Every artist who has a vision in their mind's eye is given the difficult task of translating the vision to the reality they want.

However, with mistakes either being salvaged, trashed or destroyed; equipment failing, breaking or damaged or even the media you work in runs out, has a deceptive completion time or it is wasted in a careless accident, these frustrations in art are enough to make you go from sweet to bonkers.

My story comes from my recent mission to build a portfolio of dolls for clients to look at before they ask for commission me.

I had about 10 female doll heads and one I tested with gel pens as I have better control with ball tips. I didn't like the face-up, which is the painted face painting on a doll. I took it to the bathroom and rubbed non-acetone nail polish remover on the face. In the end, I had a doll that was stained beyond restoration, so that was tossed into the trash bin.

The other side involved rooting hair today. I use a 3" sewing needle to root yarn into the heads as having nylon doll hair is dangerous to cats because it gets all over. I have to make do with the conditions set. While doing a male head, the needle and its eye separated. Since it broke, I have to halt rooting hair until one of two things happen: 1.) Mom gets time off and we go on a craft store crawl. (Hobby Lobby, Jo-Ann Fabrics and Michael's are the major 3 in the downtown area) or 2.) Wait until I have the money.

As mom works between part-time and full-time at a bakery's corporate store and I have most of my money set aside to buy Season 2, Part 1 of the Re-dub of Sailor Moon, allergy masks due to my severity in terms of hay fever 75% of the year, blank DVDs, paper sleeves for the DVD, an HD video camera, an SD card and tripod, which I've been putting off for the past couple of years, it will be a while until I see any money as I have about 13 days until my allowance comes in.

How do you have art woes and what is the hardest factor about the projects?

Notch it up to experience, PANDAQUEEN. It's better you learn now where any pitfalls may be than learn it on a client's piece and on their dollar.

My heart sinks when I am given a piece of furniture that has been too well loved with polish or varnish ... because sometimes despite primers and sanding, the original finish will bleed through the paint in spots making the piece look like a coffee table with orange measles ... When this happens I have to apply a treatment coating of shellac and start all over again .... Sadly you can't predict which pieces will do this and shellac is too expensive to apply as a matter of course for everything. It's like furniture roulette ...

Well, I was using the needle I mentioned as the eye is big enough to accommodate worsted weight yarns. I would use doll hair like the professionals use like elephant collars, tomato benders and ostrich waxers are used by pros (Garfield reference). However, our cats chew on thin string, which could kill them. Yarn is much easier to manage and gives a retro look to the doll.

However, I am running out of bodies for the heads. (try saying this to family members when you have a morbid past and I guarantee they'll think you're a psychotic murderer.)

I have to also work on video production as I had put it off too long.