a Monday report

Posted on July 2, 2007 by mimik

How cool is this?! This is a first for me, my artwork in a book-

I am talking about this book– Making Gourd Dolls & Spirit Figures, by Ginger Summit and Jim Widess. I just got my copy and am pleased as punch! I can’t quite figure out why they put someone elses doll (the one the upper left hand page) on a page with my name on it, but… hey, I am very glad to have the photos of my dolls together! The book has a great range of examples and instructions for making dolls from gourds- very interesting.

Other stuff-

Am I the last person to read this post on Yarn Harlot? It resonated with me.

I fell in love over the weekend. I’m going to have to get one of these for my garden- Lady in Red Hydrangea.

I saw on my stats that someone had searched for “m kirchner pottery”. That was how I used to sign my pots. I had this crazy idea, right out of college (actually someone told me!) that it would be better to make my signature gender ambiguous so I would be taken more seriously. That was 1976. I don’t think I fooled anyone. My imagery hasn’t changed much when I switched over to fiber arts.

I’ve killed my website, which never was much of a website anyway. Mostly it was just a front door to my photo galleries. Now if you go to Mimi Kirchner.com, you will be here at the blog. This is where the action’s at anyway. Hopefully this will be an incentive to do some clean up chores and rearrange the furniture around here. I hope this doesn’t mess anything up for anybody.

And, I am working on Amy‘s paperbag swag pages. The thing I’ve loved about this project is that it has given me a place to try out some techniques/ideas/materials that never seemed to fit in anywhere else. I have always admired Abby’s scrappy patchwork fabrics and have wanted to try making some.

Mine seems a little more uptight then hers, but it works for me. Next step- pages and some applique-

and then sketches for the next part-

I love my copy machine. I did the drawing and then copied it in several sizes to see how it works on the piece.

Lastly- flower of the day- Butterfly weed-

I am posting these now to get me through the winter.

nothing finished

Posted on June 23, 2007 by mimik

I haven’t been doing a lot of sewing. Lots of other things have been distracting me- all that life stuff… Now let’s see, what have I been doing?

I have a project for which I need a certain color of wool. I happen not to have enough of the particular color. Oh goody- an excuse to go thrift store shopping! I decided to use this as a reason to go check out a number of Boston area thrift shops that I haven’t been to before. Okay, that has been REALLY fun! I now have at least one new favorite- Urban Renewal.

On Father’s Day, we visited the rose garden on the Fenway. The roses were amazing. Now I’m thinking I need to plant more roses in my garden. This one is called Sally Holmes-

It is poppy blooming time in my garden-

I am actually thinking a lot about the garden these days. For about 5 years I had sort of lost interest and was in maintenance mode, but I am considering some major rework. I am thinking garden design thoughts.

Did you see this link over on Craftzine? I rushed over and got me some-

And now for some actual artwork- this is what I’ve been working on in my attic-

wip- hopefully I will have something to show soon. Happy weekend everybody.

all the news…

Posted on June 6, 2007 by mimik

first, do my duty and promote…

Tomorrow, June 7, I will be participating in the Jamaica Plain First Thursday, with Etsy Boston. I will be there with Jessica, Amy, Betsy and Betsy, Elizabeth, Angela, JHill Design, and MuchachaK. Come and see us if you can- we will be there from 5 – 8. I’ll give you a magnet if you ask- hehe, bribe!

Second, the fun report. Yesterday, I drove down to Newport, RI and met up with Kristin! It was a beautiful day, a perfect day to spend out of the studio. We walked around, admiring flowers, trees, old houses, the sea views. We ate a wonderful lunch and admired sailboats. We talked blogs and blogging, family and gardening. I wish we had had many more hours- we were just beginning to scrape the surface of all that being part of this internet blog/craft community involves. Last year I went to a doll conference. If I could have my fantasy networking venue, I’d be going to a craft blog conference this year! It is so refreshing to talk to someone who understands why we do this!

Third- work in progress-

It is a wool tiki doll. It was one of those itches that needed scratching. I kept seeing images and thinking, hmmm, that would be so much fun to applique! So, finally. Here is the flickr mosaic I made with the doll and also some of the inspiration.

Fourth- if you are interested in the gathering/workshop, there are still spaces. Enough people are interested that it will be happening-yeah!- and there is still room.

more cards

Posted on May 1, 2007 by mimik

Okay, you all convinced me! And thanks so much for your feedback. I’ve chosen 6 of the babies and they are at the printers now. I hope the cards will be done by this time next week. And, now I’m working on another postcard series- reading-

I think spring is putting me in the mood to work with my cotton prints right now.

postcards- babies

Posted on April 27, 2007 by mimik

I’ve been inspired by all the beautiful babies showing themselves in my blogs and in flickr!

Ten fabric postcards-

1. Skirt fabric last seen on this kitty–

4. This one has a baby gown made from an old embroidered piece of fabric-

7. My mom had a dress made from the background floral fabric. It feels like Liberty, but I don’t know if it is.

8. Hey Eleanor- see what I did with that fabric you left me?

9. The background is chita fabric that Rosa set me-

10. The background on this one is some 70’s Laura Ashley fabric. I have a lot of vintage Laura Ashley fabric scraps…

And on another note- my naked robot is making a tour of sex blogs. My husband figures they must be desperate for content! As a result, checking my stats has become a LOT more interesting- ha!

Paper dolls

Posted on April 3, 2007 by mimik

I’m working on my paperbag swag for March- it’s gonna be a little late. I am working on Ellia’s book. A fun part of participating in a project like this, is that it gives me a chance or a place to try out ideas, techniques, materials, that don’t seem to fit in with the regular artwork I’m doing.

This month I’ve made a magnetic paper doll. I was able to get a magnetic sheet- adhesive on one side- at my local art/craft store. It is like the magnets that are a business card and you stick on your fridge. I would have been happier with a stronger magnet but this was what they had. Here is my paper doll page-

Baby has a blanket and a closet. Open the closet-

Here is everything, all spread out-

And now, the fashion show. Here is Baby-

And here is her sailor dress-

an outfit for the hot summer days-

a bunny sleeper for going out on a cool night-

and a pretty dress to visit grandma-

Well, I was having a great time playing with her anyway! It made me remember paper dolls of my childhood. I remember a drawer full. I liked cutting them out. I liked trying on the dresses. I didn’t like the tabs though- frustrating to cut and they didn’t really hold the dress on. Then they got put in the drawer where they got wrinkled and mixed up with other paper dolls and all the clothes and what a mess! I don’t think I ever played with them more then once each.

Tomorrow I will show the rest of the spread. I’ve got to go figure out my pocket full of swag…

working with recycled fabrics

Posted on March 18, 2007 by mimik

Here are all eight dolls lined up, next to a 15 inch ruler. I used basically the same pattern for all of them. #1, 7, and 8 have bigger heads. Some have sleeves, some bare arms. The bodies and legs are all cut from the same pattern pieces. As you can see, there is a range of sizes. That’s what you get when you use a variety of fabrics. I would have guessed that the knits come out bigger then the woven fabrics, but that turns out not to be true. I also would have guessed that the linen doll would be the smallest- wrong again.
I try to use woven fabrics together and knits together, don’t mix materials that I’m going to stuff. Now I’m wondering if it really makes any difference.

This is one of the challenges I think about when I consider making patterns. How do you design clothes for dolls where every one might turn out a different size?

I’ve posted an annotated photo on here on Flickr.

girls in progress

Posted on March 17, 2007 by mimik

The girls are coming along. I’ve got 8 that I’m working on. They now all have faces, hair, and stitched fingers. Next comes clothes or whatever extras they each need.

faces-

this is the round head style-

and this is the VERY round head style!

This is a photo of my worktable today- I love the pile of dolls-

The one on the far right was the last to get hair so she isn’t in any of the other photos. Actually, she had hair but I wasn’t satisfied so I redid it. My challenge on these dolls (so far) has been the hair. I wanted to make fabric (wool knit) hair and I was able to come up with a pattern/style that I’m very happy with. It is flexible enough that I can make different hair styles, but still use the same basic idea to cut out the fabric and attach it to the dolls head.

little girl dolls

Posted on March 9, 2007 by mimik

I’ve been working all week on little girls.

I posted a partial photo of these girls on Flickr last week. They were not right but I was happy enough with the direction they were going in.

I got the purple one on the right put together after numerous rejected leg designs. It is a battle to keep it simple and get it right. I liked her enough that I decided to try the pattern out in different fabrics. (I have been very scattered lately and not finishing any of them is one of the signs, but anyway… ) I’ve got a bunch cut out- one from linen, most from wool, felted and not felted , some knits and some woven.

I’ve got a pile of legs to work on- time for knees!

This doll design has a concealed button jointed hip. Good motion. The dolls in the top picture will get new legs like these.

Here is my scraps from today, and stuffing that I keep pulling out of the rejects-

btw- I did enter Mr. Kitty into the Softie Awards. I liked Miss Dot’s comment to think of it as participating instead of a contest. That made sense to me. Thanks everybody, I really appreciated your opinions.

pears in progress

Posted on March 5, 2007 by mimik

I’ve gotten a little done on the pears. Here they are, all basted down. They are made from 5 wool recycled sweaters and one piece of woven wool.

I am appliqueing them, using that method I learned at Purl last summer-

and now they are sewed down. That’s a piece of cashmere that they are sewed onto, from my Mom’s stash.

I’m sorry about all the problems with the blog and comments and all. Hopefully we will figure out a way to get things running smoothly and consistently again.

Doll

the art and craft of Mimi Kirchner

Category Archives: progress report