What an incredible week this has been. It started with elinor peace bailey arriving last Sunday, then spending a delightful few hours with Barbara Chapman on Monday. Monday night Li Hertzi, Barbara Willis, Sally Lampi and Betts Vidal arrived at our house. Tuesday we had our Cosmic Queens do Faces day and what a fabulous time that was.
So, what is this all about? It's a special time with close friends, then a day of sharing our love of doll making with whomever will come.
This year I hosted the event and talked Allan and Suzanne Ream of Bits & Pieces in Escondido into letting us use their large classroom. As you can see, we pretty much filled it up with fun women.
Barbara Chapman was one of the people who came to our day. She teaches primarily at The Black Sheep in Encinitas and showed us one of her wonderful wrapped fairies. Barbara and her husband, Wayne, host an open house twice a year in their amazing home.
At our event, after morning lectures, Show & Tell and lunch we break up in small groups and have a round-robin. This allows each participant time to spend with each of we designers and have a hands-on experience learning our various techniques. This is elinor sharing with one of the groups.
This all started 4 years ago in Australia. Five of us were near Sydney teaching at a quilt & craft show. We were sharing an apartment with Gloria McKinnon, who brought us there. Six women in a two bedroom apartment could be interesting. To us, it was like heaven on earth. We decided we needed to do this more often.
elinor came up with the idea of a Flat Doll Day and our Cosmic Queens were formed. 
The original six are, from top left, Gloria McKinnon, Sally Lampi, Barbara Willis
Bottom from left, Betts Vidal, me (standing), and elinor peace bailey.
We've been able to travel to Portland, Oregon; Costa Mesa & San Diego, CA; and Cincinnati, OH. Next we'll be at the Enchanted Doll Art Conference in Albuquerque, NM July 17-20, and Quilt Festival in Long Beach, CA July 24-26.
http://www.enchanteddollartconference.com
http://www.quilts.com
At each venue we add a local designer. In San Diego/Escondido it was Li Hertzi. Li is known for her wonderful use of paints and working with the southwest figure. Her website is a work in progress right now, but you can see her work, and her new book "Art Doll Adventures".
http://www/lihertzidesigns.com
Hello patti, you have gained(earned) the prize you
Arte y Pico created by Eseya
http://eseyauy.blogspot.com/
I invite you to share this prize with your doll artist favorites
With love, Mayra René
The rules of premio:1. You must choose 5 blog that you consider be deserving of this prize for his(her,your) creativity, design, interesting material and contribution to the community bloguera, without importing his(her,your) language 2. Every granted prize must have the name of his(her,your) authoress and the link to his(her,your) blog in order that all it visiten.3. Every winning one must exhibit the prize and place the name and link to the blog of the person who her(it) has rewarded 4. Rewarded and premiadora, they must exhibit the link of Art and beak(peak), in order that they all know the origin of this prize. 5. To exhibit these rules.
Posted by: Mayra René | February 14, 2008 at 06:18 PM
Oh lucky you... all my favourite doll artists together in one room! I adore Li's book and I love all yours! Looking forward to your next.
Posted by: spiralsun65 | February 09, 2008 at 01:16 PM
I can attest, I was there -- we had a WONDERFUL day at The Cosmic Queens Do Faces. I learned so much. I hope the Queens do it again someday in San Diego.
Posted by: Lauren Sng | February 04, 2008 at 11:10 PM
Patti,
Happy to see you are blogging again. I will be at the EADC. I want to take your class, but, I see that it is for intermediate to advance. I still think of myself as a beginner, but thats is just me. I am the person who sent you the picture of the pink fairy. Do you think that I can take your class? I have worked with silk and I have experience in free motion and I am a tie dyer I have very little experience in beading. I just want to have fun. Let me know what you think.
Debra
Posted by: Debra Duckett | January 29, 2008 at 06:38 AM