Doll

In my head and on the patterns, I’ve  been calling this doll design “round bottom lady” which doesn’t sound quite nice when I post them… so then I have to come up with some other name and it never seems quite right.  Anyway, not important.

Next!  A Nature Guardian angel.  I love these colors-

Some day I will find the photograph of my Mom in the caftan she made out of this crewel fabric- circa 1975.

Printed wool sweater and floral wire wings-

some side views-

and the back-

and here is the original sketch-

I imagine a guardian angel/fairy. The idea grew out of this baby. I guess it is suppose to work the other way around- creativity versus biology.

She has a sort of roaring twenties hat or crown thing going on. I love the felt roses. I will post a little tutorial on them later- lots of fun and very easy.

I made her thinking that she would hang on the wall.

I am having so much fun with the wool I dyed in January. I used some dyed angora sweater for the hair. And here are the wings-

I got a little frustrated with the wings. It took several tries. Some times the hardest thing to do is keep it simple.

I am having another attack of studio reorg. I have some great fabric for more tattooed guys- which ought to be happening soon- but I got it in January, I put it aside for later dyeing and now I can’t find it- ARG! Why does looking for fabric turn into clearing off bookcases and going through old magazines!

People often ask me where I get my ideas.  Here is the story on this one.

I was listening to Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me.   One of the questions on the show talked about a study that showed how very popular and charming people aren’t good at close relationships.  Interesting.  Hmmm.   And I thought of a doll description- “Mr. Handsome- Not suitable for long term relationship!”  And here he is.

Another guy in a suit. I’ve been looking at mens’ fashion photos and trying to copy the expression that seems to be on every one of the models’ faces.

2 guys-

Other news-

Thanks so much to Lisa Pijuan-Nomura of Girl Can Create, who interviewed me for her newsletter, The Red Letter.

I am planning to do an Etsy shop update over the week-end. Get the fairy grandmothers and babies listed and hopefully some other things that I’ve had a hard time parting with in the past. I took tons of photos today and hopefully that will get me through the process since it is suppose to rain all weekend… no do-overs.

Pretty much the same pattern as the tattooed guys, but in wool-

He is 23 1/4 inches tall.

It is so hard to get a photo with the colors right.  On my computer, the colors on the one below look right.  The herringbone is black and a grape jelly purple.  The yellow shirt is a warm buttery color.

I have a few more coming and then I’ll tell you where they came from.

the last one for now-

the group-

I couldn’t make up my mind which group photo was better so here are both of them.

I was having some camera aggravation-  batteries not charged when the sun was good.  Then later, very dark.  And it is suppose to be a very stormy weekend and I wanted to get this little one posted today… you know how it is.  So, not perfect photos, but you get the idea.

These babies are 11″ high.

Phew- I really wanted to be able to post at least one doll before the end of the month.  Thank goodness for the extra day!

Two little woolly babes.

This one is the day baby with an orange cashmere bird.

This one is the night baby.  I guess I needed to try my hand at owl imagery…  so much owly goodness around the internet- I was inspired!

A moon “hat”-

The owl is cut from an angora-blend printed sweater.  I have found several printed, natural fiber sweaters.  I always grab them.  There is something odd and wonderful about them.  When I found this one, I thought it would be perfect for a kitty or wool hair.  Instead, an owl!

2 more babies with trees to finish.

I love pollarded trees.   It is something one rarely sees in the US.

I noticed a lot of these trees in London- they look like they have ornaments hanging from them.

And here is what I’ve been working on.  Trees on the mind.  I didn’t get much done on my travels.

This photo is from my walk yesterday.  Chilly flamingos!

I will be away from my computer until next Monday. Then I will give you the London travel report- Yep, we are off tonight! As usual, I have been crazy ever since hearing about the trip- I am not a relaxed traveler… I might have mentioned that before. One thing I worry about is having nothing to work on. That happened on one trip we took. Since then, I always try to bring a project to work on, just in case. Even if very little ever gets done. The picture is of my work table with 4 swaddled babies started. I thought I could bring them along to work on the embroidery. I will be happier just knowing I have them.

Thanks for the blog birthday good wishes! See you soon!