GROWTH AND CHANGE AS AN ARTIST!

One of the questions I get asked the most from people coming into my booth at art shows is....How did you get started making your creations? Well, that question is asked about as much as the one...how long does it take you to create one of these. With that in mind, I thought it might be fun to show some of my older pieces of work, and the style I was designing back about 8 years ago. I only have several of these left sitting around my home. Here in the first photo you will see that I was designing and creating more of a "doll" like figure. This particular doll, was about 18 inches tall. I designed the head as part of the body, and the legs were long and bendable at the knees. You could pose this style in all sorts of postions. At that time, I was only hand-painting the faces. I designed all their clothes, jewelry, and purses. Here is a closer view of this little lady.



I hand-made her purse, and hand-dyed it. I still incorporate a lot of hand-dyed fabrics in my current designs today. I love to come up with new colors and designs. The next photo is one of largest size dolls I created, at that time. She was 30" tall. Below you will see her sitting on a lovely wicker chair that was given to me as a gift from a very good friend. I designed and hand-painted her dress.


These two were my earliest designs. I next decided to create figures that were a bit smaller, and more out of the "doll" category. It was my goal to try and start getting into art shows, and it appeared that when something was made out of fabric...the jury committees figured it was a craft. My next photos will show how I started to make smaller designs.

I love nature and for a while I came up with some rather elaborate leaf displays for my fairies. I still incorporate leaves and flowers in my designs today. These are the only two simplier creations which I have left. I had designed a Morning Glory fairy where I designed and created about seven individual morning glory flowers, and all sorts of green leaves and vines. It took me many, many hours to design and create.
This little fairy is standing amongst silk leaves, which I hand-painted using silk dyes. Each leaf was top-stitched, and has inner wires. I also designed her little petal dress!
Here is another design that took me many hours. She is standing on a fabric base with long leaves in the design. The leaves and base were all hand-dyed, using silk fabric dyes.

It was about 8 years ago, that I changed my designs to what they are today, and they have continued to develop over the years. It is what makes being an artist fun and challenging to keep coming up with new designs and ideas.

Here is one of my favorite creations at the moment. MOTHER FAIRY READING TO HER DAUGHTER. She is available for purchase in my Etsy shop: DZFANTASY If you'd like to go directly to her listing, just click on her photo.