A Dog!

It is so hard to photograph a dark object and still have the details show. The mouth is embroidered in black though it hardly shows in this photo.

the back-

Here is a side view so you can see his nose profile.

Some notes on designing: Making a new doll, even one that isn’t all that different from what has come before, doesn’t happen quickly, easily or by magic. It is methodical and it is work. I was in the midst of working on a pile of other things when I had an idea- a dog, sort of a dachshund, with a striped sweater. I drew out some thoughts and went back to work, finishing up what needed to be finished. That is how the ideas come- while I’m working on something else. As I work on that other project, maybe looking at it at a funny angle or some random mistake, will give me an idea to try something off in another direction.

Then comes the hard part. I started playing with my pattern and making prototypes in-between the other things I’m working on. If I’d said to myself, I’ll work on this when I finish all these other things, I’d probably lose interest and maybe or maybe not ever get back to it. Instead, I fit in little bits of time to work on my dog. Here is a photo of my desk with 4 prototypes and a bunch of the paper pattern pieces.

The first iteration was that flat gray tweed and just about everything was wrong with it. hmm, Good to know! I unstuffed it and threw it in the bin. Then pulled it out again for this photo. The 2 white ones came next. They are made out of an old wool blanket- my scrap paper of wool. The one on the right came first. Among other things, the ears are too small and the head is too wide. On the left came next (#3). Ears better, thinking about the nose, hmm, not so sure I like his body. #4 is the all brown one. He is a lot slimmer and his hips/legs are redesigned. I made a few test noses before deciding on the one I like best. Now I am ready for #5, the dog with his sweater that I’m showing at the top. It has been about a week in the designing. Ta Da! Magic ;)

And I will continue to tweak for a while. That is the fun of it all!