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.

These are my latest project. They are ornaments that I made for Christmas gifts. I had so much fun making these guys. They are about 6" tall.

my first blog

Hello, my name is Jody Miller and I live in Columbus, OH. I decided to try a blog. This is my first attempt, so please bear with me.


This is a doll that I just finished. I belong to the Guilded Lilies Art doll guild in Columbus, OH.
We have an afternoon class at each monthly meeting taught by one of our members. Our
Oct. class was the green goblin, taugh by Jamie Martinsek, but as you can see, my doll just didn't want to be a goblin. This doll's body is made from paperclay and sculpey.
I mostly make all cloth dolls, so this was so different for me. I had so much fun and enjoyed the challenge of trying a new medium. Her head and body are made from paperclay. I didn't like that it took a day or two to air dry before I could do more work on her. So I made her arms, hands, legs and feet out of a light weight sculpey. I was able to make, bake and paint them the same day.I knitted a wig for her hair and her skirt is made with two hair scrunchies.