs and tattoo, the top also was tapered so you could see her belly button.
I painted her finger nails (5 coats of mod podge, 2 coats of nail polish and 1 coat of clear, had to wait for each coat to dry before applying more…had little patience for that part). I also put a huge rhinestone ring on her. Applied a few fake eyelashes, that was pretty tricky (if you get glue on the tweezers the eyelashes stick there instead of to the doll) I knew that, but it still happened.

She was holding a purple martini glass in one hand and the other hand was holding cards that were a royal flush. She was 29” tall, I ended up going to a flower shop and purchasing a gold long stem rose box for her but I still had to modify the box to fit he (actually my husband Dennis modified the box not me). Tied a big red bow on the box and she was shipped to Colorado to her new home, and Mary loved Mary. Wish I could have been there to see her face.

She was a lot of work, she took me a couple of weeks if not more but I had so much fun making her it really didn’t seem like work at all.
This was so much fun I’d love making more custom dolls (BFF’s moms, daughters, teachers, etc).

Pastry Chef Goes To New York

I have improved a lot since my first doll. In fact Cher is having a hand transplant because I just didn’t like her hands. See there goes that perfectionist part of me again having to make things perfect. I did try real hard to let it go, as you can see from my first post I made her in 2007 and its now 2009.

About a month or so ago I sent my pastry chef doll to her new home in New York to be with my step daughter Jen who is a cake artist, (Check out her blog and website they’re in my favorites). Here she is before her trip.

As soon as I receive a photo of her in her new home I will post that one too.

I then had a empty space on the shelf where she sat so I decided to make another pastry chef. She looks completely different then the first one. I am real happy with the way she turned out. I used a different shape head and different color hair. I really love using the fun fur style hair its make them look a little wild. I found a fabric remnant with little whisks on it for her chef pants, so cute.

The Dollie MaMa's First Day!

Okay, here it is my first day at my new blog. Guess I should introduce myself first. Those of you who don’t know me, Hi, my name is Rose and I am The Dollie MaMa. I make Soft Sculpture Art Dolls.

I am starting a blog because I wanted to connect with other creative people and I was told this was the way to do that, so here I am. This is really hard for me I want this to be a fun and interesting blog and I am such a perfectionist, I probably would have had this done a long time ago if I wasn’t trying to figure out how to make it perfect, but here goes.

I started sewing & creating at a young age. Art, sewing and cooking are some of my favorites. I come from a very creative family as so many artists have.

Having had my own décor company for nearly 20 years, helping clients with fabrics and colors, they would say I could turn a sows ear into a silk purse. I heard that phrase again several years later when I was helping with a fundraiser silent auction doing gift baskets. The committee would bring in a pile of donated stuff and I would have to make it look like a fantastic gift that you would want to purchase.

My artistic gift has come to me without formal training. I have always been interested in arts and crafts of all kinds. My doll making didn’t start until Spring 2007.

Here is Cher, the first doll I made before I took any classes (the original pattern was from Patti Culea).

I started by taking online classes then decided that wasn’t enough. I flew to Florida to take a class taught by Katie Gardenia on Matlache Island and it was truly an inspirational day. She is an extremely talented lady. I had a lot of fun and learned some new techniques. This was my first in person class.

I then took a two day class from Elinor Peace Bailey in Northern Arizona, she is such a hoot, a great personality as well as being so talented. Her style was a lot different from Katie's, but that’s the reason for taking classes from several different teachers so you can find the things from each teacher that fits you.

I took one day of mini classes on faces, in California from Patti Culea, Barbara Willis, Betts Vidal, Sally Lampi, Li Hertzi and Elinor Peace Bailey. I guess what I enjoy most is the different styles and techniques from each teacher.

I start out with one pattern and change it, mix and match patterns, I guess you could say I don’t follow directions well or I like to do it my way. I’m like that when I cook, I almost never follow a recipe.

Just to show you what I mean this doll started out as a pattern from Elinor. I then used some of Patti's pieces, changed and shrunk them and here she is my nurse. Her name is Flora Flipper.