Category Archives: General

busy

Posted on by

I’ve been going in all directions for the past few days. I spent the weekend trying to figure out where I was with everything. Sorting inventory for Craftland meant pulling everything out to see. Sometimes looking with fresh eyes is a very good thing. Hello to this fellow’s NEW face-
1113face.jpg

below was his OLD face. It had been bugging me. I am happier with him now. Just a little cosmetic stitchery!

1113oldface.jpg

Getting inventory ready has inspired me to think hard about the hang tags for my dolls. What do you think the difference is between “recycled” and “reclaimed”. I wrote both since both words seem accurate. Any thoughts?

1113tags2.jpg

And my desk and work table are showing the strain of me going in several directions.

I have 3 more tattooed guys in progress but have set them aside to cut out some of the green man faces. I want to have a project to take to Chicago and since I do most of the work on these faces before I stuff them, they are easier then the dolls to travel with. Then, I also have a few pieces that need a little rework before they go on to Etsy or Providence. The tattoo guy on the left of the sewing machine for example. I’m going to give him a belt before I declare him finished (again).

1113desk.jpg

1113table.jpg

Piles and piles everywhere!

I posted an annotated photo of the work area here at flickr.

and now, a beard

Posted on by

118head.jpg

A beard was a challenge! I needed to balance out the black of the beard- I made HEAVY eyebrows and decided that the belt idea, suggested by several commenters, was a good one. I didn’t want to go over into the Strong man category, so kept the belt on the small side. And on the other end is the trapeze artist… It’s a fine line to get it just right! Oh, that reminds me, then there is the tightrope walker… hmmm
118tattoocircus3.jpg

side of the head view, and also the back-

118side.jpg118back.jpg

There is another picture here on Flickr.

Thank you, thank you for all the comment love from the past few weeks- here and also on flickr. I thrive on it!  I have been remiss in acknowledging it. I try to reply to comments on the blog- when I can think of something to say or when someone is new. I’ve never figured out a way that works for me to thank flickr comments. As you may have noticed, I’ve been working very hard lately on the dolls and the computer stuff is lagging behind. If I haven’t replied to an email, please pester me… I might have lost it in the pile.

I am preparing inventory, in my rather haphazard and disorganized way, for Craftland, in Providence, RI. I will post more when it get closer. I am hoping that I can get my act together over the weekend and read all the paperwork for Craftland, sort through what I have, make decisions about what to send them and then post some new work to Etsy.

2 circus tattooed men

Posted on by

1172guys.jpg

I’ve got 2 finished.  Short days and rainy weather makes photographing them a challenge.  Also, they look lumpy in places in the photograph that look fine in real life- the realities and hardships of being a model!
117tattoo2.jpg 117tattoo1.jpg

I took a different approach to the hair this time- I’m thinking about pompadours.

117head2.jpg

117haed1.jpg

and chins- I’m having fun with those, too.

next…

Posted on by

The babies are finished and yesterday I started some new tattooed men. They are a little different from the first four- more about that below. I’ve reworked the pattern, dyed several batches of fabric,   cut and stitched together six guys.

112flat.jpg

That is probably the easy part. Now, 2 of them have their stitched fingers and are mostly stuffed. Lots more fine detail work to go.
1122guys.jpg

Here is what I was thinking about today as I worked on these dolls. I got a lot of positive feedback about my tattooed guys. I thrive on positive feedback. Yeah, internet! Sometimes though, the positive feedback can make me afraid to make changes or take the next step. Once I admit that, I can move forward.  The issue was, who were these guys that I was making?  I struggled with the lower torsos on the first four.  Also, I couldn’t get their shoes right- it was driving me nuts! Well, this batch is circus tattooed men. Now everything is working for me- the body design, the shoes, the colors, and I’ve got lots more ideas for hair and faces. Tattoo man 2.0  Yes!

misty morning baby

Posted on by

First of all- Happy Halloween everyone!

This is the last baby for a while. I used mostly heathery wools and it made me think of mist.
1031mistybaby.jpg

side and back-

1031side.jpg1031back.jpg

1031face.jpg

And here are all the babies, together in the sun. I bought that antique doll baby carriage at a charity sale a few years ago. I must admit I love playing with it, as in posing my dolls in it and such… It lives in my entryway and I put my finished dolls in it after I photograph them- an unusual storage system, I guess.
10315babies.jpg

tropical flower baby

Posted on by

1030tropicbaby.jpg

I’m thinking passion flower, but that probably wouldn’t be such a good name for a baby doll.

This is the doll I made with the face I took off the fall forest baby.

1030face.jpg

side views-

1030side.jpg1030side2.jpg

1030back.jpg and the back view.

The leaves are cashmere and so so so soft.  It is impossible not to stroke them.

One more baby to go.  Almost done, but we were having a little disagreement on the applique and what constitutes done.  So, I’m still adding…

fall forest baby

Posted on by

1029frost.jpg

Well, it’s over… we had our first frost last night.  I’m glad I got the photo of the nasturtiums last week.

This baby has been a hard one- why do I keep thinking of it as the colicky baby.  It is the baby I started with but kept having to put aside.  The base fabric is a rather loosely knit sweater.  It didn’t felt when I washed it, but I still wanted to use it- I like the texture and the color.  It was very hard to work with.  The wool fabric just didn’t hold it’s shape and I felt like I was wrestling it to get the right shape.  In retrospect, I should have used an inner-lining as a stabilizer.  And, actually that was just one of the problems.  Originally, this baby had a brown face.  When I was close to finishing, I stepped back and realized there was not enough contrast.  The brown face disappeared into the pile of leaves- so… face-ectomy (that’s a little gruesome pandering to the whole Halloween week heehee).  And I won’t go into the problems of getting the face right.  But, now it is done-
1029face.jpg

I loved embroidering the leaves.  Every time I went for a walk, I would bring some leaves home for inspiration.  Now I have a pile on my desk.

1029forestbaby.jpg

1029back.jpg

Bunny on the bottom-

1029bunny.jpg

I took the extra face and made a new body for it, so it has worked out for the best.  I have 2 more babies to finish before moving on.

sky baby

Posted on by

Yesterday, I thought this doll was done. Then, it woke me up in the middle of the night and told me no, I need something more…  This morning I added some stitching around the face and clouds. Better.

1025face2.jpg

I have always loved nasturtiums. I can hardly believe they are still looking so good in the garden.

1025nasturtiums.jpg

side and back-

1025side.jpg1025back.jpg

and a little aside- I know that was probably about the lamest tutorial ever yesterday, but I am really liking my new needle strip!

a quick interruption in regular programming

Posted on by

1024pincushion.jpg

I have needle issues.  I am picky about what I use- some I like to use for wool embroidery, different ones when I am using cotton floss.  I always seems to be dropping or misplacing them and then can’t find them again.  I get so distracted if I have to go looking for more needles or threading and unthreading them constantly.  In the middle of working on one of the babies this morning, I’d had it.  I needed a better system.

My idea was to have a strip pincushion.  I could stick all the right type of needles into it at the beginning of a project.  I could pre-thread several so I wouldn’t be starting and stopping the flow.  I’d have a place to store my needles that were threaded with a color I was finished with, until next time I needed it.

A while ago, I bought a piece of 100% wool felt at Joanns fabric, but it is really too soft and I hadn’t figured out how to use it for anything.  I cut a strip, 18″ long and 2 inches wide.  I cut that into pieces 6 inches x 1 inch and piled them up.
1024pile.jpg

I stitched them together with a fairly heavy pearl cotton- very tightly.  I wanted it to be dense.  And here we go-
1024strip.jpg

phew!  Success!   It is about 3/4 of an inch thick.  You could make this out of any scrap wool and I think scrap pieces of felted sweaters would be perfect.  This way of storing the needles has an added benefit-  the needles won’t get lost into it like they often do in standard pin cushions.  Now back to work!

1024desk.jpg

This baby is finished now, but it is wet and rainy outside today, so I will take more photos tomorrow.