Friday, July 5, 2013

NIADA Post-Conference Coupon Code for my Etsy Shop

For those of you who attended the 50th Anniversary NIADA Conference in Corte Madera, CA (near San Francisco) during the last week in June, here's the code for getting FREE SHIPPING on ALL DOMESTIC ORDERS thru my ETSY Shop: NIADAGOLDEN1; just enter that code into your shopping cart before checkout and get free shipping on everything in my Etsy shop as if that item had been at the NIADA Show & Sale! Code good through August 31, 2013!

Check back soon for photo updates from the Conference! And Thanks again to all who came to see me!

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

New Works: Lions, Flamingos and Bears, Oh My!

Crunch time for the upcoming NIADA Conference; fly time in literally 30 days; So excited! Lots to share, but my To-Do List is still nerve-wrackingly long, so i'll just post a few pix for now and leave the storytelling for the weekend. Over the last few months of preparing my class notes for the NIADA Dollmaking School, i've been navigating the ticklish business of breaking down decades of largely intuitive aesthetic decisions and unquestioned fine-motor skills into meaningful information that i may share with my students. The result has yielded some unexpected epiphanies that border on something akin to, "Teacher, Study Thyself." [More on that in the next post, in which i discovered my Inner Student asking the question, "What do you do when you want to sculpt a Bear and your Muse won't stop singing in Lion-ese?]

Without further ado, a group photo of my latest kiln-bounty after MIXing the luscious black Cassius Basaltic Stoneware with its closest ceramic compatibility cousin, Arctic White Stoneware (both available through Mid-South Ceramic Supply) and then adding dry pigment stains INTO the clay bodies. Im getting a little giddy over the results. P.S.: there are a few new listings in my Etsy shop from this troup as i resist the temptation to keep them all and make them into finished dolls. But there are MORE coming, and kits to assemble, and my Gallery Night piece to decide on, etc.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Teaching at NIADA School, San Francisco, June 2013

Just a quick update to let everyone know that I am teaching an Anthropomorphic Doll Bust Sculpture Class at the NIADA School immediately preceding the Conference in San Francisco, June 2013.

There are a range of fascinating classes being taught, and the conference is always a friendly crowd and great programs, and as the website says: "It's not just for members!!" Come Join Us for a great time in a beautiful city...

I will be posting a few 'teaser' articles over the next few weeks to promote the class and also hope to be offering similar classes in the New York-Tri-State area, so if you know of a venue you'd like me to look into, please feel free to drop me a line at doters369@gmail.com !
I will basically be teaching students how to prepare and sculpt stoneware clay into slabs and hollow cones from which to create their own one-of-a-kind anthropomorphic busts on which to base a doll.


I will cover various species of animal heads; birds, mammals, reptiles, fish; and we will be exploring character, surface detailing, and incorporating high-fire ceramic stains into the clay before firing. The two-day class will conclude with demonstrations in hand- and feet- or shoe-sculpture. If students arrive at a set of doll parts that they like and want to preserve for the trip home, access to her studio kiln has graciously been offered by Stephanie Blythe, and we'll let the finished pieces dry, and  fire them for any students that are staying through the end of the conference. An added 'bonus' for conference attendees: I plan to offer a free demo on my process of waxing fired wares before assembling them into finished dolls, with preference given to students' work created in the class!

More forthcoming; I am presently working up figures for the upcoming NIADA Conference and will have updates soon!