lumberjack 6- teddy bear

3:5:lumberjack 6a

I like to cut out large groups of dolls from the same pattern at the same time. I get inspired by the colors and materials. The pile of cut-out dolls gets bigger and bigger as I am thinking, I could do this! and this! Mostly it is a good thing but sometimes I go off in odd directions. I cut out this fellow a while back- more than a year I know? I was cutting out traditional lumberjacks (just a shirt), tattooed lumberjacks ( shirts pieces, chest and arm pieces) and then I thought, what about a man in a vest. And apparently a teddy bear vest was what I thought he needed. It is a teddy bear vest because it is made of mohair fabric for making teddy bears. The fabric is in my stash because years ago, when I was making painted dolls, I experimented with using it for hair but it was almost always not quite the right color. So, it has been sitting in the bin for all this time because every time I looked at him I wondered, Is that just too silly? or weird? or something? With this last batch I decided, what the heck. And I finished him up. He is most certainly a very huggable fellow- that mohair fur is so so soft. I am glad he has finally stepped forward!

3:5:lumberjack 6c

3:5:lumberjack 6b

3:5:lumberjack 6d

We’ve had a few days where the temperature has gone above freezing so the snow is beginning to melt a bit. But, as you can see, it will be a while before it is gone!

winter baby

Yes, I am completely snowed under. It is impossible to describe how awful it is because really, it looks kinda pretty, right?

2:20:street

But we are all dealing with freezing cold temps, ice dams and leaking roofs, terrible roads and sidewalks, interspersed with perfect ones like this (ours, thank you Ben!). No parking anywhere, traffic jams, broken down mass transit. Giant snowdrifts that make every corner, whether you are driving or walking across the street, a potentially deadly blind spot. Coming up next, flooding. Everybody is stressed and cranky. I can’t wait until spring but it is going to be a while yet.

That’s our car in the driveway.

2:20:car

But, I am very thankful that I work at home. And I have gotten some things done. I have 2 babies to show you (another tomorrow), that I put together in December but never got around to finishing. Hello Baby!

2:20:baby 1b

2:20:baby 1c

2:20:baby 1d

2:20:baby 1a

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?

2:13:me

My medal says blogger- it has a gold star for 10 years plus a white star for 1 year.

2:13:my medal

These are the rest of the medal prototypes I’ve been making, inspired by many things including this fellow, Lord Kitchener.

2:13:medals

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!