Doll

another little thing I was working on this week-

Here’s the problem. I am going to participate in an open studio event in Boston with a group of other Etsy sellers- details on that in a week or so, but in case you want know, it is May 4. I needed to figure out some kind of give-away to add to a promo pack… stuff from all of the exhibitors. Some of the others in the group were already doing this and had buttons made up. Hmm. I knew I didn’t want to spend much money, I wanted a clear image of my work and I didn’t want it to involve a lot of labor. Here is what I came up with-

ta da! Refrigerator magnets!

They are made from photos of Mosaics on Flickr. First, I made up a variety of mosaics. I picked out photos that worked well in the square format and in a 2″ x 2″ photo. I made the mosaics 2 photos by 3 photos since that translates perfectly to a 4 x 6 photo. The most important thing is to upload your images in the large size- spoken from experience. My first batch of photos was too grainy to use. I printed out my info- name and etsy site address- nothing fancy. Then it was just putting them together onto the self adhesive magnetic sheet. The paper doll project brought this stuff into my life and I’m loving it! This project involved no special tools- the photos were printed at Target, I got the magnetic sheets at AC Moore, you can cut the magnetic sheeting with regular scissors, I printed out my info on regular paper with my very low end printer. Yes- meets all criteria!

First of all- Thank you, thank you for all the positive response to mr. naked robot! I’ve been glowing!

It was one of those weeks where a lot was going on that kept me away from the sewing machine. I have a friend that works at Harvard in the African Studies Department. They were having a special event this week which included a workshop lead by Oyenike Okundaye, on Nigerian fabric dyeing. It was fun to get out of the house and get a glimpse into several worlds I’m not part of- African textile arts, Harvard and their academic arts, and people in general who end up at a workshop like this, mostly somehow connected with Harvard, which I am not.

The first night we did what I think of as tie-dyeing. She showed us a variety of traditional ways to fold the fabric before tieing (actually we were using rubber bands). These are the ones I did-

and this is what the floor looked like by mid-evening-

We also did some work with wax and dye and also a technique that involved stitching and pulling to gather the fabric. What I did the second evening-

I think I’ll be able to use some of what I was playing with when I dye my wool fabrics… which I do every once in a while. Lots of fun!

Also- I think I worked out the twisting leg problem that was bugging me on the naked robot guy- I did some ripping stitches out, adjusting and resewing- better now- phew!

This one has been waiting a long time to be made. When I first saw that pink zipper pull… well, it seemed pretty obvious where it needed to go!

Side view-

I quite like how the back looks-

his face-

and the torso.

Here I am holding him so you can get a little scale. He has very long legs and is about 25 inches tall.

I worked and reworked the legs. I am still not 100% satisfied with how they hang. So I might be reworking them again- if I can think of what to do. It is a common problem for me- the doll looks fine/right when it is sitting, but the legs twist into an odd position when they are in a standing position… which they normally wouldn’t be in because they can’t stand on their own. hmm. He is basically the same pattern as Robot #3.

And now for week three of the interview. Week one is here. Week two, here. To review- there are 5 tracks and I’m posting them on consecutive Sundays. Carley wrote a post about the interview here.

And some links-

I love a reading list and I was very happy to find this list over on Rebecca’s Pocket. I’ve taken notes and can now bring it along to the library when I am searching for audio books.

And did you see Karen Nicol’s incredible embroidery site? I found this link over on Kim’s blog and wow! Blow my mind! Some of my favorites- blue roses, white garland, wisteria?