Crunch time!

Today is Martin Luther King Day. I attended the breakfast/commemoration event at the Castle Post, and had a wonderful time. I donated an african-american mother-and-infant doll for their raffle, as the proceeds benefited in part, the local schools family resources center. The winner of the doll was very happy with it, and it generated several requests for 'an inventory' of afro-american and other ethnic dolls. I have only two available at the shop at present, a jockey and Felecia, pictured in the Sept 15 posting. So that will be a priority in the months to come. With four commisions already on the books, I'm going to continue to be busy for a while. Wish me luck!

Challenge doll pictures

Go here: http://doll-a-daychallenge.blogspot.com for all challenge doll pictures. Or click on link at right.

Here's an update (Jan. 7) on what I've been doing. A picture is worth a thousand words....?

Challenge Doll Number One

Yay! The first one is done! I feel that is getting off to a good start. (I needed that!)

I named her Eliza, as in My Fair Lady, because she started out with a not-very pretty face, and a cider bottle covered with a drab fabric, and gradually became a lovely, charming, and talented individual. Her head, bust, and arms are built onto a screw-on bottle cap. She can top a larger bottle, too, or the cap will slip over the cork of a wine bottle. She has several skirt overlays, and a sparkly print crinkled poly georgette slip-on cover for the two-liter bottle. Like any fine wine, she's welcome at any party. See how composed she is, even as she returns home from the New Year's celebration.

Happy New Year to all!

My final Doll for 2009

Ok, this is Rita. She is the 'work in progress' with the green vest, in the previous post. The blue vest tied in better with the colors of her skirt. Her blouse is made of two curtain fabric samples. She is an interior decorator, she and came prepared for her next project, with a textured curtain fabric sample and an 'art' piece for the wall. She measures 17-1/2 inches tall. Her hair is a shaggy 'fun fur'.

Two finished, and work in progress

In anticipation of the January Challenge project, I have been accumulating some new patterns, and did a 'trial run' on a couple, that I will make another of, in January. I'm posting these today, so everyone will know that these were made in December, not as part of the 30 for January. At left, the tall colorful one is my version of Celeste, an online freeby offered by My Sister Kate. Thanks to her for that pattern. I LOVE her. What fun to make her. Designed with clay feet and hands, but I made them in fabric.


The second one is Jill Maas' newest pattern, City Girls, and well, she has done it again!! Wonderful pattern, makes up easily. These two are definitely one-day projects.


The tall darkhaired one is simply a skirt I bought at Good Will for the beautiful fabric. It's just tied to a makeshift stand, a head from my 'spare parts' pinned on, and a handfull of yarn. I'm thinking I will make her in January, and she may or may not look anything like this. ;^)


The fourth one is a work in progress, which I will finish in a day or so. Her entire costume is made from decorator sample-book pieces. She also has hands and an unfinished head from the 'parts' stash. (Click picture for larger view.)



At right is HorseFeathers!. I made up this design and sold both finished dolls and the printed pattern a few years ago. This and a few other of my 'old' patterns are still available. I also made this up with cow and bunny heads. She is all dressed up in her jumpsuit, anticipating the World Equestrian Games to be held here (in Lexington, that is) fall 2010.

I will probably do one of these next month, too.




This 14-inch Naval Cadet is a special order of a proud mother, a surprise gift for her daughter.

I started with a body I had made up earlier, and just 'winged it'. She is properly dressed in respectable undies, a button-front shirt, and trousers, which cannot be removed. But her lined, fitted blazer, with real button-holes can be taken off. Unable to find small enough buttons, I bought a card of brass buttons with anchor design, scanned and printed them and glued them onto smaller ones. A dab of clear acrylic gave them an nice sheen. The insignia were done in similar fashion, from online images. The shoes are boydoll dress shoes. The cap and the uniform are made of a lightweight, dark blue denim. Then I learned the Navy Dress Blues are actually black. Oh, well. The customer was happy with it.


And last, but not least, today, is this picture of my "assistant". Or rather, INsistant helper. She's helping with the armature for the fingers. She just loves chenile strips and little stuffed parts, like hands. Occasionally I have to make a second pair, because she helped a little too much.

Reponses to Challenge

To read the responses to the January Doll-A-Day Challenge, scroll to the bottom of the Challenge Anyone posting and click on 'Comments'.

Thanks to all who have commented on this, and joined in the fun!

Have a very Merry Christmas, and a great New Year!

Happy Holly-days!

This is Holly. She started out to be a Santa, but turned out to be his grand-daughter !! Tried several heads, and liked this cheerful little young lady, so 'took it from there....'

And so it is, you never know who will show up. :-)

* * * * *

I'd better make more heads, instead of using them up, so I will have plenty to work with in January, huh? Quicky projects can somehow take longer than anticipated, and need all the help they can get. Especially if one gets sidetracked re-arranging the craft room and building a new sewing machine table. I needed a better, bigger, flat sewing surface, with easy conversion to the 'open arm', so finally got around to making it. (Only way to get what you want, is to make it yourself, huh?) It needs a little sanding, and maybe some paint, but it's use-able, and I'm looking forward to making use of it.

Challenge, anyone?

I'm thinking of tossing out a challenge project for anyone who'd like to join in.

We often hear about the days when people worked hard for a dollar a day. And most crafters/doll-makers know they still don't really make much more than that. (It's a labor of love, after all!) Hmmm, dollar a day....doll a day..... I am constantly amazed by not only the quality, but the sheer volume of work turned out by many doll-makers.

So here it is: A January Winter-Blahs After-the-Holidays Doll-A-Day Challenge.
Make 30 dolls is 30 days. (Ok, so January has 31 days, so you get a 'day of grace'. Hmm, remember that term, it may be useful or inspiring.)

Any style of doll: Artisan, sculpted, prim, ormament, wall doll, pin doll, etc.
Any medium: Cloth, Clay, mixed media, etc.
Any size: large, small, mini, etc.

Bearing in mind that you might want to spend several days on just one doll, and few of us could actually work on them every single day, working up a batch of some 'quickies' could compensate the time. Pin-dolls and ornies are my favorites in that catagory. Paper dolls can be very interesting and unique, too.

Any complete, individual doll would count. Re-dressing an existing doll would count, as long as you have a doll for each outfit.

If anyone is interested, post a comment here, or email me at vada428@windstream.net.
I will keep a list, and post here, photos or links to all entries submitted, in early Feb.

Didn't complete 30? How many did you do? Remember, this is meant to be more of a challenge to oneself than a competition as there are no prizes, other than the satisfaction of meeting the challenge, and sharing the fun. Something to get the creative juices flowing again after the holidays are over.

P.S. Re: 'day of grace, above': Any doll created on January 31 is elligible to be named Grace.

Something different, for a change of pace

Not a very good picture, but .....

I bought one of these little fabric origami kimono onaments recently from a friend, to get the pattern dimensions, and thought I'd try a batch of them. Just raided my stash for likely fabrics, and made these up according to the size of the fabric pieces. They are easy to scale to any size. I hung them each on a fishline from the skewer hanger. A chop stick works great for the larger size. These run from 3-1/2 to 7 inches tall. Ellen had made some up much larger, for a nice wall hanging.

Aura DeLaVina

Well, with spare parts .....you can't just let them lie around......
Another white-tissue-decoupaged wine bottle, a spare head, and a little piece of shimmery fabric, and it's time to try a little artsy drapery. ;-)

These of course, are not finished dolls, but they do get the creative juices flowing.
Comments are appreciated.

Trim-a-tree time

This is Sweet Treesa. I saw this idea online somewhere, and have wanted to play around with it. It was my Sunday-afternoon project. Her tree-shaped gown and sleeves are inserted into a wine bottle, as is her neck. There is a hoop to flare her skirt, gold beads for ornaments, a string of lights. I love her sweet face.

Only 37 more days till Christmas! Even the jockeys are starting to prepare for the 'big day'.

I made a few cards, featuring last year's santa dolls. All of these dolls have been sold.

And here's a bahh-humbug card with two different santas.

And here's Mrs. Browne, who is working on her crazy quilt, hoping to have it finished in time for Christmas. It is meant to be a special gift for her very best friend.

And when that's finished, she'll be all set to start a new project, with all those fat quarters she has in her sewing basket. She's going to be working on those, down there at the Bluegrass Gifts and Collectibles Shop. She'll be happy to greet everyone, and show them all how to do those fancy stitches.