Paper Dolls on Sale!

Hi folks! Do you hear that? The subtle growling? That scratching noise? That would be the wolf at our door. He usually hangs out near the end of our driveway, but we'd like to send him off for a little while. So here are our sacrificial lambs (talk about mixing metaphors.)

Five of my favorite Paper Dolls, all on sale at $120 each from the regular price of $145. With free shipping anywhere in the USA or Canada.

See one that would brighten your day? Send me an email at kallencole@aol.com First come first serve of course!

Here is #1, a sweet swinging dress made with an East Coast map, and tiny stitched seed beads.
Sorry this one has **sold**



Paper Doll #2 is a groovy A-line from the '60's with a pouf of fabulous trim and a great vintage button.



#3 is one of the few little girl dresses I've done like this. With a line of "smocking" and the tiniest button I've ever seen. Perfect for a baby shower gift!





#4 is a great dress showing off the NOLA area, with a nautical themed button.
(And it just **sold** yay!)




And dress #5 is all about the glitz, shiny silver, with vintage cut glass buttons. The embroidery thread is a deep plum. Go on, add a little drama to your life, (the good kind!)



All of these pieces are matted in acid free mats, with spacers to accommodate the buttons when they are framed. They are all shrink wrapped. Any questions? Let me know.

A color junkie

Everyone is probably familiar with the idea of an artist's palette. Usually the first thing that comes to mind is that kidney shaped flat thing with a hole for the thumb. I have been painting for over 20 years now, and I've never actually used one of those! Empty yogurt and cottage cheese containers are usually my palette of choice, with a nice slick expanse of tempered glass as a backup from time to time. But today, I am stitching some of my little "Paper Dolls," so a wad of embroidery thread is my palette.

My grandmother taught me how to embroider sometime around the second grade. I remember even then being mesmerized by the shiny floss, how the deep saturated colors changed as the light hit. I still love to look at these, line them up sorted into analogous colors, or from pure hue to more neutral shades. I think we call that play?

Enjoy your day!

Paper dolls and the flip side

Here is the latest paper doll. I've taken this one one small tiny step further by choosing pink as the color of the embroidery thread rather than green. Pink and this green are a complimentary discord, a term color theory fans are probably familiar with. This is because red and green are complementary colors, as they sit opposite each other on the color wheel. But they also become a discord when the value of the colors, (meaning the lightness or darkness) are changed. Red, in it's pure form is a darker value than green in it's pure form, so when you lighten one, or in this case both, so that they are of similar value, or the red (pink) is even lighter than the green you get a discord.

I have always been color theory obsessed, it may even be a medical condition.

And, I have to announce, this is the first piece I have done as a "grown up" that has a touch of that dreaded craft supply...glitter! Cheap? Maybe. Tawdry? Possibly, but I must say I do like it in this case!

And I often have people browsing through these little pieces at a show, and they often can't really tell what they are. Is this paint? Do you use glue? Possibly just a general need for reading glasses, but I thought I'd show you the flip side. All the embroidery work is stitched through the paper, as are the beads and buttons. These little babies routinely take 3 hours or more to complete. Fortunately though not all this needs to be done in studio, I'll often stitch these while Scott is driving the van to a show, or in the hotel room, wherever that is, even at a show if the crowds are light.

That's it for now, have a great day!

Paper Dress Collage

If you've ever seen my work at a show, you are familiar with these little paper dresses. But this one is a little different. I begin by collaging bits of vintage dress patterns in the background, then paint the shape of the dress. But rather than use paint this time, I've collaged a little piece of marbled paper. This is one of the last bits of paper I marbled myself at a workshop in Victoria many years ago, a tiny fraction of the u-haul truckload of "things" Scott and I drove across the country when I moved here...but clearly I digress. Once the collage elements are all glued down and have had a chance to dry, the dress shape is stitched. I punch the holes with an awl, and sew the dress by hand with embroidery floss. The little halo is a circle of white glass beads that are also stitched through the paper.

The backing paper I use for these is a soft rag or cotton printing paper from France, and they are all matted in an eight ply conservation quality matboard. Backed with acid free foam board, and shrink wrapped. The overall size is 9" square, with the art being about 5" square.

$145