corset

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Chugging along slowly here. I finished this lady yesterday. I love how her breasts and corset work with the stripes. (that line will probably get me some disappointed visitors from google search!)

I’ve recently finished reading The Corset, by Valerie Steele– inspired by the Alexander McQueen show. It is a very interesting book. I thought I’d just skim it and look at the photos, but I got sucked in and read all about the history of women shaping underwear. Yes, very interesting! And, by the way, this is not an accurate corset of any kind!

We have a big patch of Queen Annes Lace next to the driveway. Looking at it takes me back to my childhood. I remember being curious about why some of the flowers have a black dot in the center. The mysteries of nature.

one fish, two fish

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6 fish-

I needed some new fish. Between sewing fish faces, I’ve been sewing breasts onto lady dolls. I’ve got the air conditioner installed but I need a really good audiobook to listen to. I’m still feeling like I’m running on slow motion here.

a pirate

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I finished him. It turns out he is a pirate. I think it is the boots.

He is a patriotic pirate. He has Ben Franklin on his back and George Washington on his arm.

I used a blue variegated floss for his eyes so they are slightly different colors.

Isn’t this perfect for his hair?

I found this little buckle in my stash. Perfect.

Things don’t always go smoothly when I’m putting the dolls together. I cut this tattooed man out last spring and sewed him up at the end of May. Now I stuffed the body and did the face embroidery. I sewed the fingers and then stuffed the arms. I was about to sew the arms on when I realized they not the same size. At all. I put everything aside and went to Vermont.

Today I unstuffed both arms, back to the hands. Then I carefully retraced the pattern onto the bigger arm. There was a bit of fiddling on both, sewing, taking out, resewing. Fixing mistakes often takes much longer than you’d ever expect. And of course I don’t have enough fabric to just make new ones.

But, he made it through the reconstructive surgery. He did not end up in the pile of not-sure-how-to-fix problem dolls. Phew!

 

 

visit to the Shelburne Museum

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I had SO MUCH fun- what a glorious day! My visit to the Shelburne was wonderful. To start, the weather was perfect- mid-70’s, clear, no humidity, light breeze. Amazing. There is tons to see so I guess I will just have to go back. I tried to see the things I knew I would be most interested in and along the way I also saw some other treasures that weren’t on the list.

My friend and I started at the top on the hill and headed down the path that lead us into the carousel exhibit. The Round House building  also held a 3-d paper exhibit. The artwork of Jared Schorr caught my attention- enough that when I got home, I checked out a whole lot more of it on his website.

Next, we went to the Circus Building. Learning about the circus collection is what reminded me last winter that I really needed to visit. I have known about the Shelburne for years, especially their toy and folk art collection and I knew I wanted to go “some day”. But, it is far enough away (4+ hrs driving) that it is easy to forget about. I am so glad that I made myself leave the studio and make the trek.

They have an amazing collection of posters. Here is my friend standing next to one so you can see the scale. I love these giraffe. I might have to spend some time thinking giraffe thoughts. Most of the exhibits had glass in front so please forgive the glares and reflections.

This was my favorite exhibit in the circus collection- an enormous circus “toy”. One man (Edgar Decker Kirk) worked for 40 years, first for his children and later for the neighborhood kids. I can totally relate to getting so immersed in a project. It would be fun to examine each piece close up- there are so many details.

After the circus, we explored needle arts. Amazing quilts, samplers, embroidery, clothing. This is a fantastic collection for anyone interested in fiber arts.

I fell in love with the Helen Bruce dioramas and am grateful that (no flash) photography was allowed. I am thrilled that my photos actually came out so well considering how little light there was. Unfortunately there didn’t seem to be any postcards or books with photos so I’m glad I’ve got a record. This photo has my hand for scale. (More photos on flickr)

And our last stop was the folk art collection. Again, so much inspiration in this collection. And, I loved the bright colored rooms that the artwork is displayed in.

I have added a lot more photos to Flickr. I would highly recommend a visit to this wonderful museum. I am only showing what I saw and we were at the museum from 10:30 until 5. There is so much more as you can see if you check out their website. I did some other things on my trip, but I’ll save that for another day.

 

feeling summery

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and not much is happening around here! Things are going on in my life- they just aren’t showing up here.  I’ve been doing boring projects like cleaning and weeding, projects that I forgot to photograph before I sent them out- sleeves for some computers, and secret-for-now projects- gift type things.

The garden is looking amazing. So many colors!

Lavender-

Poppy season!

The crocosmia are just starting.

Coreopsis “moonbeam”

and Butterfly weed.

Daylilies-

And in the back, my favorite combination. Blue lace-cap Hydrangea and anything.

And an oakleaf hydrangea.

My desk is not completely bare of dolls. Now that I finished the *secret project* (I’ll tell later), I pulled out some partially finished dolls from before Brooklyn and I’m giving them faces, and hair. And life.

Speaking of Brooklyn, I will be going to Renegade Chicago in September- hope to see you there!

Okay, what else? I’ve been going through my scrap box, thinking quilt thoughts. We’ll see if anything materializes. Tomorrow I am driving up to Vermont for a few days. I am going to visit the Shelburne Museum. It looks like there is a lot of interesting goodies there- I’ll give the report when I get back. I think that’s it for now. Hope you had a great long week-end (in the US). The Boston fireworks were amazing!

what a week!

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I’ve been meaning to post about this book- Adventures in Bookbinding by Jeannine Stein. I did a piece for it, just about a year ago, and the book arrived right before I left town for Brooklyn. The book is bookbinding with a twist, namely combining bookbinding with other crafts, such as needle-felting, jewelry, weaving, collage, polymer clay, quilting, crochet,… and dollmaking! The book has 3 levels of projects for each craft- a beginner level project, one for those who have experience with the craft, and one by a professional in that medium. Jeannine asked me to make a doll that could incorporate a book. I make this lady to be the “cover” for a garden journal. I love figuring out a puzzle like this!

This week has been a bit of a roller coaster. On the one hand, I still seem to be stumbling around in a post Renegade Market fog. I can’t seem to settle into anything and I am still so tired. And stumbling is a word I am using literally here- I actually fell down a few steps the other day- not what my already iffy back needed. BUT, I got a surprise present in the mail on Monday- you can’t beat that. And this very cute couple has flown off to the mid-west to start a new life together.

AND:

One of my fish is in this amazing ezine, Spoon.

My tattooed Ladies got highlighted over on the Bust Blog. (ignore that smirky picture of me- I always get all tense when someone is taking my photo)

And Kath did a post on Whip-Up about wool applique (one of my favorite topics) and included me. I loved checking out the other links.

So WoW!!! It is turning out to be a pretty great week at Studio Mimi after all! Now, I guess I better start working on getting back in the groove. The studio is now much cleaner anyway.

other things that got done

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When I am getting ready for a show or a trip, all kinds of random things get finished. And not just dolls. I think I make myself a new bag before many trips. And lately, it has been summer shirts.

The polka dots is a light weight linen. The plaid is a vintage cotton from my mom’s stash, probably from the late 60’s.

and earring-

The things is, I never think about my clothes, accessories or jewelry unless I am doing an event or packing my suitcase for a trip. And why should I? I work at home where my main consideration is comfort. And then, all of a sudden I start obsessing about what I’m going to wear!

I’ve started making shirts (and other clothes too) by making patterns from old ones that I like, that fit and have worn out. I cut them up and trace the pieces. These two shirts were made by tracing the pieces of 2 other shirts that are no longer wearable. The polka dot shirt is the fourth one I’ve made from one shirt that I really liked. I used the shirt directions in the book Sew U to help me with pattern piece placement and instructions for how to put them all back together. I make clothes this way because of my dissatisfaction with commercial patterns. I guess I must be of an age or body type that doesn’t match up with the patterns. And I don’t have the patience or knowledge to alter (or completely rework) them. When I try matching up my I-know-this-fits pattern pieces to commercial patterns that I have spent (wasted) money on, they seem to be quite different. Hmm… mystery!

another tattooed girl

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I am still playing catch-up here. This is a doll that somehow never got posted at the beginning of June when I finished her up.

She has a sort of Wonder Woman look to her, don’t you think?

I was exploring corset-y type tops.

And here she is, hanging out with a friend.

She did not come back to Boston with me- I hope she is loving life in Brooklyn!