Moving Into This New Blog

So, I am finally settling down in this new year, and though my desk appears cluttered with a host of unfinished projects they are getting done.  This blog is in a way a new beginning for me as an artist, and I finally found contentment in the layout, graphics and overall appearence, though I may modify things here and there, this will be My primary source of communicating with the world at large.
The only focus of this blog is my art dolls, some of my philosphy about art, and some of the techniques I employ in my work. 

Sometimes as is the case here I'll share works in progress.  Some of my current projects, from left to right in the picture below.  The small bust is a character doll, I've always loved character dolls, this one is my first effort in that direction. I have a bin full of blown glass eyes, that perhaps would only work on character dolls, and the fun part is choosing the eyes then deciding on the features that best bring those eyes to full expression.  The first 3 times I tried using blown glass eyes in a polymer clay sculpture they blew up or cracked during the curing process it took me a while to figure out how to vent the eyes properly so they wouldn't crack when the piece was curing in the oven.  When you lose a sculpture like that all you can really do is learn, if it happens all the time is can get real costly losing a $50 dollar pair of blown glass eyes hurts the pocketbook too, and that has happen to me. I have at least 200 pair of glass eyes, and they all ranged in price on the low end about $10 is what paid, mostly picked up from ebay at liquidation prices, on the high end $50 for eyes with veins in the glass.  Most of the glass eyes I have are 16 mm so for that size eyeballs, the dolls I make using them will be about 24"-26" tall if they're children, 30"-34"  if they're an adult.  The bust on the far left in the image below has 16 mm eyes, her eyes are a little different they are solid glass paperweight eyes on a clear steam, from Germany, and I am really happy I picked enough of these eyes up while I could, because the maker has now discontinued that line.   In the middle is a Baby and his bassinet of the solar system, I finshed the Sun which is on the back, and the other planets where created in early December, the rest of the work on it will be using fabric, paints, and embelishments, the little boy will be dressed, and while I won't glue the clothes on him, though I may use glue on embelishments and trim, I will use tack stitiches to hold the clothes in place.  The final note on eyes, is that I enjoy painting eyes, as much as using glass eyes.  Most of the dolls I create will be in a 1/8 to 1/4 scale and for those dolls I create my own eyes from scratch using polymer clay, uv resin, and paint.