I have been busy making

dolls, but I haven't posted 

anything since spring.

This is a doll that I made for my doll club's Christmas exchange which we did a couple weeks ago. It was very hard for me to give her up, I really bonded with her :) She is a gothic steampunk queen.

 I made a bunch of heads this spring while working on my challenge doll for AFIC. I have been turning the finished heads into dolls since I have no more room in my head jar for them.

To the left is Jellybean. Below is another doll I made from one of the heads.

Here is another doll

In October my doll club had their yearly retreat. This is my finished doll. We used paper clay. It was such a fun project and everyone's turned out wonderful and there were so many different ideas.

Yesterday was my 60th birthday and my very talented brother surprised me with a wonderful pendent necklace that he made special for me. The dark stone is black pearl and there is a small diamond in the small copper heart. Isn't it fabulous? I have linked his website to the blog if you want to see more of his wonderful work,  KEAyersDesigns.com.

I finished my Ostrich Showgirl, a class by Natalie Hamade.

I am really happy with how she turned out. It has been a while since I have made a doll from someone else's pattern and it was a very nice change. I may go through my pattern stash and try another one.The hair on this doll was made with a molding compound and was very different from anything I have worked with before and I will be using it again in my dollmaking.                       

AFIC class doll

Here are a couple pictures of the doll I made at
AFIC (Artistic Figures In Cloth) which was held here in Columbus, OH the last weekend in April.
Cyndy Sieving does a fantastic job of organizing this event. The next one will be in the spring of 2013.
I took 3 days of classes with Natalie Hamade and
had so much fun and learned a lot. If you ever get a chance to take one of her classes, don't hesitate.
I have been designing and making my own dolls
for a few years. I want to take some time and
make some dolls from other designers. My first
project is going to be Natalie's "Ostrich Showgirl".
She is a hoot and will be fun to make and enjoy.
In class we learned how to make these wonderful eyelashes. We started out with a white body and
painted it. We dyed Tibetian skins for the hair,
and made embellishments from Tyvec. I made the beads and the flower in her hair from Tyvec. We
used a soddering iron on the clothing. And then there was the face drawing. I am really happy with how my face turned out. Natalie was a wonderful teacher.

 

The on-line doll club that I belong to, "Dollstreet", is having a steampunk challenge at AFIC here in Columbus, OH next month. Judy Skeel is hosting it. I had no idea what steampunk was, so I googled it and found the discription and a lot of fashion ideas. I told Judy to add me to the list and I began my doll. I can't make pretty dolls and told her mine would be a more whimiscal steampunk. I got her finished last night, except for the aviator goggles, which I may not do. I am still trying to figure out a way to make them. I have a few ideas but I might just leave her as she is. I had a lot of fun making her.

My next project is to try and get a few of my designs into saleable pattern to try and sell at AFIC.

I finished my doll for the AFIC challenge. She turned out much different than what I had invisioned, but I am happy with how she turned out . I haven't named her yet. I made a lot of different heads and this is the one I used for this doll. I hope to use the other heads for future dolls  They are all different and  I already have ideas for some of them. I am working on a steampunk doll for the Dollstreet challenge for AFIC and hope I can use one of the heads for her. The body and clothing are finished and I just have a few more things to add and then I will see which head looks best on her. I will post a picture when she is finished.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

These are my latest pin cushions. They are adapted from

a pattern by Jill Maas called "Dressmaker's Dummy". I

have been having so much fun and want to make a few more

pin cushions. The exchange should be a lot of fun. Some of

the members brought their pin cushions to our doll club

meeting yesterday and they were wonderful. I can't wait

until next month when we do our exchange.

I make my brother a dragon for Christmas every year. This

year I used the "Cecil" pattern from Susan Barmore. I loved

this dragon and made myself one also. The rust one is the one that

I gave to my brother and the purplish one is mine.

Here is the "head" jar that I wrote about in the previous

post. As you can tell, I have plenty of dolls waiting to be

created or I will need to get a larger jar.

As a lot of you know, I have a mentally handicapped daughter.

Tammy has no interest in sewing or crafting, but as you can see, she has a style of her own. She loves to "dress up" in her many funny hats, glasses, etc. She changes her accessories often during the day.

Pin cushions

My doll club is having a pin cushion exchange in Febuary and I have been working on mine

the last few weeks. So far I have 6 finished and more in progress. Here are the ones I have

ready to exchange.

I have a large jar of heads in my sewing room,

on top of my cabinet. It is so much fun to look at.

When I make a new doll, I always make 2 to 4 heads and then pick which one I want to use on that doll. The extra heads get put into the head jar. Sometimes a head "calls" out to me and I get it from the jar and turn it into a doll. I used heads from the jar for 4 of the pin cushions. The other 2 have sculpy faces.

I was in a store before Christmas and saw a round glass

ornament that had an animal face on the front and legs

on the side and bottom. That was my inspiration for the

pin cushion shown on the left. It took me 4 attempts to

get the round cloth shape body I wanted. Her face is sculpy.