JANUARY BLAHS

I've been very remiss in keeping this blog up to date, even though I promised I would. Truthfully, I haven't been working on any dolls for awhile now.  I've been concentrating on other things - like I just found out I'm going to have another grandchild!  Such wonderful news after the roller coaster this past year has been.  I won't go into specifics as it's not my roller coaster to talk about, but suffice it to say that this little baby is a true miracle and I am so looking forward to her arrival in May.

The anticipation of this new little baby that will be joining us in May has gotten my creative spirit revved up once more and perhaps the sewing machine will be pulled out and dusted off to make new creations, whether they be dolls, clothes (because you know I'm just champing at the bit to sew dresses and other cute little outfits for our little miracle), and who knows what.  It's nice to feel like this once more.  Now, no more excuses.  I have a job to do and I can't wait!

Okay, It's November Already

Give a girl a break.  I've been busy with other things, and to be truthful, I can't always think of anything entertaining to write. Not that this will be entertaining, but I do have something to say.

I've been busy getting ready for a craft fair here in Ottawa on the 17th and as I was sitting here hand sewing I was thinking about how much I was enjoying what I was doing.  I was making embroidered felt Christmas decorations and I just really savoured the experience.  I love hand sewing and creating things from scratch.  I just wish I didn't wait so long to get started.  Here I am starting my sixties and I am just getting around realizing that this is what I like to do.  It makes me calm, it relaxes me and I feel like I have accomplished something once I'm done.  It's a very Zen-like feeling.

To think that I spent the first part of my adulthood rebelling against anything remotely domesticated.  I was anti-war (still am), anti-male domination (still am), anti-traditional female roles, anti-you name it.  I now realize that there is a place for all of that stuff we learned in home ec. I know I fought it, but I did learn to sew and I now love it.  I did learn to cook and I love that too.  So now I am finding peace doing the things that I railed against so many years ago.  Whoever said "Too soon old, too late smart" really hit the nail on the head.

So. getting back to my ornaments.  Here are some photos to show you what I'm talking about.  I did other colours as well, but they're already packed away.

And these are some of the lavender sachets I embroidered.

 

Here's a close up of one of my favourites

 

 

So that's all for now.  Don't know when I'll be back, but I'll try to make it sooner :)

 

Oh and I forgot to mention that my new website is almost up and running.  I'm so excited.  I'll let you know when you can take a peak.

 

Listening to Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and REM.

The Rainbow Girls Together

Awhile ago I had promised to show photos of my rainbow doll collection once they were finished.  They have actually showed up in a few random photos, but none have been the entire collection together.  So, here they are.

 

And now here they are separately.  The first is Violet. 

Next is Indigo

 

Then comes Blue

 

Then Green

 

Followed by Yellow

 

Then Orange

 

 

And finally Red

 

So, those are the girls.  Hours and hours of work went into making each one and I will be putting them for sale on Etsy very shortly.  Only problem is I don't want to part with them.  I get very attached.

 

 

 

I Think The Groundhog Was Mistaken

Apparently our illustrious groundhog didn't see his shadow, which meant that we would have an early spring.  Or so the story goes.  Well, it is March 23 and we're more than knee deep in what only could be described as, well, snow.  If my memory serves me correctly Spring officially began 2 days ago.  Only here in Ottawa, there is no evidence of it anywhere.  Now, I don't blame the rodent, but I do feel a bit misled in thinking I could start wearing my shorts anytime soon.  No sense sitting on my front porch with my seed catalogue trying to decide where I'm going to plant everything when I can't even tell where my lawn ends and the road begins.  I'm a Canadian.  I will just get on with my mundane life and just wait for spring to miraculously appear. 

I've started my evil witch doll.  Well, I think she'll be an evil witch.  Try as I might, I just can't seem to paint an evil face. However, I'm getting ahead of myself.  Here are my options for her body and clothing.

 

I don't really know where I'm going to go with it all, but it is a process.  Looking at everything now I can see that I'm not really keen on the black and gold fabric.  To me it's kind of matronly and somewhat stuffy.  There's not enough faux leather to make a whole outfit and the fake fur is just, well, it's just I don't know.  I just don't like it.  This is going to take awhile to figure out.  Stay tuned.

 

Listening to Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Billy Joel.

 

 

 

March Is Not My Favourite Month

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day and also what would have been my mom's 87th birthday.  But she passed away on March 25th, 2011.  So, you can see whay I'm not really keen on this month.  However, I've decided not to let it get me down and we're going to have a St. Patrick's Day/Birthday remembrance dinner tomorrow, sort of.  It will be Irish, but vegetarian, because that's who I am.  The menu is:  for starters Guiness and cheese fondue, then leek and potato soup.  The main is Guiness, gorgonzola and mushroom pasties and dublin mash (carrots and parsnips).  I was going to make Bailey's Irish Cream bread pudding from Irish soda bread, but figured there's enough starch in this menu to choke a horse.  So we'll toast my mom, toss back a few and enjoy the day.

Well, I've finished my white creation.  After many days agonizing over what she is I have decided that she is a Snow Queen.  Here are a few pics.

Her crown is made from Christmas tree icicles and her hair is silk roving.

She has venice lace cuffs, an ornately beaded neckline and a staff made from copper wire and crystal beads.

I also made her a cape and embellished it with crystal beads on the lapels and silver trim with larger acrylic beads on the hem.

 

Her boots are buttoned up with acrylic beads and I used the same beads to make her heels.

 

I'm beginning to think that there are certain powers at play here that take over my creative process and things become whatever the powers want.  When I started out I wanted to have this really ethereal figure with wind blowing in her hair and her clothing wispy and drapey.  I was thinking along the lines of Stevie Nicks meets the Wicked Witch of the West. The Snow Queen is who I ended up with.  Not complaining, but I wonder what my next creation is going to look like.

 

Listening to Eva Cassidy, Fountains of Wayne, Gotye, Grateful Dead, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Corky and the Juice Pigs, They Might Be Giants and Walk Off The Earth.

 

 

White Witch or Snow White?

All of my pattern pieces have been cut out and sewn and it's just a matter of turning right side out and stuffing now.  She's going to be a white witch, but the more I look at the material I think it looks like she might be a white witch going to her first communion.  Going to have to work on that a bit.

I have to admit that when I originally planned on this particular doll I thought that the material lended itself well to "witch", but the more I look at it we may end up with Snow White.

The following photos show how I'm trying to tart her up a bit.  The one thing I have to say is that my dolls never seem to end up the way they're planned.  They take on lives of their own.  One of these days I'll have to draft a pattern and stick to it.

 

 

I'll post the finished product in a little while.  Still trying to figure out who she really is.

 

Listening to Eagle Eye Cherry, Chris Rea, Leonard Cohen and Warren Zevon.

 

 

Furniture Making and Crosby Stills Nash and Young

This weekend I decided to make some Victorian furniture for my dolls to perch on while having their photos taken.  An ambitious project to say the least, but one I was willing to undertake.  I am always of the opinion that if you don't know it's impossible, then it can be done.  Are you following me?  What I'm basically saying is that I can do anything I put my mind to.  Really, how hard can it be?

So, lesson learned.  I can't do everything.  Very humbling, and annoying at the same time.  Furniture making is best left to the professionals.  There's designing, drafting, cutting, sewing, stretching, stuffing, leveling, huffing, puffing, you get the drift.  It's not for the faint of heart and this is only small scale.  Hats off to the people who choose to do this either as a living or as a hobby.  It's harder than it looks.

Thank heavens I was listening to some tunes while I did this or I would be everyone's worst nightmare at this point.  I get really cranky when things don't go my way and it takes me awhile to settle down. 

Anyway, while listening to CSN&Y, Ohio began to play.  For those of you who were around in the 70's, when this came out, you know it was a very powerful and moving song.  May 4, 1970 is a date I will always remember and everytime I hear that song I am so sad for the 4 students who were shot by the National Guard at a peaceful demonstration against the Vietnam War.  But I am so grateful that Neil Young had the guts to write it and even mention Nixon in the lyrics.  I think he managed to capture  the fear, frustration and anger felt by the youth across the country.

Neil Young also wrote For What It's Worth when he was with Buffalo Springfield.  Not an anti-war song, but an anti-police song.  Haunting nonetheless.  But enough about protest songs.

So here's the sofa.  Put together with materials on hand, and not well executed.  I think I need to go back to the drawing board.

 

Stay tuned for more attempts at furniture making, or not.  Next time I try I might listen to something more uplifting.

 

Just a little Tease

 

Yesterday I said I'd be posting photos of the completed rainbow collection.  Here's just a teaser for now.  I have to wait for the right conditions to be able to photograph all seven together.  So, here's violet.

And here's green.

The others are in my previous posts.  As a reminder, the colours already posted are blue (yesterday), red, orange, indigo and yellow (2 days ago).

This week's project is going to be a white witch.  Here's all of my fabric and embellishments.  I just have to figure out how it's all going to come together.

There's lace, sequin flowers, beaded trim and ribbon.

 

And here is mohair, eyelash yarn and seed beads

This is the fabric selection

 

A photo of a white witch for inspiration

 

And Ann Hathaway for a potential hairstyle.

 

That should do it, but I know me and I'll bet you dollars to donuts that there will be many many changes along the way.  Stay tuned.

 

Get Your Creative Juices Flowing

I decided that with this post I'd let everyone in on my creative process when I'm starting one of my dolls.  Firstly you have to know that I have a lot of fabric.  A lot.  A whole lot.  I don't think I've ever passed up an opportunity to acquire fabric.  I've even been known to wake up from a dead sleep and realize I don't have, let's say, green fabric and stumble to the computer and log onto fabric.com or batiksplus.com or any number of sites and search for "that perfect fabric".  Eventually I realize how crazy that is and just power down and go back to sleep.  The true madness,  however,  is knowing that if go back to any of those sites  in the following days, my cart has been saved and all I have to do is press that BUY button and it will arrive at my front door sometime soon.

Anyway, back to my creative process.  I'll stand in front of my wall of fabric and decide which colours to pull.  In this case, I was thinking about the blue rainbow doll, so I pulled a bunch of blue fabric.  Then I got out some beads and threw those around and then added some yarn and mohair.

 

So,  I mix things up a bit, try to imagine what it is that I'm trying to create and this is the finished product.

Her hair is dyed blue mohair, her outfit is made with blue batik, her knees are round brocade beads, and her neckline and cuffs are Austrian glass beads. 

Here's a closeup of her face.

 

 

And here's a closeup of her tiny little waist.

 

Next week I'm going to show the process from start to finish with an entirely new creation and I'll also be adding a photo of the entire rainbow collection.

 

So, stay tuned.

Sleeping With The Dog

So I know a lot of you will cringe at the mere thought of sharing your bed with your furry creatures.  Not so our household.  Sure, we started out with "rules".  Dog not allowed on furniture, dog not allowed near dining table, no people food, no sharing drinking glasses.  You know, the regular stuff.  And we were well-intentioned, but seriously misguided.  It seems that our dear canine had other plans.  Yes, we went to obedience classes.  Yes, we took it seriously.  But the only thing that came from all of that training was that we found out that the dog was smarter than us.  She trained us well.  Not only do we have to jockey for position on the bed, she has taken to sharing OUR bed with her feline companion.  But truthfully, it's not such a big deal.  There is harmony in the house, the pooch is well behaved and the bed is big enough for us all.

But, what does all this have to do with dolls?  Well, nothing.  It was just a way to get going on this blog.  What I do want to tell you though is that I am almost finished the project I started a few weeks ago.  I had this idea that I wanted to make a doll in every colour of the rainbow.  Sounds simple enough doesn't it?  Well, not so.  Ever try to find indigo fabric?  How about indigo beads?  What about indigo yarn?  Indigo lace?  Uh-uh.  The rest was easy.  Violet, blue, green, yellow, orange and red were a piece of cake.  Indigo, not so much.  However, after much searching and a lot of luck I managed to gather what I needed and I am on my way to completion.  Here's a sneak previow of Yellow, Indigo and Orange and Red.

 

I will post them all once I've finished.  They all can be purchased from my Etsy site once they're all done.

 

Well, that's all for now.  Talk soon.