Doll

I am not sure what I should be doing now… I have done the 2 sales I am scheduled for and the Gallery I have the bugs in, only takes the bugs. I would have had to jury anything else in earlier in the year and I’m never that organized. I have all these mini- doll parts and partially finished dolls, all layed out on my table. I am sure I have enough finished little ones to get me through Christmas -unless I have a big run on them ;-) So, I think I’ll put all this stuff into a box and clear the way for new projects…

As to new projects- I have a lot of ideas in my head… thoughts going in many different directions. I have started several things and I’ll see which takes off. I have gone back to the mannequin pattern, inspired by all my “new” lace. The lady on the left was my first doll in the pattern series. The fellow on the right is a later one in a series- the body is done but the clothing was never finished.

I have also started painting up some of the heads- several of these are second or third tries to get a face that I like… the one on the far right is sanded and will be repainted.

And then there are the Christmas presents I’ll be working on- of course I won’t be able to show those…

We had a great Thanksgiving- 12 people at the dinner table. The turkey was delicious- it was brined for several days before cooking- Recipe!
Holidays are the only time I seem to take my pottery out anymore- here is one of my serving bowls. It’s funny that many of the ones I own were the seconds- since they had flaws I couldn’t sell them in the galleries.

I searched Google for advice on washing all the lace I got. I thought about all the different advise and then this is what I did:
I use 2 cleaning agents- Neutrogena soap (the orange bar) and Oxy-wash type non- chlorine bleach (there are lots of brands and they all seem to say “Oxy” in the name). I used a quart jar with a lid as my mini washing machine.
Step 1-washing: I put a very small amount of oxy-wash into the jar- maybe about 1 teaspoon. I ran hot water into the jar, over the bar of soap, so the water got some soap in it. I then put some of the lace into the jar, put the lid on and gave it all a good shake.

I let it sit for about half an hour and then scooped all the lace out of the jar and rinsed it. I examined each piece- some of it was all clean and nice, some still looked dingy or had spots. I put my jar of washing solution into the microwave and warmed it up again, and put all the rejects back into the jar to soak longer. I soaked the dirtiest pieces for a maximum of overnight. If they weren’t clean after that, I figured I could deal with it.
The clean pieces moved on to the next stage.
Step 2- drying: I collected glass jars (plastic didn’t work as well) and took off the paper labels. Take the lace and smooth it onto the glass. It will sort of stick if the lace is wet enough. The idea is that by flattening and smoothing it onto the glass, you can shape it and it will not need to be ironed. Here is one batch on glass-

next I wrapped a piece of old Tshirt around everything to keep it in place while it dried. Lots of rubber bands were used…

unwrap it when everything is dry…

and voila!

Step 3-storing: I wasn’t sure what to do with all my lace once it was so clean and nice, so I asked people over on my favorite Yahoo group- Vintage Clothmaking. Someone said that she stored hers in plastic bags so she could handle it without getting it dirty. She puts similar types of lace (ie- tatting, tiny lace, etc) together. I thought that was a great idea- I have a box of ziplock bags that were too small for what I bought them for but are just perfect for the lace.
This is one of my favorite things in my haul- a collar with someones name inked onto it.

Happy Birthday B!

I’ve had a little job this week- doing scenery for The Boston Children”s Opera. My kids participated in this for years. Very basic sets- large sheets of cardboard, painted with tempera paint.

Minnie

Tallulah

I’ve named them and put up a photo album with lots of pictures.
While I was working on these two, I got a sudden flash that they were like my sister and me when we were little. I didn’t want to name them after us, but decided to reference it by the first letters of our names- M and T.

On Sunday I went to an Antiques and Collectibles Show that the Red Cross sponsors every year. I had some insider information that someone had donated a large collection of lace… WoW! I sure had fun!
Isn’t this eyelet beautiful?

I came home with a shopping bag full. I feel like a kid at the end of the night on Halloween! Now it all needs to be examined, sorted, washed, ironed and stored…

This is going to be great! I wish I knew more about lace.

I also got a whole bag of linens- mostly napkins, in lots of great soft colors… (well except for the bright lime green set with the 3 inch purple H monogramed on them!) They were in the Bargain room and the person in charge told me I could fill a shopping bag for $1. Unfortunately they smell strongly of mildew so they are off to the washing machine.

It was a very busy weekend. Here I am at the Roxbury show… trying not to grimace for the camera.

The show was pretty much of a bust in terms of sales, but was lots of fun because of the people I met. Everyone who came and talked to me was interested and enthusiastic. Who knows, maybe someone who took a card will get back to me. As I always say, I am much more likely to find a buyer when I take them out of the house then when they are sitting up in my studio.

Below is a photo of the mini dolls on the stand I made for them out of K’Nex. I knew there was a reason to keep them after the boys had out-grown playing with them!

My GoogleAlert led me to this posting- I don’t know how this make me feel… a bit odd to be a collectible…

boston.craigslist.org > collectibles > Pottery by Mimi Kirchner (Boston area potter) wanted
last modified: Thu, 18 Nov 20:58 EST

Pottery by Mimi Kirchner (Boston area potter) wanted
Reply to: anon-49374940@craigslist.org
Date: 2004-11-18, 8:58PM EST

I am interested in purchasing some hand-built porcelain bowls by the Boston area potter Mimi Kirchner (active 1980′s and 90′s.) I am specifically interested in some of her larger soup-size bowls, with a diameter of 7″ approximately. However, I would also purchase some of her smaller size bowls if you had some to sell. Please feel free to contact me should you have some you are interested in selling. Thanks.

and we are off to the fair…