Who would have thought it!

You won't believe this............I have just made 2 dolls in 48 hours!!!!
We have our annual quilt show this weekend and the doll club has a display area allocated to promote our craft. Well, it is necessary to have an interesting display of new and different dolls and we had a theme display of a doll "riding something". A week ago, I decided to try needle felting a duck, just to try it. Well, the duck seemed to became a Goose, which then required a "Mother Goose" to be riding the Goose - hence the doll 'riding something'!
A while ago I started to make a fairy godmother with a paperclay face. She didn't get made because I got stuck on her clothing, and I didn't like her heavy shoes. She seemed to have a nice 'motherly' face sooooo.......Also, I tend to keep items of clothing I have previously made for dolls which either didn't fit or the doll was deconstructed.
So I had a body with arms attached, I didn't like the legs so I added reject legs from another project, and dressed her in the recycled clothes. I made her a black woolen vest and a hat which I glued together in 20 minutes.


I did run out of time, so I just slapped on a pair of boots I had in my stash.

















The other doll is my Susie McMahon doll 'Moxie' which I had the wonderful experience of taking her class last November! Moxie had a body & head, but her arms and legs were not even stuffed and she needed gessoeing and painting, and her face on and her clothing!! I was up to the wee hours last night and spent about 4 hours this morning putting her together. I ran out of time to make shoes for her too and so I found some painted sneakers and gave her a clown doll to look after.







Now, I suspect she may need a complete makeover after the weekend, but for now she made it to the show and is there with a whole lot of other wonderful cloth dolls keeping her company. Amazing how I can work under pressure. My studio is a mess, but I have made 2 dolls that had been waiting to be created!

Progress report

Today I had some time to review my photos of the work I had completed on my Glorex dolls

I have not had time to work on them for the last few weeks, I did get to the dressing stage but my hair choice sort of stopped me in my tracks.











The doll with the mit hands is from the kit I purchased earlier this year. The doll with the fingered hand is the one I have created by forming my own mask face. I am very happy with the result, but I neglected to add to the top lip to give it more fullness when I laid the paperclay over the form. I added to the nose, but not to the lips, I will remember to do this next time as she looks like she needs dentures!








I love the look of the Mimi Kirchener dolls, they have messy hair and unusual clothing and very expressive faces. She makes Softies type dolls now - check out her blog here
In this last pic, I have plonked a piece of tibetan lambswool skin on each dolls head. I purchased the hair from Fabric Addictions in Western Australia. It is fantastic hair, and a good sized piece, particularly as these dolls have big heads!
Of course, they can't look like this, the hair needs to be shaped to the skull and attached properly - but I like this type of wild haired look.
To finish the dolls, I would like to knit a cardigan or vest for each doll to complete the look, but I actually don't have any wool because I gave it away to charity! So it looks like it will be some time yet before these girls are finished.

Life's ups and downs.......

Well, today my husband went into hospital for the 6th or is it 7th time this year!
I have lost count. As you can see from the clinical diagram.........his problem is his heart. There are some wonderful specialists on the job, working to fix it. So I am keeping upbeat and trusting he will be back to his old self once the doctors are finished their job.

On a happier note, this weekend my 2nd son Brad, celebrated his engagement to his sweetheart Natali. They had a great party and are clearly devoted to each other. That is all you really want for your kids, for them to find love and happiness - and leave the nest...........















It has been such a busy time with running the business, doctor and hospital visits, family commitments, and just running a household. It is no wonder I am having such a hard time trying to make dolls.
To top it all off, we have decided to get a puppy - Malcolm has so wanted a dog ever since we lost Sheba quite a few years ago.
She was such a wonderful dog, and it was impossible to replace her when she went to dog heaven. But after all these years, it feels like we could do with a little companion.








The only problem we have with that is someone in the house is not going to be too happy with news of a new border. A companion this cat does not need. Take a look at the fur all over the couch!

So, my apologies to doll lovers, I just cannot find the time to make a doll - not for a while ...........let's see what happens when the fur stops flying!

Strathalbyn visit

Today I vistedLorell Lehman at her Studio in Strathalbyn. She is so talented and her Studio is a magical place. Lorell is so willing to share her knowledge and methods, and just talking to her and being surrounded by her beautiful (not all!) fantasy creatures is so inspiring. I really enjoyed visiting, even though it was brief, my dream is to have a little studio/shop to work in one day............




Lorell's Halloween fairy.

Work in Progress

I was a little nervous about this white cotton jersey, but doll making is all about problem solving. So I just boiled some water, added 4 teabags, bunged in some coffee and stirred. After rinsing the fabric to remove the sizing I threw it into the pot and crossed my fingers.

To my surprise, it worked! The fabric came out a warm skin colour. It wasn't blotchy and I rinsed thouroughly to make sure. The only disadvantage is I think the fabric SHRUNK! So I had a little less sized piece than I thought, but nevertheless, I was quite happy with the result.

You can see the difference in the colour.


The next step was to create the back of the head and this is such a simple solution, however I must give credit to Leslie Molen - her Gossips pattern included this method and it is the best way to create a good shaped(seperate) head for a mask doll. You just cut off a length of a ribbed sock and gather both ends after stuffing to the size you want. Then glue it into the mask.





The 'Glorex' doll kits come with a hand armature. I can't work out if it is a plastic or metal, but you can bend the fingers and wrist to pose the hand. I stitched a hand with individual fingers and inserted and stuffed the arm. It makes for quite a nice hand and is so much easier than creating pipe cleaner armatures!

Creating those masks....

Well, I decided to try to recreate one of the mask faces for those little dollies I like so much. I happened to find a small doll - I'm not sure if the head is porcelain or just a resin. She was missing an arm and her hair was falling off, so I rescued her from the $2 box. I spread a generous layer of vaseline on the surface and here is the method I used to create a paperclay mask.





Now the mask is quite fragile because it is so thin. I let the paperclay dry out for a day, sanded the face and prised it away from the head -(I was quite nervous doing this, I was sure it would crumble, but it didn't!)



There is still trapped moisture on the inside, so I let this dry some more and then to strengthen it, I decoupaged the inside with torn paper and diluted PVA glue. It worked quite well and dried quite strong. Although it did shrink a little, the mask is a little narrower than the original head, which is okay, because it keeps the head close to the original size of the body. Of course I will make a new body, I only have some white cotton jersey fabric which I will try to dye a skin colour. I'm not sure this will give the right body shape when I make it up, jersey is not the body fabric I had for the other doll, but we will see what happens..........

Doing Something.........

I am exhausted from trying to fit in my craft. I am a wife, mother, friend, sister, daughter,home maker,cook, cleaner, hostess,secretary, adviser, problem solver and general gofor - before I am myself! I guess that sentence doesn't make much sense, but I am continually frustrated by distractions to what I really want to do. Now I understand why artists go bush and stay in complete isolation while finding inspiration and creativity. It is impossible for me to just spend a whole day working on my craft. I can't really blame my family, because even on the odd day when I have a few free hours - I can't get the clear head space to just pick up something and work on it. I am blocked. I don't know why. If I had nothing to do I would be complaining too. I don't know what is going on with me. I try, but you really can't force creativity, it just comes out of you. Trouble is - it is not coming out of me! I have tried making something simple and quick, and enjoyed it, but again, not finished yet. So after my whinge, here are some pics of something I have been trying to work on.

When I was in Riomaggiore I found this quaint little doll shop, where this lovely young woman was creating the sweetest dolls





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I could not resist coming home with one. I really loved the one in the red scarf, and almost picked her. (I took the picture of her through the window when the shop was shut, I couldn't take photos in the shop, that would be bad manners!)




But it was the freckles, oversized boots! and ethnic look of the one in green that stole my heart.



Now if any of you know your dollies, you will recognise that these little girls are actually 'Glorex' mask face dolls. I did not realise till I got home - I posted the doll back to Australia so she was not crushed in the luggage, so I only had her for about 1 hour before she was sent home. Anyway.......she is a 'Glorex' doll. Well, I don't mind at all, because she is so sweet and the doll maker has really given her her own charecter. I love her. But being a doll maker, I know I could make one of my own. Well, a few weeks back we had a doll show here in Adelaide, and of all things, there was a made up face mask for a 'Glorex' doll! It sold for the bargain price of $10 which included the body pattern and even the arm armatures! When I got home, I found the body fabric in my stash, just enough for her body and limbs! So I can make my own doll, which I am working on now. I just love the sweet faces of these dolls. I would like to make my own mask version - one day when I have time. She is very easy to put together.


If you are interested, you can get these masks and instructions to make the dolls from
CR's Crafts
There is an Australian source, but I have not seen representation at the shows and the email address bounces, so it is probably worth going by the US supplier. So for the time being, I am trying to wake up my creativity by making this type of doll. Very simple, very basic, but very sweet and endearing.

Catching up on news

The last 2 weekends have been very busy. We have a doll show here in Adelaide that attracts collectors and doll lovers from all over the country. Our doll club had a display table, which we are lucky enough to have every year at this show. As you can see we have a wonderful array of dolls made by our talented artists. I am always very unorganised and at the last minute decide what I can actually take for display, I always think my dolls are somehow different and simple compared to the wonderful beaded and textile rich art dolls our members make. Well, at the show, a lovely lady who had previously purchased one of my Santa dolls, fell in love with a simple little doll I had brought along even though her cardigan was unfinished (I made it from a sock!) Well long story short, I bought a needle and some tiny buttons, borrowed some thread and finished the cardi - and sold the doll! You never know what appeals to people, she was such a plain little doll, but this lady really wanted her. I know she has gone to a good home with lots of friends.


















Today is my mother's 85th birthday. One of our traditional Latvian treats is Piragi, a small pastry with bacon and onion filling. They are delicious and it is the one recipe I have from my mother. She loves them so I made some and had her over for lunch on Sunday to celebrate her birthday.


















And finally, I am working on a new doll pattern. I have an idea how I would like this doll to look. I am really moving towards much simpler bodies and dolls that are vintage look. I just wish I had more time to do all the things I want to do........

Finally something to write about!

I would love to have the time to post messages every day on this site, but I just can't make the time. A bit like exercise.......I know I should do it, I know I can do it, but I don't allow the time to do it. Anyway, there is no point in having a blog if nothing is happening worth blogging about. I really want to load up photos when I have some thing to say, because that's what I love to see on other people's blogs (I do have time to read other people's blogs by the way)! So, a few weeks ago when I said I had been evacuated from my previous studio to a smaller space, I thought you might be curious about my work space. Well here are the pictures to show what has become of my studio!




In the first 2 photos you can see there was 1 big room, which had a combustion wood heater and big windows that looked onto the back yard and there was a second small room where I stored all my fabrics and doll making stuff - including tools, doll stands and clays. I even had a desk to sculpt in that room. As you can see this makes for a wonderful home office space also!!!!




Now my new studio room has one small window that looks onto the side lane of the house.(When I look up I can see blue sky and tall gum trees swaying in the breeze)
And I must say Thank God for IKEA! It took me about 2 weeks of 12 hour days sorting my 'doll stuff' into keepers and dump its........It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I did take a heap of 'items' to our doll club meeting, and bless the girls, I sold a heap of good stuff that was of use to other doll makers. Trust me I took a heap of give away items too and that was a good feeling to get rid of a big percentage of it.





Of course, this is not a good representation of the new studio. I was sorting through a lot of my previous body parts to start a new design, so there is a bit of mess. But as you can see there is a lot of storage in that small space and it is all organised and reasonably neat, once all the cupboard doors are shut. I actually like the room, I used to have my sewing table in there before my doll making took off, and I just have to get used to the new organisation of stuff. If it gets out of control, I can shut the door and no-one will know the mess I am in! What do you think?

Thankyou Jules!

Thankyou so much Jules from adventures in thread
Jules has awarded me as one of the favourite blogs she likes to visit. It was a lovely surprise when got back from my trip. Thank you Jules for this unexpected award!
This award must be passed on to 8 other creative people. (There are a few rules attached when accepting this award...........) Please feel free to deliver this gift to 8 other people and include the following text with the award on your site: These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. I'm passing this award on to the following people who I've been inspired by, and love reading thier blogs.

Mimi Kirchner
Sue McFadden
Susie McMahon
Bonnie Lee Fontaine
Lorell Lehman
Peta Stuart
Ulla Benulla
Christine Alvarado

Choosing these 8 sites has been difficult. There are so many sites I visit. The truth is, I am an internet lurker. I love to look and learn, but tend not to leave comments, even though I have met and know a couple of these ladies quite well. I encourage you to visit their sites and be inspired by their art, as I have been. There are so many people doing wonderful things..........................take time to look and learn as much as you can!