I always get a lot of questions about Alaska - so I think I'll address that first.  A lot of people think we don’t get summer in Alaska, matter of fact my parents have friends who insist we are snow-bound all year, despite seeing photographs to the contrary. But it’s just not true - we have summer - honest - our igloos melt in the summer and we have to move into sod homes. Just kidding. We have long sunny days - and this summer we've had temps in the 80's (F).  But it does get cold and dark in the winter.. really, really cold. In the dead of winter we get about 5 hours of daylight. It’s great for being creative, after all who wants to go outside if you don’t have to! I just hide away in my studio and play.                      

Here I am in my dog sled getting ready to leave for work... okay, so I’m stretching it a little here.  I don't work.  Just kidding, I mean I DO have Doll Street!   But in 2003, after 26 years, I retired from the Air National Guard.  Should we just say this is the Alaskan version of a glamour shot? It's a pretty old shot too - about 17 years old but I still love that pic!   

 I think I’ve always been involved in some form of fabric art. I used to do a lot of hand-work. My grandmothers taught me to knit and crochet, and I've recently taken up knitting again since I finally learned how to read patterns! My severed hand pincushion makes a great model, lol.  I used to cross-stitch when I was a teenager but I didn’t really get into sewing until I was 23 and had started dancing. I needed costumes and nobody volunteered to make them for me! I love to dance nearly as much as I love to work with fabric. I never performed classical dance, I guess you could say I learned ethnic styles. I belly dance, hula dance, clog (which is a type of tap dance), square dance, and I even danced the can-can! 

Enough about that!  On to the dolls!  Here is a photo of my studio.  Notice the headless dolls on the shelf and on my desk. That’s a bad habit I have! You can barely see little Leftover Lucy on the upper shelf - she’s on the right end of the shelf. I fell in love with her photo on the cover of a Soft Doll and Animal magazine about nine years ago and that’s what started me making dolls. There was so much I didn’t know - like how to stop and pivot around curves! Made for some interesting hands and necks!  I took Judi Ward's Cloth Doll Making for Everyone class (over at the Doll Net) and learned all the basic techniques.  I highly recommend her class! 

Here’s a good photo of Lucy, my first doll:

This is my ‘design wall’ - it’s actually a vinyl tablecloth pinned to the wall, flannel side out. It’s neat because fabric sticks to it without pins.  It’s full of fun stuff - doll heads, fabric artist trading cards, wall dolls, the first rose my husband gave me, a history of my face painting journey, tons of swap gifts, and all kinds of other things. The center piece is a sunflower wall hanging I need to finish - it’s been there for a few years now. Looks good there though, doesn’t it!  Hey, I even have a moose angel who watches over me. (This photo is from today - notice one of the headless dolls is now done.  That was a doll from an online class with Angela Jarecki.)  

After I made dolls from other people's patterns for years I decided to try making my own.  A lot harder than it seems.  I wanted to make my own take of classics so I came up with a mermaid business card holder, then I tweaked her into a Northern cold water mermaid.  This one ended up on the cover of Doll Crafter and Costuming's Christmas issue in 2007 - first time they didn't use a Santa.  I was stoked.  I think you can still buy back issues and get this pattern as I didn't publish it anywhere else. 

I've tried my hand at lots of different crafts, from beading to drawing to mixed media projects.  All fun.  I tend to make a lot of something and then stop.  I even got into making Plushies a couple of years ago. I started making them when my first grandson was born.  I made about 30 before that petered out :)

I love to teach and I love to take classes - there's nothing better than that!  At the end of July (last month) I took a couple of surface design/fabric altering classes up at the University during the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival.  One of my favorite things was making fabric rocks.  Here's another of my little mermaids posing with one of the rocks I made in class. 

Well, I guess I should wrap this up now!  I've had a blog since November of 2004, if you’d like to visit me there please go to http://www.artdolls.info. I have lots of tutorials and even a free doll pattern.  

So that’s me! Thanks for visiting with me here at Doll Street! I hope you enjoyed your stay.

Past AOMs:

Christina Miles

Linda Misa

Cody Goodin

Michelle Munzone