New stuff that is keeping me busy

I have a habit I trying everything new out there but not sticking with anything. Currently I have been experimenting with different types of dyes and paints. Mainly I have been dyeing silk fabrics, silk and rayon ribbons and painting lace. I have been making these into groupings large enough for one or two doll ensembles. Each group consists of a fairly large piece of 10mm habotai silk, a piece of silk velvet and 3 other pieces of silk (all hand dyed in the same color or colors that will work together. Additionally each package has some hand dyed or painted ribbon and some hand painted Venice lace trim. The smaller boxes also inclued a piece of hand dyed and hand pleated shibori. The larger packages have fewer types of silk and no shibori, but are in larger cuts of fabric for larger dolls such as French fashion dolls. Samples of the boxes and contents are shown here.

Michele Thorpe made this costume for

Bleuette using one of the packages.

This is a sample of what is in the package.

The hats are made from Russian fur felt from a company that has been out of business for many years. All the hats are hand molded. Some use traditional molds others use various found items to give different shapes.

I also make dye and trim straw hats.

The trims vary - Some are vintage trims, some silk ribbons, the flowers are usually handmade or vintage.

These are some of the hand painted lace pieces.

Challenge Doll for Stitchin' Time Cloth Doll Club

We just unveiled our challenge dolls for this year for Stitchin' Time Cloth Doll Club. The challenge this year was to swap doll parts at various meetings and to complete a doll using the swapped parts. We brought heads and bodies to the first meeting. I received an unsculpted head and body from Donna Madsen. I needle sculpted the face and used Pigma pens and Prismacolor pencils to complete the face. The arms came at another meeting from Roxanne Sienkiewicz. She makes beautiful hands. The arms and hands were black fabric. I gessoed them and painted them to match the face.

Part of the challenge was to go outside your box. My box is rather small. I do traditional dolls. I have a hard time doing something different. The next exchange was legs. I missed that meeting as I was at my brother's memorial service. I was able to use something I didn't make in lieu of legs. Our local craft recycling center M.E.C.C.A. had a "Fill a Bag For a Buck" day. I found a dome woven of twigs. It only partially filled the bag. I was able to fill the rest of the bag with lots of fibers, some fabric and odd "stuff" for mixed media and still only pay a dollar.

I attached the body to the twigs and then was stuck as to what to do next. So I did what I always do - procrastinate until the last minute. Dolls were due last Thursday. I waited until Tuesday and finally started to do something. I have been hand dyeing ribbons, silk fabrics and lace so why not use some of it. I dye both silk ribbon and rayon tape. The rayon is varigated colors and is much cheaper than the silk. since I needed a lot of it the rayon won out. Her body and arms are wrapped in ribbon. The skirt is drapped with more ribbon and her sleeves are loops of ribbon.

Her wig is crocheted fibers. I mold my own hats of real hat felt. This is made from old Russian fur felt from a company that has been out of business for a long time. The trims are my hand dyed silk ribbons and flowers made from those ribbons.

In the closeup of her face I can see pins in her hatband. I hadn't decided if I was going to change it when the picture was taken.