FINALLY!

I FINALLY finished this mermaid. It was a commission I have had to do since September. I had asked for extra time, because I had gone to MMM and then -well I don't know about you - but when I go to those types of classes, I am fried - for a long while. So I just could not get into her. Different color request and not a velvet tail - this is the 2nd tail I made for her. I am SO happy with how she turned out. She is not pretty to me - she is lovely. I can't wait to take her into work tomorrow and give it to her. She is a little Marion Antoinette-y to me with the white hair - but that is what I had in mind all along.
It is finally snowing here - should get 3"-5" overnight. The drive into work may not be too fun - but it sure will be pretty. I love it when it snows - it is so very quiet and peaceful - everything looks so clean with the white snow.

8 girls journal

8 girls is going to do a Teesha Moore style journal. We each have to decorate the cover only. We are meeting on Sunday and will swap the books for the 1st time. We will decorate 2 pages in the book we receive. Next time we meet, we will swap again and do 2 pages in the next book, etc. I am excited to do this one - the other "girls" are very artistic and the pages should be awesome. Here is the cover of my book. We made each book the same - constructed them as Teesha Moore shows in her youtube video - so the covers have the little flap - that is where I put my name. Hope you like it - I think it is really girly - didn't intend for that, but this is how it ended up and I really think it is pretty.

funny little pin doll

Man is it ever cold - it is in the 20's and briskly cold. I like it though. Wonder if we will see snow this weekend.
Well- just before 10pm I finished my pin doll for our exchange tomorrow- I had this partially made a few years ago and added fibers, beads and sequins. I am pretty happy with it - sure is a silly and funny little person. The body is the size of a tea bag and the head is the size of a grape. I hope whoever gets it enjoys it. Hope you like it too.

busy, busy, busy

Well, I have been here - just not in the doll making mode. 8 girls got together with another friend (an honorary girls 9&10..hahaha). We made day of the dead faces with fabric and paper. I made mine with felt and hand stitched everything. The others used a combination of both mediums and machine stitched and "quilted" theirs - they ALL turned out really neat. Mine has sequins and french knots for texture, plus the hand stitching. I like it and it hangs in the Happy Place so I can see it when at my sewing machine.
Now, if you want to try something REALLY fun and freeing - you HAVE TO check out Teesha Moore's videos on youtube and her blog (link is on my blog to the right). She has tutorials of EVERYTHING she does on her art journal pages - and even shows you how to make the book!!!!!!!!!! It is so awesome. Can I say enough good things about it??? I started a book and will be doing another one with 8 girls - so you will see some crazy stuff I am sure. We will be doing pages in each others books. But for now - Book 1 is mine only and I have the cover and page 1 posted. the cover is pink with the blackbirds, page 1 is the crazy looking girl on the green page. Honestly - it is so much fun. I really have to limit myself or I will do this only.
Lastly, my poor Finn- he is not done yet, but it has been brought to my attention that I have not posted in a long time - so I decided to show you him -even though he is not done yet. I have just not been in the mood to make dolls and have so much to make for people - thank god, not for christmas gifts..... So here he is - I LOVE his sweet little face and such a cute profile.
Hopefully, I will have more completed stuff to post, soon.

Happy place & doll clothes

I painted this light switch at my friends' pottery studio - Spirit of Clay, in Mayfield Village, OH. It is a paint your own pottery studio with all kinds of things to paint. I hung this up in my art room. It really is my happy place.
I am 99% done with the clothes for the doll class I am taking this weekend - what a struggle it was to complete these. I am pretty happy with the way they turned out - pants, shirt, vest and cape with hood. I crazy quilted the cape and used the fancy stitches on my machine on some of the seams. It looks ALOT better in person than in the photos. I still have to make the boots and the arm guards. My friend has some fabric for me to check out for boots, so I will wait on that - otherwise I have a leather jacket I am dying to cut up and will use that if not her fabric. Hope to have the doll done by Sunday evening, so maybe I can post it then.

statues & headstones

You know I love my headstones & statues in the cemetery - these are some pictures I took when in Kentucky at MMM- we had a day off; and on the way home from shopping - the gps, we had, took out of town the back way and we found this OLD place - from the civil war time.... It was a beautiful warm bright and sunny day - check out the years on these headstones.

the tree,,,,

My friend and neighbor moved last weekend. It is so sad that she is gone. She is not even a mile away, but we have lived across the hall from each other for 8 years. I miss her so much. She has a new position at work that takes allot of her time, so for the last 6 months or so, we have not seen each other as much - but we were always there for each other. Evening card games, word games or a good competitive game of backgammon was always a good time. We planted flowers and herbs together every spring. She had house plants that she took out each spring and they stayed out until fall. When the came back into the house it was a cozy "earthy" wonderful place to be. Her prized possession - a gorgeous ficus tree was not able to go with her. Yesterday she gave it to me. It had to have grown a foot out and up this summer and we moved it into my place. I have photos of this beautiful tree. Even if she is not across the hall anymore - I still have her spirit here with me. This is an old apartment building from the 1920's and the ceilings are pretty high. It is about 10"-12" from the ceiling. I also have a photo of my little Nellie. She is a puppy mill rescue and is 6 years old. In March it will be 2 years since I adopted her. She has really come a long way - too cute for words.

Lastly - I am taking a Barbara Schoenoff class later this month. I will be making her Finn pattern. It is an elf-like person with beaded joints - a new technique for me to learn. I am working oh his cape. It is a patchwork of all the fabrics I am using for his other clothes. I think it is going to be really neat when it is done. I couldn't find the perfect fabric for the cape - so I mixed them all together - looks warm and cozy too. I will have him posted around month end - he is ALLOT of work so far - and we have not even gone to class yet!

Mick is done

I finished the Sprite doll - on Saturday night. I have been in a real slump since I returned and had spent the day with my friend Mickey. We met for breakfast and talked for hours- then picked out fabrics for our doll class in October and had the best day. I needed that. I was inspired to get back to work and here he is. I named him Mick after her because she got me out of the dumps. I am really happy with him.

Back from MMM

I have the MMM dolls attached - they are all still a work in progress - but not too much to finish most of them. It was an amazing experience to learn from these 3 doll maker/artists. Arley was wonderful and I learned SO much about costuming - Pam was good, but it really was a 2 day class - we worked on that elf/sprite for a couple hours the night before the class, all day in class and a couple hours the following night after classes - but her techniques are something else! I MUST practice this until I get it right - really cool. Allison was a great teacher too -the princess needs alot of work yet - but will be beautiful when she is done. Colleen Babcock taught a face class - that is the little "stump" person- she is a GREAT teacher and I can only hope that I can take a full doll class with her some day - she makes darling little people.
I am so glad I took this week off too, so I can try to finish up these dolls - Heck - I still have one from last year's MMM that I never finished - I hope that will be done for Halloween too -she was a great witch. I will be back when more is done- hope you like what I have so far.

MMM - 2009

Well, I am about as ready as I will ever be. I will be headed off to MMM in Richmond KY for doll classes, soon. I have attached photos of all my pre-work and the fabrics and trims. It is going to be something else. Anne Hesse heads this up every year and it is called magic, mischief and mayhem (or mmm). Teachers come from the US and outside of the US to teach. This year Arley Berryhill, Pam Grose and Allison Marano are coming in - and Colleen Babcock is coming to take classes, but will be teaching a pin cushion to us. The pictures are as follows:
Peacock doll - Tall standing up doll- colors are pinks and greens -
Candlestick doll - 1/2 doll mounted to the candle stick - this will be in bright pinks, greens, oranges and black (kind of a naughty cirque de sole' theme)light brown/reddish hair
Sprite (elf)- dark purple velvet with bright greens, oranges and yellow trims (this is the only one we did not have to make the doll for - It will be wire armature wrapped with batting and fabrics - the head will be stuffed and painted in class.)
Pin cushion- funny little colorful thing with the hat and the light blue shoulder bag (we will be learning the face in class)
I am so relieved to have it all together. I will need a trailer to get everything out there! I am going wiht Georgia from High on Dolls. If you go to anne hesse's website, you can see the dolls we will be making- I have had fun making the dolls and "harvesting" all the fabrics and trims and all the last minute supplies. I can't wait to see them done with all their color and character.
I also made a "Friendship Doll" It is black and white with the little blank face. I made this to work on during the drive. I will be hand stitching color on it - just need something to do to pass the time.
I'll post soon so you can see the progress and outcomes of all the dolls.
Til then - happy crafting!

Earth Man

I made this cool guy this weekend- just needed to make something simple for me... Seems everthing I make is for a reason, or someone else. I just HAD to make it! Well, I LOVE it!! I really liked him without a face, but thought he needed a face, so I made a mask that can be tied on his head, if I want a face, or just hold it, if I don;t want it on. Hope you enjoy him. This is a pattern by Li Hertzi.

Yes I am still here.....

So sorry for the MONTHS since my last post - I feel like I am in confession! hahaha....
Have actually made alot of art- but cannot post it until July & Aug when the big exchanges are done. NO RULES had a Christmas in July - We each picked a name and did not tell anyone who we had. It had to be a secret until the big day - which was last week, Sunday. I had picked Pam and made her the new Barbara Willis doll - Chelsea. I used light blue dupioni silk and chocolate brown dress fabric with some lighter brown cotton prints. She is just dripping in lace - too cool. She turned out really nice. Clothing on the dolls is the hardest part for me, and this one was a real challenge to say the least - but I did it! It was not too hard to give her up, since I am at Pam's at least 1x per month and if I 'really" wanted to visit with her I could! hahaha... Mary got my name and made me Olive - she is this funny grandma in a bathing suit. Her swim bag has the following- sanwich, cupcake, grape juice, beach ball, book and a gun! hahaha - she said she should be packin; heat! What a riot! We all had a good laugh over her. Pam picked Teresa and made her a really neat heart doll. Teresa is a collector of hearts and everything she makes has a heart on it somewhere. This doll is all collaged on the front. It is a cool art doll. Teresa picked Mary and made her this sweet little girl with the cupcake. Except for the head, the rest of the doll is all her design, clothes and all -she is really an amazing dollmaker too. We had such a great day - Oh- and Teresa made us each a cupcake pincushion! too cute. They are so colorful and happy looking.
I have also posted (1) page from a journal exchange we are also doing. I just can't stand not to put something on here without it. We all had to pick colors and each of us has to do 2 pages for each person- the colors were - Teresa / Green; Pam / Yellow & blow; Mary/ Turquoise; and I had pink & orange (my new favorite color combo this year). I have posted one of my pages so you can see what I did. I have been really hooked on Teesha Moore's blog and website. Pam introduced this to me a few months ago. Her use of colors, shapes and textures are really cool - plus she uses alot of pink & orange!
Hope you enjoy the photos - I will have more in the near future.

8 girls

Here are the dolls completed for the 8 girls"challenge" We each had to make a doll and incorporate the light globe from a ceiling fan. We all had the same one to use - They all turned out really neat. Mine is the blue one holding the jester stick. I mounted it all on a crystal candle stick. The sitting in front of mine is Kelly's - she beaded the face and head and added fibers to the head, arms & legs - so cool and she painted the light and applied a purple faux leather to it and made it into a drum! Mickey's is next to her- so cute- little beachy lady- wearing a thong. She is funny - as wide as she is tall - and her light looked like water. Kathy's is on the right (pink and orange). Hers is a fairy and the light is her wings! Amazing - she drilled holed into the light and sewed it to the doll's back. She beaded the doll all over, wrists, ankles, shoes, ribbin skirt, etc. and hung this in the family room of their home. I can't wait to see where it "lives". Everyone was so creative - really a great group of friends. Our next challenge is to make a character from a children's book. Gonna be a tough one, but I am sure will be a great learning experience.
Went to AFIC today for the day- what an amazing collection of art! The gallery with all the challenge dolls and just exhibit dolls, was something else. There is so much talent out there that you don't even know about until you go to something like this. It was wonderful and I am so inspired to start my next doll.
I have been working on the journal pages for the No Rules group but cannot post them until we exchange them all in August. We cannot let anyone see each other's work until the big exchange. I will post my work after we do that.
We are going to do an altered Barbie project next - should be interesting!

Sprout!

He's done!! How cute is he? It turned out pretty cute- it is Sprout from the Green Giant ads. This is the body part exchange doll I had to complete for High on Dolls. It was due the beginning of this month- a little late, but I will take it into the club in June. I even put leaves on "under" his "outfit"! He was really fun to make. Went to Columbus with Pam for Guilded Lillies meeting. Was so nice to see everyone again. There were visitors from Australia. Suzi McMahon brought her dolls - AMAZING. They are in town for AFIC which starts next week. I am not going to that doll event. I am going to MMM in the fall instead.
I finished the Light doll I needed to make for "8 Girls". It is due on Monday - I cannot post a photo until we meet - want it to be a surprise. I can't wait to see what everyone else made. I know they will be amazing.
Well - 2 items done on my list - hope to get back to the grind next week, and crank out some more completed projects....
Until then - happy crafting!