First day of summer

My latest doll is so cool...! Unfortunately, she is also entered in a challenge so I can't share a photo of her until after the voting. I don't want to go any longer without posting though, so...

Instead I will share this photo of one of my favorite "dolls", my youngest daughter, who celebrated her 16th birthday yesterday. I remembered gifts, a card, and a cake... unfortunately I forgot candles! In order to create a more festive photo, I want out and cut 16 roses from my garden for a bouquet for the table. I was annoyed with myself at the time, but now I am really pleased...

I wish flowers would bloom around *my* birthday, LOL!

I started knitting on a new sweater this week. Unfortunately, photos of a knitting work-in-progress all look like used grocery bags; still, here it is! It's working up quickly in a textured cotton yarn... This one is "Madeline" from White Lies Designs. I hope it looks as pretty on me as it does in the photo on the pattern!

I am home for the weekend, so my plan is to FIRMLY ESTABLISH a final pose for my Klimt doll, stitch her into position, and begin painting. I have been circling her for days, avoiding making a final decision, because she is just such a wonderful figure... I want her to be right. No more waffling though -- I WILL finish this doll!

Another Round Robin doll ready to travel

What I *really* want to be posting are "in process" pictures of my latest doll, but it is a challenge piece and so must remain a secret until after the voting is completed. It's a pity, because this little being's metamorphosis has been a magical adventure, and another example of how much I can accomplish in an experiment if I just RELAX about the results, LOL!

Our Colorful Adventures Round Robin is just about ready to come to a close. I think I only have one more doll to work on, and then that one will be sent home to its owner. Which ALSO means that MINE will soon be home as well. I can't wait!

This doll was originated by a wonderful doll artist with a very quirky style. I hope she is happy with what has been done to her doll. I think she is "Simply mah-veh-lus dahling!". If you double click on the photo you can see a larger view of her, you can get a better idea of the depth of detail that has gone into her creation. Can you see the dragonfly in her hairpiece? Her beautiful facial tattoos? AND the wonderful texture and color on the crown-of-thorns gourd that makes up her base?

Honestly, there are enough ideas on this one doll to fill an embellishment book!




When she came to me her arms were stark white. The obvious and easy choice for my addition was to give her arms a flesh tone. After a little playing around mixing different colors of Dyna-Flow into a flesh tone, it didn't take any time at all to paint the arms. Because it was SO easy I felt a little guilty and decided to add a little more, so I dug up some black stretch lace and made her some gloves.

The only snag occured when I went to put the glove on her left hand -- she was wearing a bracelet that had been stitched on by another artist. I carefully snipped the thread, restrung the beads in exactly the order created by the original artist, THEN put on the glove and reattached the bracelet. Whew!

OK, NOW I feel that I have done enough and can send her on with a clear conscience.

What a difference a day makes!

Not nearly so scary looking now, is she. (Whew...!)

The library where I work is closed on Mondays, so I had all day yesterday to work on my doll. It did take nearly the entire day to get her skinned, assembled, and sculpted, but she is such an amazing sculpture. She was worth every second!




I'm sorry the photo doesn't show much detail -- white on white is always tough -- but I am thrilled with her shape AND her face. The overall shape of her skull isn't quite as rounded as I'd like. If I *ever* attempt this VERY labor-intensive pattern again I will tweak the head pattern to give her a wider and deeper skull. Now that I have a clue to what I'm doing though, maybe next time won't be quite so challenging.

(I wish I had taken this as a class. Aside from the fact that I would love to meet Pam Grose, it would have been SO much easier to work with the designer instead of trying to puzzle it all out by myself.)

Nest step is gessoing and painting. I had been planning her costume as well, but her body is go gorgeous I might not want to cover it up, LOL!

A "Finished Object" and progress made

This is my entry for Shashi's cookbook in Cookbook Round Robin on the FabricDollArt list. All ready for mailing -- woo hoo!! I kind of wish now that I had printed the recipe out on a transparency instead of vellum so you could see the watercolor painting underneath better, but I am still satisfied with the effect. I look forward to tweaking this process more in the future. Geez, I love to paint!

My next painting project will be a little more unorthodox. I have some girl's Levi's jackets in excellent condition that I want to try "unpainting" with bleach I've got the designs all worked out... now I just need to find the time to sit down and do it. I've been experimenting with a bleach pen made by Clorox that makes the whole process pretty easy.


Here you can see some of the results of my experiments on denim. The numbers refer to the number of minutes I left the bleach on the fabric. The "90" is darker because I began with wet fabric in the first place. Yes, I know you shouldn't add another variable to a test, but I didn't think of that until later. sigh...

Stay tuned for further updates!



















I haven't abandoned my doll making either, but... is this about the scariest doll head you've ever seen? Ugh! I am just going to have to Have Faith in the designer of this one as I have seen some spectacular dolls made from this pattern. There will be another layer of fabric over all this as a "skin", as well as eyelids to tone down the goggle-eyed stare, but in the meantime, I have to say it again... UGH!!

This is the body of the doll for the above head. Again, I am going on faith as the limbs seem to be a very odd shape to me, but we'll just see won't we. The idea for this doll was inspired by the "Judith" paintings of Gustav Klimt. Who could resist the great story line involved as well as the fabulous imagery he created... not me! This is one of the more ambitious dolls I have ever attempted, so we will just have to see how it all comes together.

Still threading the loom, so no progress to report there. The soy silk thread is a delight to handle though, so I will just enjoy the process. One of these days I will learn to settle down and do one thing from start to finish instead of having so many multiple projects going at once... or maybe not, LOL!