Art Dolls by Du Buh Du Designs

A Childhood Favorite Revisted

My mother's Viewmaster and reels from childhood

Yesterday afternoon I was in the dining area working on something while listening to my son play away. I never have to worry about him except when something crashes or it's really quiet.  I noticed the clanking of toys had ceased and after a few minutes I went over to investigate only to find my son, head cocked upwards toward the window, looking through his lightweight plastic blue viewmaster (probably at his Thomas the Train reel).
The sight of him in that other world instantly took me back to my childhood..I loved  looking through the canister of viewmaster reels that I shared with my sister. Back then we didn't have VCR/DVD players so that was as close as I could get to watching my favorite fairy tales (Cinderella, Snow White, etc.). The "boring" Kings Canyon and Yellowstone reels were quickly jammed into the top and then ripped out, but even they had a wonderfully strange appeal to them that I couldn't take my eyes off of. I recall trying to slip paper and other items into the top of my red and white viewer trying to get Sleeping Beauty to move or Prince Charming to somehow crawl out of the camera. I wished there was a way I could get inside that colorful world..


still from the movie Amelie

Years later in college I enrolled in an Image and Idea class (Photography)  where we had the entire semester to work on one project.While thinking about what I wanted to create, I thought about misconceptions, particularly those made by children. The idea was inspired by a scene in my favorite movie (Amelie) where a little girl's neighbor gets into a car accident right in front of her while she is taking pictures. He gets out the car and blames her and her camera for having caused the accident even though she had nothing to do with it. The rest of the day she is racked with the guilt of having caused any and all accidents she sees on the news. This reminded me of how as children we don't usually see or understand things as they really are...which can be both sad and funny.
For my project I collected similar stories from family, friends, classmates and did my best to illustrate each story with one photograph. I then took each photograph and story and rephotographed them using slide film ,cutting each tiny frame out and gluing them into several viewmaster reels. It was a tedious assignment but so rewarding. Unfortunately all of my images are saved on zip and cant be opened since I used an  early version of Photoshop :(



I decided to check out the view master website which I hadn't visited since this project. I was pretty excited to see that not only can purchase the kits to make your own reels but that they sell lense attachments for digital cameras so you can shoot in 3D (both would have come in handy several years ago). Naturally this started stirring up ideas in my head ~I'd like to get a lens attachment for sure. What a great alternative way to record vacations, events, everyday life and make these for my son to enjoy an pass down to his kids or to give to other family members with children. Maybe even create 3D images with my dolls...hmm:) I'm beginning to see where my recent interest in 3D scenes and animation comes from.
Maybe I am a sentamentalist, or still a child at heart. It's nice to be reminded that a simple thing from the past can bring us adults back into a world of childlike imagination~


image from the Portland Documentary and eXperimental Film Festival c.PDX Festival

Happy Mother's Day!

Flowers for the new garden

 We spent this morning at a few local nurseries searching for the perfect flowers for our existing garden and for a new one we are starting on the side of the house. I thought it would be a perfect place for Andres to have his own garden ~it receives the most sunlight and he is at that age where he is interested in watering plants, watching things grow,..bugs, etc.
We have sooo much to do~I forsee us working away the next several weekends to get rid of all of the pine needles that dropped all winter long from our ponderosa pines. They serve as the perfect mulch during the freezing temperatures but now it's time to clear them out. Time to exhume the dead plants, weeds, and cut the grass. It snowed here last week but I think we're ok to go ahead and plant despite the chilly nights. The reward for all of our hardwork should look like this (last years bloom).
 Here is what's we picked out as our starting plants~Bleeding Hearts, Lilac, Catnip (for our neighborhood cats who like to visit), Honeysuckle, Hyssup, Golden Thyme, Purple Enchanted Evening Roses, French Peppermint, Clematis, Cecile Brunner climbing roses, cherry tomatoes,Water Misers, Golden Lemon Balm, Foxglove, Bellfowers, Orange and Chocolate Mint, watermelon seeds,etc. I'll be sure to post a picture of Andres's garden once it is thriving:)
Back to working the garden ! Wishing all mothers out there a Happy Mother's Day:)

p.s. You might remember me mentioning Joanna and Ron Pierotti a few weeks ago (he has cancerous tumors in his brain). He goes into surgery (his first of two) this Wedsnesday at UCSF so maybe keep him and Joanna in your thoughts this week~


I'd much rather spend money on this than a new pair of shoes anyday..

150th post

experimenting with tussah silk

A huge thank you to those who "adopted" dolls at Monday's update (yes there was an update )! For those who still weren't able to purchase the dolls they wanted I will be making more very soon (I know, famous last words). Usually after I finish my dolls I immediately want to start on new ones and this time around I am eager to "experiment" with hair. I recently bought Tussah silk after discovering fellow Oregonian artist Katie Estvold on Oregon's Art Beat ~she creates beautiful 18th century dolls made of paper/paperclay/and silk. You can visit Katie's Etsy shop here.
 I have been playing around with mohair and wool since I first started making dolls but haven't liked the results of anything I've tried so far. My dolls just looked like they had fried their hair after long term use of a curling/flat iron (trust me I know what that looks like). I'm going to try out this beautiful material and hopefully the results will look decent. I like creating hair in clay but find it difficult to sculpt long hair. Anyhow, just one thing I will be experimenting with..So many things to try and so little time..
Oh and today is my 150th post~most people celebrate with a giveaway and I'm thinking about having one in the near future :)
 I'm off for now~I will be mailing the final packages off this morning and then back to clean this...

and the messes I chose not to photograph..