Sunday 22 May 2011

Disparate

This weekend has been busy and pretty sociable really (despite lots of work!) I have chatted to strangers (about knitting socks, vintage buttons, buying beads in Afghanistan, and coming from Maidstone)-in a junk shop and on the market. My brother came up, as he was riding his tandem in a charity event today-for stroke victims. He had his friend who had had a stroke, on the back of his tandem. They survived the day-it sounded pretty hard work to me as half of it was just my brother riding the bike with a heavy passenger. Good thing to do though! He was telling us about something he hopes to compete in next year in Colorado, called the Leadville 100. ("Where attitude meets altitude")It is a run of 100 miles high up in the mountains. He did a similar thing in Scotland last year-45 miles-with his friend who wants to do it. Apparently it is invitation only but his friend has a plan! We looked at the stats of the 2009 race and I was actually quite excited on his behalf-and in awe as I could never do anything like it.



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This animation isn't about sociability-well unless talking to dolls counts as being sociable or is it just a bit mad? Anyway, Apeironia, the second doll in the TDP I have worked on, is finally done and packed ready to leave. This is the little postcard in progress that I made to go with her. The animation makes me think of the brain teaser thing that Kat sent me on Friday to test my brain age-it is 41-yes! (I am a secretly very competitive person) My real age is 45 ha ha! Here is a link, should you wish to measure your brain age! There is a game where you have to identify what is changing in the picture you are looking at-starts off quite easy-not as much so as my animation-but becomes very difficult quite quickly. A fun way to spend 2 minutes.
I made another sale-I get very excited when I sell something-and very grateful that I am not trying to make my living through making things! Little felted horse is off to Connecticut tomorrow. Weird to think these things end up in houses of people I will never meet, in places I most likely will never go.

I keep meaning to get some business cards made, but never get around to it. So each time I send off something I have sold, I improvise. Today I used this lovely old postcard of Buckingham Palace, with a pogo photo of the horse on the back.



I love the way the trees frame the building.



These roses are a gentle and lovely thing to calm you before you see what comes next. As I said-it has been sociable-today Andy's Mum was at his Aunt's en route back from her holiday. We popped round to see her and his Aunt. His sister was there, and also cousins, children and some visitors from Malawi. We had a lovely lunch and a fun time. Andy's cousin is taking a practical nursing exam on Tuesday and he had this doll to practice on. It is an amazing piece of equipment-with a peelable front revealing organs, holes and places to put tubes and things, injectable bits and a scarily realistic mouth. I was interested in it as a doll I suppose-it was semi ball jointed. What makes it so disturbing I think, is the fact that it is really big, yet to me it looks like a baby. I wish I had tried to see if the legs could go in any other pose. I was so busy poking and prodding it, and being shown its innards by the four year old son of Andy's other cousin, that I didn't think of it.






6 comments:

Leenie said...

Wow! Good luck to your brother and his races. The air in the mountains of Colorado is so thin and high. Running there would be quite a challenge.

Congrats on marketing your art. It is so cool to be able to show your wares to the world just by putting together an online exhibit.

Yes, the doll is freaky scary. But I'm so glad there are people who care enough about medical problems to study and be ready to fix us up.

Linda Sue said...

Oh My I have so loved that little horse on ETSY visit it often. I am glad it will be going to a good home. Bye bye little horse...
Glad they don't use real babies to dissect at least. but that baby has got to be the creepiest ever!

Anairam said...

OMG! that doll is scary. No really, it would give me nightmares. Especially after poking around its innards. Thanks for the brain link - I am a bit scared to try it out though - what if it says my brain age is, like, you know, 15, instead of 51, helloooooo!
I really just popped in to say THANK YOU for the tip on making the casting off more stretchy - it works like a dream! I decided to redo my legwarmer - the first one was really too tight, so I got cross and tried to pull out the part that I had sewed up, but instead seemed to get hold of the wrong piece of wool and so ripped a huge hole in it. So for the next try I put on more stitches, and have just finished the first one - with amended casting-off. They actually are quite revolting - all my leftover bits of wool - black and purple and pink and blue! Yikes. (Strictly only to be worn at home.)

Anonymous said...

That doll is seriously scary! When I was at school, we were taught to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a very realistic dummy (there was a detachable 'mouth', which was dunked in disinfectant after each person had a go!). Well done on your sale - I am still swithering and dithering about opening an etsy or folksy shop!

Helen McCookerybook said...

What a horrid doll! It looks like a right thug.
I love the felt horse though, it looks like an illustration from a children's book.
I can practically smell those roses...

Anonymous said...

I couldn't resist the brain age game. I got 41....I'm 35 so not good!

Those dolls are really neat! I am sure that's much better than practicing on each other which is what they did years and years ago. I've heard horror stories about it!