This is the last of the back up- A snowy owl which was another sample for the owl class.
I finished a fox but the weather has kept me from photographing him. Hopefully tomorrow. But here is a sneak peak-
grey owl
I took this picture a few days ago, before the blizzard which we are in the midst of right now. I started this owl in my owl class as a sample and finished him up last week. He is stuffed with “slippery” stuffing and is very squeezable (huggable?). We used this type of stuffing for all the classes and I learned some useful things about it. Firstly, it is much easier to stuff a large open space- like the owl or the baby- with this type of stuffing. It seems to expand to fill the space. And, when making the dogs and foxes, they come out fatter. Here is a photo-
The left fox is stuffed with “dry” stuffing, the right with “slippery”.
Anyway, back to the owl.
That’s the view from the top showing the fuzzy edged hood.
black and white dog
I made this dog to photograph for the pattern. After I made this dog. Unfortunately, this new dog doesn’t show all the details I want to show either so I might be trying one more time.
bird baby 2
I’ll be overwhelming you with posts after my silence in January. I just finished this second bird baby for my pattern. But, I’m looking back at the January posts and looking at what I have finished and sitting in front of me and I can see that I am way behind! So today- bird baby, inspired by the zillions of sparrows that spend their days in the shrubbery around my house. Sometimes when I go out the door, a cloud of birds takes to the air!
getting back to the needle
I’m trying to get back to some sewing time but it’s been difficult. I have a ton of computer nonsense calling to me. Sigh- the never-ending distraction. But, I have 2 more samples that needed to be finished for the Swaddled Baby pattern so I HAD to go to the studio, right?!
This is the second of 2 Folk Art Baby designs for the pattern.
Last Friday I had some visitors from Sweet Paul Magazine–
That was the real incentive for getting the studio all cleaned up. As always, I work well with a deadline! It’s fun to see my studio through the eyes of the photographer. I can’t wait to see the results.
I’m hoping I’ll be back here a lot more this month. I’m also trying to train myself to post more photos on Twitter and Facebook. Winter is so isolating and all the social media becomes more important to make me feel connected. See you soon!
Gather Here reception
There is going to be a little closing reception tomorrow night at Gather Here, 7pm. It was fantastic to have my dolls on display all month. Hope to see you there!
I’ve been taking care of various business this week. One thing on the list- clean the studio. This is mid-day when I was sorting through drawers- the type of project that gets done at the end of the clean-up.
Then, all done. Of course it was nearly dark by then so I have the yellow light affect in these photos.
So many clear surfaces- That won’t last long!
And now I can start messing it up again!
Wow! What a week!
I taught 4 classes- 4 nights and 2 weekend days. Phew! And I learned so much.
First we did the owl as seen in the last post. Then the swaddled baby.
The 4 hours scheduled was nowhere near long enough. Next time, 6 hours. The faces take a good amount of time and concentration.
Then, 2 nights of Perfect Puppies. There was lots of laughing and doggie talk here. And the dogs came out great! Well, the almost finished versions that I saw. I hope I’ll get more photos of completed pups.
And lastly, 2 long afternoons of foxes.
Wow!
This is how it was from my perspective. I want to do more teaching so when Virginia of Gather Here asked me to do the Artist-in-Residence, we decided that I’d teach. I volunteered to teach 4 classes, 3 of which I hadn’t even written the patterns for. Yes sir, jumping into the fire here. Because really, not only were the patterns not written, I have very little teaching experience. I’ve taught in my house where I have all my stuff and I taught a class with my doll club where I knew everyone. This past week was the first time I was working in a new environment with strangers- scary! I’m a worrier and a homebody. Knowing I’d committed to being out of the house for a week, I worried that I’d get the flu (nope, my husband got it though), I’d have horrible insomnia the whole week, I’d forget everything I needed, etc, etc. I can always think of endless things to worry about! Of course it was all fine. I didn’t get sick, I was so tired at the end of the day that I crashed every night, and everything I forgot, they had there- of course, cuz you know, it’s a store!
Every day I’d start to get really anxious about half an hour before the class started. By 15 minutes into the class I was fine. Phew!
I was a little flummoxed by a different sewing machine but there was always a helper to work with the students on the machines. And I got to play with some new to me tools/toys like these light-weight Gingher scissors– I really liked them.
Honestly, I am so proud of myself for doing this. It was totally out of my comfort zone in a lot of areas- writing the patterns, teaching out of the house, so many people I didn’t know. But I learned so much by watching how people worked, the mistakes they made, the mistakes I made. I will be doing some tweaking on the patterns based on the experience. And everyone was so great! Thanks all you amazing students! I want to see more photos!
I hope to be finishing the patterns in the next few weeks. The Swaddled Baby will come first. I’ll keep you informed!
Owl Class
My first day of Artist-in-Residence at Gather Here was fantastic. We had loads of fun in the owl class.
Mid-afternoon was quiet and I organized supplies and went over the owl pattern on my own.
The evening brought the students- everyone worked really hard.
And look who was hatched by the end of the evening- A Parliament of Owls!
Tonight we’ll be making swaddled babies.
a few things finished
I’m working on the patterns and I am making slow progress. As I work, dolls get made. Here are the babies, so far. Two Basic babies, a folk art baby and a bird baby-
And a dog. I made this one and did all the photos for the pattern but realized that there wasn’t enough contrast to show the techniques so now I have another on going.
Back to work now!
making patterns
I am working away at pattern-making and it is using up all my words. So, no blogging and no tweeting and no facebook.
This is the “basic baby”. I’m working on some embellished versions.
And the dog.
So many steps to think about. And lastly the fox but no pictures yet. Pattern making is very difficult- I used to think just for me but after being on twitter with other people who do this, I know it is hard for everyone. I am stressed out by the technical end of putting it all together because everything I’ve used before (old photoshop and indesign) will not work on my new computer. If I upgrade (expensive for something I rarely use) there will be the re-learning how to use it. All that is swirling in my head as I work on the directions, the photos and the diagrams. I will get it all worked out but in the mean time I will make myself crazy. Now, back to work!