Reynold and I left our large and very unique turn of the century home in
Victorian Nyack – on - Hudson, New York in the summer of 1993 ready to
begin a new adventure in Southern Florida. We bought a house and set up an
office for him and a studio for me. We soon discovered that each evening at
sundown, enormous toads and frogs that had hidden from the heat of the day
would hop out onto our driveway en mass covering it entranced and motionless
under the fluorescent light of the driveway’s street lamp. We began to
call our new home Frog City and people began bringing us all manner of
Froggy gifts.
Just as we settled into our home, Reynold accepted an overseas consulting
position with Avon Products. We closed up the house and moved to Guangzhou
(Canton) in Southern China to live and work. We began life there in a dimly
lighted one-room space in a hotel. It was cold and gray with thickly
polluted air and no sunshine. No one knew I existed. I had to make a life
for myself since Reynold traveled a good deal of the time and worked long
hours. There were no options for diversion such as I knew in the Western
world.
I attended the Guangzhou International Women’s Club meeting and it
saved my life. I said, “YES” to joining every activity I could and
volunteered for whatever I could do for the group. As a result, the
following Tuesday I appeared with the hotel sewing kit in one hand and the
$2.oo membership dues in the other, for my first of many weekly QUILTER’S
CLUB meetings. That was it…I was in love with doing “stuff” with
fabric.
Upon returning to the States I began taking more quilting classes and
returned to the study of pottery at a nearby college. Of course, the Frog
was appearing in all my art. While attending a quilt expo in which two of my
quilts were on exhibit, I happened into a vendor’s booth and saw a pattern
for a frog doll. Dear me, that was the beginning. I bought the pattern
knowing nothing about making sculptural things with fabric. I signed up for
a class and learned how to make that frog. Visitors to my home saw my frogs
sitting on the stairs and wanted to know where to buy them. Upon saying that
I made them I began getting orders.
I soon realized that it was time for me to choose a business name that
was both meaningful and different enough to be remembered by my customers.
Hence the POTTED FROG was born and people called me “the frog lady.” I
joined the Sand Dollr’s Doll Club of South Florida and began making dolls
more and more often, while working less frequently in my outdoor pottery
studio. I signed up for all the workshops I could with the doll artists that
came to this area and spent nearly every minute working in my studio at
improving my skills and techniques as a doll artist.
After some time elapsed I knew that the urge to design my own dolls,
publish my own patterns and teach doll making was growing ever stronger. I
was asked to teach a workshop concentrating on needle sculpting a cloth doll
face to the Sand Dollr’s club which was received with great enthusiasm. I
felt exhilarated to be teaching once again. Not long afterwards, invitations
to teach workshops elsewhere began to come in. I am now designing and
publishing my own patterns, teaching and working in the studio full time.
I love to work in many different medias and while I long to return to my
potter’s wheel the dolls keep pulling me away. I am deeply in love with
color and it’s combinations, textures and luster. When I am not working on
some aspect of a doll I am learning about a new beading technique or surface
design embellishment and products to use. I was invited to design the logo
for the Sand Dollr’s Cloth Doll Club, which I gladly accepted. The logo
now appears on the club’s stationary, membership cards, T Shirts and most
recently it was translated into a peyote stitch amulet necklace or purse
beading kit. You will immediately recognize a Sand Dollr’s member at We
Folk or Doll U by our club’s T-shirt.
My first published pattern was Critter Cushions, which was followed by
Gilda and Glenda the Guardian Grannies. I then published Fairie-Kins and Spa
Goddess. In addition to the doll patterns I have published several beaded
bracelet patterns: Bead Encrusted Bangle Bracelet and Diamonds and
Ice.
