Disney Concept Art : The Mary Blair Exhibit

I had the pleasure of going to the Mary Blair Exhibit at the Walt Disney Family Museum last year. I always found the traditional cell animation of Disney so beautiful and still watch the old classics just to look at the background, so of course I had to see the wonder concept work behind Mary Blair. It was sad that most of her work didn't make it into the public eye, but this exhibit traced her art from its traditional roots where she learned proper technique, to her breaking all the rules with vivid color, and to the design of the Small Small World Ride.

I thought I'd share some of the photos I did manage to take. I have gotten out of the habit of living behind the camera and really took the time to sit and enjoy the work. We also got to enjoy a little corner of Marc Davis's work too!

Marc Davis

Mary Blair

One of my favorite pieces. I would love to hang this right over my bed and dream of Neverland

The Three Caballeros

These works were heavily inspired by her trip to South America.

Cinderella

And last but not least, one of my all time favorites

Hope you enjoyed seeing her work!

Keep in touch everyone,

Laine

Looking back: The Techniques and Art Challenges that Defined my 2014

I can't believe it is already 2015. 2 weeks in and I'm already getting swept away. It has been a crazy past year, but full of many new adventures and discovering both myself as a person and an artist. I had the wonderful support of 2 new regulars for 2014, and they challenged me and pushed me to do many new things!

I learned that I should expect less to be done in November and December between a convention and the travel time to see family for the holidays. So here's a recap of the FIVE new techniques etc that really defined my 2014!

1. Ombre Dyeing: 

My first true example of ombre dyeing started with a sunset and this little girl. Fading one color into another made for a beautiful hand dyeing technique and opened so many doors to different themes and expanded the stories I could tell with my work. It put a modern twist on my traditional techniques and made for a feast for the eyes.

2. Wings:

This year is all about wings. Goose wings, posable wings, fairy wings. I really went all out this year starting with these beautiful 1 meter goose wings. Learning wing and feather anatomy as well as constructing the bone structure to allow for opening and closing really made for my crowning glory this year! Definitely bought a lot more wire this year.

3. Clay:

When I first experimented with polymer clay, I really wanted to add it to my pieces as antlers, claws, and really make my pieces mixed media pieces. It started with an jackalope, but I really learned what I was doing when I made this beautiful winter buck. He was the perfect way to finish 2014 as well as teach me I can't bake thin pieces of clay in my oven at the stated temperature. Clay really gives me another medium to communicate through, and I couldn't be more grateful.

 4. Felt Flowers:

Nothing made me happier this year than taking my use of wool to the next level with both wool felt flowers as well as wet felted flowers. I never knew I could do these things with fabric that I have done with tissue paper, and they really allow me to explore this material to a entirely new dimension. Not only am I using felt to make scarves for my pieces and keychains, but now I can layer, cut, and felt to make beautiful pieces that can stand alone or pair perfectly to an ombre dyed doll.

5. Sewing Full Time:

Last but not least, I got to try sewing full time this year. Granted, I am still finding my niche in the market, but it is definitely enlightening to see what it means to sew 50+ hours a week and think about the numbers all the time. It made me think about what I was sacrificing in my art in order to make ends meet, and if I really wanted to do it as a job. We all know that when you are working vs doing a hobby, some element of enjoyment does leave. It really showed me what type of artist I want to be, and how I want to carry on with my art. Time really gave me a lot of food for thought, so I hope to share more wonderful things with you in 2015 as I straddle both being a teddy bear maker and a general plush artist.

Thank you so much for reading. I hope you've enjoyed my 2014 as much as I have. I really appreciate all the support and love you've given me. 

As always,

Keep in touch,

Laine

The past three months

For all those new to my blog or just new to me in general, I'd like to just do a quick recap of the past three months or so, so we can catch up and get to know each other. It's the lightning rounds!

Commission Roundup!

AWA 2014 Roundup!

Chromatic Garden Roundup!

To see which dolls are still looking for a home click here!

Now hit reply and let me know what you've been up to!

Convention Madness & Mixed Feelings

Everytime I encounter an obstacle in my part time budding career, I can only throw more and more admiration for those who keep up extreme work ethics. I have been juggling the constant balance between my own life and two families. There's only so much of me to go around, but 2 more of me or even another clone might be helpful. I have quite a one track mind which works for thorough work, and an additional few clones would be lovely. After spending time with my mother and grandmother in August, I went into a mad dash to prepare for Anime Weekend in Atlanta. This regime involved an unhealthy diet, building my own display, cutting, sewing, and assembling 39 peas, corresponding pea pods, 25 bear pillows, 29 shooting stars in too many colors, 9 onigiri, and 6 steamed buns.

Beginning of convention prep

Final Display!

After a month of 12 hour work days for days straight with no break, I was quite happy with the overall look and portability of my product and display. It was a great improvement from my first attempt at conventions with dolls in cellophane bags.

This was the second time at an Anime convention, as I am still trying to find my sea legs in the offline crowd. I aimed for a different price range after seeing the price sensitivity at Otakon 2013. I went for a variety of handmade pieces from 11 to 45 USD and then the upper end of 355+ USD for the art dolls. I have yet to crack the code for Anime Conventions and probably will only attempt 1 or 2 more before trying a different crowd.

It is wonderful networking and you get your name out there to people that you would otherwise have not met and you get to spend the weekend with wonderful people and get to tell stories about waking up at 2 in the morning due to convention shenanigans.

Hotel Evacuated!

All said and done, even if you try to find the silver lining in the cloud, it can be quite disheartening to put in all those hours of work and only make 11 sales. I know there are challenges and many artists go their entire lives without making it. Even so, none of this helped to lessen the disappointment. For a while, it made me question if I should just scrap it all and start from scratch.

Something else that was not helping was people meaning well to give me advice. I know they meant well, but I had given my business a lot of thought. It was not an overnight spur of the moment thing. I had thought about how to reduce production cost, thought about manufacturing, balanced my books, thought about my resources and what I can and can't do. After the 10th time someone's told you, "now if only you could have this manufactured" you have to take a VERY deep breath and explain that this is OOAK work, not to be mass produced in China. While I have thought of other branches, I also decided to do research but that it would be a long time before I would have the capital to give it a real jump start.

I really admire those in the art/entertainment business because you only have to wonder how many no's they had to hear that yes. It is really about just sucking it up and picking yourself up by those bootstraps, but one thing is for sure, I cannot cut back on labor costs. This is as cheap as it'll get. If anything, I will be raising prices pretty soon because I am not a factory or a general worker, I am an artist with a specialized skill.

A Realistic Styled Canadian Goose: My Process

Oh I had to rest a day or two before I could even summon the strength to write this. I first started this project a month ago and came up with a plan:

• ultrasuede beak & feet
• pose-able anatomically correct folding wings
• armatured neck and wired feet

I gathered a variety of photos of Canadian geese in different poses, looked at plush birds, and finally looked up wing anatomy. 

Goose body with one wing structure

I started with the head first before making the  body and estimating the distance needed for the neck. I had sewed the minky part of the head together with the intention of being able to machine sew on the finished beak. Alas that wasn't possible given the tough to pin nature of the ultrasuede, so I had to settle for hand sewing it. I bent 2 straight needles and just had to give both my hands a rest from the stress of sewing through layers of ultrasuede. 

Upon finishing the head, I noticed that a goose's body has a gradation of colors, so I chose three tans/browns to use for the wings. The commissioner had requested for something more huggable than a doll for display so I decided to do the main structure of the wings with wire. I had played with ideas of steel spokes already made to bend, plexiglass, and foam core, but none of these suited my use. 

To make the wing structure, I bought 12 gauge aluminum wire and with a sketch I drew of the bone structure, I wrapped one wire around the other to form a stronger wire that will stand up to much posing. The downside to that is when I went to sew the wire into the plush lining, every time I hit a wire, I broke a sewing machine needle. It ended up being the limit to my machine's foot with two pieces of minky, quilt batting, and a thick wrapped wire, but using a total of four pieces (two for the outer most structure and one more for the inner bottom) and several hours later, I had two complete wing structures. 

Start of feathering with two of the colors

Now time for the feathers: It was my first time attempting this sort of wing, so I did not really have a plan for where to start feathering. I decided to do it in four sections according to where the wing would need to bend when the wing would close. I used the middle to provide a sense of scale and also because the wing centered around everything else folding over the middle. 

Next up: outer section

Finishing up with the inner section & another bent needle

It is important to note that I drew feathers of varying shapes depending on where in the wings they were. I had looked at drawings of feathers and was warned by anatomy books against using just one single pointed shape. The shapes of the feathers ultimately helped shaped the overall structure of the wings for a finale that I'm quite pleased with. The inner most part blended perfectly with the tan back I had originally incorporated in the design

Finally the last part was to do the "drumsticks" and legs.

Attacking the legs

This was fairly simple: using the same 12 gauge wire, I wired the legs and stitched the wire into place using my machine, then had the lovely task of hand sewing the wired legs to the body. First I attached one side to the body, following that with the unstuffed drumstick. By sewing the drumstick over the legs, I had the legs attached to the body on one side and the drumstick on the other and once stuffed, the drumstick provided structural support for the legs. 

The finish project measured 20 inches from beak to tail and 1 yard/meter in wing span. I had crammed the remainder of the project right in after I got the boxes from my old apartment into my new and sewed for a minimum of 10 hours for 5 days straight in my desire to finish this (I actually would forgo eating just due to concentration) I learned a lot about wire, quilting, and ultrasuede in this project. I'd have to say I am well exhausted and have no desire to attempt such a project until I recover, but it was definitely an experience. 

I'd like to thank the person who commissioned this! Each piece is always to learn more.

Now for some brunch and possibly some livestreaming later.

Have a wonderful day and thanks for reading,

Laine

The Story of A Blue Giraffe Named Clover

Clover's story probably best begins with Christmas last year when my friend Kimmymanga sent me the most adorable pens.

I never really thought about it extensively, but this blue giraffe definitely provided me with enough gumption to make another giraffe. It was also because I had heard from my talented friend Nyssa that she'd be giving the idea a go. 

Blue Giraffe Commission by Nyssa

It just sounded too adorable to pass up, so I set out to have the pieces cut and the majority of the machine sewing done before I left to visit fiance and family in California. Sadly, in my scramble to pack and clean, that did not happen, and in the time I spent there, I only managed to get the head hand sewn. It was a first for me not to be sewing my way through the long layovers, but spending time with friends and family sometimes needs to come first. 

Something I realized was that our time with the special people in our life is really what means the most. Often I keep myself isolated from those offline. I have just retreated to being a person behind a screen, and it was a wonderful change to take the time to have conversations with family, go jogging, and just be beside them to talk, play, or just enjoy their company. 

When I was finally ready to finish it, I had run out of eyes, so for a while, he was sitting looking quite sad with me, but I was already starting to love him. I took the time to needle sculpt his feet to give him hooves, and it was just the right touch. 

Today I finally had it in me to just finish him. As I was working on his eyes, I realized he had the kindest eyes I have ever felted. Something about them just spoke to me. Originally, I had intended to make a gentleman character to match the last giraffe I created, but he was just so guileless, like a child.

My last giraffe: Georgina

 I still had every intention to dress him while I was shading him, but by the time I finished, I set him down and he just looked at me, and told me he didn't need to be dressed.

The back of Clover as I added his markings

And so here he is now.

 For added warmth to compliment his cool tones, I added a warm golden brown to his ears and cheeks instead of my usual pink blush. He really made me feel at peace when I finished him. I hope you'll enjoy him as much as I have. He is looking for a home, so please feel free to click here if you are interested in adopting him. (All materials are also listed)

Thank you for reading,
<3 Laine

4 Projects at Once

In the past, I've never had more than one project open at a time. Sometime over July 4th weekend, I ended up running out of eyes and needing a couple other things to complete commissions, so naturally I put my current project (blue giraffe) on hold and my goose commission on hold to start more con prep and when I wanted a break from that, I started doing some sewing for my second commission.

 LO AND BEHOLD, the package with all the things I ordered came that day, so I was more than torn in a few directions. I didn't like having multiple unfinished things at once so I settled in and spent the good remaining of the day finishing what was closest to completion: 5 shoot star plushies to go with the original

Then I wet to approach my largest priority: the Canadian Goose

After working two full days of 10+ work hours, I had the head done right, ultrasuede beak on (nearly killed my wrists), neck made with skeleton, body sewn and stuffed, and the beginnings of a wing in progress. I'd have to recommend to those who use wire not to twist two pieces of 12 gauge wire together and then try to get your machine to hem it in. I broke 2 machine needles because the wire wasn't twisted 100% uniformly (and you can't see it under the minky). There were times when I was chugging along, that I would just hit that twisted wire and BAM off it snaps and usually I have to go in with tweezers to remove the broken portion out of sewing. This task actually can prove to be quite tough given the thickness of the minky+batting+wire. I thought about sewing it, but the wings themselves are quite large to begin with. If I were to annotate through my process,this post would get too long.

In the end I compiled a mental pros and cons list in cause I ever decide to have so many things going on at once:

Pros:

• There is variety, so you can keep your interest from waning by working on a few things at once
• Can increase efficiency (do all your cutting at once, sewing, assembling)

Cons

• Can feel overwhelming esp to people who require certain amount of control in their life to function
• Can lead to being distracted because you DO have the option to work on multiple things

All in all, I'm trying for less structure when it comes to myself and doing things more with my energy levels. Once I finish these I will probably go back to my original arrangement, but it was definitely interesting (and stressful).

Question for you: Do you typically work on one thing at a time or multiple projects? I'd love to hear your pros and cons list.

Until next time,

<3 Laine