It's the the story of Narae, a young artist, who is working towards her first solo art show.
Together they make for a wonderful, very colourful book.
My newest book has arrived! It's the the story of Narae, a young artist, who is working towards her first solo art show. She acquires a studio space... ...and decides to offer children's art classes to help pay her bills. Then we follow along as she leads art classes for six weeks... ...while also working on paintings of her own... ...all leading up to her solo art show. The book is in tribute to my sister Marianne, whose gift of an entire collection of tiny acrylic paintings inspired the original story. Then the children's art classes were inspired by some of my favourite real life projects from my years as a volunteer art teacher at the local school. Together they make for a wonderful, very colourful book. Artist Narae - $95. US plus shipping*As usual, in order to keep the price down to $95. US, the preorder will continue until the next time Mixbook has a half price sale. So if you'd like to reserve a copy, please send me an email - martha@marthaboers.com
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I had always envisioned Baron and Naomi's twins to become toddlers at some point, so two years ago thinking WAY ahead, I ordered two little Myou dolls; Dudu and Feng Linger from Junkyspot. I didn't have any clothes or wigs for them, but they fit Sena's clothes... Of course Baron and Naomi's twins hadn't even been born yet, so the two of them lingered in the china cabinet with Sena. I named them Daniel and Fiona, and made them both wigs, and an outfit for Daniel. The months passed as the two little dolls waited patiently in the cabinet, only to come out for a few photos at Christmas 2022.... Then in December I discovered that the Myou dolls could come in other, darker resin colours, and after humming and hawing about it for a while I decided to order new versions in Coffee resin, which is close to Iplehouse Special Real Skin. I ordered them from Myou directly. The plan was to replace the two I already had with the new ones, but while I waited I'd use them as costume models so there would be entire Medieval wardrobes when the new ones arrived. I started with Fiona... I also decided her wig had way too much hair for a toddler, so gave it a major haircut... Then I started on an entire wardrobe for Daniel.... All of January and February were spent making tiny clothes, as I thought each child should have at least three separate outfits... I discovered that the DHS Baby Elves had the same size head as Daniel and Fiona, so tried the baby wigs on the twins, and thought they made them look a lot younger.... So I made both of them new wispier wigs, but in the end preferred Daniel's first one. Then in late March the two new dolls arrived. The coffee resin was a beautiful colour, and I immediately dressed the dolls in one of the new outfits I'd made for them.... ...and took some photos of them with Naomi.... I knew right away that the new Daniel was perfect.... So did his Mom... But then I had second thoughts about Fiona.... As much as I liked her in the coffee resin, there was just something about the original fair one, especially since Naomi also had a lighter complexion. So I took lots of comparison photos, even with Baron who was temporarily wearing something out of period. And in the end I decided on the original Fiona and the new Daniel.... So, the next time we visit with Baron and Naomi, their babies will have grown up into toddlers.
Fair DuDu will move on, but I haven't yet decided on the new coffee Feng Linger. I really like her. Maybe one of my other doll families would like to adopt her? March 30th was National Hot Dog Day. Yes, there's a Hot Dog Day in the summer but there's also one in March. So, even though it was snowing, Manny decided to go out and barbecue some.... His hot dogs were coming along nicely when noticed two soldiers approaching... ..so he offered them one.... "Thank you so much." "Yes. These look delicious." "We haven't had a warm meal in a long time." "So we really appreciate it." "Well, you're very welcome." So they stood chatting while enjoying the hot dogs....
We've been working on another book since last summer. It's based on the Artist Story photographed back in early 2018, and features the story of my Butterfly Narae, who as an artist working towards her upcoming solo art show decided to hold children's art classes in order to help pay the bills. The story was inspired by a series of small, doll size paintings that my sister Marianne did for me as a Christmas gift, to hang over the fireplace that Jan had just made for me a month earlier. I thought the paintings were too nice to just show up in the background in a doll's room now and then, and decided to do a story featuring them. It's a lengthy process putting a book together, choosing photos from among the hundreds that were taken years ago, and even then there's always a couple of new photos that need to be taken. Thankfully dolls don't age, and I still have most of the clothes and props from the original photos, so it was simple enough to take some new photos of Narae for the cover. I dressed her in the tops and paint aprons that she had worn in the story, and took photos.... In the end, we went with Narae wearing the blue art apron for the cover.... There was some inconsistency in the photos in the book during the final art show when Byuri wanted her Mom to buy the painting Narae did of her and two friends. We needed a new photo to help fill the space in the page layout. So I had to dress Byuri like she had been six years ago in the actual story, and take photos of her with her painting.... Then the perfect one was added to the page... When a book is being finalized each new pdf is gone over and over, checking and editing and reworking until it's perfect. The book obviously had only a fraction of the photos from the original story on my website, and just the best ones which told the story in the most concise way were included. However there was one art class where one of the students - Bonnie - decided to go her own way and make a butterfly instead of a caterpillar like everyone else. It had been explained in the original online version, but not in the book. So I needed to take a new photo in order to explain her choice. Which meant setting up a scene that would look like it had been taken six years ago along with all the other photos from that particular art class. Thankfully I'd kept all the children's art from the story, and even the scraps of finger painted paper.... So Bonnie, who had since moved to Medieval times, had to be changed into the exact same outfit she had been wearing in the story six years ago; the same outfit, the same paint smock, and the same ribbons in her hair. Then we needed a photo taken from above, showing her butterfly art... ...and then the photo was added to the page in the book.... The children's artwork in the story would never have looked believable if it hadn't been for Jan, and our three granddaughters who were 8, 9 and 10 at the time. They were the ones who did most of the children's artwork. Thankfully again, I'd saved most of that as well, and took a photo.... ...for the final Thank You! page..... The first test copy of the book has just been printed and should arrive any day now. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turned out.
Another set of photos taken for my sister's birthday lat month. We had made her favourite Black Forest cake using all her own favourite recipes. The cake ended up huge, but wasn't all that interesting to look at to photograph on its own, so I thought I'd include some of my mice...
My two little baby elves were totally enjoying their very first Easter.... All the bunnies, eggs, and chicks had them both smiling from ear to ear...
I spent last week making some fancy lace dresses so Sara and Bella could get dressed up for Easter....
Easter was coming up and Sara was watching Alex painting some eggs... Bella wanted to paint some eggs too, but was distracted by the chicks...
It was recently my sister's birthday, so I put together a digital 'birthday card' with a few of her favourite little dolls of mine.
March 20 was National Quilting Day, and Leona had taken out the vintage quilt that had been lingering in the linen closet for years. It was in rough shape and could use some repairs. Holly came in to see what her Mom was doing... "What's this? It looks really old." "It's an old quilt." "Your Dad's grandmother made it almost a hundred years ago." "It sure looks messy, and nothing like the quilts you make." "Well, in his grandmother's day they didn't have all the nice fabrics we have today." "In fact fabric was hard to come by, so quilts were usually made from sewing scraps and old clothes." "Well, they sure must have worn some colourful clothes back then."
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AuthorMartha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes. Archives
April 2024
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