Tiara Chronicles! The June Installment!
It started last year, a group of 10 of us have called ourselves the Tiara Chronicles, we get together every month or so to go either artful treasure hunting, exploring artful places or gather at each's studio's or houses and create a unique project.
Each of us take turns teaching, and inventing cool projects which can sometimes take us out of our comfort zones, its
a challenge to keep our creative minds working and testing our abilities. If we didn't challenge ourselves we'd never evolve as artist, because when you get to comfortable with one thing, you let the other things pass you buy. 
I go through artful spurts/phases, never staying on one thing for long, I have so many idea's I have to get them out of my head and onto paper and bring to life. I create projects which are for every skill level, I'm not setting out to make a difficult masterpiece that's can't be made, or something so expensive to make it takes a year to collect the pieces to do it. To me that's not what every day art is about.
I recycle and re-use everything and find a new life for it, yes I love all the amazing vintage wares, but they can get costly if you don't find a good deal, so I try to re-make myself and you can too.
So for this installment of the Tiara Chronicles, it was my time to pick a project and I decided on
ALTERED ART DOLL BOTTLES! using recycled: A1 Steak Bottles, Mustard Bottles, Heinz 57 Bottles, Oil/Vinegar Bottles, Dollar Store Bottles, Apothecary Bottles, or whatever glass bottle you have lying around. Then we altered it and transform it using artful supplies, I brought clay and molds to make the doll heads.
We all bring supplies and artful wares for everyone to share, Everyone brought broken jewelry bits, rhinestone's, pearls, ribbons, flowers, and unique oddities to play with.
I gathered some artful goodies from Michelle, Suze, Patti and Linda to use in my 2nd doll bottle which is almost done, a broken flower pin and charm from Michelle are the crown on my 2nd wine glass doll, 2 crystal beads from Suze are the earrings, black pompom trim from Patti is the doll trimming, and a button from Linda is part of my doll's dress, stay tuned for this finished piece tentively called: "Bella's Soiree Doll!"
This photo above is the beginning on my finished wine glass doll called: Polly The Pixie Wizard Doll! (stay tuned to the next post to see her fully finished).Besides bringing artful wares, we also much on delicious goodies and enjoy drinks, coffee, or tea.
Today we were at Linda Hahola's house, she always puts out an amazing spread of hummus, breads, chips, dips and sweet goodies. On Saturday we were missing a few of the Tiara girls, who were sending joy our way. In attendance was: Linda, Suze, Patti, Bonnie, My Mom-Joan and Me, not to mention a few furry friends who are just beyond words adorable, I wanted to take them home.
Here is a glimpse at the many dolls we made, the photo before this one is the full group doll photo aka The Dollie Bottle Fashion Shoot!
This is my Mom's doll, she choose a more regency meets victorian style,whose doll lips I might add, were a bit split, I think it gave her more character, LOL, but once the clay and paint dried, she came back to life and her lips were normal again. My Mom painted the body w/Claudine's Paints (She is a new fan, wants all her paints now, available from Ranger Ink, gilded trims, jewels, findings and peacock feathers. Mom's dollie was further embellished at home now she is completely finished.
Here is Patti's Doll, isn't she magical? Like a Fairy Goddess, Patti choose to paint the head with the
14kt Gold Paint, used a floral/berries for the head piece, wings, ephemera and jewels.
Here is Linda's Beautiful piece, another fairy goddess, Linda choose to paint her doll's head brown, with jewelry bits, gold paint for the glass body mixed with flowers and other floral/earthy accents, so magical! I just love the leafy wings.
This is Suze's Doll, another fairy goddess, but more of a fairy queen, complete with gold crown, gold wings, gold wire, gilded gold body with gold glitter inside, Fashionista Red Hair, and Dazzling jeweled treasures, the most regal fairy in the land.
Michelle's Bottle Doll, can this get any prettier, look at that jeweled treasure crown, I wish there was one big enough to fit my head. Michelle choose a more prim, fancy, chic style doll, with hand distressing to bottle for an aged patina look, jewels, pearls and more pearls.
This is the base of Michelle's Doll, I love the gilded tassel trim with the pearls.
I just loved how everyone's dolls came out, each of them are more beautiful then the next, I could stare at them for hours. I hope you enjoyed this installment of the Tiara Chronicles and the project we did. Stay tuned for our next adventure!
http://michellereneebernard.blogspot.com/http://www.pattibehan.blogspot.com/http://suzeweinberg.typepad.com/suzeblogz/http://auroratique.blogspot.com/http://www.rangerink.com/Magic and Joy!
Lisa!
Caldwell College book signing
The day after the Ranger Warehouse sale, My mom and I trekked back down to South Jersey just outside Tinton Falls in Ocean, NJ to Suze's fabulous studio for the next installment of Tiara Chronicles. It was Suze's turn to create a project and boy did she, we did encaustic wax layering using the melting pot and creme brulee torches.
Okay one time using a creme brulee torch and you will go out and buy an army of them, they are so easy to use, love them and the melting pot, well that has got to e one of my favorite tools I use it for melting wax, utee, and anything that can be safely melted in it, sometimes I have 3 melting pots going at once, lol.
For this project we coated a thick wood square w/a resin base wax, using a wax brush, then layered colored encaustic wax over it, followed by more base wax, then another layers, etc., we detailed the pieces with poured wax molds from Suze's molds, added more wax and colored in using the wonderful Pan Pastel chalks, these chalks are so rich and brilliant, a must have for any artist.
The result 3-d and detailed encaustic wax paintings, for mine I used my doll mold which I colored in w/pan pastels chalks and added some stickles too, of course it would be a dollie, lol!
For today's meeting, Patti came by for a bit and the rest of the group was: Suze, Joan, Bonnie, Michelle, Debbie, Teresa, Linda and Me. Each of the finished pieces were the result of everyone's character and ideas. I mean you couldn't pick a favorite, I fell in love with each of the girls piece. After seeing Suze's new bird wax pieces, I became instantly hooked on birds again, just like I was last year, lol.
Before I left Suze gave me a beautiful dress form which I have been wanting forever, my old one broke which is now used for table top display, but now I have a new and beautiful free standing one, I am sooooo happy.
shhhhh, its a secret, another edition of the Tiara Chronicles await to unveil its adventure to you....
