Another new doll but didn't post! - Colleen , Couturier to the Fairies

I made this doll as a gift to a dear friend who wrote a fabulous article for Art Doll Quarterly.  She is seated on a Mushroom, holds a fairy dress on a hanger being admired by a little Fairy Friend who is saying OOOOH! is that mine? about the new dress Colleen is holding.  Colleen is wearing her fav outfit - a striped vest, lacy flowey blouse, frayed jeans, over the shoulder bag, lots of funky jewelry and her laceup sandles and ankle bracelets.  She is created from my Style of her Own pattern with a cloth over clay over cloth face.

closeup of her outfit.

Face close-up

Fairy dress on Hanger

Just Colleen

Her Fairy Friend                                                                   Her Forest Seat

Her Stylish Sandels 

More Book in Progress pages

 Actually, the book is almost done - don't like one of the pages so re-doing it.  Here are some more of the pages and their accompanying tags with the Stories.  The only new doll is Colleen which I made for a dear friend.  There are 10 dolls total.

Late Again! Tea Anyone?

Colleen - Couturier to the Fairies

Puppy Love

Alice is that you?

The Bride as a Child

The Scholar

New Doll Finished

Recently attended a quilt show in PA with some friends and found some interesting animal batik scraps for about $1 each so though I would make a new doll around them.  This dol, the Lion Queen, l is created using piece parts from some of my other patterns-mainly a reduced version of my bead joint witch, Flying in Style.. Her diamonds are from the quilt show fabric.  I also created her chair from twigs and a scrap of pressboard with the help of Apoxy Sculpt.  The top of her staff was a parking lot find!

I also created a friend giraffe for her.  I created a small stencil for the body for the spots.  It is an original pattern.  A view of her throne before she took possession.

New Book in Progress

Last year I started a new cloth book.  I was inspired by the Movie "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" and an article that appearred in Somerset Studio's as a challange.  I decided to use my own dolls for the "children"  I haven't settled on a name yet, but it will have friends in the title.  Here are the first three pages.  Only 6 ore to go!

The doll pictured here is Bad Dog  The pull out tag has a short story about Alfreda (who to me looks like Alfred E. Newman's Sister from another mother.

This doll is Frida as a child but the story is about Felicia.

This lady is my Rag Bag Gal but for the book I have named her Hibiscus since I dyed some of her fabrics and trims with Hibiscus tea from Panera Bread!

Now on to the next - hopefully I will finish the book this year!  I have 6 more "Imaginary Friends" to go.

Flying Witch

I started this doll I believe at the end of Last year.  I have had the idea in my head forever! I had this beautiful fabric I won from Hoffman.  It was purple with gold scrolls.  I back painted it black to make the gold stand out more and it worked perfectly!  I wanted her to look like she was flying, so created a base with a "hovering" broom over a countryside for her to perch on.  She is very stylish - 5 different skirts, lots of embellishements and those shoes!!!!  She is bead jointed and can be removed from her broomstick and sit anywhere.  She is larger than I usually work - 22".  Her hair is a deconstructed sweater in the perfect color.  The feathers in her hat are from a poor chicken that was scattered in my yard one morning - probably a snack for our elusive fox.  More closeups.



Her standing.  Her hand is temporally pinned to her hat.

 Closeup of her face and hair.

 Side view of he hat and charms.

And of course those shoes.  Trimmed with hand made bats!  I did trim off those threads. 

Flying in Style is currently residing in her new home in the Midwest.

Spreading out

I have been bitten by the crochet bug lately and made two Shawls and a BoHo Vest. 

BoHo Shawl.  Pattern I purchased on Etsy.  Not too happy with it.  The yarn  it called for was no longer available so I used one I thought was similar.  Colors are brighter than I would have liked and the yarn is not a drapey.  Going to remake it in a thinner yarn.  Love the border.

This is a free pattern called the Edlothia Shawl.  I purchased the yarn from Etsy.  Worked up nicely.  The pink was a bit hrighter than I liked so I put the whole thing in a grey bath and that softened the pink.  This is quite large - about 80" across the top;\.

Another free Patttern, this one for the Virus shawl.  It was fun to make and I used the yarn remaining from the BoHo Vet.  Added the bottom round with a Pink I had in my stash.  Worked out well.  All Acryllic.

My Sun Book Completed

Just realized I posted pics of the backgrounds I created with Gelatos for this book but never posted the finished book!  So here it is. The book measure 6" x 6".

Book Cover.   The sun is a lucite button colored with Alcohol inks on a piece of dyed crochet from a tablecloth that belonged to my Mother.  The sky is layers of pleated sheer fabric with embroidery.The door on the dimsional house opens to show a couple kissing. The little people were cut from a die and trimmed to look like men and women.  They have pearl faces.  The flowers are rolled ribbon roses.

Inside front Cover.  Lots of embroidery and beads

Corona is hand dyed cheesecloth.  Face is hand drawn.  Again
lots of beading.

Window is die cut and stitched in place as is the bird house. 
The pots and vases are die cut.  The bird is a found piece of
jewelry and the cat is a find from CJS in NY.

The sun background was created with a stencil and molding
paste on sheer fabric.  It was colored with Gelatos and
Inks.  Lots of beading.

This sun was created with lots of layers of sheer fabrics
with embroidery and sequins added.

The center of this sun was created by gathering rows of
ruffle ribbon to form a flower.  The base is a piece of
Crochet from an old tablecloth of my Mother's. 
Finished with lots of pearls colored with Alcohol Inks.

Back Cover.  Houses are die cut.  Moon is an original drawing. 
Lots of sequin starts, beads, and silk ribbon roses.

Binding.  I added rings to the page edges then strung ribbon and \
beads through to create the binding.  Here, you can see the
dimension on the hose on the front cover.

Exhibit At Belmar Arts Center, Belmar, NJ

For the past few weeks I have had the honor of displaying some of my book related in the Book Art Exhibit at the  Belmar Arts Center.  It was a small but very comprehensive exibit with lots of variety in media and execution.  I didn't take pics of others' artwork, but did get some of mine.  I entered My doll, The Scholar (holding books), and three of my handmade books, the Sun Book, Rust Book 2 and It's a Beautiful Day.