Tag Archives: sculpture

Fine Feathered Friend

Bird Girl

Sometimes an idea for an element of a piece becomes a project unto itself. Such was the case with my newest, Bird Girl, art doll. For this figure I decided that I wanted to try to create fabric feathers. I did a quick Google on “how to make fabric feathers” and was off.

The actual technique is not too difficult. For each feather, you stitch together two rectangles of fabric up their centerline with a zig-zag stitch. Then you cut your desired feather shape out. The last step is to fray out the feather shape from the edge to your center zig-zag line… This is where the process became a project. Some fabrics, like burlap, fray very easily. I chose some cottons that I would guess are somewhere in the middle of the “fray-able” spectrum. It still took me sitting for hours with needle in hand teasing the threads off of the edge of each feather against a tray on my lap.

Am I happy with the results? Yes. Will I most likely do it again? Yeah. Will I choose fabrics that are a bit easier to fray? Quite possibly.

Bird Girl is now happily perched on her swing, and I’m on to new friends.

Thinking Inside The Box

In my last post I mentioned that creating a piece for a theme can sometimes prove more of a challenge than expected. Each year we host two themed shows to start off the calendar at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts. This year’s January show is titled 22 Squared. We installed this show yesterday morning, and there are as many interpretations of that title as there are artists in the gallery.

Now, you’d think that such a non-specific open-to-interpretation title would be easy to create for. But I was stumped. Most of my current work consists of art doll figure sculptures. I didn’t want to just create a doll, and put her into some contortionist pose, place her in or on a frame, or balancing on a box. Nothing stuck me.

Instead, I decided to take a step back, and think on the square. For a 3D artist this would mean a box. So I started by creating a wooden shadow box. Next, came a glass front for the box. Instead of a simple sheet of glass, I pulled out my stained glass stash and made a somewhat steampunk looking front.

For the interior, I thought on boxes themselves. What do we use them for? We use them to carry, to hold, to protect, to hide, or to contain. The box that I had made looked like it would protect something valuable, but also obscure and hide a bit of the contents. The steampunk flavor of the glass front lead me to a clockwork heart. We certainly try to protect and shield our hearts. This mechanical pacemaker needed someone to tend and maintain it. I recycled a simple figure from a previous piece to wind this delicate time piece and become The Clock Keeper. The interior was made complete with the addition of an antique looking paper with a pattern of watch faces that I applied to the back before installing the contents.

The Clock Keeper

22 squared will be on display at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts from January 27th to February 23rd. The opening reception is this Friday the 31st from 6-9 pm.

Themes and Challenges

I would guess that most often artists find themselves creating from their own ideas, or perhaps those of a patron for a commission. Occasionally we do create for an upcoming show’s predetermined theme. For these shows serendipity can sometimes play a role, and when a “call-to-artists” is read there is already something completed and on hand that is just right. Other times you have to sit down with the sketchbook and think of something that perhaps you wouldn’t have.

In general, I like creating for these shows, and the way they force you to stretch creatively. That is not to say that some do not drive me to distraction. About a month ago I worked on one such piece. I’ll share that one in a couple of weeks when the show goes up in the gallery.

Below is my newest art doll “Wednesday’s Child.” She was created in answer to a monthly challenge that is posted by an art doll group that I belong to. I hadn’t created any dolls to date that were based on nursery rhymes, though it does seem a natural area for fodder given the medium. Gesture in these small figures is always a focus for me. I think her body language says woe, but hopefully she’s thinking of ways to make things better.

Wednesday’s Child

The Art of Selling With Out Selling

I added several new things to the site today. The first is my latest art doll creation, Carnival. As you can see she is masked and ready to attend a ball in Venice. She stands on her own with the help of her very fancy walking stick, and an interesting pair of metal shoes. Her face is torch-fired white enamel and metallic paint on hand-hammered copper.

Carnival

If you look at her addition to my Art Dolls page you will also notice that she and all my other available dolls now have a price listed beside their title.

I have been researching different on-line sales options lately. To tell the truth, it made my head spin. If you do a search on selling art there are literally hundreds of options from the sprawling Etsy stores to small juried media specific options. Some are free, some charge percentages, others a membership fee and all claim to be able to put your work before millions and millions of collectors.

I decided that I’d first try to see what would happen if I added the option to my own site. So, you may also notice a new page listed in the menu titled Art Doll Purchase. I figured that since my dolls really are one of a kind figure sculptures, that I would handle any inquiries with collectors one-on-one as well.

I will be trying to add and keep the doll gallery as up to date as possible, and will be phasing out listing new work on my Fine Art America page, as they are more suited to 2D work, and don’t seem to show up as high on searches anymore. Besides, all the double listing and updating, is getting a bit too time consuming.

If you were wondering about my other sculptures, for the time being I’m only going to do this with my art dolls as they are much more shipping friendly.

Happy New Year!

(apologies to the Dragon for the title paraphrase)

And To All A Good Night

I was thinking about giving art as gifts today. Part of what inspired and gave me the confidence to work on my art full time were the reactions I received to gifts I created years ago. I heard just enough, “you should do this professionally” to help me think that perhaps I could. I must admit that it is with much greater anticipation and perhaps just a bit of anxiety that I await the reaction to a piece of my art than anything I will ever purchase. This is heightened even further when creating a piece specifically for someone special.

Portrait doll for a soccer keeper

I worked in the gallery today. I noticed that just as much of the conversation was about the person to receive the gift as the piece of art or the artist. To me this made perfect sense. I always try to select or create that piece that somehow says that person’s name to me.

I had a great experience recently of picking out existing sculptures as gifts for some friends. I was pleasantly surprised by one recipient noticing the work before I had a chance to give them, and specifically asking about the piece I had intended for them. That completely made my evening.

Happy holidays, and if you happen to be one of the readers who might recognize the doll in this post… Shhhh

Whee!

Coasting down a hill, pigtails blown back, feet off the pedals. That feeling of childhood freedom is what I was trying to capture with “Whee!” There is something charming and sculptural about the form of a bicycle itself that adds something to a piece like this. I have a feeling that a few more such figures are in my future.

Whee!

I knew that I wanted to create something different with my second bicycle piece, a challenge of Whee was to try to catch a moment of a figure in motion. My first doll with a bike, simply titled “Bicycle” was a larger turn-of-the-century attired rider atop a vintage styled bike. I’m not too sure, but I think that Whee is having just a bit more fun.

Bicycle

New and a Redo

“Night Queen” is the newest addition to my art doll figure sculptures.

Night Queen

Occasionally, I let a piece design itself. More often than not I create from a detailed sketch that has been reworked several times until I know not only the look, but also the way and order in which I will approach the piece. Perhaps it was because I was also working on a larger commission sculpture at the same time, where I was refining, and working according to the patron’s vision as much as my own. So for this doll, I hammered a face, enameled some nail heads for eyes, and created a basic body. From there I added and subtracted until I found I had a doll that felt like she was complete. I must admit that working this way takes me a bit out of my comfort zone, and probably takes longer as well.

Lacing II.

This second doll might look familiar to some. It is the same “Lacing” piece that I created several months ago. One of the challenges to working in mixed-media is that materials sometimes do unexpected things. The original version had a strange little smudge on her face that I cleaned off. Though I worked very carefully with a cotton swab, it seems a bit of cleaner touched the edges of her then light colored felt hair. The edge looked just the slight bit dingy, so “Lacing” came home from the gallery, and received a new coiffure.

I guess sometimes the artist is controlled by the work more than he/she knows.

Delight in the Details

As I was sewing a pair of lace up boots for a new art doll sculpture, I was thinking to myself that these little details are part of what makes these pieces so intriguing. Since that doll isn’t quite finished, I figured that I’d share a few examples from some earlier dolls.

“Janice” sits and strums a guitar fashioned from copper, aluminum, a spoon handle, wire and beads.

spoon handled guitar and hands from Janice doll

“Janice” also sports a nifty pair of high top sneakers.

Janice’s sneaker

For “Garden Girl #2” I created a small copper garden basket, and a teeny, tiny, trowel.

Garden Girl 2 holds basket and trowel in her leather garden gloves

“Time Keeper” has boots made at my metal work table out of copper tubing.

Time Keeper’s copper boots

The front of “Snow Queen” shows her lace up bodice, leather mittens, and beaded ice scepter.

front of Snow Queen

And just in case you need one more pair of tiny shoes… Here is a close up of “Lacing” tying up the ribbons on one of her toe shoes.

Lacing shoe detail

Lynn Wartski Sculpture

Art dolls and mixed media sculpture

Tag Archives: sculpture

Fine Feathered Friend

Thinking Inside The Box

Themes and Challenges

The Art of Selling With Out Selling

And To All A Good Night

Whee!

New and a Redo

Delight in the Details