(Inside A Black Apple)

Happy Halloween, Etc.

Halloween is almost upon us! In honor of the day, here are some excellent postcards from my favorite Flickr archive of old Halloween goodness.

What are everyone's costume plans?
I think I might be a 1920's Ice Princess. I have a silver capelet, silver dress, silver shoes. We shall see. The fella and I have kind of dropped the ball on ol' Halloween this year, but we usually do it up. I'm sure we'll be back to our old tricks next year!

A few other items I wanted to mention:
- Ye olde Black Apple Halloween Movie Fest post from a few years back. An oldie but a goodie!

- My soon-to-be-released (Nov. 2!) new book, The Paper Doll Primer, got a nice little write-up in the LA Times yesterday!
Huzzah!
There's also a peek at one of the many characters in the book (she's a misfit among misfits). You can see/read it right here!

- There seemed to be a great deal of confusion about when/where the paintings and dolls I've blogged about recently are for sale. So, just a refresher (though if someone is missing the update announcements/mentions, they probably won't see this).

• Whenever I have new original things to add to the shop, I have an update in my Etsy shop.
• I always post here on the blog in advance with the time/date of the update.
• Once posted, things have a habit of sometimes selling in minutes (and sometimes seconds!) This is why, if you visit hours or days after the time of the update, you often don't see any dolls or paintings.
• I hope that helps clears things up!

Happiest Halloween & Happy weekend to everyone!

The Knitting Kitty Doll

I just created the mini-update, and things have already flown out the door! It was kind of a bumpy road today, worse than ever (what's up, Etsy?!). I'm very sorry if anyone experienced weirdness beyond the usual fast-buying issues.

This little cat was the only thing in the update I hadn't shared here yet.
She (like the Pretend Bear) has some pretty fancy accessories!

The Knitting Kitty    Approx 10" tall   
Made of: Cotton fabrics, wool + wool-blend felt, wool yarn, hand-painted face
Edition size: 1

I am particularly happy with that pint-sized jacket of hers.
The tiny buttons kill me!

Thanks so much for all your sweet words about the paintings and dolls for the October mini-update. No matter how long I've been working for The Black Apple, I'm just so pleased that people like the funny things I make.

Thanks for that.
And Happy week-o'-Halloween!

The Pretend Bear Doll

I'm excited to share this little lady!
She's got a bunch of little accessories - and I've always loved it when dolls come with lots of doodads.

The Pretend Bear    Approx 10" tall   
Made of: Cotton fabrics, wool + wool-blend felt, cotton string, hand-painted face
Edition size: 1

She has many guises!

Bandit:

And, of course, bear:

She'll be in the update tomorrow (Wednesday)!

Update Scootched to Wednesday

Hello there!

Due to a bit of a doll-emma (har har har) which consists of me fussing way too much over the dollies I'm working on, as well as some unforeseen other things, I'm scooting the update to Wednesday (same time, same place).

See you at 12:00 pm West coast time/3:00 East coast time for the new paintings and also some dollies on Wednesday!

Bandits & Arrows

I'm really excited to share these two larger pieces I've been working on for the mini-update on Tuesday, October 26 at 12 Pacific/3 Eastern. And when I say larger, I just mean bigger than those little 6"x8" paintings I shared a few days ago!

I couldn't stop thinking about two things when I was working on these:
1.) Simple Halloween-ish items like small masks, headbands, etc.
2.) Oil Portraits of the 50's and 60's (I think this helped inform the limited color palette)

 
Kitten Bandit    11"x14"x1"    Acrylic on wood plaque

&

Arrow Head    11"x14"x1"    Acrylic on wood plaque

This little gal is wearing one of my very favorite plaids - diagonal red/red plaid. It might be weird to have favorite plaids. But there you go!

I'm really smitten with these two. I don't know who is my favorite - I keep going back and forth. I always identify with the dark-haired girls, but that arrow-girl kind of hypnotizes me.

Happy Sunday!

Masked Moppets

Unveiled, but not unmasked -
Here are these little gals and fellas I've been working on lately!

They will be part of a mini-update next Tuesday, October 26 at 12 Pacific/3 Eastern. I have some other October-ish goodness up my sleeve that'll also be part of that update - watch for those soon.

Now, on to the masked cuties:

Masked Bird Fellow    6"x8"x1"    Acrylic on wood plaque

  

Masked Bear Girl    6"x8"x1"    Acrylic on wood plaque

Masked Skull Fellow    6"x8"x1"    Acrylic on wood plaque

Masked Apple Girl    6"x8"x1"    Acrylic on wood plaque

Masked Cat Girl   6"x8"x1"    Acrylic on wood plaque

Thumbnail photos below - the images above are from scans and have more accurate colors, but these give a better idea of how the plaques look as 3-D objects (please click to enlarge - they're nice and big!):

I hope the Fall (or Spring, depending on your whereabouts) is treating everyone really well. I had one of my nicest days ever yesterday - great antiquing luck with one of my favorite ladies, insanely good news re: a book project of mine, and then to the bookstore and dinner with my best fella that evening.  Truly, it was such a wildly good day, I half-expected something terrible to happen just to even things out a little.

October always really feels like a charmed month to me, whether it's actually intrinsically special, or we just make it special. Either way, it's the tops.

Back soon with more!

October Rustlings

Behind the scenes, I'm still hard at work on my "Alice" painting series (the story is so precious to me, I find I'm really agonizing over every little thing, wanting it to be just right). Suffice it to say, there are two completely finished versions of the Red Queen, since I couldn't make up my mind about just exactly how she looks in my imaginings.

Meanwhile, I've also cooked up another little collection of things that are somewhat Halloween-inspired and October-y.

 - Tiny sketches for larger paintings -

- My favorite Autumn fabric + bits and felt -

- Small "costumed" folks on scalloped wood plaques -

More of this stuff soon, soon...I hope it will all be part of a mini-update right around the corner.

I hope your week is off to a nice start!

The Master of Human Sleeping Technology

Thanks so much for all those orders this week!
The Fall Sale was a big flurry of action, and now we're hopping to it to get the orders out the door and on their way. And I'm working on a bunch of behind-the-scenes (painting, drawing, scheming) to boot.

So, I have lots and lots to be doing, but all I really want to do is take a page from the furbaby's book:

(Note that these photos are from two different days)

He really is the master.

Pillow use? Check.

Blankets 101? Check.

So I live with a 24-hour commercial for snuggling and dozing.
It's really a wonder anything gets done.

Happy weekend & see you soon with a non-cute-pet post!

Fall Sale!

 

To celebrate the best season o' the year, everything in the shop is on sale (from the littlest things to the biggest). Methinks this would be an excellent time to squirrel away some early Christmas presents and stocking trinkets!

When: Starting at 2 Pacific time today (Monday), and going til' Wednesday night

Fun fact for any other Etsy sellers: About twice a year, I like to have a sale - but it's always been so difficult to manually change prices and change them back. There is now this amazing app that makes things so much easier. Hooray!

Bookish

I don't know what it is about this time of year, but I always seem to turn inward a bit and feel extra curious and ravenous about words and pictures. The pile of books coming into my house keeps stacking up, so I thought I better mention at least a few of them before the stack grows too tall!

   

1. Hillary's amazing creation, Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew & Love, is one of the most beautiful craft books I've ever seen. Okay, it might just be the most beautiful craft book I've seen. From the sunny yellow cloth spine, to the substantial format, it's a really nice object. And the part that really matters, the insides, are even better. Every single one of the dolls is special and distinct...there isn't a single one that feels like filler. Hillary was one of my first blog-friends, and her impeccable craftsmanship, funny acerbic wit, and sweet sensibility have always made Wee Wonderfuls a real humdinger of a cottage industry. I am so happy that is all wrapped up in a beautiful book now.

2. Dillweed's Revenge is one of the best-looking children's books I've seen lately. Carson Ellis' illustrations are hilarious and wonderful and really make the book outstanding. I admire the heck out of her illustration chops! In fact, I think Dillweed could be wordless, because the illustrations do the lion's share of the storytelling. Ms. Ellis has a really interesting post on her blog about the book's history (it was originally slated to be illustrated by Edward Gorey!)

3. Not new, of course, but I'm re-reading The Secret Garden right now for the first time since I was a little girl. As I'm begining to work more and more on my own stories and craft my own worlds, I'm realizing (and it's being pointed out to me, in some cases) how much the sensibility and feeling of books like these took root with me. It's a really lovely feeling to go back into a familiar-but-unfamiliar place like The Secret Garden - bits and pieces come back to me, and other things had completely drifted out of my memory.

4. And last, the new Nara monograph (entitled Nobody's Fool)! I will confess that I just snagged this last night at Floating World, so my grubby paws haven't torn through it yet, but I'm so excited! I didn't even know about it. That's always such a great feeling - I mean, anticipating something being released is nice, too, but surprise books from favorite artists are a real treat.

Happy Friday to you!

A Dapper White Rabbit

Ahoy there!

My Alice series-of-sorts is beginning to come together nicely, and thanks to my big, new scanner (which makes me feel very powerful) I have a painting to share today!

Who better to start it off with than the one who led her down the rabbit hole...

The White Rabbit    11"x14"x1    Acrylic on canvas

I love green and red together so much that I'm constantly in danger of making everything vaguely Christmas-y (this was pointed out to me by my editor and pal, Thom).

This series is (I hope) full of patterns and warm colors and neat little details. This guy isn't the best at conveying the pattern part, but there are some neat florals going in the other portraits I'm working on that will be companions to him.

Also, in "The dreamiest thing I've seen today" category, this insanely love blanket fort won't get out of my brain. (via Ashley)

Happy Tuesday!

Little Drawings of Children's Clothes

Above is a page from my sketchbook - some clothing ideas for a current project o' mine. It's nice to share something that is otherwise only really seen by me and is used for my reference. It's especially nice when a current project is rather solitary, behind-the-scenes work (like, say, something book-ish).

I should try to post more drawings from my sketchbooks, I think. I always love seeing other people's doodlings in various stages of unfinished-ness! I think I love peeking at people's sketches more than finished work sometimes.

The other mouse is otherwise engaged this evening, which leaves one mouse (with the cat) to...watch Cold Comfort Farm? I need to get some watching done of girl-nerdy movies the other mouse might not be into. And there's bunches of painting and drawing work to be done, too, so it'll be multi-tasking at its finest.

Happy weekend to you!