Too Cute!

  

This is my dog- Maggie. She is a mixed breed- what mix even the vet can't quite figure out? But I don't care. She has lived with my husband and me for four years now. Just a 22 pound bundle of joy that we found at our local animal shelter. I am including this picture of her in my blog because it is the time of year many people start thinking about their "New Year's Resolutions" and I had a thought- why not give the ASPCA a plug! There are many animals waiting for homes. If you are in a position to give one of these cuties a home please consider your local animal shelter. If adopting a pet is not feasible right now, perhaps volunteering your time either at the ASPCA facility or at functions the shelter runs during the year. Do you need to shed a few pounds this year (who doesn't)? Just think of how much you will save on gym memberships by walking a dog instead, not to mention the constant unconditional love. Just a thought!
Photograph by Mike Collins Click here to see more of Mike's photos

Merry Christmas

I'm finally able to post a picture of this year's ornament. I made one of these mice for each of my children, and each of the aides that work in my classroom- that's 10 in all but who's counting! They are small, only standing about 4 inches tall.  I modified a pattern by http://vintagericrat.blogspot.com called Jofus and Lally- shrinking it down and changing the tail construction. I also chose to clothe mine. They were fun to make and every recipient really seemed to love them.

Textile Tart Holiday Party

Every December the Textile Tarts have a holiday get-together at which we swap a hand made gift. Every year it is something different- an ornament, a pin cushion and needle case. We usually decide in the fall what item we are going to make. This year we decided to bring a Santa which could be no larger than 6 inches. He could be an ornament or a decorative piece. I made this felt Santa. He stands about five inches tall. He is made using a rose pink felt that I embellished with green holly leaves and beading. I think he is a very cute fellow. Tomorrow is our meeting so it will be interesting to see how everyone interpreted the Santa idea.

iPhone/IPod Touch

I have designed a new item for my shop. It is a sleeve for an iPhone 4 and/or iPod Touch (or any other mobile device that has approximately the same measurements). I based this design on my Kindle sleeves- same style just different size requirements. I think they are adorable- if only I owned a iPhone!

Bought Myself A Birthday Gift

A few weeks ago, I purchased a clothes pin doll on etsy from dollproject.com. The artist’s name is Jessica Hamilton. She makes different kinds of art dolls but I am completely smitten with her pin dolls- they could not be sweeter. She calls them pin dolls because they are made from wooden clothespins. I have been dropping big hints to my family about my birthday (halloween baby) coming up and how much I love love love these little treasures..time will tell.

Rag Doll

A friend of mine recently asked me if I would make a rag doll appropriate for a 3 1/2 year old to play with as she is refinishing a doll crib from the 1950’s and wanted to put a doll inside the crib to give to this little girl for Christmas. I have never made a doll that a child would actually be playing with so it was a challenge. I searched the internet for examples of rag dolls/patterns. There’s lots of different styles out there. I decided I wanted something a bit modern without the traditional yarn hair used on many rag dolls. After over an hour of looking at everything on line and not seeing anything that I really wanted, I was minutes away from just drawing a patten myself when I came across the pattern for this doll. It is featured on Martha Stewart’s website. There is even a video of the designer creating it with Martha. She has an etsy site called theblackapple.etsy.com. She offers this pattern free (when used for self or gift- not to be sold) on Martha’s site. My version is basically her pattern with a few added extras - I changed the size so the final product would be 16 inches and added the skirt and jacket. She turned out great- soft and loveable and best of all completely washable! Her skirt has an elastic waistband and her jacket is removable so the little girl will be able to dress and undress to her heart’s content. I hope she loves her!

After completing this doll I decided to make a second one. She has a bit of a different hair style but otherwise the same. She will also be a Christmas gift for a little girl.

The Big E and Art Doll Quarterly

My submission to this year’s Eastern States Exposition,”A Day At The Fair” received a First Place ribbon- very exciting. Since I blogged the entire creation process I felt it was only fitting to announce the results.
I also heard from Art Doll Quarterly this week. They have accepted the photo submission of my Vintage Spirit dolls to be part of their Bottle Doll Challenge. The results of this challenge will be published in the February Issue. I look forward to seeing which photos/dolls of mine they will use as well as what style dolls other people have created incorporating a bottle. Art Doll Quarterly is a superbly constructed magazine published by Stampington that showcases the work of mixed-media doll artists. I am honored to be included in the next issue and highly recommend subscribing to this magazine.
I am not working on a doll currently, but feel the pull to start the next piece tugging at my brain more and more each day. I have been thinking of another bottle doll (maybe one that features the art deco style?) I’m just not sure what direction I want to go. My knitting shop on etsy called Fuzzy Knits (fuzzyknits.etsy.com) takes up lots of my time during the fall and winter months so extra time for doll making is slim. Also. with the holidays fast approaching I need to design or find an ornament pattern I want to make for my children’s stockings as well as my co-workers at school and get them constructed. Last year I was still beading ornaments the day before Christmas and I definitely don’t want to find myself in that position again this year

Island Girl

Another Vintage Spirit to add to my collection: Island Girl! This bottle had a wider circumference than the others but it still fits the proportions of the doll. I especially like the label on this bottle- it definitely defined this doll.

The Countess: Another Vintage Spirit

Making these vintage spirits is becoming addictive! This time I started with a very tall French wine bottle so it demanded the royal treatment. I used many different vintage lace pieces on her and topped her hat with a piece of vintage rhinestone jewelry. Her face is all cloth with a cloth overlay. She has a bit of a condescending attitude which suits her perfectly.

Vintage Spirits

The two bottle dolls are finished and I am very pleased with them. I started with Gia, the white wine. The colors in the label determined the colors used on her outfit. She has a silk dress that has a beautiful floral embroidered print to it which does not show in this photo. Her cape is made from a piece of cut lace to which I added simple beadwork. The major challenge of this figure was the face. I am working on improving my skill on cloth overlays. I like the fact that the face can be needle-modeled to make it more three-dimensional but the overlay does eliminate the center seam and, unlike many people, I really like the look of a center seam in a dolls face. I will admit however that the cloth overlay creates a fabulous profile so I will be continuing to work on this technique. Gia’s hair is a curly mohair with a 1940 look to it. Her evening gloves are made from lace that I painted black and she holds a rose pink fan that I made using scrapbooking paper and toothpicks. I had the hardest time trying to decide what she should be holding in her hand. I thought of grapes but nicked that idea - she just seemed to be too dressy to be holding a bunch of grapes- before settling on the fan - Very chic.
Brandy was my second figure. She is just as elegant with her dupioni silk embroidered top, cameo necklace, and velvet waistband, but her elegance is more understated than Gia. Brandy also has a cloth-overlay face. Her hair is black yarn which I separated into individual strands before needle felting it on. Of course she also has a huge hat befitting a bottle of coffee brandy

Next Project Maybe?

I’m thinking of making two dolls out of these old bottles. The bottles have a story (doesn’t everything?) and believe it or not they also have a bit of sentimentality attached to them. When my husband and I had our first child my in-laws emptied out their liquor cabinet donating pretty much all the different liquor that they had accumulated over the years to us. They thought that since we were young we would be hosting many parties, starting with our oldest child’s christening party, and could use up everything that they had been keeping. Well, neither my husband nor I are the party- throwing type so after two more christening parties we ended up putting everything into our hutch. Time passes...more time passes.....30 years pass/ including three moves in which I packed and unpacked everything! Eventually I decide to move the hutch, so I empty everything out of it and put all this donated liquor on a book case outside on our screened porch with every intention of moving it back into the hutch once I had finished. Of course I never do bring it back inside, so for the past three years we have kept an assortment of alcohol outside through winter low temperatures well below zero and sizzling summer days well above 100 and pretty much everything in-between. Now, I would never serve any of this to anyone fearing it could be lethal. The fact that my husband doesn’t drink at all and I will only have a glass of wine makes me wonder why we have not disposed of this stuff years ago... I think it reminds us of our parents...hence, the sentimentality. The fact that my in-laws had all this stuff originally when they didn’t really drink either only adds to the craziness. So, now I am determined to turn at least two of the bottles into something pretty. I like the color of these two bottles and that they are different shapes. I’m not sure how I will transform them but I do know I want most of the bottle to show- I like the labels and I like the fact that the labels are showing their age. I started by emptying and washing them. I also removed the labels around the top perhaps to use later as part of a headpiece. The bandy bottle has a screw on top (which includes a faded price tag of $3.49) which I will put back on, the wine bottle was corked so I glued a cardboard circle to encase the top. Next step will be to apoxy a wood dowel to the tops to act as a neck armature and support for the head and figure out a way to attach arms. I do love the creative process!

Finally Finished!

I think I have finished this piece- I say think because I’m still contemplating adding a baseball hat to the male character and maybe attaching some balloons to the stroller. But maybe I won’t; in which case it is complete. If I change it I’ll update this photo. I went on-line today to The Big E website and entered, so there’s no turning back now!


Overall I’m happy with the results. I really wanted the figures to interact with each other and I think I succeeded with the dad and the little girl. I also think the addition of the sleeping baby adds interest- besides it was fun making the stroller so someone had to sit in it. The dad has a chilly dog in his left hand although it can’t be seen in this photo and the mom has the Eastern States specialty of the house- a gigantic cream puff.


This piece is attached to a 11x 7 inch base. The dad is the tallest figure. He is 14 inches tall in his bent position. The little girl stands 6 1/4 inches tall. As with all my pieces, I always find it is a little bittersweet when I actually finish. It’s great to see the final piece- was I actually able to create a three-dimensional representation of a concept?- but then again finished means it’s time to walk away. Done.

Three Headless Bodies

I now have three headless bodies- pretty sad. The major changes have occurred with the mother. Although it really does not show in the previous photos, I felt her legs were too long. Every time I looked at the entire piece as it progressed I was bothered by her legs. They weren’t proportionately wrong but she was turning out to be a very tall woman, so rather than get the whole thing done and always be unhappy with her, I took her legs apart and shortened them by about 3/4 inch- and now I like her better! I also gave her a blue design turtleneck jersey and a yellow sweater. The sweater is up- cycled from the sleeve of an old sweater of mine. I also decided there was room for one more character- just a little room - so just a little person will soon be added..

Little Arms and Little Hands

Why is it whenever I plan to work something always comes up that prevents it? Well, today I was able to continue with this piece. The dad now has a pair of sneakers and more importantly the little girl has arms. Little arms with even littler hands and fingers. I’ve never attempted hands this small before- quite a challenge. At first I tried separating all the fingers but I didn’t like the way it looked, very unnatural. so then I started over with mitt hands with a separate thumb. I think that when you reach for a cotton candy you keep your fingers pretty close together so I like this better.

The picture doesn’t show that the girl has a white blouse with a black and white belt under her jacket. Her jacket is made of felt and machine embroidered in a mustard color thread. Once again, I am trying out some of the embroidery stitches on my machine- add a little more detail.

Vacation Week!

I’m on vacation this week and plan on working on this piece every day, so I should make substantial progress! I’ll start by finishing the dad. Today I gave him his arms and finished his sweatshirt. He still needs a chilly dog in his left hand, cotton candy in his right and some sneakers on his feet. Of course he also needs a head but I find if I don’t start with the head then I usually leave it off until the very end.

Although I have a plan to finish the dad before moving on to the other figures, that doesn’t mean I will actually follow this plan. Tomorrow when I approach this piece I may switch over to either of the other figures and start the day there... I have no idea today what I will be motivated to work on tomorrow. The one thing I do know about myself is that I never start a second piece until the one I am currently working on it totally finished. Some of the doll makers in the Textile Tarts will work on a piece, put it away for a while, start something new, then at some point return to the first piece- bouncing between projects is something I just can’t do.

Dad Takes Shape

I have been working on the male figure today. He now has a shirt, belt with loops, and the beginning of his sweatshirt. The Big E takes place in September which is sweatshirt/sweater weather in New England. My next step is constructing and clothing the arms. His right arm will be extended offering a cotton candy to the child so it needs to be positioned in reference to her. I also need to decide if he will be holding anything in his left hand because that will determine the position/shaping of that arm as well. Decisions...

Starting a New Figure

Last weekend I started a new figure- three figures actually. They will eventually be called “A Day At The Fair” and will be my submission this year to the Eastern States Exposition which is held every September at Springfield, Massachusetts. Three years ago I submitted my Mermaid and she took first place; two years ago I submitted a fairy which took third place; and last year I didn’t get my act together in time so I missed the fair entirely! This year I’ve decided to start early so I should have my piece ready well in advance. Every year the fair has a theme, although it is not required that submissions represent the theme, I was inspired by this year’s theme which is “The Big E” (nickname for Eastern States Exposition). When I think of going to a fair my first thoughts are of the food! So my figures will be enjoying different foods found at the fair. The mother will be eating a creme puff which is a specialty of the Big E, the dad will be handing the daughter a cotton candy and maybe he will even have something in his other hand for himself...not sure yet. I also want them to look like they are having fun! That will be one of my challenges with this piece- creating three faces that seem to interact with each other. My first challenge, however, was drawing the patterns and stuffing the figures so that they are proportionally correct in relation to each other. I started with the adult female then worked off her proportions to create the child. This will be the first time I have made a child- so that should be interesting. Once I had those two figures stuffed I made the adult male. They are able to stand freely because each has a brass cylinder up one leg which slips over a rod that will be permanently attached to the final platform.

Kindle Keepers

I bought myself a Kindle and I just love it! I’ve always loved to read but haven’t had the time recently to go to the library so I decided to buy an e-reader and download books whenever I wished. I looked at different kinds and settled on the Kindle because I like the fact that it is not back-lit. I find it very easy to read for lengthy periods of time. Well, now that I own the Kindle I needed to protect it so I have been making these Kindle sleeves. They’re fun to make and people seem to like them so I will continue for a while. I also thought this item would extend the season of my etsy shop a bit. So I am trying something new. They are also a nice way to use up small amounts of wool- not enough to make a pair of mittens but still enough to be useful.