Displaying Art Dolls

I'm preparing for a show of my dolls at the Irma Freeman Center for Imagination.   It opens the first Friday of December.  Showing with me are Joyce Compton and Chris Fondi.  About half of what I'm showing are wall dolls and they are easy to display.  Standing dolls need to be on platforms or pedestals.  That's a bit more challenging.  I've been busy making pedestals and platforms.

Fortunately I have access to a great place to build my displays.  The Lillian Street wood shop is a supportive well equipped  studio.  I always have fun when I'm there.  I also have studio space at home where I can do finish work on the displays.

Each doll will have a distinct pedestal or platform geared to it's display needs.  Most of the materials in the displays are repurposed wood.  Here you can see pedestals I made from recycled porch posts purchased at Construction Junction in Pittsburgh.  I build them in batches of similar design.  They become more differentiated when they are finished.

After the displays are built I take them home and paint or stain them to suit the personality of the doll that will be on it.  The white pedestals in these photos just have a prime coat of paint.  They will be painted in coming days.  In a few cases I've added fabric or trim to the pedestal.  

Several of the pedestals have turned out to be fancy such as the one below.  They are especially fun to build.  I've been restraining myself from getting elaborate with the displays because it's a show about doll making and not woodworking.  

How to Publish Your Dolls in a Magazine

Several people have asked me how I got an article about my dolls published in Art Doll Quarterly (ADQ).  This post is a description of how I thought about the process and what worked for me.

ADQ is looking for article submissions that are almost ready to publish.   If they are choosing between two submissions of equally well made and designed dolls they will always select the article that is well-written and accompanied with excellent high-resolution photographs.  Think of it this way.  The ADQ staff wants to do as little work as possible and still produce a good magazine issue.  If you want to get published in ADQ you need to do much more than make great dolls.

Here is what I think you have to do:

1.     Develop a coherent body of work.  I’ve had my dolls published twice and each time I made eight to twelve dolls that are were related to each other.   You may be able to get a publication with a smaller body of work.  The important point is that the dolls need to tell a story both individually and as a group. 

2.     Get well-posed and styled high-resolution photos of your dolls.  At first I hired a photographer and paid professional prices for the photos.  That can’t happen often because of the expense!  Then I tried semiprofessional photographers and got less pricey and lower quality photographs.  You get what you pay for with photos.  So I’m working on improving my photography skills and equipment.  (The best thing that I have done to improve my photography was opening an Etsy shop.  There is no way I can hire someone to do all that photography.  I had to learn.  It has taken time and a high tolerance for frustration but I am slowly getting better with practice.)  If you are going to take your own photos, look at how the dolls ADQ publishes are posed and styled. 

3.     Edit the photos and toss the ones that don’t work.  Some dolls are not as photogenic as others.  At this point I usually cut two or three dolls from the group because I can’t get a good photo.  I have trouble taking photos of dolls that have shiny or fuzzy parts.  I always take photos with simple backgrounds.

4.     Write an article about your dolls.  Tell your story.  Is it about how you make the dolls?  Is it about the dolls’ characters?  Are you championing a cause?  Your article must be well written and have a good narrative flow.  Get some feedback on your draft article from friends.  Friends who read ADQ may be particularly helpful.  Triple check for typos, spelling errors and grammar mistakes!

5.     Package your article for submission.  In addition to sending a disc with all the files, I also send a hard copy of the article laid out with illustrating photos.  For the Stockinettes article I included a miniature version of the aluminum armature because that was such an important part of my story.  Send a self-addressed postcard with your package if you want acknowledgment that they received your submission.  Put your contact information on everything in your submission package.

6.     Be prepared to wait for months.  They plan their issues far in advance of publication.  One day you may get an email from the editor of ADQ initiating a discussion about publishing your article.  

Stockinettes Published in Art Doll Quarterly

I'm very happy that my Stockinette series of dolls has been published in a feature article in the Spring 2012 issue of Art Doll Quarterly magazine.

Learning from Photographs

When I see photos of my work I somehow see the work differently.  Its a fresh perspective that sometimes is helpful.  This happened recently when I had a series of shadow boxes photographed.  I liked the contents but the boxes looked shabby.  So shabby that I cropped away the boxes from the photos. 

 Yesterday I built a new shadowbox to accommodate this work. There are a lot of decisions left about how to finish the piece.  But my gut tells me it is much improved. 

The most challenging thing about making this box was becoming reacquired with using a router.  There were  several routers that I could have worked with but I choose the one that was most familiar to me.  It's been over a decade since I used a router.  It was scarey.  I had to finish building the router table.  I had to remember how to use the jigs.  I had to change a bit that hadn't been changed in years.  But I did all that and it feels good.  Now I'm ready to try the other routers. 

In other parts of the shop Beth Rogers oiled the pieces of her lovingly made trestle table.

Elaine Fuller painted some details on the tale that I made a few weeks ago.  

Portfolio

Tom Henkel took photos of the dolls I am currently making.  It took a while to get the images from him but they have finally arrived. The first two characters are from a series of busts made from lamp parts and traditional doll making techniques. 

The girl on the scooter is the same scale and is about three feet tall.

Clay Day

Star Gazer and old woman by Chris Fondi

Victor is frightened by noises  by Joyce Compton

Yesterday, Chris Fondi, Joyce Compton and I spent the day making doll heads from paper clay and tarlatan fabric.  We also spent some time discussing the artist's statements, brief bios and resumes that we are working on for our portfolios.  It was a fun and productive day. 

I found myself exploring a recurring theme in my work: bird people. 

Photographing Art Dolls

Yesterday my art doll collective (Chris Fondi, Joyce Compton & I) met all day to work on our portfolios.  Much of the day was spent preparing dolls for the photo shoot.  When the dolls were finally ready we set up the photo stage. It consists of a small seamless backdrop, an ironing board, two color balanced lights with reflector umbrellas and a tripod.  It doesn't take up much space when we aren't using it. The excellent photographer we had arranged to take photos of our dolls with a high quality camera did not arrive.  Joyce and I decided to have a go at taking our own photos with our point and shoot cameras.

 

In the photo below Joyce is setting up a shot of one of her dolls.

I'm working on a series of dolls that are busts.  This is a departure from my previous work.  The heads are larger and the proportions of the piece must include consideration of the supporting assemblage structures. I found that the photos help me see the proportions and details of my work with a fresh eye.   There is something about photographs that lets me see my own work critically.

I like this detail shot above because it shows personality and subtlety in the face.  The character has a dynamic gaze,  But in the photo of the entire bust below the face is washed out and dull.  I either have to improve my ability to manipulate the lighting or I must make dolls with more strongly defined detail in the faces.  I also realize after looking at this photo that the collar is simply not big or dynamic enough. This doll is not as close to being finished as I thought he was.  That's OK.  I like to push a design.

This is another doll in the bust series.  This detail shot is less successful than the previous one.  I think the eyes need to be further developed with needle sculpting and the application of eye lids for the doll to have a purposeful gaze.  The interesting thing (at least to me) is that I didn't pick up on this just by looking at the doll.

 I can say exactly the same things about the relationship of this doll's head to the supporting assemblage structure that I did about the previous doll. 

 This impish doll is also a work in progress.  The detail shot looks great. But  I'm not even going to show you the supporting assemblage structure until I rebuild it. 

Finally, there was a photograph that I was really satisfied with at the end of the day.  This is a doll that I made while working through my feelings about my sister's death. This is the first photo that I feel accurately expresses both the detail and the feeling of the doll. I will include it in my portfolio. 

The intention of the day was to generate a lot of photographs for our portfolios.  I didn't end up with a lot of usable photographs but I did find direction for my bust dolls.  I consider the day a success.

Professional Art Doll Portfolios

Lately my art doll collective (Joyce Compton, Chris Fondi & myself) has been working on assembling professional portfolios of each member's dolls.  The short term goal is to prepare us to respond to calls for entries for juried exhibitions both individually and collectively.  The long term goal of the portfolio project is to book an exhibit for the group.

Each portfolio will contain high resolution photographs, an artist's resume or curriculum vitae, a brief bio of the artist and an artist's statement.  We will each make a hard copy and an electronic version of our portfolio.  We have acquired folios for the hard copy versions and have yet to figure out how to handle the electronic ones.  The biggest question is whether or not we will have them hosted on the Internet as an e portfolio.  There are a number of sites that claim to do this for free.   Artist Listing,  Mosaic Globe, VoodooChile, etc.  It's a lot to think about.

This Sunday we are bringing in a professional to photograph our dolls.  We are on a bit of a push to get things ready for the photo shoot.  It helps that we are making representational portfolios and not comprehensive ones.  We want to have between five and ten pieces of work well displayed in each portfolio.

We have also been giving each other feedback on our artist's statements, brief bios and resumes.  My new artist statement is not quite ready to replace the old one posted above.

More AFIC Doll Photos

First some of the dolls that won ribbons.  If you can identify any of these artists please send me their names.

3rd place pattern interpretation.

Denise Dodd's pattern interpretation "Blu" wins the Blue

Leslie Wright won the People's Choice award with her doll "Gwen Ellyn"

This is my ribbon.  2nd place original design.  I never did wash Leaf Kicker's feet.

Some of the other dolls from the exhibit hall.

Cyndy Seiving

Cecily by Joyce Compton

Chris Fondi's Wish Doctors

Some dolls in progress from the classes.

"Coming Out of Her Shell" by Tracey Baldwin. 

A beautiful sculpt

Leafkicker gets some Personality

Leafkicker has a past.  He began as a challenge from two friends to make a doll from a couple axes.  (Not sure why I had axes laying around in my basement.)  It's taken a while to figure him out.  His trunk armature is made from 2x4s.  The trunk surface is basket woven cloth.  The arms are aluminum armature wire with very long tubes of fabric scrunched onto them.  Leafkicker has had proportion problems.  This is his third head and second set of hands.  Enough already, I want to get on to sculpting the head and putting some hair on that head!  I'm really enjoying the emerging "know it all" personality.  I will force him to wash his feet before he goes out into public.

Back to Blogging!

Finally I have the time and technology to pick up blogging again! I finished my doctorate this spring. It is such a relief to be done. Now some of the students call me Dr. Eckel. This will take some getting used to because I prefer to be called Emily. But earning the degree allows me to keep my job and that is a good thing! I just got a faculty review committee recommendation for a new three year contract. The “publish or perish” ax has been kept at bay.

Sadly, my home computer dropped dead shortly after I finished my degree. I am quite sure that the old computer was as tired as I was by the end of the program. It was a wonderful old computer and I am sorry to see its demise. It has taken a while to replace the old computer but I now have a temporary solution. Hopefully the purchase of a Mac Mini will soon be possible and I will be able to return the borrowed hardware.

Another barrier to blogging was a need to rest after the push to get done. As I rested I let my thoughts percolate on the artistic opportunities. Slowly and I do mean slowly, I became active with doll making and Beth Roger’s Lillian Street Studio project. More information about these activities will be in the posts to follow. For now it just feels good to be back to the blog.

The photo is a snap shot of my work table and several works in progress.  I'm so happy to be back to the occupation of artist.  Unfortunately I will have to moderate comments because of the porn spammers.

Doll Makers Medals & Ribbons

After attending the doll makers conference in Columbus, I came home full of excitement and pleasure from the fun, creative experience. When I told the people in my life about the experience, most of them said something like: "Oh, that's nice". I realized that people who don't find meaning from making things don't "get" the excitement of a creative experience such as doll making. I suppose they find their creative sparks in other ways.

I took a class with elinor peace bailey who suggested that I make a decorated doll. After mulling things over I decided to make "decorations" for doll makers and artists. I want to recognize kindred spirits with medals and ribbons. The photo shows my train of thought for designing these medals and ribbons. Once I have developed the designs a bit further I will make name the various ribbons and medals. A short term goal is to develop these small projects into a publishable pattern.

Old Gram Winter

Ruth did a great job photographing Grammy.  It's hard to get the detail on a monochrome doll. Gram's personality shines through on this one.  Gram is dressed in old lace, her face is done with a trapunto technique and her hair is Tibetan lamb's wool.  She has an aluminum armature and can be reposed, even her hands and fingers.  

We took the photographs on a photo stage that I recently built in my studio.  It's the first use of the stage since the electrician was here to wire it for me.  We played a lot with the lighting and in the end we used Ott lights bounced off the stage walls to get this effect.  The drape is a large piece of felt.

Art Doll Photos

Ruth Hendricks came over today to photograph some of my dolls.   It was lot of work and great fun.  Along the way she took some photos of my studio including the wall of dolls above.  I'll upload more doll photos in the next few posts.  Some of the dolls exerted their personality and refused to be photographed in front of a simple drape.  Ruth suggested making note cards or a calendar with my doll photos.  I love the idea but wonder about doing it in this economy.

The doctoral program is demanding but I'm doing OK with keeping up with it and my basic doll making goals.  The doll club has been meeting here once a month and we are preparing to participate in AFIC.  We will be taking a club exhibit with us for display in the gallery.  It should be great fun with good friends.  Its nice to have something like that to look forward to when I'm doing my homework.