What are you looking at?

Oh... you want to know? Oh, yes, of course. Well I'm Hollie Anderson and this is a collection of my work and ramblings. Thats it really, don't worry I won't be upset if you leave. I won't cry. Honest...

Well. Maybe a little.

Friday 5 June 2009

Oh... bougre.

Hmm, body:win! Legs and arms:fail! D:


I personally really like the body, I'm pretty happy with this and the brown spots on the hips came out pretty well,


Although the legs, however, came out really funny and cracked and then I ran out of white paint so the legs were too pink. *Sigh* it seems that the legs are never going to come out right the first time.

Here you can kind of see the difference in the shade of the paint. Grah!

Another shot of the body, and of course my beloved scouser in the background who is watching all of this crafty activity with a kind of bemused interest (not there though, there he's eating a sausage). I think he's just trying to figure out the easiest way to forge iron joints for tiny people so that he can do it better :D

Back to the drawing board with the legs then.

Berrington Hall Project

For our Live Brief at college we are designing some craft pieces to go on show at a national trust house.
When I was there I saw lots of embroidery, especially in the upholstery and this is what grabbed me, so I took this on and did some research. In essence women in the regency period were revered for needlwork skills and used these tapestries to put their mark on their home in what was an incredibly male dominated world. This, to me, links with the make do and mend ethos of the late '50s. I got hold of a 1958 newspaper (stuffed inside the 1920s singer that I got, still threaded, for a tenner) and made some screen prints from it, got those on some plain, if not a bit old and battered, calico, cut the sections apart and stitched them together again (I found some info on cigar ribbon quilts where women would collect the scraps of material and sew them up into a larger textile). Then I dyed the whole thing with good old tea and coffe and embroidered into it.

I am about a third done after all of that.

Next I need to sand this effing chair back into a regency shape and varnish it. Then I'm going to do something to the cushion I've upholstered. Something because originally I though I would tapestry over the top and then wear holes in it so that you could see the textile underneath, but the more I think about that and draw designs the more it looks kind of crappy and seems unplausable to get it finished in time. So, err, I suppose I might just cut my losses and embroider the bejesus out of it, alternatively I've been thinking I could embroider some '50's kitchenalia images onto some dissolvable muslin and then drop water on it so that areas dissapear, but that could look super crappy so we shall see.

Anyhow, photos:






Selkie (in progress)

This is my newest project, the selkie. For those of you who don't know what a selkie is its a woman (or man) who lives in the sea as a seal, who can come ashore and transform into a person by shedding their seal skin. If they lose their skin then they become trapped on land, but once they go back into the sea they can't come ashore again for seven years.

This head was odd, it started off looking kind of like my housemate, then oriental (my housemate is not oriental, shes northern) and then finally turned freckly and pale, so -selkie! For some reason when I made the head it didn't seem much bigger than Red's was, but it turns out its pretty huge.

So, here she is;Next challenge is going to be the seal skin, and covering up her nips and such. Might have a go at making some felt seaweed for that job.

Thursday 4 June 2009

My First Post

Well, here we go then!

This is my first post in my art blog, where I hope to document all of my creations, creative processes and any interesting information I come across.

Today I opened my internet shop at www.folksy.com/shops/holandricon where I put my first doll up for sale (theres another one baking in the oven as I type), I'm almost hoping no one wants to buy her... its like selling a child! But then I remember that I need to eat and that if I'm not careful soon the only thing that ever goes into my oven will be salt dough.

I think that after my fairytale inspired doll, Miss Red R. Hood, this next one might be a bit more sultry and burlesque, maybe? I'll have to see. She certainly has the eyes for it!

Salt dough is an interesting medium, its versatile and its VERY cheap to both make and harden (no way I can afford a kiln, seriously) however it is fairly brittle and when it dries on your hands it feels awful. Now, this may seem petty but if I'm planning to work with this stuff every day I need to do something about that. Gloves, I suppose, unless theres some magical cheap oven drying clay out there? ... No?... Well, no, I thought not.