Yovanka Black

VERY special gift... from a VERY special friend AND artist!!!!

2011-05-18T12:03:00.005+03:00

My dear friend and AMAZING dollmaker Esther Verschoor sent me this absolutely FABULOUS doll.. one of the "Dali Twins" collection... and needless to say that I am OVER THE MOON!!!!!!!!!!!

The detail on this doll is exquisite!!!!!!!!! I have never received a gift doll from a fellow dollmaker.. and to get one from Essie is such a treat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you have ever considered buying one of her amazing dolls.. DO NOT hesitate!!!! Her work is soooooo beautiful!!!!!!!!! You will not be disappointed!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can check out her blog here: http://vanessies.blogspot.com/

THANK YOU ESSIE :-******************

Embroidery Work... teaser ;)

2011-02-28T14:56:00.002+02:00

Vintage and antique scraps of lace.. and plenty of beading..

and all that.. just for DOLLS!!!

OWOH winner :)

2011-02-17T21:23:00.002+02:00

The winner of my OWOH giveaway is #37 Astrid Maclean from Scotland (http://astridsartisticefforts.blogspot.com/)

Thanks so much EVERYONE for taking the time to stop by and introduce yourselves!

I really enjoyed the journey of meeting so many wonderful artists and bloggers from ALL around the world :)

I have been encouraged by your lovely comments and inspired by your works of art!

Big thanks to Lisa for another great event... and wishes that it won't be the last one after all ;)

Warm regards

Yovanka

Yet another..

2011-02-14T22:29:00.004+02:00

Its so hard to photograph these fairy babies.. :(

While I am struggling with a pile of fabrics, trims, beads and sequins for my dolls' clothings.. its nice to take a break and play with some textures and clay.. (or anything that doesn't require any scissors or thread lol).

I should make some with different color combinations.. but anything even remotely resembling red or fuchsia.. makes the whole thing look way too dramatic...

One World One Heart 2011 Giveaway

2011-01-31T13:20:00.016+02:00

This is the 1^st time I am participating in the One World One Heart blog event and I am VERY excited!! For any 1st time visitors, my name is Yovanka Black and I am a doll-maker living in Athens, Greece. I make OOAK dolls using polymer clay.

I decided to make something cute and lovable that wouldn’t take much of your space and perhaps even offer you a smile ;)

My door price is a OOAK Mini (fairy) Baby in a nut ornament. It is handmade by me using polymer clay, a Buddha nut and mixed media. It is about 3’’ wide and has a sparkly little loop for hanging.

The OWOH event is open to ALL active bloggers from ALL around the World!

ALL you need to do, to get a chance at winning, is leave a comment on this post! THAT’S IT!

***Only 1 comment per person please***

The event will be officially over on 17^th of February at which time I will be picking (using an online random number generator) and announcing the winner!

Here is a link with the list of all the other wonderful OWOH participants :)

*** You can click on pictures to view them at a larger magnification ***

New wip

2010-09-19T17:39:00.007+03:00

So there is still a LOT of work to be done on her.. lighting is also a bit off... and that mess of hair that you see is actually a pile of dark brown mohair resting on her head.. helping me to decide her hairstyle :)

She has blue glass eyes and permanent mohair eyelashes... yet thats all I can say really for now..

Her name and story will be revealed some time later :)

I guess that by now you may have noticed that I enjoy making sad dolls... I find them very inviting for some reason.. I hope I am not tiring you guys though...

Thanks for stopping by!

Kisses

Yovanka

p.s. Also, my blog makeover is finished (apart from a couple of details that still need to be figured out).

Working on my blog's template

2010-08-04T19:38:00.005+03:00

I have been working on creating a custom background for my blog (along with my logo etc.) and this is the reason why there have been so many changes the last weeks in my blog's appearance.

I apologize to all of YOU (that take the time to stop by to view my work and/or comment on it). I know I am making your life more difficult, when you constantly need to re-adapt to any changes I may have made in between your visits :(

Hopefully I will have finalized all designs within the next couple of weeks, at which time I will be organizing yet another giveaway. A little *thank you* for all your patience!!!

Kisses

Yovanka

p.s. Btw... I would love to know what you think of my new blog header :)

Elfish...

2010-08-02T08:19:00.002+03:00

This started out as something COMPLETELY different (in fact SO different.. that I am actually too embarrassed to mention lol)... yet I decided to go with it. I am not very happy with the way she turned out.. yet I hope that with some (bold) experimentation she may become somewhat more interesting..

I have probably completely messed up her makeup (and features for that matter), she is way too stylized (in the wrong direction) and just plain (=being the *key* word) weird!

I think of her as some kind of *sea* creature for some reason. But she looks like an elf... and as far as I know.. there aren't many of those living under water. Also she was so stubborn in being realized (totally ruining ANY plans *I* had for her along the way) that I feel her name (at least) is a keeper!

Any thoughts and/or recommendations would be greatly appreciated at this point ;)

Giveaway for ADO blog event :)

2010-07-24T15:17:00.009+03:00

For my first giveaway I decided to offer a mini baby I made some weeks back. I have worked so much on it, changed it dozens of times, applied and reapplied several layers of different textures, changed its color again and again, that I feel utterly exhausted lol

So this was a nice opportunity to send it to a home of a fellow artist where it may be a bit more appreciated...

I used a random number generator where I entered the total number of comments left on my Alice (minus mine) and the winner is... no 12 alas Zephyr Dreams

Thanks again soooooo much everyone for taking the time to stop by and leave a comment plus for all your fabulous dolls in the 2010 Ado Blog Event!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Off I go to let Tiffany know about her little price!

Kisses

Yovanka

p.s. Promise to give you all a "heads up" next time I will organize a giveaway ;)

A huge THANK YOU!

2010-07-19T10:56:00.002+03:00

I had a blast participating in this year's ADO blog event.. met so many fabulous dollmakers out there and saw so many wonderful works of art.. you have no idea how fun, creative and inspiring this has been for me :)

I would also like to thank, through this post, all of you wonderful artists that took the time to stop by and leave a kind comment on my entry Alice :) I have read each and every one of your lovely comments (more than once to be honest lol) and you have given me great strength and inspiration to move forward!!!

So... THANK YOU sooooooo much!

I will be organizing a little giveaway some time soon (I hope), for everyone that has commented on Alice... just a little something from me to say thanks :) There is no need to "apply" for the giveaway... I 'll just include all the names from the previous post.

I will let you know more soon!

Thanks so much again!!!!!!

Lots of love and kisses

all the way from Greece

Yovanka

Alice in Wonderland - ADO challenge

2010-07-08T15:19:00.030+03:00

Alice was born into an aristocratic English family in 1865.

As it was common for such families at the time, Alice's parents were 1st cousins, themselves also a product of a long line of incest.

As soon as Alice was born, the signs of a not all-together normal child were more than obvious. Alice's fragile health and ghastly looks, didn't allow her of ever making any friends. No one wanted to be around this weird looking child.

Luckily her parents adored Alice!

They invested all of their time and resources to provide a good life for their little girl. They had the best doctors treating Alice and provided the most expensive and modern remedies and therapies for her painful disabilities. They even created the most imaginative, exotic garden for her to enjoy, full of weird and beautiful animals and birds brought from the farthest corners of the empire. It was like a little piece of heaven that Alice was free to explore ...on her good days.

Alice made most of her time in the garden her parents had built for her. She dreamed of talking animals and fantasized about going into adventures with them. She imagined colorful, strange worlds filled with beautiful princesses and their loyal servants, floating cats, smart dressed bunnies and mean queens. Even her dreaded little bottles of oh! so bitter medicine took new life into her fantasies. They wouldn't just make her feel better. They could turn her into a giant or even a teeny tiny fairy like creature, providing her access to the most crazy and amazing corners of her wonderland!

It seemed as though Alice was happy ...for a while at least.

As soon as her father became seriously ill, her parents set forth arranging Alice's marriage. She was 16 years old now and they wanted to make sure that this special little girl would be taken care off long after their demise. So, she became engaged to her 2nd cousin Leopold, a handsome and overly ambitious young man who had shown an untimely and suspicious interest in her.

Two years later, Alice's father passed away and soon after her grief stricken mother followed.

Alice, suddenly found herself all alone, trapped into an unhappy marriage with the self-centered libertine Leopold.

Her health was deteriorating fast. By now unable to walk, she was denied her visits to her beloved garden so life held no interest for her any more.

Leopold was fast growing more and more impatient with Alice and her problems. Her drug induced irrational behaviour and screams of agony in the middle of the night, was keeping him from enjoying the company of his friends and mistresses. He could no longer arrange his infamous "poker" nights and subsequent “happenings”, while his sick wife was scaring his cronies off.

Before Alice turned twenty, she was sent away to an asylum for the mentally insane where deviant and experimental “treatments” were applied to the ill-fated inmates. It was there where Alice spent her final days ...chasing white rabbits down the labyrinths of her tormented mind...

Even though Leopold tried his best to ensure that no evidence of his wife was left anywhere in the mansion, a miniature portrait locket was discovered decades later, buried in the garden, showing a young Alice (due to her retarded development it was always hard to judge her exact age) holding one her favourite pets that her beloved father had brought her from Indonesia, a little Katapopo.

It is thanks to this little portrait that I was able to sculpt my Alice for the 2010 ADO blog event ;)

Hope you like her :)

I 'd love to know what you think of her!!

You can view more "Alice in Wonderland" dolls from all the other wonderful participants here !!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Yovanka

p.s. Ok... I have a confession to make... Alice isn't completed yet.. so here I offer a "bust" view of her. She is 16'' tall and wears a long, white, lacy dress... I will post update pics in the coming days....

ADO challenge - Alice in Wonderland - preview

2010-07-04T21:45:00.006+03:00

I am taking part in ADO's yearly blog event (ending on July 8th).

This year's theme is "Alice in Wonderland" and I decided to do an Alice doll... with a twist.

Before I completed Alice I thought I should mention that as a child I never did like this story much. It actually scared me. I had nightmares of getting lost into crazy worlds away from my parents, not being able to come back home.

If you think about it, "Alice in Wonderland" is a fairytale with no meaning at all. There is no lesson for a child to draw, no purpose... it has more of a "dream" quality to it. Its crazy, unpredictable, weird and complex. Or... as "Jefferson Airplane" saw it... like a trip into a drug induced paranoia!! LOL

As an adult though, I came to appreciate Alice and all of her weirdness. There is so much inspiration one can draw from this story's unique characters and their adventures. In fact I found it hard to pick just one for this challenge.

Before I reveal MY Alice in a few days time (hope I will complete her in time!!), along with HER story, I wanted to give you guys a little teaser pic (crap** ofcourse!). I tried in my mind to "justify" Alice's "Wonderland saga" and see how and why this little girl got into so much trouble... plus what happened to her later in life ;)

I know I have plenty more explaining to do... my Alice is going through quite a lot... and there is a pretty good reason for her looking so... ghastly lol

Its payback time for all the stress and anxiety this little girl had caused me... when I was her age :)

Kisses

Yovanka

p.s. "White rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane is one of my favorite songs :)

Mini baby

2010-06-20T16:06:00.006+03:00

I found some pretty amazing dried buddha nuts and decided to use my little mini babies that have been laying around for ages... in my interpretation of a pod/cocoon like natural womb that would protect and feed and keep warm the little babies :)

I experimented a lot with different textures, trying to create an organic, grainy and fiber(y) environment... I am not so sure about the colours though. At first I thought something that would look like a pomegranate... yet the intense red colour made the entire thing look kinda scary... like a splatter scene or something :(

Anyways.. I am still working on it .. would love to know what you think plus if you have any suggestions!!

As always.. you can count on cra*** pics ;)

Lola's huby

2010-06-01T16:18:00.017+03:00

Lola's huby has been living in my studio for a while... missing his lush, exotic, home forest.. so I let him have a little walk outside under my watchful eye ;) Like Lola... he's quite old and unable to fly anymore (making my job watching him a LOT easier of course!!).

As always... pics are SUPER-cr***y..............

LOLA - wip

2010-03-06T22:32:00.005+02:00

A bad pic of my current wip: "Lola" - a rare paradise bird of a rather advanced age (but don't let her know I said so...!).

In her youth, she used to be the most majestic creature in the forest and men would fall like flies in her passing!! Still however, despite her age, she remains VERY glamorous and can sure teach a thing or two to some modern, tasteless chicks ;)

Lola once finished will be about 11''. She is going to have a vintage "showgirl" like costume.. with the feathers, the bling the lot!! I am still experimenting with the colour combinations... I am thinking of light blue/gray with a splash of fuchsia (and lots of silvery sparkle).

Her head still needs some work... but she WILL be finished soon! In fact, I am also preparing a hubby for her... not to mention a whole flock of dashing old timers lol

Chicken legs?

2010-01-11T13:45:00.003+02:00

Some chicken legs.. and other birdie legs & armatures in various shapes and sizes. My birdie witch is somewhat a commissioned piece by a wonderful Greek artist (and long time friend) here in Athens, who will be having a doll show with lady birds :) She is a renwoned costume designer and has worked for over 25 years in various theatre productions. We will be working closely together the next couple of weeks.. and I will be posting photos of our work together as well as her AMAZING studio (I am talking about the ultimate eye-candy here!!!).

I 'm back :)))

2010-01-09T23:30:00.005+02:00

Been a while....

2009-06-18T22:10:00.002+03:00

Well, its been a couple of months since my last post here and I have to say that I feel rather ashamed :(

Things have been super crazy around here. Urgent family matters have kept me away from my pc and blog and wonderful fellow artists. It is getting better though and I made a promise to myself to be updating my blog (a lot) more frequently!!!

Thanks so much for your wonderful comments and support!

Going through everybody's blogs and seeing your beautiful work

has provided me with loads of inspiration and ideas :)

Kisses

Yovanka

p.s. Unfortnately my little Beatrice broke (in a freaky accident that took place in my workspace).

p.s.2 Good news is I feel better now and there have been no other casualties ;)

Something different..

2009-03-31T18:17:00.003+03:00

The past few days have been rather crazy for me. My nerves are torn.. and I felt completely useless in dealing with even the tiniest little everyday challengies. I badly needed a change from my cute dollies and decided to have a go at something completely different.

Hence the birth of "Dirty Sally"... or in other words a cute little pug dog gone (very) BAD!

I have to say that working on "Dirty Sally" has been rather therapeutic for me. She portrays my "evil" and totally unpractical "alter ego". By looking at her, almost makes me feel like its ok to be completely mad at times and have your body going through (what at times seems like) a hormonic mutation lol. You can still be cute and ...loveable even ;)

Dirty Sally still needs a lot of work though, some more details and textures before she can even begin to come close to my inner b**** (no pun intended).

I am also not so sure about her ears. I am thinking of making them smaller or folded.. mmm will see :)

p.s. The 1st pic is a (rather tacky) colouring experimentation done using photoshop :)

"B" for ..Beatrice

2009-03-09T22:09:00.003+02:00

Beatrice is an only child and.. as it often happens, she has been terribly spoiled!! She can get mad over the tiniest of things and has grown to become a true little tyrant in her own home. She has just turned 8 years old and thats how she looked throughout her birthday party (!!!)... you will soon find out why ;)

Beatrice is 5 1/2'' tall and she is the first doll I 've made using rods inside her armature to make her stand on her base (not shown). She has dark brown mohair and blown glass blue eyes. I am currently working on her outfit and shoes... while desperately trying to style her hair lol

Pictures of Beatrice along with her full birthday story coming soon ;)

My new etsy shop :)

2009-02-04T18:26:00.003+02:00

I opened a new etsy shop and I have listed one of THE most challenging dolls I 've ever made!! Sapphira is about 47'' tall and combines both (polymer) clay & cloth sculpting. Ever since I made Sapphira... I 've been sculpting small lol

Hope you like her :)

For more info visit my etsy shop at: http://yovankablack.etsy.com

Upholstered chair

2009-01-06T17:53:00.006+02:00

My sad little girl still misses her hands, (they will be added during the dressing session), while I have been working on an upholstered chair just for her. It looks a little messy at this point.. yet it still requires a lot of work and I have to wait 'till the glue dries :( I love dolly props and this little red chair, (apart from providing my little girl with a soft and cozy place to rest), will also serve a purpose to her story too ;)

Sad Girl - wip

2009-01-05T13:09:00.003+02:00

I decided to have as my very first blog entry a current WIP (work in progress) piece of a sad little girl. Haven't decided on her name yet, but she will be a victorian inspired, (perhaps gothic even), little girl merely 6'' tall. She is sculpted from polymer clay over a wire armature and blushed with heat set oils. Her green eyes are blown glass and she is pose-able :)