Saturday, May 2, 2020

Being Brave, being me. Always.

Sorry it's been a while since I have written to my blog. I know I should be doing that. I guess all kinds of other things get in the way. Largely, writing, editing, creating the cover work for all those books I have been self-publishing with Amazon (KDP and Createspace) over the years. And the first three with AuthorHouse.

Not to mention harassment from some really not nice people after my choice to kick out an ex-boyfriend in 2018. The harassment got worse after kicking him out, and that's all I will state in this blog, because I need privacy in my life. At least on some level. Well, there is the fact I do want to someday be a famous writer, artist, photographer, knitter, crafter and so on. 

I guess perhaps people have been trying to get me to toughen up. But, the thing is, there is a time and place when it's okay to give advice and a time and place when not everything about my life is meant to be like an open book to others.

Famous people also need their privacy. It's called respect of personal space. That becomes a horrible act of inhumanity when exploitation becomes the norm. Really? It shouldn't.

However, here we are in the time of the Corona Virus. It's so sad to hear about how since end of March towards very early April it came to be in effect. I hate hearing about it, but I do need to be aware. I have grown children to worry about, friends and family and of course myself. I need to protect myself as hard as I can, because I am the mother of my kids and they need me. I need me. Always.

I am true to me. I think something I have been noticing since I kicked out that boyfriend, is that people are so inclined to role play or relate about someone right in front of their face. Have any of you noticed that? It's a really horrible act of injustice and that needs to stop. I guess what people don't seem to realize and I pray to God they smarten up around this town I live in that they should stop role playing me to my face, because it's highly hurtful and not cool. But, people will do that. I am aware. It needs to stop.

Another thing. If they think they can do that to me? What if there's a domino effect and it happens to a lot of other people. Whoever thinks it's funny to do that to me, who has no mental issue at all. And they decided to bully, gang up. Doctors also made horrible mistakes. I am praying to God there is a miracle that can rectify what they did to me.

Anyway, I have been focusing on my art, photography and getting back to Ceramics, because it had been a while since I had worked with Ceramics. I am learning that more than I used to. No kiln yet, so I did a bit of research as how to bake some in my oven. In a safe manner. It seems to work pretty well, but I am not sure they are baked all the way. I can tell some are making a clinking noise when I tap a few gently next to each other. I think I will do this with some of the other pieces also, so they won't break as easily if I get to move in a bit. That is up in the air at the moment.

My kids are home with their father and their step-mother now. My oldest is out west and being careful as well to be safe and healthy during this awful virus. I've been staying at home working on my creative work. Some of my artwork seems to be leaning towards a more sophisticated level than some of my artwork used to be.

Don't get me wrong, I still love a lot of the previous artwork I have done also, but the new work I've been taking my time more. I cringed recently upon seeing a few of my older drawings. I think they had just been starts and were more like some of my paper dolls. I changed one of them, to look a lot better than it was. I mean, the face did look kind of geeky, and I really wanted it to look better.

That comes with age, practice and gaining wisdom. I've been naive in the past. I guess people in my life kind of knew that, said nothing and just watched and waited without telling me some things I should have been clued in on. Jeeze, small world. It really is when you think of it. It's funny sometimes and other times, it's like, "Well, why didn't you tell me you knew so and so? I would have acted a lot differently." It's humiliating.

Well, I guess "Do a stupid thing with enthusiasm." really rules the day sometimes. At least people can learn to laugh it off. But, some things are really horrible in the moment and people really shouldn't bully (throw word stones) all the time. It hurts the brain. In more ways than one. Stress does hurt. It does physical damage.

I wore my mask today to retrieve my mail. An incident with a neighbor got me peeved and it caused me to be distracted enough to not think to wear my mask to go do one of my errands. Basic errands like getting groceries, people need to do. I wear my mask when I go to the park across the street to do some photography.

I have learned to use the manual setting so much better with my larger digital camera. It's so exciting to take pictures. I think I am always going to be fascinated with images. The composition.

My youngest daughter can hardly wait to get back to work and both of my girls will be graduating high school in June. They want to go to college. They still like art, which is nice. My oldest daughter, likes to write short stories sometimes. I think that is really great. She's a good writer and I am so proud of her.

My younger daughter, Julia, has been taking an interest in jewelry, like me. I started carving into jewelry wax. I haven't figured out too much with that yet, but I am hoping I can learn how to do that better in the future.

My oldest son, Sean, is loving working with Indian artifacts, out west. Archaeology. I think that's another reason for me to love working in Ceramics. I sometimes think of Indian pottery of the Southwest and I can feel a connection to my son by working in ceramics.  I miss him. I miss all four of my kids.

Hopefully, this Corona Virus gets nipped in the butt soon, because people want their lives back to normal. And I seriously want my life back to normal too. I pray to God for a solution, because this is the year something needs to happen so I can earn a decent living from my creative work. I'm in the second half of my life, 52 years and as much as I am grateful for the struggle, I really hope to do a lot better financially in that.

And, someone's been showing me, I guess I can be funny too. There's comedians in the family. My kids are comedians too. My ex-husband used to make me laugh sometimes too, with his imitations of some famous people.

Something I have really been wanting for years and years is more kindness being done to me. It hasn't been given to me, and I am praying to God for that to change. I have been praying for that for a long time. People become so relentless, ruthless.

I am going to write more fiction books about witches some day. People will either like it or they won't. But, I do love writing, just as much as I love art and all the rest of creating. I LOVE MY KIDS.

Pranks are not okay. Granted, there's April Fools, but that comes once a year. Maybe adults should learn to be careful playing horrible pranks on someone, no matter if you are rich or poor. I guarantee that if it doesn't stop, someone could get seriously hurt. And I don't want to see people hurt. I don't want to see me hurt either. I love my beautiful life, even though there have been some horrible things done to me.

Fodder is fodder though, and it turns into fiction when a writer goes to write. I haven't been able to write as much after kicking out that boyfriend. I got harassed, and that's made me feel quite uncomfortable to write a lot to my fiction right now. I have been handwriting my poetry though, on some days. I do keep up at that and occasionally work at the new fiction novels in progress. They are all mine. I don't pay an editor to do the editing for me.

I want to write a science fiction novel too. I started one close to a few years ago and got halted on that.

I've been cooking and baking a lot, for working on my newest cookbook I would like to self-publish later. Yesterday, was a Kraft boxed macaroni and Cheese kind of day. Ha. It's almost 1am. I almost typed in today. Funny. Lunch after midnight, would not be a cool thing. Don't they say that later in the evening when you eat something, that adds pounds?

I lost weight, but there's that perpetual abdomen where my four kids lived in my womb for nine months. And two miscarriages in between my kids. And of course their father's kids. It takes two people obviously, but I'm writing this blog and I have every right to say my. Some people maybe get peeved when people stress the word MY. Well, in the English language and especially when writing, there are times when "My" is going to be the correct word to use, when the word, "Our" is not. And other times, that works. I say "Our kids" or "the kids" when I am texting my ex-husband (their father).

Have a nice rest of the weekend. Be healthy, Stay safe. My heart goes out to the families who have lost loved ones to the Corona Virus. It really isn't funny at all. It's scary as hell.

Earth is supposed to be a beautiful place and it seems that people love to show me how the world is horrible. I want quite a bit less of that, like this month would be great for that. Please God. I will say thank-you when I really see a great change and not have to worry so much about the future. I get that from my Nana. She was a worrier. I worry about my four kids too. That's the great mother in me, worrying that nobody will hurt them.

I think every parent who loves their children feels that primal need to worry. I have tried not to worry so much. I think concentrating on my writing, the art and all that has really helped me to focus. Well being is important. I try hard to ignore petty jealousy when I can tell some people are peeved with me for any reason. Not everything is everyone's business.

There is a limitation to boundaries. Kindness counts.

Here is a quote from my Grammy Wagnis:

The hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world.

Now, think about how many times that any one of good people, young and old, have rocked the cradle with a child inside, sleeping contently, or crying and needs to be picked up. That child needs to be loved. Mothers birth the babies. Fathers also rock the cradle. It takes two to tango. Russian Roulette.

Funny. I learned within this last year, about clay rollers being called "Roulettes". That's kind of funny as well as interesting. I'm a waiting for some tools and they're not here quite yet. I'm patient though and will wait and then enjoy using them when they arrive in the mail.

Artists need tools to do their jobs effectively.


Sincerely,

Jennifer Jo. Fay

Copyrighted May 3, 2020



Photography by Jennifer Jo. Fay

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Creating new stuff

I've just been thinking about what I want to draw next.  I've been thinking of drawing from some of the twilight or breaking dawn photos for fun.  I've been seeing people on ebay selling their stuff  on there that they custom make.  I recently saw a graphic artist who was making her own t shirts of a few of the twilight pictures. 

All she really did was take the photograph of Bella and Edward kissing and she doctored it up in her graphics software.  But it is still basically the original picture.

I'm thinking I would be able to take the whole photograph and draw the whole thing with perfect likeness.  And then I would probably take the image and do my own thing to it.  Add flowers and other things.

I've got to get back to drawing soon.

Lately, I have been just knitting and then I caught the jewelry making bug.  That is fun.  I started making those bottle cap necklaces and charm bracelets and knitting markers.  I enjoy making the knitting markers.  I've got two people on ebay looking at a few of my sets.  People have already purchased three of my sets.

They are so easy to make.  I've got some with glow in the dark beads that I want to make next.  That would be fun and cute.

The bottle caps are so easy too.  All you get are the bottlecaps, shrink down your pictures, stick on an epoxy sticker and then cut off the edges.  Glue into the bottlecap and pick out a necklace for it.

The most recent drawing for me was drawing out a few rag dolls on cloth.  That was fun, and I still need to finish that project too.  I've got to first finish knitting my skirt.  It's close to being done.

Jennifer jo Fay

April 12, 2012

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Neat jewelry mousepads!

I love Jewelry mousepad
I love Jewelry by FancyPhotography
More Jewelry Mousepads


Awesome mouse pads at my Zazzle store!  Affordable prices!

Cheaper Paper Doll prices coming soon!

I've just started selling my paper dolls at Etsy too.  I don't know the url for that yet, but if you go and search Jennifer Jo Fay, you would probably find my store.  I might have called it jennifer Jo Fay Paper dolls.

I have decided to sell my paper dolls at a cheaper price.  So eventually when I get around to it, I will be changing the prices on my blogs too.

So for now, if you would like to buy my paper dolls, you might want to go to Etsy where they will be the cheaper price.  And it's easy to set up the shipping rates there for multiple items and out of the country.

Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted March 11, 2012


I think I have four or five sets on Etsy so far, and also one set of photo greeting cards.  I will soon offer more photo cards there too.

Friday, March 2, 2012

My new Paper Doll Line

I've been thinking of my Gothic Girls Paper Doll Line which I haven't begun to do yet.  But last night, I got started on my Gothic Girls Rag Dolls that also might inspire the paper doll ones.

It was fun.  I started with a basic doll pattern and then worked on the head and torso.  I'm going to make a few more later today.

This one is my first Gothic Girl (Ophelia).  She has some tragic poems on her undergarment and I'm going to draw on the whole body.  Then I might make my own tragic outfits for her.  She will be a one of a kind and I might try selling her on Ebay after I am done.  And she might make some good photos for products on Zazzle.

http://www.zazzle.com/fancyphotography/

I recently added about thirty new photographs to the products on there.

I will have to get more of the paper dolls on products on my other store there soon.

http://www.zazzle.com/fancypaperdolls/


My next rag dolls, I will probably be inspired by those Blythe dolls with the big eyes.




Three of my Blythe dolls.  I love these ones.



These are three of my more gothic looking paper dolls.  But I might try a different outline for the dolls.

Maybe I will have several different lines of Gothic Dolls, with different poses.  Each line, I will probably have the same pose for some of them, so that they can share the clothing.


Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted March 2, 2012


Saturday, February 25, 2012

The Official Paper Doll Blog

It's another really fun day in paper doll land.  Do you remember playing with paper dolls when you were little?  I did.  Not that I can remember too many that I actually played with.

I can remember cutting out a few of them and playing with them.  I vaguely remember The Ginghams and Raggeddy Anne Color Forms.  I remember having my appendix out one year and someone gave me a set of those color forms.  I can remember playing with them in the hospital.

And I was also really lucky, as my appendix was about ready to burst.  I was six years old when it happened and was really sick for a few days.  And my lips puffed up really bad and my mom finally brought me in to see Dr. Orbeton.  I'm sure he is dead now.  He immediately said that I had to go straight to the hospital.

So we walked on over and got me in.  I think I had to stay there for an overnight or two.  And then I got to come home.

But paper dolls were a lot of fun to play with.

Years ago, when I first started making my own paper dolls, my mother would say, "Now, there's something."

She then went on to tell me that she and her best friend used to have trunks full of paper dolls.

And I am sure their's were the old vintage ones.  All the fashion dolls and vintage.  Ava Gardner.  There was a paper doll for every sort of fashion celebrity.  My personal favorite, Katherine Hepburn.

I've got to seriously get back to creating some more paper dolls.

Today, I even thought of some first drafts for my video games that I have been wanting to create would be good for the Gothic girls line.

For one of the video games ideas I came up with, I had started to draw up some creepy looking dolls with leaves coming out their eyes.  They could also be good for the paper dolls.

I've come up with a few videos.  I can complete the written scenarios and the drawings and artwork.  But someday, when it is finished, I would have to find someone to turn it into a three d form.

One of the videos I got copyrighted.  It is called Passions Unleashed and is an adult game.  A game of sex and murder.  There are lots of characters, 130 rooms that I have to draw out.  Drawings of all the characters.  And about forty written scenarios.

I've written three to four scenarios so far.  And I've drawn up the walls for the Kinky Kitchen and the cemetary and living room and a few other rooms.  I have to finish the walls and do the coloring and then come up with drawings for all the other fun rooms that I thought up.

They will have to figure out which two people are having sex, in what room, and with what object.  Definitely not for kids.  Definitely adults. 

The guy that I was going to collaborate on this with, thought we could get access to porn videos and other stuff.

I'm glad I am not dating him anymore and the video game idea is all mine.  I don't want any porn in my video.  I want it to be a little classier than that.  Anime sounded kind of neat.

I've copyrighted it and the first three scenarios, so nobody else can take my idea in my way of writing it and drawing all the drawings.

I'm sure someone else could come up with a possible similiar idea.  I know I am not the only one who has thought of creating a video game of sex and murder.

But nobody can take my style.  That is mine.

Same with the paper dolls.  Those are all mine.

I brought in my sketchbook this weekend.  Maybe I will start taking some photos of some of my new sketches in the works to share on here.

It definitely takes a long time to create a set.  But once they are finished they look great.

So, now I have them for sale on this blog on the first post. 








BunBun and Olga paper dolls was my first completed set that I finished about eight or nine years ago.

It started by a Doll magazine that I subscribed to before this set was done.  Inside the pages of the magazine was a contest for us to create outfits for the Helen Kish paper doll.  It prompted me to do it.  I wanted to win and get my stuff in the magazine.

I won!  I got my outfits in the magazine and I won a little six to eight inch Helen Kish Riley doll.  They are normally kind of expensive.  I was so excited.

And then I was encouraged to send more to them.  And I was borderline on getting a contract with them to create paper dolls.  The girl wanted to have my stuff in there too, but they also had a contract with another girl and they couldn't have both of us in the magazine.

Then I discovered OPDAG trade magazine, based in Maine.  For a bunch of years, I have contributed to that magazine.  I have been slacking in the last few years.  They send it out quarterly.  I've usually been creating the outfits for their dress a doll and I send a few of my sets that they include in the magazine.

Once, I actually had a mail order for a paper doll set.  That happened a few times.  Kind of neat.

So then I created this BunBun and Olga set.  Bunbun was a favorite rabbit toy that I had in childhood.  And I still have her, but you wouldn't know that she is a bunny now.  She had beans in her and once I threw her in the trash.

Her friend was Olga that was my stuffed animal puppy.  I thought up the paperdoll set about them.  It took a few weeks to a month to finish the whole set.  I really take my time with things.

I've got a few pages that I think I still have to finish.  Maybe that will someday be a second set for them.

And I have written a little children's book that I will someday illustrate.  Little Jenny and BunBun.  It will chronicle my young life with BunBun.

Then, I also have started a series for BunBun and Olga Paper Dolls.  I still have to finish the first little story.
It's called BunBun and Olga get Bullied.

It's going to kind of be a little series.  I have kind of envisioned that it would be a neat little tv series.  Kind of like Arthur.  The series about the ardvark.

Yet, it would be my own thing with my own set of morals and values.  There of course will be a lot of bunnies and puppies in it and maybe some other animal characters.  I think I am more than halfway through the Bully story.

Maybe I will post it here, when it is done.  And maybe some illustrations would be cool to go with it.


So anyway, if anybody wants to check out the paper dolls I have so far, go to the first post.


And another kind of exciting thing.  I have a store on Zazzle that has been kind of dormant for a while.

I finally found an email from them today, and some of my products got sold.  Yay.  It's mostly floral photography and doll photography so far.  And I have another store just for the paperdolls on products.

I think I will now be going onto those stores and adding some new products on the stores of my paperdolls and my other photographs.

http://www.zazzle.com/fancyphotography/
http://www.zazzle.com/fancypaperdolls/

So if anyone wants one of the paper dolls on a mug or tee shirt or something, you can get it at Zazzle.

I thought nothing would ever happen from that site.  Good lord, maybe I am wrong.

Some other people are doing pretty well there.  I see some people always posting their stuff from Zazzle on my igoogle page.

And over the next few days, I need to start to join some paper doll groups so I can promote this paper doll blog to people that like paper dolls.

It's a real struggle to get the paper dolls off the ground.  Someone said I have to brand myself, yet I'm not really sure how to do that.

All I know how to brand myself is that I am unique and nobody makes paper dolls quite like me.  To me it is an art form.  Fine art paper dolls.  I really strive for a lot in my paper dolls.

And someone said there was about 21 million paper doll sites.  I guess I have to try to figure out a way that sets me apart from other paper doll sites.  I'm not really sure how to approach that.


Monday, February 20, 2012

How to Make Paperdolls

How to make a paperdoll

All little girls or the majority of them like to play with paperdolls and dolls and barbies. When I was little I was given a Raggeddy Anne Colorforms and other old fashioned paperdolls. I spent hours playing with them. When my mom and her best friend were little, they had trunks filled with paperdolls. They were the really old ones.

Nowadays, you can get the reproductions of all the old ones. Ebay is a great place to get the originals.
OPDAG magazine is an official magazie devoted to paperdolls. The editor is the daughter of a mother that makes lots of paperdolls. It is based in Kingfield, Maine. She puts out two magazines. One is called Paperdoll Review and is devoted to all the old ones and you can still buy the reproductions.
The other magazine is Paperdoll Studio and is dedicated to new paperdoll artists. I have been creating mine for eight years.

So here are tips for little girls to make their own.

1. A good lightbox is very helpful. Some toy companies sell some geared for children that are really cute if you're looking for something cute and girlie. I like a good quality lightbox that you can plug in. The kid ones usually take batteries and if they leave them on when not in use, the battery runs out and it collects dust for a while until they ask for it again. Sometimes they can see what they're drawing better with a no frills one. I got mine at Utrecht, or Dick Blick or Daniel Smith. Utrechts prices are good and they cater to artists and budding artists.


2. So they want to create. Let them get into it and express themselves. Let them get messy if they do. I've always been one not to interrupt a creative child. It's so important for them to get into the process.

3. Sometimes it might be helpful for them to choose a picture so they can get a basic outline. Sometimes children hav a hard time with body parts. But I would also encourage them to create their own if possible. Even I use an outline sometimes if I like the position of the body parts. But it stops at the outline. The lightbox helps them to trace the outline. Then they can go in and create their own face and hairstyle.

4. Have them create a bathing suit or a really short nightgown. Bikini or full piece. Or they can have the doll wear short and a tank top. Why I say this is when they go to create their other costumes and outfits they will have the freedom of creating things that are going to not sure the basic underwear garment that is on the doll.

5. I like to use a fine tip black marker. The grocery store sells them for a few bucks. A nice set of colored pencils and good markers are great. If you've got a serious artist on your hands a nice quality set of colored pencils and markers are great. If they're little the basic cheaper markers are good for them to use, as quite often the caps get left off the marker and then soon you have a dried up marker that is no good.

6. After they have the doll created, then the lightbox comes in handy to make their own outfits. Then they can see the boundaries of their doll and they can create the outfits to fit. Make sure they add some little tabs on the shoulders, waist, and maybe the legs, boots or arms. That way when cut out and folded they will fit the doll. They can color them and design them anyway they want. The design part is where they can get really creative.

7. Outfit ideas. dresses, pants, coats, sweaters, ball gowns, cosumes. Halloween themes are great right about now. Easter, Valentines day, etc...

8. Have them create a name for their paperdolls. Maybe they want to use their own name or maybe a favorite character or their favorite actress.

9. Another idea for little girls learning is getting a teen magazine and picking a picture and designing one from their favorite character. Tracing paper is good to have on hand. My son used to like tracing monsters and other stuff.

10. Also encourage them to create pretty backgrounds to their page. Hearts, flowers, etc... Make some props to go with the dolls.

11. The clothing is usually on a separate page, but you can also usually fit one or two on the same page as the doll. She will need to creat some on another page first and then trace her costumes somewhat onto the same page as the doll. But she can change the outfits a little as long as the boundaries are going to be the same as the doll.

12. It's important to teach them to be original and create their own as much as possible. Always make sure they sign their name when they are done. Sometimes it looks neat underneath their name of the doll.

13. And if your child would rather just play with a store boughten one, there are cute Disney ones, Barbie ones and sometimes different types of wooden sets. I think that Melissa and Doug company usually has several sets that are cute for little girls.
But if they want to take their time and create their own, they are becoming budding designers and fashionistas.


Happy Creating.


Jennifer Jo Fay

Copyrighted February 20, 2012


If you or anyone would like to check out and purchase my paper doll sets, check out one of my earlier posts where you can purchase them on each of my blogs.

http://jennyjofaypaperdolls.blogspot.com/
http://mommiedearest101.blogspot.com/
http://bloggersblock.blogspot.com/
http://prolificpoetrychick.blogspot.com/
http://yourstrulycraftygal.blogspot.com/