Autumn Harvest
What a busy year it has been! I had a great session of dyeing, with traditional tied shibori and ice techniques giving great results, Months of metal too, with a big batch of etched copper and brass as well as flat patinas on both. Then came the cutting and finishing, and now the photos.
Which is very timely, as I am redoing my websites! I have closed my Polyclay site and am consolidating the parts that I want to keep into this site, updating and freshening as I go. I’ll be posting here, and I’ll be putting items for sale into my shop.
Lots to do, but now that my outdoor gardening is done for the year, I can grow my website…and work on some new projects too!
New Doll Designs
I have recently drawn up some new doll patterns and put together kits that can be used with them. I’ve gone through my extensive stash of hand dyed silks, cotton, ribbons and lace as well as vintage textiles, sequins and beads, and put together some great project potentials for slow stitching, art doll making or…whatever!
SO much sorting, bagging and photographing meant I was due a treat, so I made up one of the kits, just to see what I could do with it. I used my new 18″ doll pattern printed at 80%, which made up into a 14″ doll, and finished up the muslin in the kit entirely.
I added to the kit: thread, embroidery floss, wool mohair, polyester stuffing, acrylic paint, a small piece of fusible interfacing, and some thin peach colored ribbon. I used up everything but a few beads and sequins!
By the time she was done, she had become a redheaded beauty with an underlayer of garments, a beaded and embroidered overdress, a vintage silk ribbon corselette, lace purse and a hat lavishly covered with ribbons. Her embroidered shoes sparkle with sequins and beads
I sewed pieces directly onto the doll for the underlayer. Then, with the addition of the skirt and accessories, she can have several different outfits!
New Dress-able Cloth Dolls
I’ve done several new patterns for art dolls that are decorated directly on the doll form, but I always go back for the fun of dress and undressable dolls with wardrobes. I drafted some new patterns, working on getting a good range of sizes/ages.
I also drew up some patterns for clothes, of course! Now to resize them and make some for each of the 5 prototype dolls; here’s how the first one turned out. I used cotton jersey that I dyed, and shopped for cloth and trims in my stash–it seems I have a lot, and it doesn’t take much to dress a doll.
New Deluxe Doll Kits
I’ve been putting together all sorts of kits for making art dolls, some with premade bodies, some with faces and all with lots of colorful cotton, rayon and silk. Big dolls, little dolls, shadowboxes, icons or fabulous wearable jewelry or bags…these kits are great starting points to projects.
Recently I’ve put together 48 deluxe kits, turning out the bins and boxes to add fabrics and embellishments.
Each kit contains hand dyed kona cotton, silk gauze, a silk handkerchief, ribbons, plus vintage sari silk ribbons, angelina fiber, and a specially selected mix of sequins and beads. I’ve also included 5 millefiore style polymer clay faces (slightly curved for dollmaking ease) and my own patterns for making a variety of dolls. Click here to download the .pdf file
The smallest person or mermaid is about 3.5 inches when made up. The middle sized person sews up into a 10 inch doll. This one also has a mermaid tail option. The mannequin style is 9″ but you can also easily add a mermaid tail as I did in the sample shown here.
I used to buy premade cotton 3″ doll bodies and dye them, but they have not been available for years, so I drafted some patterns.I print them on cardstock, cut them out and trace them onto the fabric, then stitch. THEN cut out the pieces–that’s the secret to working with small parts! The fabric in the kits, when folded double, makes several dolls as shown here.
I made some up in dyed kona cotton, and some in tiedyed cotton jersey. Both worked up very nicely into samples that I embellished with ribbons, beads, sequins…I started with what was gathered into the kits, and then added more beads.
The 3.5 orange doll sample hasnt been embellished yet, nor has the green mermaid. One has a millefiore style face, and one is sculpted. The ones that come in kits are not attached, and I also have sets of 5 face canes in a variety of styles. That’s in addition to a wide array of sculpted polymer clay and ceramic faces.
I’m updating my shop here with kits, faces and even some finished dolls.
I’ll be adding more available inventory to my shop here and also sell on Facebook,
Alcohol Ink Mandalas
I love the vibrancy of alcohol inks on metal. I like to cut the resulting pieces up to make jewelry components and decorative objects. Before doing that, I photograph and scan each one as a whole image. Then I can digitally manipulate them. I like to use them in many ways, including creating mandalas.
I have an account at Pixels.com, a Print On Demand supplier for artists. I make my designs available on clothing and household decor items, and if others purchase them, I get a royalty. I can also buy my items and sell them elsewhere, but I do like letting Pixels do the fulfillment and shipping!
By using photo editing tools to make masks and layers, I can combine and recombine beautiful bits and pieces in many different ways. I create a triangle, then duplicate it–and keep duplicating.
