Time to renew

Hi, its time to start again and renew. I love to be creative. I am commited to do some art everyday of my life. I love to make dolls the most. I have a new class I am teaching this fall called Flights of Fantasy. It will be how to make tiny creatures from your day dreams we all have a unicorn lurking in our minds.

A Start...

Hello,
I am a doll maker, quilter and mostly frustrated Artist. I have been making art for many years. I was a very serious oil painter and watercolorist. I have a degree in Art and almost made a master in art. I spent a summer in Spain, painting the Spanish countryside. When I came home from Spain I meet my husband and married a few years later.

I discovered porcelain doll making in the late seventies. I was already making many types of rag dolls. I made the first antique repro's and owned my own ceramic and porcelain doll shop in Belleville, NJ. Regan, was president. Six months after he got in office, I closed my shop. People did not have the extra money to spend on hobbies. I just made dolls and ceramics to order from my home. When my mother turned 55 and I was 26 she finally got a hobby in her life and I was her first student. My mother taught me to quilt. Mother turned pro and taught quilting until she was 78. At 83, my mother does not quilt any more, she just mends the holes in my Dad's socks. She likes to read and see all the things I make. She has always supported me in my art. If it was not for my mother I would not be an artist today. She took me to my first art less when I was 14, we lied about my age to get into the class, you had to be 16. No one knew I was underage. I also won a 2nd place ribbon for my oil painting of a light house. That painting hangs over the fireplace in my parents home. I love my mother.
In 1985, I had my daughter and became a stay at home mom and doll maker. I did nothing but take care of my baby and make dolls. It was the most enjoyable time of my entire life. In 1987, I started to teach at the Pearl River, NY Adult Education program. I taught quilting, doll makeing, Japanese Brush Painting - Sumi-e Painting, teddy bear making and jewelry making. At one point I was teaching 20 classes a week, between the adult education classes, after school programs, classes through Rockland Community College and the Pomona Culteral Art Center. During the summers I was the art teacher for 300 teenagers in a camp. It was also a great time in my life. I went back to corporate America in 1997. My daughter found sports I did not need to be home, when school was out. I continued to teach the Pearl River Adult Eductiion classes and sometimes a class at Rockland Community College for Continuing Education for the past 21 years. I also teach at local fabric and quilt shops. I was honored to be one of the teachers for the Day of Dolls in 2007. I taught over 70 ladies how to make an armature doll body. I have been nominated for the Excutive County Art Award in Rockland, NY 3 times by my students.

I started to make art dolls about 3 years ago. It has been a lot of fun and I love to make dolls. Mostly I make my own. I just draw a body, sew it up, stuff it and paint a face and dress it up. You never know what you are going to have in the end. I also make my faces last. I don't like the doll giving me those little side glances and saying to themselves, why does she not finsh me and what was she thinking. My dolls get their heads and faces last.

Hope you enjoyed my story...