Altered Bottle Class ~ Garden of Beaden

Hi Peeps ~ Wow, it's been fun busy ~ 

I took a "Altered Bottle" class at 

"The Garden of Beaden" 

with new friends and of course our amazing instructor 

"Robin Dudley-Howe ~ 

my memtor and now, a long time friend. 

Here's what I got done today ~ and had some time left over and played 

with a new medium that has a spooky feel to it. 

October will be here before we know it! 

I came across some porcelain doll parts from two sisters that were members 

of the doll club "Seaside Dollies" in Long Beach, CA. 

Anyhow, back in the day, their mom was into making porcelain dolls and

 teaching at the local collage ~ process the porcelain into a 

mold and fire up the kiln, sculpt the details onto the doll face, 

attach limbs, and the head, and poof it's done. 

I wish it were that easy ~ 

So much goes into making a porcelain doll 

that it's quite laborious, but gratifying, like doll making is :-)

  So, to make a long story short  ~ 

these two sisters no longer could hold all the materials in there storage facility.

They had been trying to find a home for this stuff, for months.

They went to the local college art department, posting on-line,

and had no bites.

 So the last resort was to bring this news 

into the club meeting. Not one of the members were

interested in seeing what they had, and 

definitely not interested taking this stuff

home with them.

Well, the girls said this was their last attempt

of finding a home for the doll stuff. And if this couldn't 

get done, all the "Porcelain Doll Stuff"  

will be  "THROW" in the dumpster.

What?? Can you believe that?!?!

No, this can't happen!!!

Well, after we talked for a while, I  

understood the dilemma. Not being able to keep all this stuff 

any longer, due to financial constraints and 

their husbands not wanting to store stuff in the garage ~ 

I said ~ I'll take the stuff. And I got lots of 

"what are you going to do with the doll stuff?"

I said "I don't know" but if that was me, and my Mother 

or Father, had made things while I was growing

up with their own hands, with their own love and passion ~

into their work.........

It would be very hard for me to give it away, and worse

having to throw it away in a dumpster. 

It would break my heart ~ and that's the reason

alone, I couldn't let this happen.

Plus ~  I looked at this as an adventure ~ I know

nothing about Porcelain Doll making.

Well, I was not really sure what to expect, 

so we arranged a time and date to pick up the doll stuff. 

The sisters called several times prior to the date of pick-up 

to confirm that I was still interested in the doll stuff and

that I was still coming to pick all of it up.

I assured them, our plans are the same, and on schedule, 

you can't change my mind ~ ladies!

The sisters mention several times ~ I need to make sure I 

came back in a large vehicle, but assured me it was not that much stuff. 

I kinda laughed and ~ said see ya in a couple of weeks, ladies. 

So here we go ~ the porcelain doll findings......

*********************************

The white tarp, didn't look like much at first glance.....

Still, was not concerned getting "the stuff" into the SUV......

Mold ~ of a doll head.....

Lots of doll molds, heads, legs, hands, arms, feet, body, etc...

Casting porcelain solution .....

Porcelain doll tools.....

Well, after we got this stuff into the SUV, one of the

husband of the sister just finished loading the patten

boxes from storage and pulled up in his truck.

The long bed of the Dodge Ram Truck, was loaded down

with doll patterns. It took about 1hr to load them up ~ had

the room in the SUV, and the help to get it done. 

Arrival of "stuff" at my house..... stored in the breezeway 

from that day ~ and today.

Carefully packaged, doll parts, and lots of other stuff...patterns,

hair, shoes, eyes, buttons, sculpting tools, rope, wire, etc...

did I say patterns, tons of patterns.

Removed packaging from the top of first box and 

here's what I found......

This is the 4th box, smaller doll parts, and some already

put together.....and the other boxes have much of the 

same things in them, from small to big, and in between.

This is the first doll part I used.

I want to do more to this project, and make her look vintage tattered, old, and spooky ~ 

Working on it more this week and will report back shortly ~ 

It's amazing how, one medium can spark other ideas from objects around

the house. I thought I would never used any of these doll parts...and would

need to post them on ebay or have a garage sale, etc.

I kinda forgot that I had them ~ until a couple of days ago when 

I signed up for this class. 

I'm looking forward to see where this little project takes me.

****************************************

"That simple uncluttered passion for living that can't wait for tomorrow. 

A philosophy of life that reads, "Play hard, laugh hard, and leave the 

worries to your father." 

A bottomless well of optimism flooded by a perpetual spring of faith."

~And the Angels Were Silent ~