Doll

The Etsy shop update will be Tuesday afternoon- 3pm edt.  I will post a group photo later today or tomorrow- I have to get to work on that!  I had fun making this man mosaic on Flickr yesterday.

Old style bathing suit. I believe these suits were knitted of wool. Now that makes ya think!

I have really been enjoying doing the man faces. I never felt confident drawing mens faces until I started doing all these guys. I would try to draw a man but usually I thought the faces looked feminine. But, practice, practice! I get better!

I put 2 more (different) photos of this doll in my Flickr photostream.

Today is the last day to enter the 2nd Annual Softie Awards. I entered this year- I had to. They had a category for Embroidery!

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

I got one finished today-

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

Vintage bias tape, rick rack and snap belt-

Back view-

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!

I didn’t realize how funny the pointing finger looked until I was working on the photos!

I love this toile.  Before dyeing, it is  brown on cream.  I had originally rejected it because of the scale and the brown print.  Now I think it’s perfect!

Check out this vintage Doll Man comic- so funny!

My son and I will be in Portland, Oregon for a few days- arriving mid-day Sunday 4/27 and leaving again on Wednesday, 4/30.  I know, very short visit, very long plane ride.  We will be visiting PNCA and I would love to meet up with some friendly folks out there. Leave a comment or email me at mimik(at)pobox(dot)com, and we can make some plans!   Otherwise, recommendations for totally amazing, not to be missed, fun places to go, eat, shop, etc. would also be appreciated.

starting now.  Getting going on these has not been a smooth process.  First, I misplaced some of the toile that I’d bought especially… well I did finally find it.  Isn’t it great?  The Hawaiian theme?

And I’ve been having trouble dyeing flesh tones that I like- I am no expert with the dyes.  As a result, it is difficult to reproduce colors that I’ve been satisfied with before. (Reminder to self- take more notes!)  Also, all the scrap toiles I’ve been using take the dye differently.  Arg.  I have a crafting mantra- limit your variables… that’s the problem here- too many variables.

So- here is the first to be finished-  on the left.  I looked and thought and brought him to show off at doll club, but his skin was just too, too pink for me.  I HAD to change it, but was afraid I’d ruin him…  in the end, I knew I had to do something.  I mixed up a wash of Burnt Umber acrylic paint and brushed it over him to tone down the color.  Thank Goodness, he survived the operation!  Phew!  So, now we present Mr. Tattoo Man #1 in the next series!

I’m not sure you can even tell from the photos, but trust me, it’s better.

I sewed up 4 dolls.  One, I managed to spill ink on- ink that does not come out …  I told you I was having a rocky time with these.  I have another one finished which I will post later.  One more that I decided needed a color wash.  We will see if he survives his treatment.

My plan is that when I have 5 or so finished, I will put them into my Etsy shop in a bunch.  I will post and notify people who have written to me, when that will happen.

these photos are for the family who know where this is-

That’s the roof of the gazebo.   And the island is back to the way it was when I first saw it.  I wonder if the beavers are still in the lodge on the right.

Pieces of the gazebo are now part of the beaver dam-

On the other side of the street, the water is really low-

Lots of water coming through the culvert though- we were surprised the beavers weren’t working on the dam.  We didn’t see any sign of freshly cut wood.

Ben and I went on a daytrip to Logee’s yesterday- so much inspiration!

I love this rust and green slime covered crank-

and this is the ceiling in the bathroom! I couldn’t help myself, I HAD to take a photo!

I made a set over at Flickr with full size images from our visit.

Dolls in progress-

and the first flower pictures of the year-

hellebore-

and crocus-

and then my sister Tina came for a visit. We were suppose to work on sorting and clearing more of the papers and fabric I have in my house from our parents.

She brought up a carload (minivan) of fabric (hmm, great idea?)- fabric that my mom had insisted she take because they were “her colors”, even though she knew she would never use them. My sister had always planned on getting them to me, but I had forgotten all about them.
She stopped to visit her daughter who is an Interior Architect. Laurel threw a few bolts of designer fabric into the car.

Next, Tina spent some time with my brother and sister-in-law. Diane looked at the car and decided she had some fabric that my mom had given her over the years that she was never going to use- another load into the car. I am surprised the car made it up to Boston!

After sorting through the fabric I had already decided to get rid of and everything Tina had brought, here is a photo of the back of the car before we drove down to the School of Fashion Design of Boston to make our donation.

I am not sure that I ended up with less fabric. Here are some highlights-

Liberty and liberty type cottons-

flowers on linen and so sweet bunnies-

I think I bought that orange when I was in high school! And some great green tones-

This bird fabric is interesting- I don’t like the colors, but it is a design that looks so modern. So, I kept it… even though I don’t actually like it… hmm…

There is tons more, including 2 different colors of green coat cashmere- swoon! Now I need to figure out how to store the new stuff. And, we never got to much of the papers… I guess you’ll have to come back soon, Tina!
There has been a small amount of forward progress on dolls-

lots of dye work-

Hopefully I will have some finished work this coming week.