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Yesterday I finally called my old friends Jane and Joe Darin, who live in San Diego, to hear how they are doing these days. Jane Darin makes cloth dolls and is a sculptor. They hosted the very first “Meet the Dutch Touch” class in the US for Ankie Daanen and me many years ago. And not only that, but right before this class they took us on an unforgettable road trip from Albuquerque to San Diego visiting a.o. the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. So calling them brought back so many good memories. Sometimes having a real conversation on the phone works better than email contact.
One of the running gags during this road trip was that Ankie and I, never been in a desert before, wanted to see a “real” cactus. The one with the arms. Years later we finally saw them in Tucson, Arizona and that is where this picture is taken. It is amazing where the dolls can bring you and how many “middles of nowhere” there are in the US.
Cleaning up the attic I found an old wooden cigar box. In my mother’s handwriting it said on the lid: “Marlaine 10 years old”. Inside was a collection of small objects sculpted with colorful childrens’ clay: an elephant that lost his head,a snake, a Mother Mary, a castle, a turtle laying on his back, a mother pig feeding her children…. All glued together during the time.
So this is how I started.
Just returned with Ankie Daanen from our fifth “Meet the Dutch Touch” class in Houston, Texas. The picture shows our Houston hostess Marlene Slobin, who did a great job again, with the doll she made in class. The class was held in the studio of Mary Wiggins who wrote a great report on her blog.
We met our friend Janet Bodin again and we found out what these deep canals across Houston are built for: what a rain! Never seen so much water in my life and believe me: we surely have some rain experience in The Netherlands. Mary’s huge backyard changed into a complete lake and for a moment we thought we needed to have a slumber party with our dolls.
And the good thing was that the weather couldn’t be better on the days that Ankie and I had some free time to sit in the sun so I got home with a sun tan.
But who cares about the weather when you can have so much fun together with making dolls. All twelve dolls in class turned out really wonderful. Marlene Slobin and Mary Wiggins will host the “Meet the Dutch Touch” class again in April 2012. That seems far away, but time flies. One of our students was Sherry Goshon, who offered to host the class in September 2012. Iowa, here we come!
I worked very hard the past few weeks to get new pieces ready. Not only on Sunday April 5th the DABIDA day exhibition will take place (special guests Brian and Wendy Froud, please look at the DABIDA website) but I also have to ship a few pieces to Japan next week for the World Ningyo Exhibition organized by Chieko Ogawa. I met Chieko in the US a few times when she was the editor for a Japanese doll magazine.
For the Japan exhibition I am going to send my piece “Waiting for a prince 3” and the brand new piece “Fly like a bird” that I show here.
Question: the hair of the doll is Tibetan Lamb. How do I keep it in this shape?
My friend and colleague Ankie Daanen will be flying to Japan herself for this exhibition. Lucky her!
Finally my kiln is working properly again. After a long time of troubles we found out that the little pin on the lid that makes contact when the lid is closed, was a bit (1/16 of an inch) too short and stopped making contact when the kiln got really hot. I am so glad this is solved now by just making this pin a little bit longer.
I have a question about fabrics: I like to use vintage fabrics but sometimes they have a smell that doesn’t disappear even after washing it. Does anyone now how to handle this?
Thanks a lot,
Marlaine
From May 2009 new online lessons will be available
about finishing a doll:
painting your doll
making a body
costuming
and hair and hats
It is possible to sign up for all four lessons or one or more of the separate lessons.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you might have any further questions.
Marlaine
Last weekend was the closing date for sending in entries for the DABIDA Award 2009. We received more than 50 entries from all over the world!. All DABIDA artists received the entries in the meantime (without knowing the names of the makers) to give their votes for the top 10 pieces. The quality level is very high and it really is a joy to see this beautiful work. It was hard to decide on the best 10 pieces. What is best?: Best overall appearance? Best idea? Best technique? Best use of materials? Best in theme (Spring)?
I decide to vote with my heart: the ‘WOW” factor, even when it was a tiny little wow because sometimes these little wows can say more than the big ones.
A comfort is that I am only one of the DABIDA members who have to give their votes. All votes together will decide on the top 10 pieces to be featured on the DABIDA website from next week.
In March the 3 best entries will be announced. On the next DABIDA (April 5th) the DABIDA artist members will vote for the final winner.
The 2009 NIADA Convention will be held in Arrowmont, Gatlinburg, Tennessee, September 8-13 2009. Maybe we will meet there. Detailed information is available on the NIADA website.
I will be teaching a 2 day class ‘Head, Hands and Feet in Direct Sculpted Porcelain’ and together with Ankie Daanen a 2 day class ‘Dutch Touch Theatre’.
Details and registration on www.niada.org/masterclasses.html
Pictures NIADA, Atlanta 2001 (exhibition and workshop)
We are in the third week of my online sculpting class with an active and talented group. On the class forum I have posted two interesting sites:
www.beautyanalysis.com
showing the ‘perfect face’ based on phi (golden ratio) with a lot of examples and differences in age, sex and race. And of course how to check if your own face is perfect. I am sure we all are perfect. Could be interesting when sculpting faces.
One of the students asked me about making wings. I don’t have much experience with wings for dolls, the wings I made were for my animals and are too rough but maybe this could be useful if you want to make a doll with wings:
http://lindasmithoriginals.com/tutorials/cicada-wings/wingsblogad.jpg
and
http://lindasmithoriginals.com/blog/2009/01/18/tutorial-faux-cicada-wings
Also working now on new online classes about painting, the body, clothing and hair and hats.
Together with Ankie Daanen I will be teaching the ‘Meet the Dutch Touch’ class on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in May 2010. Sounds really exotic to me. We will have a wonderful hostess, Marla, who I already have met in my 2008 Paris Doll Holiday and Workshop Week. If you are interested please click here for further details.
Pictures of the results of one of the Meet the Dutch Touch workshops: Meet the Dutch Touch New York City area 2008
For me it will be my second visit to Canada. Years ago I was in Ottawa for teaching a porcelain sculpting class. My aunt Ann lives there and of course I have visited her.
