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..