Purl Pattern

I feel like I’ve been bursting with this news since January! My doll pattern is up at Purl Bee– I am so excited!

This is the only photo I have of the finished dolls- I was in such a tizzy before I delivered them back in January. I remembered at the last minute and took a quick pic in the shop. I love how the people at Purl wrote up the directions- they are so clear with the photos and the explanation. I can’t wait to see what people do with the pattern!

the monday list

I listed the last four girls in my Etsy shop. I had to retake some of the photos. We are in for a few stormy days so I set up in my studio to be… which I have gotten off course on. Got to get back on that.

One reason (excuse) for not moving the studio project ahead-

I took over the empty space for this project-

I said yes back in January (?) when Susan from Artstream asked me if I’d like to participate in a print show. I spent a good amount of time questioning that decision in the last few weeks. It was a challenge that I wanted to accept and succeed with- to change medium and keep the same feeling/style to my work. I think I will be able to really judge these in a year or so- right now is too soon. They will be going off to New Hampshire as soon as I’ve matted them up.

one more school girl- part 2

Here are all the rest of the pictures-

She has a cashmere hat and shawl. Her hair is angora- so soft!

A wool herringbone jacket with wool felt trim. Here she is with all her accessories-

I love the sweater- it is an old favorite one of mine that got holey. It is nice to be able to give it new life.

I struggled so much with this face. Every part of it was on and then off again at least 3 times. And, then when she is done and all dresses, I forget- it looks all right!

one more school girl- part one

Instead of loading up this post with tons of photos, I thought I’d do 2 posts. I have finished another school girl and I am really happy with how she turned out.

I finally figured out how to make exactly the jacket I had in mind.

It has a brown felt fold-over collar and more felt trim at the cuffs.

In the back, there is a pleat-

It has raglan sleeves and so it fits well.

Her school bag-

this is the front view, open.  The strap is adjustable with a little antique button. And the back-

In action-

I will post the rest tomorrow- this is just the tease!

future librarian

I thought she was another nerdy girl when I was making her, but she looks just a little too well put together and confident. I know she will be an amazing librarian when she grows up!

She has a cashmere beret and very dark green scarf, a red wool plaid jacket and a herringbone skirt. Her sweater is a rusty orange. All very fall colors, I know. I guess I need to start thinking spring.

Here she is with all her stuff. I like photographing the dolls this way- it makes me think of paperdolls.

While I was working on her bookbag, I was imagining what books would be in it. If she were me as a girl, it would be The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Five Children and It, and anything else that had English children as main characters. My sister would have had Little Women, Black Beauty and anything else to do with horses.

handmade portrait

Are you wondering why I haven’t posted any finished dolls around here lately? Well, I got sidetracked. Last week I got an Etsy convo from Tara Young who does videos for Etsy. She does a wonderful series called Handmade Portraits and she asked me if I would be interested in being filmed for one. I thought about it for about 20 minutes- what would I wear, how could I lose 40 pounds in the next few days, is my studio clean enough, should I get a haircut… so many ridiculous worries- and then I said Yes, Of Course I’d be interested! I did a major cleanup in my studio and found enough floor space for her equipment. She arrived midday yesterday and we filmed all afternoon. She was back this morning and spent the day with me. Phew- exhausting!

Thanks (husband) Ben for taking some great photos!

We had a great time together and I think we both got a peak into the work world of the other. I don’t know when the film will be up, but I will definitely be posting about it.

Eleanor’s birthday blanket

she got it so now I can post photos-

I made a similar blanket for Julian for Christmas. Eleanor said she wanted one too, so I promised one for her birthday- and here it is- only a month or so late! It is made of cashmere knit samples that a friend gave me. (nice to have friends who work at a cashmere knitwear company!)  The edge is  cut-up cashmere sweaters. I put flowers over some little holes, then added more to make it look pretty.

I was inspired to make these blankets by Betz White’s book- Warm Fuzzies. I highly recommend it for all the technical info on working with recycled woollies.

shrink plastic tags

I’ve been working on cleaning up the studio. One of my clean-up techniques involves finishing projects that I uncover- not recommended to get the clean-up done quickly!

So, I found a pile of shrink plastic that was cut into strips and I had used to make one batch of tags from. Before I finished or put my mess away, I’d gone on to something else. I finished up the tags- that is how I put my signature on my dolls, in case you were wondering- and was left with a pile of pieces, too small for tags but so obviously useful for something.

I had a mix of clear and translucent plastic. I drew a rough drawing of a girl on a piece of paper and used it as a guide. I laid each piece of plastic over the sketch and drew with a thin sharpie marker.

Time to cook them up. This is where things tend to go wrong for me. I have tried a heat gun and the oven- neither has worked very well. I preheated the oven, popped them in and watched. As usual, I was getting  ones that shrink more in one direction then another, ones that curl and won’t go flat again, ones that started turning brown before they were finished shrinking. I decided it was time to do some experimenting. I tried different places in the oven since right in the middle was not so good. First- the rack in the topmost position. Nope. Then all the way to the bottom- where we have our pizza stone. >Play Trumpets Here< It worked- perfectly! All the curled ones flattened! All the ones that shrunk horizontally more then vertically, evened out! Unfortunately the ones that had overcooked did not un-brown.

Here they are on my fingers for scale. Now I have a gaggle of girls and I really like them. But, I am not sure what to do with them. Any ideas?

projects this wednesday

well, I can’t post a picture of the project I just finished because it is a birthday present and I just mailed it out today- so I will post pictures when I know it has arrived. But, there is always something else.

I’m thinking about glasses and nerdy girls.

And, the studio project creeps forward. This was from last weekend-

And now- look what was delivered today! I found this ten drawer flat file at a recycle place in Boston called Extras for Creative Learning. I brought some supplies over last week to donate and had a big score! It needs a little cleaning up and some paint, but it is helping me think about how I will be organizing my new space. Also, giving me some more incentive to keep moving forward.

Another thing- have you ever heard that expression- “Nature abhors a vacuum”? Well, I think artists’ abhor open spaces- well empty tabletops anyway. I cleared most of the stuff out of the room to work on it, but somehow I seem to have started a new art project in there… I’m going to have to go back in there and rein things in again!