The Other City

Transcendental Maggot

I am returning to my original inspirations with a series of art dolls.  One of the ideas of the Gossamer Girls was that I would not need to constantly be making more of them, unless I had an order.  So I am freed up to work on promotion and art.  This Maggot is the first of the art doll pieces I have been truely pleased with. 

The phrase "Transcendental Maggot" is a reference to one of my favourite books of all time, Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn.  This book probably did more to make me who I am today than any other.  Save, perhaps Lord of the Rings.  I am glad to be returning to art that reminds me, however distantly, of this book.

I am really trying hard to move beyond cute dolls.  I feel I have begun with this piece, but I am nowhere near there yet.  I want to make you feel the way Saturn Devouring his Children by Goya makes you feel.  I want that horror, that sinking in the pit of your stomach.

MammalFeathers

I was browsing along on DeviantArt the other day, looking at all the beautiful artist dolls and I discovered an absolutely brilliant artist.  Her DA name is Mammalfeathers and she makes absolutely beautiful dolls with sculpted faces and hands and soft bodies and also paints beautiful, dreamlike schemes.  Her work reminds me a bit of Brian Froud, If I can manage it, I so want to buy one of her dolls.

You can see her work at mammalfeathers.deviantart.com or at her Etsy site at mammalfeathers.etsy.com.

A taste for words

Here is a preview of a new artifact coming.  I'll let you guess what form it will take.

If I were

a drop of rain

falling in a cloudless sky

to perish on the earth

I would be content

if I should

burst

break open

and die

upon your parted lips

Running to catch up

I moved to this blog from another.  I do like the creative freedom I have here better, but it occurs to me that I have to catch up here on the artifacts I've already brought over.  So, this is Numi.

 

Numi lives alone, as we all do here, but happily, which is more than most of us can manage. She climbs the tallest towers, searching out the delicate battered grasses and flowers to bring down to earth. In an alcove, you can sometimes come upon a bouquet of violets and bare twigs, left in an empty bottle. This is how you can tell that Numi has been there. But I don’t know why they continue to bloom.

————-

Numi is also made of Malabrigo merino yarn in natural and mint. It is real wool, and wonderfully soft. Her hair is acrylic, so that it will last. The locket on the front of her dress is waiting for pictures of loved ones, but came from Blue Moon Beads and is very beautiful. She is 17 inches tall.

Numi is for sale on Etsy!

Of the Artifacts

Most of the artifacts I've been bringing over from the city lately have been in the form of amigurumi.  I do intend to bring lots of other types of objects, but for now, I am loving these things.  I love the textures of them, and how varied I can make them.  I love matching the type of yarn to the creature.  I can use a coarse yarn for a goblin, and soft yarn for a kitten. The repetitive motion is calming to me.  And since I've been having a melancholic winter, that is quite a benefit indeed.

In the future though, I intend to make tiny books with original poems or vignettes in them, pinback buttons, small sculptures, and all sorts of artifacts.  That may have to wait until this darkness has withdrawn a bit more, though.  Until then, my yarn and I will manage on our own.  We do well enough together.