Three Done - One to Go

Today I finished the Spring Witch. Now the only one I have left is the Summer Witch. I am going to think about her for awhile. It is so cold here, I can't seem to think of things summer. Here she is in her tree.

I think she looks very sweet and I seem to be on a green kick lately. Maybe because I am debating on what shade of green to paint my bedroom! All the trims - the leaves and the trim on her skirt came from http://www.ribbonsmyth.com I also colored the lace flowers and trims with the silk and rayon dyes from there. They are so easy to use and I love the colors. I wanted her to look a little etheral and pale.



Since I get lots of question about how I do my faces, I put together this little mosaic. I tried to get a pic at each step, but the ones I took of the sculpting were too blurry to print. Though the colors in the pics are different, it is the same head. In the end, I did make her eyes and lips a little longer than those drawn features. She definetly looks better with her hair and warts.

Thanks to all of you who commented on my new Mermaid. I'm thinking of doing her in another colorway. I have quite a few of those wonderful burnout sheers in my stash but that will have to wait until I finish an EGA project I have been working on - and missed the deadline! It is a stumpwork piece that I just love so I really do want to finish it.

New Soprana Finished

Thanks for all the comments on the beginnings of Soprana. Thanks too for the hints and tips about the Shiva Paint Sticks. I think they have finally stopped rubbing off!

I also want to send BIG congrats to my friend Allie. Her quilt, Crazy for Flowers, won a second place in the Embellished Category. You can see her quilt here http://www.quilts.com/fqf08/enVivo/ Just scroll down.

I have finished New Soprana as she is another class sample. She went rather quickly I think because she has no legs and no armature except a piece of 12g aluminum in her tail. None of the embellishments use a sewing machine. I restrung the beaded trim because every other fringe had a red bead in it and I didn't like the red. I did the same thing on the original Soprana. I also doubled the fringe so it had more coverage so I didn't have enough left for the new doll so another reason to restring to redistribute it better.

I did the headband a little differently too. I had these great Puau shell pieces a friend sent me from Australia and I was actually able to drill a hole in them. After I got all the shells on her headband, I added some Gold Micro beads-thanks Tery! I also had some of these silver shells so on they went. I only had these three cloisonne fish left so that's all she got. I found the cloisonne starfish in my stash so she has a pet starfish and the blown glass fish went back in the box for now. It is very fragile. I painted the shell on her necklace with Krylon 14K gold pen. Love this pen. I looked for gold leaf at Michael's and AC Moore, but neither store had any. I'm going to try another location. Maybe they will have some though the pen worked really well.

New Mermaid Progress

A few days ago I played with my Shiva Paint sticks and my Prang Crayons to get a base fabric for the body and arms of my mermaid. Here are the samples I did. I inked up a stamp with the paint using a brayer, I did rubbings of a stamp with the Paint Sticks and also the crayons (the bright lime green and blue are the crayons) and also stenciled with some sequin waste. This fabric was part of my hand-dyeds. After playing, I decided on my course of action. The original fabric is again a batik. I stenciled, rubbed and doodled with Jacquard Halo Green, Shiva Paint Sticks and Krylon Gold Leafing Pen. Then I added highlights with Pearl-ex Pigment powders in Interference Green, Blue, Gold and Super Copper. I really like using the Prang Crayons but they don't have any metallics and I forgot I had Crayola Metallics. Oh well, next time! I really like how the fabric turned out but the Paint sticks, after 3 days, still rub off a bit and still smell. I'm hoping that will go away with time. The original fabric on Soprana was a batik with the Sequin waste stencil and 14K Gold Spray Paint. Looked OK but the spray paint made it very stiff.

Here she is all together though her head is just pinned on. Her Tail has been through 2 incarnations - 3 if you count the original layered combo. She likes this one best and so do I. I REALLY wanted to use that sequined lace. Now to start on the embellishments. Still haven't quite decided on the layers for her fluke. I bought that fish about 4 years ago when I decided I wanted to make another Soprana. The fish the original is holding I purchased at a bead show for $5! the gentleman who made it was just starting to learn how to blow glass and it was the only fish with a hole down the center and not through the mouth. Wish I had purchased more than just one! I was him at subsequent shows and he had more, but they had quadruppled in price. Guess he realized how good they were.

New Doll - Old Pattern

I am going to teach a class next March at the City Quilter in NYC. I am really excited about teaching in the city. I will be doing "One Kiss Is Not Enough" and I needed a sample doll so I made a new one. I acquired the dress fabric last year at Joann's. It is embroidered and was sold in with the curtain fabrics. I gave her pink shoes and it was hard not to give her pink hair too! I must be the slowest dollmaker around - I have made this pattern before but it still took me about 5 days to make her.

Now I am working on a mermaid for a workshop for one of my doll clubs this month. It is a techniques workshop and I am going to recreate the techniques I used on Soprana, She Sleeps With the Fishes. This was the first mermaid I ever made and she was adapted from a Patti Culea pattern that appeared in a 2002 issue of Soft Dolls and Animals - I modified the head and tail. I really had alot of fun with her though at the time I was told I overembellished her - I didn't think so. The new mermaid will be my own design but I'll use the same techniques - stencil on the bodice and sides of the head, layering fabrics for the tail, gold leaf on the fluke, heat treated layers of fabric for the hair and other embellishments among others. I am going to change the colors a bit but I am still going to use that cool black lace with the blue and green sequins. I got that online REALLLLLLY cheap years ago. I have enough left for another tail. She was one of the first dolls I sold and one of my favorites. She has such a sweet expression.