Secret Garden Doll Almost Done

I have been working on this doll on and off for the past few days - mainly because the base and gate took a long time to dry. The base is wood covered with paint, a mix of cut-up straw, wool fibers, and glue, gel medium, and more paint. The gate is floral wire, apoxy sculpt and paint. The grasses growing around the gate are from my back yard. I dried them and sprayed them with lots of coats of clear and hopefully they will hold together though I may go to the store to see what they have in the dried area. So far, I have used only materials I have had on hand. All the clothes fabrics are from my stash of vintage fabrics collected at various flea markets. The hat is two small straw hats I took apart and remade into one that fit her. I did buy the key though. May also add a vine or two to the gate but I like the airy-ness of it. What do you think?

New Doll Progress

Here she is dressed, with limbs and hat. Her hat needs to be dressed up as do her shoes. Now I am working on her base and the garden gate.

New Doll

Our doll club meets in a public library. We decided to do dolls for a display illustrating children's books for them and also donate the dolls if the library wants them to use as a fundraiser. I couldn't decide what doll to do but finally settled on The Secret Garden. I had never read this book before but did see the movie. I did read parts of it and picked the scene where Mary is reaching out to open the hidden gate to the secret garden. She is almost done - just have to add her hands and finish her shoes. For her hair I used some wool given to me by my friend Colleen. It was not cleaned so I cleaned it which wasn't hard at all. Since the wool was almost blond enough, I added highlights with Antique Gold Silk dye from Ribbonsmyth. I rinsed the hair to get the excess dye out and it came out the perfect shade of straw blond. I then needle felted it to the head. I had planned on using a head I had on hand but wound up making a new one. Didn't like how that one came out so I did a cloth over with set in eyes. I wanted to make her look suprised that the key worked though I'm not 100% happy with her face but it's on the doll and it will stay there. I got the design for her clothes from a picture of a child with a name and date of 1912 on the back I saw at an antique mall. I did a quick sketch of the dress. I used vintage trims and the embroidered lawn of her overdress is also vintage. More pics to follow as she progresses.

Penny Bowles

I recently entered a challenge on the Yahoo group, Friends of Cloth Dolls. The challenge was to make a doll using a pattern for a Penny doll created by Claire Pruitt. The doll is patterned after a wooden doll of old. It has some interesting jointing and an interesting body side gusset. The fabric the doll called for was cotton drill which is just a bit lighter weight than canvas or duck. The color of the drill was natural and I didn't dye it. It was so light it spoke to me of Goth or SteamPunk. So, now that the challenge is over, I can share pics. The first is of her dressed. Her jacket and skirt can be removed. Her lace overskirt, mitts and neckpiece are from vintage lace given me by my friend Tery. She has a silk with burnt edges under skirt and a black with red sparkle tulle petticoat. The soles of her shoes which are not visable were sculpted from apoxy sculpt. Her boots are faux shiny leather. She does stand on her own though not too steadily! Next pic is of her in her undies. I got black paint on her torso so I painted then covered it with lace. The last pic is a close-up of her face. Her hair is Llama from my friend Colleen (she sells it in her ebay shop) It is very clean and very soft. I didn't needle felt it into her head because I was afraid the drill would break the needles so I sewed it in clumps all around her head. I think she looks like she stepped out of the movie Caberet.

Experimenting with Wool Roving

While at AFIC, we met a wonderful couple who raised sheep and sold the wool roving. The name of their company is Wooly Comforts. The colors were spectacular - very rich. We chatted during the slow times and got to know them a bit. The last day we were there, Nancy (I hope I remembered your name correctly!)brought in wool beads she had made the night before to use in a necklace. They were so pretty, I had to try them myself which I did while Barbara and Lynnis were here. They gave me great info - make the balls then string them in a stocking and through them into the washer and dryer. Worked great. Here is the necklace I made with them.

I attended a bridal shower yesterday and of course I had to make a purse for the bride. I found this beautiful embroidered and beaded tulle lace which had a scalloped edge that sortof mimicked the embellishment on her beautiful gown. I made a looped fringe on the bottom from beads and Austrian crystal drops and bicones. Subdued bling. I hope I got the color right - she said I did and she loved it!

Playing with the Melting Pot, UTEE, and Textiva

Colleen, Tery and I experimented. Colleen made the most incredible crown. I can see lots of these in the future! I made a few more examples to resemble opals and blue mother of pearl. I made a bezel of seed beads around one, added a fringe of swarski crystals and a pinback. Haven't decided what the green resembles yet, but it is very pretty.May propose this as a class for an upcoming seminar. Would love to know what you think!

Charm Swap

Finally! The charms arrived from the Quilting Arts/Cloth Paper Scissors Charm Swap. I sent in 5 of these sun/moon charms (pictures are the front and back) and got back 5 amazing charms. Here they are.

This charm is copper with a clay overlay. Mine are so much larger (though they did just make the 1 1/2" limit) but this is just beautiful. I am very into copper.

This one is made from colored wire and is by Loretta Bolen. Just love it. The wire work is just perfect!

The blue of these beads is very intense. the charm was created by Lisa Dunlop.

This sweet felted wool charm is by Therese Henderson. This last little "clock" appears to be clear shrink plastic -Very Cool!! and was made by Mickey Michelle Davis.

These last two charms though not part of the swap were made by Colleen (her link is in my list of favorites). Forgive me Colleen, they were originally one charm but I like them as two. The picture of the cat is my cat doll. The back is really my favorite side!