prizes! and some other doings.

woohoo! I won Crystal’s giveaway and my prize arrived in the mail today!

prize

love this little detail-

prizedetail

Crystal is my good friend and fellow member of Boston Handmade. Thanks Crystal! This sweet little pair will live in my studio and keep me company while I work.

Several people asked me about the dyes I use. Firstly let me say that I am no dyeing expert. I am pretty bad at it and almost always end up with splotchy fabric… well unless that is what I want. Then I get a solid color. I know this going into the project so I try not to be too focused on a perfect result. I use Cushing dyes– an acid dye for wool.

Other stuff I’ve been doing.

It was a sad day today- after listening to Science Friday and watching the video, I knew that my tomatoes were infected with late blight. I pulled them all up today. Ah well, I got a pretty good crop and will look forward to next year.

Over the weekend, I redid the faces on two dolls- ones that many commenters said looked sad. At the time (last month), I couldn’t really see it. Now, with fresh eyes, I decided I needed to change them.

oldface2

Old Face

newface2

New Face

oldface1

Old Face

face

New Face

I’m home!

I got home yesterday, but no rest for me here! There is lots to be done here with studio organization and filling up my Etsy shop, but first things first.

Tomorrow is my birthday and that means a give-away. I will post details tomorrow instead of doing the drawing on my birthday like other years. See you back here then!

Also, there will be a few days of CHA reporting. It was all new to me, I met lots of interesting people, and wow, was it exhausting. I am simply not used to being out and about with loads of people interactions for 5 days in a row. I need more practice at getting out of my studio!

That is the hotel restaurant on the first night, before any of the work began. I went to Orlando with my sister-in-law who was showing Twisteez, an art wire that her family has been making and selling to schools for 50 years. This was her first venture into finding retail outlets for the product.

This is what things looked like when we first walked in-

soon, we were getting the booth put together-

and here is how it looked on Tuesday morning, opening day-

We kept ourselves very busy. In between talking to people, we played with the wire. Here are some of our creations-

Sandy made a dragon-

I made a dragon slayer-

together-

I made an articulated little girl-

We both made flowers-

Sandy made a horse-

And I cut out a bunch of elephant shapes and we tried different approaches to them-

Mimi-

and-

and Sandy-

As I said at the beginning, there are no retail outlets for Twisteez yet, but I am going to help my son set up an Etsy shop to sell them- soon! I will let you know when they are available, in case you are interested.

tape love

I spent some time in New York looking for decorative tape.  I like to use it to jazz up my boxes when I ship out an order. I had no luck. Actually, it was worse then that- everyone acted like I was asking for something totally nuts! I tried the Japanese bookstore, Pearl River an oriental import store in Soho, Pearl Paint (art supply store), a paper store… well actually several.So, I came home, googled decorative tape and hit the jackpot at Archie McPhee– Hallelujah! Lucky me! I got tiki tape, sausage tape, cowboys, black cats, pirate tape, wacky rubber duckies and sushi tape. Probably a lifetime supply.

From my walk yesterday- winter bricks.

nyc report 3- purl

Next stop- Purl in Soho. You know, purl bee in real time?

I !LOVE! this store- it is so pretty and inspiring and they have all kinds of goodies that look so tempting to try. The glow from the window works like a magnet on me! Above is the fabric store- Purl Patchwork and below is the yarn store.

And, lucky, lucky me! I had a gift certificate!

I felt like a kid in a candy store. I binged on felt- 100% wool in beautiful colors. They sell bundles– 8 selected colors, 8 x 12, gorgeous… how could I resist. It’s like having that new box of crayons or the new paint box- such perfect colors! I also picked out some of the bigger sheets and one piece of the hand dyed woven wool. But that’s not all! I’ve been meaning to get a copy of Jane Brocket’s book and there it was- perfect, onto the pile. And then to finish it off, some pearl cotton in my favorite colors- I’ve never seen them before and can’t wait to try them. Underneath it all is a canvas bag which I will happily be carrying my projects around in. Everyone can be jealous that I got to shop at Purl!

notes on stuffing

When I post photos of a doll that I really like, it is hard to do the next post and push it down towards the bottom of the page!

Some notes on stuffing. I am very particular about the stuffing I use. I am brand loyal for the most part. I want to know what I am dealing with when I open a new bag. One of my craft mantras is “limit your variables”. In other words, get to know your materials and happily experiment, but don’t be adding so many new things all the time that if something goes wrong, you won’t be able to identify what is the problem.

The first thing I learned about stuffing is that there are 2 varieties of polyester type stuffing. One type feels bouncy, slippery or oily- those are different ways I’ve heard it described. No matter how much you stuff a piece, it will still be squeezable. I think this is probably good for kids toys and pillows. It is what is most available at the big craft supply stores. I use a different kind. It feels “dry” to me, not slippery. You can stuff a piece rock hard with it. You can make a creature stand on it’s legs using this type of stuffing. When I was making dolls with painted body parts, I could stuff them hard enough that I never worried about paint cracking. If you are in a store and the bags of stuffing have finger holes poked into them, you can be sure that someone was trying to figure out which kind of stuffing was in the bag.

I use Super Fluff, by Buffalo Batt. It comes in a loose roll and the fibers are combed in one direction so I can pull long tufts of it off the roll when I am stuffing a doll.

I’ve been stuffing more of my dolls with wool batt from West Earl Woolen Mills. I found the wool batting handled very much like the Super Fluff. I was happy. The top wool fluff is from my order of last September.

The lower wool is from the more recent batch I got.

Okay, so here is my current aggravation.  I have bought new supplies of both types of stuffing in recent months- 20 pounds of wool, 40 pounds of Super Fluff. I have started using them and imagine my surprise- both types of stuffing have changed… humph. You’d think that a highly manufactured item like polyester stuffing would be consistent over the years. The new batch is not as soft and somehow seems less refined. Is anybody else using Super Fluff? Have you noticed it? I am sure I will get used to it, but it was an unexpected surprise.

The wool is very different. In a natural product so it is not so unexpected. The 5 pounds I bought in September must have been some of the last of the domestic wool. The new order is from the Australian wool. The new wool is much softer, whiter and the fibers are longer… all sounds good, right? Well, it is very different to work with. The old wool stuffed like the polyester and the new wool just doesn’t. So, there will be a readjustment and a learning curve.

And here is another kind of stuffing I’ve tried- Back in September I asked if anyone knew about reclaimed wool stuffing. It seemed like an obvious product to me. Thank you to Lisa who left a comment on the post and directed me to a source.

Here is a photo of the recycled wool fiber-

I was able to use it for some of the cushion/pillow type dolls- like the tikis. It wouldn’t be good for small detail stuffing but worked fine for bigger things. There are 2 reasons that I won’t be ordering more. The main reason is that shipping it from Portland (area) Oregon to Boston (area) Massachusetts adds so much to the cost that it is prohibitive. The other (lesser) reason is that it is messy. The tiny wool bits got on everything. Actually the new wool is pretty messy too- I am working on that. Get out the sticky paper fuzz picker-upper.

The last kind of stuffing I use is a homemade kind- my wool scraps from projects-

I don’t use them in all the dolls, but when I do, it adds a nice firmness and weight- good in the swaddled babies, for instance. I just put a handful in the core and surround it by softer stuffing.

tattoo man 3c

I am hoping to have 6 done by Monday and then post them all on Etsy.  Here they are, in progress, this morning.

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I got one finished today-

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I thought I’d ruined him with the acrylic wash, but I love how he turned out.

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417torso.jpg

Vintage bias tape, rick rack and snap belt-

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Back view-

417back.jpg

I finished him at about 5:30 pm and then took him outside to photograph.  The light was just right and I got lots of photos that I really liked- not the usual situation- hurray!

threading needles

Who needs fireworks!  This is a beautiful asiatic lily, amazingly not devoured by red lily beetles.

75flower.jpg

And this is my new tool/toy-  a needle threader from Clover.  I am loving it.  And yes, I can usually make it work with one or two strands of cotton embroidery floss.  Wool crewel, no.

75needlethreader.jpg

It looks like I will be in Ithaca, New York in 2 weeks.  Anybody out there?  Any recommendations?

slow motion

Things seem to be moving slowly around here. It was incredibly hot for a few days, better today. Also, Eleanor is home from Cape Town- horray! I am working on this female version of a robot, a fembot I guess. A number of people suggested that my dalek inspired robot was female- I thought I would try to do it on purpose. She is coming along slowly. She is of the Rosie school of robot.

robot 7

Some random robot parts on my desk-

desk

and a tool I already had but just discovered works really well with the wool and felt-

tools

It is a hole punch. I bought it to use when putting in eyelets. You hit it with a hammer. Perfect little holes!

wool flower

flower

I got a few more of these sizzix punches on Mothers Day. I made the flower with a heart and little circle punch. I backed it with a cut-out called “Sun”- a notched circle. I was having all sorts of trouble with the sun punch and then I realized it was defective- the cutting blade was upside-down. Now I have to go return/exchange it, which sort of takes the fun out of getting new toys- humph!

cutting circles

Sometimes I just have to give it a break…

mess

I’ve been struggling with this Robot 2 to try to get “arms” that I like. My desk is piled up with rejected parts. Time to do something else.

Some of the tools I use for cutting circles out of felt and wool-

sizzix

A while back I bought a sizzix’s cutter to try, not realizing I needed a kit to use it properly. I was a little reluctant to spend more then $20 on something that might not even work. I cut my risk by buying it on ebay for a lot less. Anyway, it turns out it is great! It cut the felt very cleanly. You can place the cutter anywhere on the fabric and then you hammer it to cut through and get the shapes. It is easy to cut 2 at a time. I haven’t tried more layers then that. I wonder how long the individual cutters will stay sharp.

Here are some of the other less successful tools I use-

bigpunch

I have bought several of this type of punch, but the small, inexpensive ones don’t work at all. This one is pretty good. The problem with it is that you have to squeeze the felt into a slot to punch- this often causes a misshapen circle. Also, it limits the felt to the thinner pieces. It does not cut completely cleanly, but that is easy to fix by going over the circle with scissors.

handpunch

This paper punch is one of many that I use. As you can see, it also doesn’t cut a nice clean circle out of the felt. I have to trim them out and I’m not very good at it when I am doing the smaller sizes (1/4″). I know the sizzix comes in a 1/4 inch circle so I will probably buy one of those.

I like using repeating shapes to decorate the dolls. If you know of some other good shape and/or die cutters that work well, I’d love to hear about them.