Every year I have a Halloween party with hand-made invitations that are almost as much fun for me as preparing for the party. One year's invitation was a bat mobile, another year was shrunken heads. Year before last, I made giant papier mache spiders that dropped down from their webs when the recipients opened their front doors. As I made my way down the street dragging my little red wagon full of spiders and a step-stool, I could hear the screams of neighbors who unsuspectingly opened their front doors :)

Last year I made witches using materials I had on hand: wire, sea glass, and Sculpey polymer clay. I always enjoy making my invitations, but these were such fun that when I finished the 30-odd invitations, I kept working. I made witches for my mother, my aunt, each of my three nephews, my sister-in-law . . . until my husband stressed that the party was fast approaching.

After Halloween, friends asked me to consider making something for Christmas, so I created my elves and Santas. An O&M Specialist asked me if I could make a blind elf, and I ended up making 30 blind elves and Santas for her.

I'm new at this, with no training, either formal or informal. But it's fun and I love doing it. I love watching the personality emerge! I don't create these little people; they develop and emerge in front of me. By the time I'm finished, we have a relationship. I just love it. Now I've got to find a way to keep going. At some point, I'm going to have to find people who are interested in buying my witches and elves, if only because they're taking over the guest bedroom where I work.

The room isn't large, and I refuse to remove my great-grandfather's old iron bed. I really love the connection to the past that the bed offers. For some reason, old things feel to me like they offer a stronger connection to the Earth, and I like that. My Santas' hair and beards come from raw cotton that I found growing in my neighborhood (the land was once a plantation). I used my great-grandmother's old cotton combs to pull the cotton before giving it to the Santas.

For that reason, I also like using sea glass for the bodies. I've made some dolls using plastic or glass beads, but I really prefer natural stone and crystals. They're more expensive, but they feel truer to what I'm doing. So, I am on a continuing quest for stone beads with holes big enough to accommodate two pieces of wire -- not an easy task!

I'm creating this blog as a sort of album of my creations. It'll be fun for me to watch the progress of my witches, elves, Santas (and whatever else comes along), and I'd love to get feedback from folks! In any case, I hope you enjoy