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.

Finally able to access my old blog

I have been trying to access this old blog for several months and was unable to do so until now. I just tried something different and lo and behold it worked - after 3 frustrating years of no access. I have been doing lots of new fun stuff in the past 3 years. I am now hand dyeing silk and velvet fabrics and making groupings of the fabrics for sale for doll makers. Also I am hand painting silk ribbons and lace. Great fun to do and the fabrics seem to be well accepted.

I have been making beaded pin dolls for the past 3 years - some are shown above. They have hand painted faces, specialty fabrics, beaded arms and legs, pewter hands and feet. Each doll is different - one of a kind. I use some of my hand dyed fabrics and lots of vintage fabrics.

Now that I was FINALLY able to get back into this blog I will be occassionally posting.

Some more old dolls

These are some of my old dolls. I will be adding a few at a time. The white pair of dolls was done for a club challenge based on the "Book of Qualities" by J. Ruth Gendler. We wrote alll the qualities from the book on slips of paper then we each drew 3 qualities. We could make one or more of the qualities as our challenge doll. Two of the qualities I drew were compassion and devotion. I used both with this mother daughter pair. The daughter is showing compassion to the bird with the broken wing. The pregnant mother shows devotion to her child.

The other doll was for another club challenge - make a doll based on a storybook. i selected "Per and the Dala Horse". It is a Scandinavian fairy tale. Part of my heritage is Finnish. The book is not Finnish but was the closest I could come. The doll is made fro the "Kiddikins" pattern by Jo Ellen. The costume is my own interpretation of the doll in the book. I made the little wooden horse with a little help from my husband and his bandsaw.

Tomorrow I am teaching a class on hat making using fur felt. This is the felt used in real hats. I have molded the felt and the class will be decorating them. I will post some of my samples after the class.

Jean

Joint Meeting Centerpieces

These are a few of the centerpieces I made for my table at the Joint Meeting. The theme for the table was "Greatest Show on Earth" I had a total of 9 dolls. Most of my pictures are blured. I did not take any before going the event and since I gave away the dolls could not do so afterwards.

The trapeze couple is at my mother-in-laws house. She was the oldest person attending the event (91 years old), so I gave her the pair. I am also showing the fire diver and acrobat on the spinning circle - it actually turns two ways - The weightlifter, girl on the elephant, clown, seal, and juggler are blurry so not included in these pictures.

The costumer from the Hult Center was the highlite of the event. Several of the girls from our doll club are taking Adele Sciortino's costuming class in August, so seeing the elaborate costumes from the ballet and opera made us all the more excited about Adele's class.

j

Marionettes

Here are my marionettes. They are not strung in the pictures. The strings got tangled and I unstrung them and have not put them back together. Both are from the same pattern. One is needle sculpted the other is not. I did teach a class for my doll club on the one in the red sequined dress.

Two Dolls from Mary Tressler Patterns

These two dolls are from Mary Tressler patterns. The belly dancer was an entry in the Treasures of the Gypsy challenge a couple of years ago. No prizes, but was in SD&A. The other doll was from a Doll U class by Mary - Klondike Kate. The belly dancer is owned by my mother-in-law; the Klondike Kate doll is owned by a friend in California.