more from my garden

Posted on by

poppy.jpg

monarda.jpg

The garden is amazing right now. It seems as though all the plants are blooming at the same time! Everything that survived the terrible winter is trying to prove something by going all out this summer.
I love the poppies when they bloom- they look so messy until they do- I am sure my neighbors wonder why I’m not weeding more, but then suddenly they are blooming everywhere and people stop their cars and ooh and ahh. Usually they continue for about 3 weeks. These are annual poppies and spread their seeds all over so they bloom in cracks in the sidewalk and other odd places that the wind and the rain carry their seeds. They are traveling around the neighborhood.
The second photo is Monarda- it can be weedy and wild, but smells so nice when I am pulling it out!
The daylilies are starting up now and they all are looking very promising- the ones that aren’t blooming yet have lots of buds. It has been a good season so far for everything in the garden.
There are lots of photos of my garden here, and the pictures I took today start here– in case you ever wonder what grows in Boston, MA.

wig making

Posted on by

hair2.jpg

I am working on getting this poor thing some hair. I have described wig-making before but I will have to experiment with this project. I have an odd shaped piece of tibetan lambs wool left over from doing another doll. I am going to try to make it work. I never throw anything away!

pattern work

Posted on by

I am working on a design change in my doll pattern- most of the dolls I’ve done so far have had what I think of as a shoulder plate- I was originally inspired by china head dolls. I hand-stitched the head and shoulders onto the body (after stuffing and needle-sculpting the head), adjusting the angle of the head which gave the doll some of it’s attitude.

head1.jpg

I am now trying to machine stitch the head to the body at the point that the body and the neck meet.

head2.jpg

Lots of other doll patterns do this. I tried it with Agnes. After the neck is sewed onto the body, I stuff everything- it seems harder so far. I guess I am trying it to see if I think it gives me more control and predictability. I am trying to make a baby right now- so pretty much no neck!

volunteering

Posted on by

Today I went to the Wenham Museum where I will be volunteering with the doll collection, twice a month or so. After last winter, I decided that I really needed to get out of the house more and connect with real live people. Today we examined and made a list of a collection of dolls that was donated to the Museum. Nothing really special, but it was fun anyway.

something

Posted on by

columbia.jpg

I am having a hard time getting back to my doll work- always a problem for me when I get side-tracked on other things like the costuming job. I made a dress for my Susan Fosnot Columbia doll so at least she is not sitting around naked. The dress is made from the bottom of a vintage petticoat (from an ebay lot of old clothes). It has pretty pin tucks and lace on the bottom.
I have to get back to my own work though- I feel totally uninspired working on a doll that is so much in someone elses style- I just don’t feel any connection, there is no life in it for me. Maybe sometime I will get my Topsie doll dressed, but not now.

workroom pictures

Posted on by

I spent some more time on the cleaning/organizing job and am making some progress. I thought I’d post some pictures of my workspace. It looks cleaner in small sections!

desk.jpg

window.jpg

floor.jpg

mess

Posted on by

I am not getting any doll work done- just slogging through the mess in my work room… trying to get it useable again. The room is in the attic and is often too hot to work in without air conditioning. The room tends to switch dramatically from being way too cold to way too hot. One of the things on my list is to put in air conditioner. I have to clear out the spot around the window so I can put in the air conditioner- but it is so unpleasant up there I don’t want to do it! I’m driving myself nutty. Also the longer it takes me to get back to work, the more foul my mood will become- I need to feel I am making progress. The mess in my work space seems to represent too much of what is going on in my life right now…
This morning I have put all the costuming fabric away in boxes and found one container for all the costume patterns. My goal is to find enough of the floor so that I can set up my ironing board again- then I can get back to work!