This one doesn’t have a beard. Yup, no beard.
Here is a close-up so you can see what is on his arm.
I am going to start posting these men to my etsy shop tomorrow (8/19). There are 2 more finished but not posted yet, of the big man variety.
Category Archives: General
let’s get going again
I had to get a new computer, which is not my idea of fun. There are so many things to relearn. That is why there haven’t been any posts. Well, that, and a trip to Chicago for a long weekend. And starting up the design process for another ornament line (2016) for West Elm! (I am stopping right now and doing some fist pumps- YEAH! So excited!)
Anyway, I finally figured out enough to post some new fellows.
I’ll be back soon with some more!
other tools for ornaments
I played with some new-to-me supplies/tools when I was working on the patterns. I didn’t write them into the pattern directions because they aren’t necessary, maybe just interesting.
Have you heard of Frixion pens? They are erasable gel pens. There is an eraser at the end of the pen, but much more useful for me, the marks are erasable by ironing. That sounds like magic, doesn’t it! Well, there is a problem. Yes, the marks disappear with heat but they will reappear with cold. I would never use them on my dolls, but an ornament? I don’t think it is that big a deal if the marks came back a bit. The marks are either cutting lines or will be covered with embroidery. And, you could always iron them again. The thing is, these pens work great on the felt- so much better than the water-erasable fabric pens! I got mine on Amazon but I think they are available at lots of places. (btw- that link goes to amazon and if you buy the pens, I get a teeny tiny kickback!)
Next, Clover Applique pins. Short pins that work really well for pinning all those tiny felt pieces. You don’t end up trying to sew the equivalent of a porcupine.
And lastly, Merchant and Mills Bulb pins. I have been wanting to play with these funny safety pins. I discovered that I could pin them onto an ornament to hang it, instead of a string. And, I just wanted them.
and the winners are…
I put the # of comments into the random number generator and got 30, 66, 16, 25, 15, 44, 41, 6, 40, and 27. Congratulations to Beverly Ann, Bettina, Dhonna, Vivien, Sarah, Susan, Mary, Kimber, Jennifer, and Barbara. Have fun with your patterns!
Ornaments Live!
I have posted my 5 new pdf ornament patterns into my etsy shop here! I am SO excited about these. I had so much fun and can’t wait to make more but back to work on dolls for a while first. To celebrate, I will give away 10 patterns! Leave a comment saying which one you’d like and I will pick ten winners after Monday (7/20, ends at midnight eastern US time). One entry per person, right?!
There is the whale–
Felt fish, perfect for embroidery embellishing! If you fill it with catnip, your kitty will love you (even more).
An adorable Star Baby. You could embroider the back with a name and date for a baby’s first Christmas.
A Gnome– or maybe an elf? Santa’s helper?
And a Winter Girl– This would actually make an adorable little doll, don’t you think?
Okay then. Let’s have a giveaway! Please come over to comment on the blog (no emails).
Forest Fellow Fox
and lastly-
A fox forest explorer. He has his day bag on his back.
A cashmere scarf to keep the chill out.
And here is his wardrobe and bag contents-
A close-up of his pack.
hear me talk
Last week, Salley Mavor and I talked to Abby Glassenberg for her podcast. It was a great conversation and you can listen in!
blond tattoo man (3)
I am having fun, playing with hair curls.
another Orange and Black
Anniversaries, medals and patterns
Well, that is an odd collection of things! This is how they are all related-
Hurray! Today is my blog birthday- it has been 11 years! I have been working on felt you-deserve-a-medal prototypes (more on that later) so I made myself one. Don’t I look mighty proud?
My medal says blogger- it has a gold star for 10 years plus a white star for 1 year.
These are the rest of the medal prototypes I’ve been making, inspired by many things including this fellow, Lord Kitchener.
And the reason for the prototypes? This is a class I will be teaching (a project I will be leading?) at the ARC, the Art Stream Art Retreat Camp. There is a story about where the idea started. Last year, at one of the markets I was doing, someone came into my booth, looked around and asked, “Why are these so expensive?” I hate that question. It immediately puts me on the defensive and I get all huffy. Later I was thinking that one of the reasons I charge what I do is that I’ve done the work, I’ve been validated as an artist, I have a seal of approval. And wouldn’t it be great to have an actual seal of approval that I could pull out! And medals for all the “battles” I’ve fought along the way. Really, we all have fought the battles, have the scars, and deserve the medal so lets make our own.
Lastly, the patterns. Back here I talked about why I pulled my patterns from Etsy. Well, it looks like they’ve got things figured out so I will be putting them all back up. To celebrate, I have lowered the price of all the patterns to $8 for all of February. Here is a shop link.
And guess what? More snow on the way!