When Art Work Goes Slowly

These days I feel things are taking much to long to get done. I spend many hours on making my pieces, but sometimes I just feel it's all to little. Especially when my day job gets busy and leaves me drained when I get home.

I pick up me needle or pencil just as I always do just after dinner, but by the end of the night I haven't got as much done as I wanted to. So now is the time to sort this out before I grind to a total halt. It's time to clear my mind, take a little time to make some solid plans, and get myself back to creating as I want to. After all, if I don't do something creative each day I know I'll go mad :S

This has always been one of my favourite prints of Mucha's work. I love the colours and movement he's managed to create inside the confining circular shape. The amount of detail when you look at it closely is amazing. And it includes so many distinctive shapes and styles that I associate with his work that I can look at it for hours.

The ladies gentle far away look always makes me think that she's imagining far off things she can't see with her eyes. As if she can see into the future and the past and far far away. I chose this as the inspiration for a Storyteller doll. And as I fight with my own slowness these last few weeks I feel I've neglected my character, so I'm determined now to focus on what she will become.

I want my doll to have the richness of my Mucha print, and somehow include the wistfulness and detail of it too. I'm not making a copy of what the lady wears or the jewellery in her hair. But I know my doll will have the style of the original. She'll be a part of the aesthetic design values held by many of my favourite artists and will be carefully hand made with the best quality materials I can find for her.

So far my Storyteller has a half finished gown that has been layered and shaped to create an arching hem to her skirts and a bell like shape. I embroidered her petticoat in the hopes I could have them seen in her finished costume, but looking at her now I think she needs a panel of the same marbled silk in the arch so that her skirts have the shape they have now without the lightness of the under-layer breaking up the overall look.

I know she'll have a cloak or cape when she's done. And I'm planning a headpiece for her hair with jewels and pearls entwined in a pretty Juliet style cap.
I want to bring in more of the highly valued handmade skills that another of my favourite artists held very dear as well. William Morris brought back the importance and highlighted the quality of the handmade traditional crafts with his designs. And I want to add details to my doll that can show this with applique and embroidery on my dolls gown and cloak. She needs the weight of this kind of look. She needs to look warm and comfortable, rich but still homespun in a way that suggests she's used her own hands to make what she wears. I'm hoping I'll be able to make her a miniature quilt and cushion that she can sit upon as she looks off into the firelight and she's the things that no one else can.
xxx