NEW DOLLS

I worked the Treasures of the Gypsy booth at the Houston Quilt Festival for four days. The next week painted like crazy to prepare two banners to be paw printed at a PetFest in Old Town Spring (north of Houston where I live). Then spent this past weekend at the PetFest getting people to stamp paw prints on them. I was surprised how many were willing to put their own dogs' paw prints on the things. Had to keep talking them, and sometimes their dogs, out of it. Told 'em we didn't want to get into the mess of washing the paint off their feet.

Really lucked out with the weather. It rained furiously Thursday and Friday, making the paint dry sooooo slowly. Sat and Sun were gorgeous! Monday it poured all cotton-pickin' day from dawn deep into the night! Nearly 3 inches!

But now I have posted my new dolls on Etsy. There are two Politico Truth Bottles - Obama and Hillary - and the two dolls I did for the Quilt Festival. I don't yet understand how to navigate through Etsy but you can find my shop by selecting Sellers in the first box and typing pepperhume (no space) in the search box.

More later about the Gypsy Frog and Mistress of the Owl.

Obama is great fun to caricature, I will do him again.

Old dolls

Now that the new administration is getting settled in at the White House, I've begun doing my caricature bottle dolls. The OB and Hillary first, of course. What a team!

I call my bottle dolls Truth Bottles. The idea is that the head shows the public face/persona that the person shows to the world. The truth of what they really are or think is revealed by what is inside the bottle.

I offer political figures in caricature to emphasize their public image. The new owner of the bottle has the option of putting things inside that represent what they think that personage really is thinking.

My first Truth Bottle was a plump balding guy with a serenely bland smile. The title was "Oh No, I'm Fine." His bottle, however, was filled "up to here" with cord and rope all tied up in knots. For political figures, I just do head and collar.

During the Bush admin, I did a six-pack of Dubya and his people. Much fun. One collector ended up with the whole group. For the Obama admin, I'm having to wait until we get acquainted with his people so I can get a sense of their public personalities. That's what caricature is all about. Stay tuned.