Doll

geesh, it’s July already. How did that happen?

Scheduled for this month-

7/6- 7/17 I will be spending every afternoon taking a class in Adobe Suite- stay tuned for vast improvements or total meltdown in my web presence.

7/11- Boston Handmade Marketplace in Union Square, Somerville. Click through for all the info.

7/26- 7/31- I will be in Orlando, Florida at the CHA show, helping my sister-in-law. I have no idea what this will be like. I may not have a minute to spare, or then again, maybe I will. Suggestions for interesting places and possible meet-ups would be great.

I seem to have misplaced my creative juice, muse, mojo, juju, whatever you want to call it. I have one doll finished that I haven’t photographed yet- I will sometime when it stops raining.

I’ve been working on the room-

It moves forward. My daughter is coming home for a visit at the end of July and that needs to be my deadline- hmm, I seem to  make these deadlines all the time- otherwise, I am not sure where she will sleep. I have covered up any possible sleeping surfaces with stuff out of this room.

I have also been doing some dyeing and over-dyeing, hoping to get inspired again.

It has been fun. And positive in several ways- mostly it fills the need to create and so keeps me from the funk that I fall into when I do not. It keeps me from going to the thrift shop and buying more woolies- which is not so bad except that since I am going to be moving my studio, I shouldn’t be bringing more stuff into it right now. And, I am taking fabrics that I won’t use-ie yuck colors or previous dyeing mistakes or just boring- and turning them into something terrific. And, that red on the left- I used some old dye that I picked up somewhere… did someone give it to me or was it from an estate sale? The box cost 15 cents and the illustration style makes me think 40’s at the latest. Maybe later I will post pictures. Anyway, such fun using up the old stuff.

This baby is the same color palette as this garden lady. I love, love, LOVE these colors together!

Okay, sorry about that. Back to the topic at hand.

Did you know that Firefox can make all the colors in your photos look terrible? I could not figure out what was wrong- my photos looked fine on Iphoto and totally washed out when I put them on my blog or flickr. When I whined loudly enough about it, my sweetie figured out the the problem- check it out.

This doll is of the night garden-

Use your imagination though- no photographing with dark backgrounds… The dark colors are hard enough to show!

I think her upper torso tree, leaf applique looks like a shawl or stole.

Back view- because I am always curious about the back of everything-

2 ladies-

On the steps where the colors are often better-

Now I have finished the lady dolls that had been in limbo since last November- so forlorn. Onto the next thing!

The sketch-

The doll-

Do you know what a penny rug is? That is what I was thinking about- piles of cut-out wool pieces, stitched together and onto a backing. I know this is nothing like a penny rug- it is just what was on my mind!

Looks like the rain is going to end tomorrow. Yes!

finally! My show report- I am sure you were all holding your breath, right?

This past Sunday I was at the South End Open Market with my Etsy street team, Boston Handmade. I feel as though I passed some test because I survived my first rainy set-up. Real life doing an outdoor market. Here is a photo of the booth- mostly ready. I used a tent and thank goodness I had the sides, but the water pooled on the roof and dripped through in places. My banner got wet but survived just fine.

The rain poured down all through the set up time, but mostly stopped by 10:30 or so and crowds started showing up around 11.

I had a great day. My sales expectations were low since my prices are a lot higher then casual impulse buying. I sold a few things- that sweet yellow swaddled baby and one tiny world- both to repeat customers. The people who sell and the people who show up to buy are cheerful and enthusiastic. It is always fun.  I know that if I approached things differently, I would sell better.  If I want it to work for me, I need to go regularly and then people would get used to my work and the prices- that is how it works for me on Etsy and my blog. I just don’t have the energy to focus on both live markets and the internet marketing right now. And so, everything is in my Etsy shop.

The highlight of my day was a surprise visit from Kristin! I knew she was going to be in Boston for a job and I am so glad she found the time to come to the market. I haven’t seen her in 2 years! Hurray for internet friends!

Here is our Boston Handmade sign, before things got going in the morning.

Next show- Boston Handmade Marketplace on July 11 in Union Sq. Somerville. Guess I better get back to work!

Usually when I finish a doll, I am finished. I don’t go back. But now I’ve done it twice in a week. hmm.

This doll is now this doll-

It was a problem with the glasses and eyes. I was never satisfied with them. And several people didn’t get that she was wearing glasses- clearly not working. I’d been looking at her and thinking change for a while. Finally, last Friday, she got new glasses and new eyes too.

I brought her down from the studio to photograph. As I was looking at her through the camera, I saw a tiny hole in the dress- I couldn’t believe it! How could I have missed it? That is what happens with recycled clothing- there is probably a reason they ended up in the thrift shop. Anyway, back to the studio and now she has dots. I love dots.

And this doll- the fairy baby. I was looking at her at the market and this was really bothering me-

The pinks and the yellow orange combo was not working for me- at all. I picked it out today and changed it to this-

And I added a few little lines into the blue butterfly. Small changes but I am happier with it.

I went back to my original post of the fairy baby and just changed the photos and added a note- seems sort of a blog no-no. But I couldn’t decide… it was a recent post and that makes it seem less sinful. Any opinions on this?

Now that the market is past, it is time for catch-up in all parts of my life! There were a few things that I finished up at the end of last week that never made it to the blog.

I made 3 more Tiny Worlds-

This one looks like a cabin in the woods to me. I tried to give it a foresty look.

Very fancy cups can be a challenge to work with. This one looked like it needed a snow scene to mellow it out.

I sold one of these at the Market, but will put the other 2 plus the one I made for the pattern, onto Etsy later today.

*note- today 6/16/09, I redid some of the details on this doll and changed the photos.

This baby says flower fairy to me. She is so soft- the green background is woven cashmere. The flowers in the crown are made of all soft knits- cashmere and angora blends.

Here is the 4 babies together.

note- this is the old version of the baby- I changed the bottom flowers and added details into the blue butterfly.

In case you’ve been wondering why I’ve been finishing up so many pieces- I have a deadline- so inspiring! I will be at the South End Open Market this Sunday, with all my pals from Boston Handmade. For that reason, I haven’t been listing any of this most recent work in my Etsy shop. I will have an update next Monday, after the show.

the hat is suppose to be moon-ish.

Several people mentioned that my hand gave them an indication of the size. I forget that there are new people here who haven’t seen scale photos like this one. These swaddled babies are a little bit smaller then life-size- mostly about 12 inches long.