Sandy Pine Art Doll Designs

Look What Susie did!

2011-12-12T03:07:00.000-08:00

I have so wanted to make time to update this blog, but I have been a bit busy and quite ill with a flu. But I am better now, and I have something to show you......

Well, as you may have gathered Susie McMahon visited Adelaide in a week that flew by, and now another week has flown by since she left! But I was fortunate enough to have Susie stay with me, and in her quiet manner she gently nudged me to spend some time on doll making.
She is a brilliant talent, and when she found a forlorn stray unfinished dolly she said "I can fix her problem. I'll do that for you when I have a moment.." ... and she did. Just look at this beautiful face

Now this is not a very good photo at all. (I seem to have moved my camera to the new office, so it is somewhere in an unpacked box.) But you should have seen this sad little misshapen head before Susie worked on it. This was a mask face doll that was glued a bit wonky (to say the least) and quite a lumpy bumpy face. Yet when Susie painted her face this ugly duckling turned into a swan and she is the sweetest little thing. Now I have to dress her and finish her - isn't that the sort of inspiration we all need sometimes?

As for inspiration, well you have seen the photos of the workshop dolls coming together. Because I was quite unwell on the workshop day, I didn't progress very far, however...........................

look at this........................

From this.....to this.........

I just started to do a little at a time.

(I learnt this mind set in sales training - it's called the Salami method, where you have a big job to do and just start to slice it into small bits to get through it)

One morning before work, I just mixed some acrylic paint and watered it down and then brushed it all over the body. I was able to leave it all day while I was at work and then I decided to glue the muslin to the head.

I left a bit loose to go around the chest and then just glued the whole thing to the body.

Left it to the next day and decided she should have muslin hair and her little chest cavity should also be lined with muslin.

Once I started to shred the muslin into hairy lengths, I thought just a bit of PVA glue would help the tresses twist and stay in place. This all sort of evolved as I looked at what the next step should be. The doll really does create herself. The Muse is absolutely the right name for her. I really needed a Muse.

So thank you Susie, I thought I would never have time to think about dolls, but it seems I do!

Susie's Workshop

2011-12-05T03:45:00.000-08:00

THE MUSE BY SUSIE McMAHON

Susie McMahon is coming!

2011-11-22T02:09:00.000-08:00

Well it is less than a week now til Susie McMahon visits us here in Adelaide. We are lucky enough to have Susie teaching 2 workshops for our Cloth Doll Club.
I discovered Susie's work a few years ago, just surfing the net. I even found old footage of a brief interview on the Carol Duvall Show on the HGTV network.
But if you are not familiar with the type of dolls Susie does just click here and you can see the wonderful art she produces.
The last time Susie visited I made this dolly. I'm not sure who my dolly is, but she seems to work in an odd way. She kind of ended up being a little girl in strange clothes with strange hair. She is holding a sad looking clown doll and she has an odd expression. The doll has a mask face and all cloth body.

This is Susie's Moxie as a little fairy...................
(I just checked back and it was December 2008! I kept thinking it was only last year or the year before - where does the time go???)

But then I found this version which Susie has made herself.

So with any type of creative art, it is all open to interpretation. Fairy or little girl?
In that last class I also sculpted a doll which is still dis-assembled in the cupboard. I should find her and put her together. Hmmm.....
I just haven't been able to focus on dolls since working full time now. We will see what happens....

1988

2011-11-11T04:58:00.000-08:00

How Many Sleeps?

2011-11-09T03:18:00.000-08:00

3 Sleeps!!!!

OMG! Have you been naughty or nice?

2011-10-24T05:39:00.000-07:00

It's the 24th October today and I have to tell you that it is just 19 more sleeps to the Adelaide Christmas pageant when Santa comes to town! Now I know this is true, because when I went shopping on Sunday, I was confronted by this as I entered the local department store........

Then as I skirted around the displays using considerable constraint to prevent myself from snapping up one of the Jim Shore Santa's (I am a collector you know...) I then left the store and was confronted by this!!

With Santa's chair ready and waiting...............

and one redeeming feature.........

A Nativity Scene.

I have to admit, I am a little bit excited. I LOVE Christmas. All the build up to the big day, decorating the house, putting up the tree (on the day Santa comes to town)! Lots of parties, food, drink, shopping, cooking. And all the pretty decorations and weird gifts in shops. And the fake snow!

Don't forget we will be in full Summer. The Christmas pageant can be a sunny 32 degrees Celcius! Sometimes it rains. But the pageant has never been cancelled..... or was it - only once during the war....

Anyway take a look at what we have to look forward to here .

The pageant is really for the little ones, and as an adult it is 'not nice' to go and stand in front where a child could have full view of all the wonder of the floats that lead Santa to his Magic Cave. And with crowds lining the streets in the thousands, I could enjoy the pageant like I did unexpectedly last year here .

It just isn't the same without little ones to take, and I am not a grandma yet!

Last year I got all interested in Nigella and her Christmas recipes - but I ran out of time. Christmas snuck up on us so quickly. So now I will have another chance to make that chocolate christmas cake and the gingerbread christmas cookie tree.

So with Santa making his list and checking it twice, I want to make sure I make it onto 'Nice'.

We still have some time...............

Now I understand why it takes so long

2011-10-08T03:21:00.000-07:00

I do miss making dolls. There have been a few that made me very excited during the whole creative process. When you are really in tune, you can feel the life coming into your creation. That must be what I miss. I admire so many doll makers, and their different styles and imagination. Sometimes I think I have no imagination. I am very good at copying others work. I can see how something has been put together and I love the challenge of trying to make 'that'.
But I so want to create in a style that can be recognised. Like - There is the doll...... and you know the doll maker.
The problem I have had in the past, has been in taking classes from my idols, all I can produce is a doll that looks like a knock off of the designers doll.
In the last post, I listed the stages of creativity. This has helped me realise I am on the path. And since exploring that, I found an interview with Cindee Moyer in the newsletter by Adele Sciortino
Cindee has stood out, having surfaced only in the last few years. (I started doll making 10 years ago) Her style is very distinctive. It has been, right from the start. Now you may not like her style of doll, but nevertheless - she has a clear style which cannot be copied. Cindee is just one example. There are so many others.
Anyway, the one thing that stood out in the article was that Cindee had also learnt from experienced doll makers. She had explored different styles and mediums, and, after making many many dolls, started to develop her own individual style and techniques. !!!!!!!!! So that's it. You have to make and make and make the type of doll you want, and eventually your own style WILL emerge. I do believe this. I just have to make and make and make. So now that I only have time on the weekends - (I just can't think dolls in the evening at the moment) it looks like I will have my own style in the year 2020! I will only be 63, that's still youngish............

More inspiration.....

2011-09-27T04:54:00.000-07:00

I found this on a blog, but I have no idea who it was, so my apologies - but this is good to know. I am intrigued by the process of art. I plan to explore this in the future..............

What tips would I give to those looking to designing their own :
Well, first of all, enjoy yourself! Work from your heart and let your fantasy free. I read in a book that they are 5 stages that artists go through;
the first is: the primitive stage - art as children practise it - intuïtive and you can sense that it was so much fun making the piece!
The second stage is when you notice that you are starting to improve your technical skills, you are getting the hang of it.
The third stage is when you become inventive in your art, you are starting to experiment.
The fourth stage is when you become innovative.
And the last stage - which not many artists have managed to reach ;-) - is genius!

So what I'm trying to say is: if you really love what you do, this will reflect in your work and people will notice it. And then later on, if you have had time enough to practise and to grow, your work will start to evolve and it will get more and more beautiful and refined.

Thank you for that insight. I can't wait to practice, practice, practice.............

Being patient, trusting, beleiveing....

2011-09-26T07:27:00.000-07:00

I found this on http://dubuhdudesigns.typepad.com/du_buh_du_designs/ blog by Christine Alvarado
This really resonates with me. I know I have had to make a lot of dolls to find my 'style'
And I have made a LOT of dolls. But I am still dissatisfied. And this inspirational piece will remind me of what I have to do - and why. I know this to be true. Time will tell.............

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

I love birds - I think?

2011-09-21T05:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I decided to walk the 3 kilometres from home to our new offices. I have always enjoyed walking, but I can be lazy and tend to get too busy to make time for exercise. Well, because our office is only 3 kms I thought - I can do that - 1/2 an hour - I do an easy 1/2 hour walk along the beach, so off I went...........
Who would have thought I was in danger???? No my friends, it was not a criminal of the human kind, it was not the busy traffic or the gum trees (which can drop huge boughs when they feel like it)..........
It was...............
The BIRDS!!!!!

Now, here in the Southern Hemisphere Spring is in the air. And if you know anything about the birds and the bees ......well trust me they are all doing it! So as I walked happily across the local park to my surprise and concern I was encircled by 'the birds'. Not one or two but at least a dozen actually circling me and flying into my 'personal space' in a threatening (or protective) manner! At first I was a little frightened - you do remember that movie..................

And I was being surrounded - for the whole length of the park (300 metres at least) they kept circling and flying toward me. But I was brave (like Tippi) I stood my ground and forged ahead. It was bizarre. there were no other people around at the time, just me, and the birds..............all around me! Beleive me, I was glad to get across that park. I have to assume there were a whole lot of nests in those gum trees. And just for the record, I guess I should admit - the birds were little swallows!

Such lovely, cute little birds. (Remember Tippi had a problem with sparrows in the house.................you really can't trust those little guys.)
Well this saga has not ended.........I then made my way through the leafy suburbs, avoiding the busy main road with the trucks and cars.

So I am walking along the path and there in front of me is not one, not two, but three magpies.
They were obviously catching breakfast - but I was on their turf.
Again I had to steel myself and nonchalantly side step around the trio. These are big birds, with pointy beaks and they have a reputation for being very territorial. People in country areas have been swooped on by magpies protecting their nesting areas. They will take your eye out!! Children have stuck big eyes on the back of their hats to detract birds attacking.......it's true.......
Well anyway, they let me pass. But I decided it was a bit dangerous walking that way. Today I tried a different route. I still had to cross the park, but there were only 4 swallow sentries out today, it was a different time of day too. But see how hard it is to just get a bit of exercise? There is danger everywhere.............. But i still love birds :-)

A strange thing is happening to me.........

2011-08-14T07:02:00.000-07:00

I have not made a doll in months. I have been working 8 hour days, my routine after work is cook dinner, do chores, sit down in front of the TV, turn on my laptop and search blogs, or play cards or put that away and do some knitting. Well, then I get bored with knitting. I just need something that will give me quick results. Our generation of instant gratification.......

So in my travels searching the net, I stumbled across this web site http://gingermelondolls.blogspot.com/

I always check back on older posts, just to see the threads and any other interesting things on the site.

So I found these cute little animals........

And I was so taken with how cute and small they were.

I wanted to make one. Just a small teddy (I have made quite a few teddy bears in the past. Enough to know, I like to make small ones, hand sewn from mohair - not that synthetic stuff.

Well I was able to buy an e-pattern and now I

will have to make the time to sew up a little creature.

But can you see what is going on here......?

I can't leave crafting alone.

I need to try new things, keep my hands busy and do something (while I am sitting in front of the TV)

Now, I know many of you would say why do you plonk yourself in front of that thing anyway?

Well, for those who have not heard this before, I like it! TV is my friend. It talks incessantly, but if I don't need to hear it, I can press mute and just look at the pictures. A lot of people would say there is a lot of rubbish on TV. Believe me I agree. But I am selective, and if there really is nothing that interests me I turn it off - that is as long as my DH is already asleep! But I have always felt a little guilty, just sitting there, not doing anything and watching stuff. So to feel like I am actually not being lazy, I find some sort of craft to occupy my hands - and my brain.

Amazing what the brain can do, absorb TV shows while working out how to create craft as well as controlling heartbeat, breathing, blinking and digesting coffee and chocolate!

So thankyou to Gingermelondolls and.......

Thankyou to all you bloggers out there who make, and do, and share your work. Know that at some stage, someone, somewhere will be inspired by your work and it will keep some idle hands busy, and bring some joy from the achievement of being able to say "I made this" - while watching 'Inspector Rex'!

Do you see the resmeblence?

2011-07-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

Patti Culea's Maudlin Maddie

My first doll, not my last

2011-07-08T04:51:00.000-07:00

I thought I would show you my very first doll. I was so excited when I made her. If you know your dolls, you may be able to recognise who the designer was. But I must say, if I was the designer I would either be horrified as to how my doll was interpreted, or possibly be stifling hysterical laughter. This is not a pretty doll. She looks like she has varicose veins in her arms, and her legs are twisted in a strange position. She has a lace neckband - to cover the awful stitches attaching her head to her body - she sort of ended up with no neck! She has fantastic wired fingers - that was what made me want to create this doll in the first place. As for her costume, I chose to make it from velvet, which tended to disintegrate as I sewed it. At the time, I had just started to sew, but my skills were more limited than my enthusiasm. Her socks were an innovation, I wanted them to look crocheted, not knowing how to crochet that well - I cut up a doily. I'm not sure if the shoes are meant to look like slippers, but they do.

When I first saw the pattern for this doll in Australian Dolls Bears and Collectables I didn't start to make it for about 6 weeks. I scrutinised the pattern, went and bought fabric for the body, the nylon curly hair, the stuffing. I had to go to the city to buy the coloured pencils and find the pens to draw the face. I would lie in bed at night, planning how I would start to make the doll. Then, I spent a whole day - and half and evening making her. When she was finally made, I was so pleased with myself. And I started to plan my next project. I made a lot of dolls in that first year. Each doll I made improved as I gained the skills in drawing the faces, making the bodies and wiring the hands.

I can make a reasonable doll now, but I would like to do better. I won't have time to make one for a while, but we will see what will be.

But tell me............who do you think designed this doll?

Living with a cat

2011-06-27T05:07:00.000-07:00

A while back a friend forwarded me this little clip. As we are both cat ~~owners~~ er... slaves I found this to be a very familiar scenario in our house. Not quite though, Tiffany has not mastered the baseball bat yet!

Tiffany's birthday is around the end of July, she will be 15 years old

That's 105 in cat years!

She looks pretty good for 105!

The Little Girl Giant

2011-06-13T06:21:00.000-07:00

I found this amazing clip a couple of years ago. When I first discovered it, it took me a few moments to register what I was actually seeing.

How wonderful are these people who travel around with these enormous puppets. The puppeteers work furiously. You can google other clips of this unbelievable art.

Here is a link with more information.......

I must give credit to Melisa Matkin http://thecoppermouse.blogspot.com/ it was her blog where I first saw this.

Fascinated with Beatniks!

2011-06-10T04:33:00.000-07:00

I've just worked out how to embed videos into my blog so let's have some fun........
I love these ads with the beatniks.

Check out the Larry Digman Trio – so 1960’s
It is a silly commercial for Insurance – forget that. I have always been fascinated with the style of Beatniks!

So cute - I really 'dig' Larry Digman.....................

Remember Maynard Krebs?

So French

And the eternally gorgeous Audrey....

It's Winter, so I knit

2011-06-09T06:25:00.000-07:00

I am in love with knitting again. In my early 20's (which were the 1980's) knitting was all the rage.
Crazy, loud, bright knitted jumpers were everywhere.
Here in Australia, a young designer called Jenny Kee was making a name for herself.

She designed fantastic colourful unique creations, and I so wanted to own one of her designs.

But, back then, her designs were a little out of my reach.
A jumper I was in love with was a little over $400 about 2 weeks of my husbands wages!
So being the innovative type I was, without a pattern - just heaps of pictures from magazines - I copied her design. Yes, I did it. I just bought lots of coloured balls of wool, drew up graphs and knitted every chance I got. It took me nearly 12 months to make but I did it. And it was quite good too..........

Here is Natali modelling it. It is a little tight on me now, but back then I wore it with pride. Being the fashionista I was, many people asked about the jumper, I always gave credit to Jenny Kee, unfortunately, in the circles I moved - hardly anyone knew who Jenny Kee was! I actually can't believe I did this without the pattern. I don't think I could do it today. Well, I guess I could...........I just need to get some wool.
I have not had any good quality wool for some time. I have inherited lots of bits and I have been knitting squares for blankets to donate to the local Animal Welfare League. Knitting for charity is a good thing, and without a big project to think about, you can do small stuff and it is helping someone else. It is also helping my mother who has been a little depressed and so I had the brainwave idea that she could put the squares together if I knitted them up. She can still crochet beautifully - at 84 - and I dislike crochet. I love the clik clak of the knitting neeles and the variety of designs you can get with knitting. Crochet always looks like crochet dc or treble - boring.
But I need to get some lovely wool to knit for myself. I just did a search for the Yarnbarn in Rostrevor and the website doesn't work and the local business listing is missing. Has it closed down? I really liked that wool shop, there are not many here in Adelaide, and that had the nicest ambiance - if you know what I mean.

Here is something I found while surfing. It is a youtube ad, but the concept is quite interesting.

How cute was that? The kettle on the stove was the best.

So, I am now returning to knitting - my first love.
Let's see what I can come up with this time round.
It is going to be hard to top the Jenny Kee jumper - don't you think?

Taking a break.....for a while..........

2011-05-29T05:32:00.000-07:00

Hello to you, all my followers and anyone who has stumbled onto this site.
I have not been around for a while. Dolls have been packed away since the doll show in April.

As many of you may know, I work every day. Making a doll is very labour intensive. All the planning, thinking and eventually, making - takes time. I don't seem to have that time now, so I apologise, but dolls will be few and far between from now on.
I am wondering whether to delete this blog, I know I would be disappointed to visit a dollmakers site and find nothing is happening. No new pictures to look at, no insight into techniques or materials. This is what I meant this blog to be. And it was for a while. I hope it has been interesting and enjoyable.
I have made many new friends through this blog, and it seems there a lot of people who just pop in to see what is in the works at the moment. The truth is, there is nothing, and there will not be for a while.
So I am not sure what to do. I rarely have time to visit other blogs now. I am not miserable about this, it is just that things change and what I was doing a few years ago is nothing like what I am doing now. And in a short time, who knows things will turn around and I will be able to craft again.
Crafting filled a void in my life 10 years ago. I had sold my beauty salon business and was a stay at home mother. My boys were still in school and my husband was happy to come home to coffee and home made cake, with dinner on the stove. I am such an old fashioned girl ;-) The one thing I was not so keen on, was cleaning the house all day every day! I needed something else to occupy my time so I had an excuse as to why I didn't have time to scrub the bathroom and clean the oven! It was then I discovered teddy bear making, dolls and quilts - in that order. So I started exploring all these new skills, and making a whole new set of friends and being really busy doing craft.
So this leads me to touch on a subject mentioned briefly back here. As you can see, I made these terrible little wool dolls.

And a very basic felt doll. This was a commission from the South Australian Film Corp.
Yes! These dolls I made were commissioned for a movie! The idea was, that the dolls were to be made by a character in the movie - she is a crafter, who is not very skilled! I was very happy to be involved in this project - however - there is a slight problem..................I do not know if my dolls were used in the movie!
Why? Why don't I just go and see the movie?
Well my friends, the movie is "Snowtown".
For those of you unaware of this story, it is a controversial film made about the murder of several people here in Adelaide, only a few years ago. It is a very tragic and sad story, and I am sure if you are curious you will find information on the internet about the circumstances and outcome. It is not a happy movie, and due to the graphic content I am not sure I will be able to see if my dolls play a part in the story. You may have heard on the news, it has been recently shown in Cannes. Here is a promotional link - but be warned, the story is of cruelty and murder and these were real people who suffered - and you will not see my dolls in the trailer!
"Snowtown the Movie"

So I have a dilemma. I am not sure if my dolls even made it into the movie. If anyone has seen it, let me know. I am led to beleive the movie is a good portrayal of the psychological motivation and influence one person can have over another. But please do not rush out to see it just to tell me my dolls are there. I will be able to get the DVD and fast forward to check it out. And I can wait for that. I just wanted to share with you, that my dolls made it to a movie! How good is that?

Weddings

2011-04-29T06:30:00.000-07:00

Yes I just watched the royal wedding, and so did my husband. Every single step. I was curious about the dress, and just having had my own version of a royal wedding I wanted to compare notes. I think we stacked up pretty good. Natali's dress was gorgeous and Kate's dress was perfect for her. Weddings are lovely. And royal weddings are a curiosity. I have a soft spot for William too. He was born in June just a few months after my first son Nathan. Harry was born around the same time as Brad, so both boys are similar in age to mine.

I think the loss of Diana was the saddest thing for those boys.

And I am a royalist at heart.

I have always favoured the Queen.

When I was in Kindergarten, we had a photo on the wall of the Queen

It was this one..........

I thought she was special. She looked special. She looked like she would look after us. (I was a child of war refugees in Australia). And she looked like a mum - actually my friends mum across the street! (I think it was the hair style - not much else.) I loved singing God save the Queen at assembly. I saw a documentary about her on TV. She had corgis, and they went to Balmoral castle for the summer. There was Charles and Princess Anne, young Prince Andrew and even little PrinceEdward who must have been only about 2 years old at that time ( I don't remember the year). Even though she was the Queen, she had a family and did family things, not just governing a country from a big throne. I still think the Queen is wonderful. I am sure she thinks some of the antics of her family are most embarrasing, but doesn't every family have problems? I like having a Queen. I'm not too keen on Charles, but I like William and Kate. I wish them all the best. I hope the love they feel today lasts them their lifetime. I hope the world doesn't become too much of a mess before they come to power. And I hope we will still have a King in the future. Because I like the idea of someone in a little country on the other side of the globe having some say in how we govern ourselves - because Australia was populated by those british convicts anyway! It doesn't make sense, but it has been like this all these years, why change it - if it ain't broke - don't fix it! Long live the Queen...............

why I have been so busy......

2011-04-13T07:32:00.000-07:00

So the plan was...........

2011-03-28T05:40:00.000-07:00

So the plan was to make a heap of dolls and sell them at the Hahndorf Doll Show. Well, the show is next weekend, and somehow, I have not managed to get one doll finished!! I have lots of heads, arms, legs, bodies and quite a few dolls - but nothing finished. And now I have run out of time. This week I must get my house in order for the guests that will be arriving for my son's wedding on the 9th April.
I am really looking forward to the wedding - I just wish I could get things organised.
I need a miracle.....

Heads, arms, legs
What I have realised is that my heads are a bit narrow, so I have had to add to the sides, to make them look softer.

Now the face on the left looks too cartoonish to me, so I have had to take off her eyes and do them over.

Surprisingly, it is much improved!

So here I am still in progress, and run out of time.

Stay tuned to see what happens.

I may end up at the show with some of my old, old, old creations...

Change

2011-03-10T03:58:00.000-08:00

I like a change of scenery. And when it comes to my blog, I think it should look interesting and cute. I am still trying to work out how to change some of the elements, so bear with me if things get a bit mixed up. I am not that good with changing things in blogger - but I sure do like to try!

Last days of Summer

2011-03-06T03:49:00.000-08:00

I have to share these pictures with you. I don't like to post unless I have pictures. Well, I haven't progressed very far with dolls, so...............because it has been such a beautiful Summer, and these are the last days - Autumn starts in March.............. But these are the transitional days, and they are warm, with light breezes and cool nights and crisp mornings.
My DH and I try to walk every day, and when we do, this is where we go. From our street, we walk down to the beach and along this path. Sometimes we go right to the Jetty, (in the opposite direction) other times we just walk around the caravan park (and Fort). This first picture is of the Surf Life Saving club - nothing like Baywatch...............

This walking path has little paths through the sand dunes that lead to the waters edge. My DH doesn't like walking on the sand - it aggravates his knees - I love to walk along the waters edge, and on hot days, without shoes, splash through the water. There are millions of tiny shells, little starfish, cuttlefish bones and tiny crabs......and these weird jellyfish that look like giant transparent beans that squish through your toes when you step on them..........

We are fascinated with the rabbits that live in the sand dunes. They hop around the sea grass, and burrow into the sand (how they do this I don't understand - sand collapses and yet they have burrows!) We sometimes see them skidding down the small dunes.......

This is the best picture I could get of one little rabbit - I circled him in the picture. There were 2 others, but they hopped away and my camera wasn't fast enough.

Next to the Caravan park, there is a Fort, you can see the cannon on the hill. We have never toured the Fort (we have lived down the street for the last 15 years! but never investigated it) There is also a tiny train that runs parallel to the path that takes childern (& adlults) from the Semaphore Jetty to the Fort. It is a lovely ride for little ones and you must always wave to the train as it passes. It goes all weekend through the Summer, and on holiday weekends through the year.

This is a common site, lots of dog walkers, even horses get exercised in the water, you see their hoof marks in the sand most mornings. Mondays, after a weekend of football the local team come and exercise in the water. If I was a morning person I would time this more accurately - you get it, a bunch of muscular, fit footballers in their swimmers getting wet....

Back to the sign - if you look closely, you will see a snake sign! I have never seen a snake in the sand. I once met a sleepy lizard which scared the pants off me!! (Lucky the footballers weren't around :-o !!) I guess there might be snakes - aren't rabbits their favourite food?

Malcolm is heading toward the playground. The council have also installed exercise equipment - small stepper machines, leg presses and stationary cycles!

Noonies the Icecreamery. If you look closely you will see some people having coffee under the verandah. (And my shadow on the left!)

All Summer you can buy fish and chips, drinks, Icecreams and hot dogs. In Winter Noonies is open only on the weekends. There are always people at the beach, and an icecream in Winter is still a treat.

This is my favourite picture. This is my first sight as I cross the road to start my walk on the beach. When I walk over that mound of sand, the water is sometimes lapping at the edge of the dunes. Early morning, the sun is behind me.

I do like living so close to the beach.

Presenting Lady Emily

2011-02-24T04:56:00.000-08:00

This is the clay over cloth doll I made a while ago. She has a clay face and a painted body. I really like her, but she is not quite there. I will make sculpted hands and legs as in the previous post

I really rushed to do this next dolly. She is a little bit prim, but not enough I think. I'm not sure where she fits in doll making. I would really like to try a Queen Anne Doll - actually I like the Christine LeFever interpretation of these types of dolls.
I have not actually finished her clothing and she needs some lace and trims on her dress to make her look more appealing. The hat ribbon is too heavy I think. So this girl will take a little more work to look good enough to sell.

Here is a Barbara Willis doll. Her name is Forget Me Not Fairy (I think :-) (nearly forgot!)

She has been waiting for her clothing for over 18 months. I would like to finish her and sell her at the Hahndorf Doll Show coming up in April. A friend and I will have a stall there and I need to make some dolls to sell! I thought it would give me an incentive to make dolls, but I am struggling to find the time of course!But I am trying, so I have a few heads underway, and arms and legs...............

Now I have something to show you!

2011-02-14T04:03:00.000-08:00

I started with a foil skull and neck

Rolled out the paperclay and smoothed it over

I have not worried about the back of the head, but you should sculpt a nice shaped head to get a more realistic shape!

I love chopsticks - I use them for necks, for stuffing, for armatures.
Here I have used them for shaping and the size of the leg and arms.

I have some 'vintage' wooden chopsticks - seriously 30 years old! - I like them because they are very tapered at the tip.

I have made cupped palms for the hands

Adding clay

I use may hairdryer to speed up the drying

Adding fingers

Adding clay to the face. The head has already been baking for a few hours prior to this.

It is a much better way to add features. Things stay put.

Baking, baking, baking for hours and hours and hours

My dolly is coming together

Here she is!

What do you think?

Finally I have had some time to do this.......

2011-02-02T05:30:00.000-08:00

Now, this is really a bit of a cheat................I have just shown pictures of a doll that I made last year.

I don't seem to have shown this doll at all! I took progress pictures as I made her, and did not share this with you! So now I have given you a glimpse of her, I will post her picture soon. I am changing direction at the moment, and trying to decide what size doll I enjoy making, and just what style I want to do. So, once I have worked that out....................

New Year - New Dolls

2011-01-02T03:55:00.000-08:00

No, these are not my new year creations. These are last years disasters. It is a sad story. Just before Christmas, I wanted to make a couple of little mask face dolls. I bought some buckrum, moulded it onto the doll heads I had, and waited patiently for it all to dry.

It was all going so well, but.................. when I decided to add some strength, I just decoupaged some paper to the inside of the mask. I am sure I did that with the little Red Haired Girl .
Well............. the glued paper did not just stiffen the mask, it added a bulky, lumpy, bumpy change to the smooth surface of the mask. One mask was so badly affected I prised the decoupage off and ended up with a shapeless stretched out piece of buckram. Not happy.
And I had started on the bodies and all....................... So then Christmas came and all that socialising, and family and friends, and then New Year and all that socialising and family and friends. But, I know I have to try again to make these dollies. So in the next few days, I will need to go into my studio and pull out all those bits I had started on, and try, try again...........

Happy New Year To All

2011-01-01T05:24:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year 2011
I did not take my camera to the fireworks display, so I have (borrowed) a photo. I would not like to upset anyone by stealing their image and claiming it as mine, but I wanted to show you the small carnival we have on Summer nights. I googled this image, I guess you could google it too - thankyou to the person who took such a great photo of our little seaside secret.

A Merry Christmas to all........

2010-12-26T04:08:00.000-08:00

I am a little late with the greeting, but as you know, this is such a busy time of the year. I do sincerely hope that those of you who have found my blog and are reading this, have peace and happiness and love , not just at this time of year, but all through the year.
We are fortunate in this country, with Summer skies and relaxed lifestyle and peace. We have many cultures living together peacefully. I believe the most important thing in life is to love and be loved. Be it family or friends.
Every New Year presents new challenges and it is like a journey, where you know where you are going, but the things that may happen along the way are yet to be experienced. I learned, many years ago, that there is nothing that can happen in this life, that you cannot deal with.
So I hope you had a Merry Christmas and I wish you all a Very Happy New Year in 2011.

Pay it forward......

2010-12-09T04:03:00.000-08:00

The most amazing thing has happened to me. A few posts ago I made a comment on the loss of the wonderful doll maker Hannie Sarris. I mentioned that it was a great loss to the doll making world and that I was 'devastated' that I had thrown Hannie's book out with the recycling!
I received an email from a wonderful woman, yet a complete stranger, who lived on the other side of the world that wanted to make me feel better by offering to send me her copy of the book.
This came as a complete surprise and such a kind and generous gesture, and I was very keen to get my hands on that book again. So she sent it to me. The book arrived today. (With another magazine featuring Hannie). I am so happy. My friend wanted nothing in return. She was quite happy to send the book to me, and insisted that I need not return the favour. The world is an amazing place. The internet is an amazing place. And people are amazing. Now I know, I must 'pay it forward', so I need to think of what I can do.

The expression "pay it forward" is used to describe the concept of asking that a good turn be repaid by having it done to others instead.

So I will keep you posted - I think it's time for a give away.........................

My Santa

2010-12-08T04:18:00.000-08:00

So this is a good example of how something that looks 'not so good', can become 'very good' with a bit of perserverence. Santas are very forgiving.

I like to make underwear for my Santas, so that the support for the stand can go up through it. I don't like a skinny body, he needs to be robust.......

I like lots of hair under his cap, and his moustache needs to blend into his beard.

I always make his boots, all the clothing and some toys..............

It's been a long time since I made a Santa. When he comes together, it's like meeting an old friend.
I think I still have a lot of Santas to make...........

I've been busy - making dolls!!

2010-12-07T04:57:00.000-08:00

Well actually, Christine and I have been making dolls. It was last year she mentioned that she would like to try sculpting. Christine has always encouraged me to do more, and her own interest helped me make the time to do a workshop, one on one. Well the result was fantastic!

I sculpted along with her and at the end we both had a fininshed Santa.

This is my Santa face

This is Christine's Santa - we almost forgot to add the neck!

Tomorrow, I will show you the result of my sculpted Santa. And I have even been doing other dolls, just to finish up some dolls this year - that I started ages ago....................

SANTA IS HERE!

2010-11-13T04:20:00.000-08:00

Santa came to town today. Since I was a little girl, Santa has come to town on the 2nd Saturday in November. All the children know Christmas is not far away, and from this Saturday, they can visit Santa in his Magic Cave (or any of the major stores) and ask for their Christmas wish list. Thousands of families line the streets in the city (which are closed to traffic) and watch the pageant floats and marching bands till the last float that brings Santa to his Magic Cave. My parents took me to the pageant- only a few times - it is always shown on television live, and when my boys were little I took them too. I was even in the pageant once. I was working for the department store that originally organised the pageant, and through a simple process of selection, I was chosen to be on the chimney sweep float. Unfortunately, I was too big for the costume overalls, so I ended up being a clown. There are a lot of clowns in the pageant, and you know the type of costume a clown wears............................

Now the following pictures are not from the pageant, but this is the whole procession heading back down the one of the main roads from the city to the storage facility in the suburbs, not far from where I live. I had met a friend for coffee and just as we were leaving the cafe, all the floats came rolling down the street - with police escort no less! It was like being at the pageant! You can't help but wave at the drivers. The floats usually have lots of characters all dancing and waving, but the floats without people are spectactular to see - and huge! It was quite exciting, and I took as many photos as I could with my phone...............

There goes the stardust castle where Santa lives before Christmas. He loads up his sleigh with his toys and the reindeer come all the way from the North Pole. If you look really hard you will see the reindeer in front.............

Santa is at the Magic Cave waiting ...................

Quilt show shopping

2010-11-09T02:42:00.000-08:00

It is strange the things that you get caught up in.

I had made a firm decision that I was not going to buy anything at the show - because I have so much stuff which I am trying to reduce.

But here I am at the beginning of a new week and I have an array of items which I really needed. I am happy that I did the fabric technique workshop and to my defence I did buy needles and a rotary blade sharpener. I seem to wear out my blades very quickly. And then I ended up buying the very pretty Japanese kit to make the string tie bag, and the pattern for the little purse. My friend made the purse in a workshop, all hand stitched and finished in an hour! Such a handy little thing - I thought it would be a cute makeup bag, others thought it would be good to keep their pearls in, and another wanted to just use it for sewing notions. All very practical. It could even be made out of pieced velvet - and beaded...................Of course when I bought the pattern for the purse, I saw the bag and then the kit with all the fabrics.................I still wanted to get to the AK Traditions stall to buy the knitted dolly kit............

When I am going to have the time to make all these new items, I don't know. But I liked them and I wanted them and we will just have to see. I think that's why I like my blog. I have a record of my plans and projects.......................

Here she is.....

2010-11-06T04:52:00.000-07:00

Yes I did finish Pink Campagne..
She is acceptable, but not really the type of doll I want to make. She may have to be "dismantled" after the weekend...................

It has been a busy weekend with the quilt and craft show here in Adelaide.
I always enjoy the show, there are so many opportunities to see what crafts people are doing. There are workshops for all manner of crafting and lots of new information and techniques being developed and reinvented.

A couple of weeks ago I discovered the doll maker Dorote.

I like the type of doll she makes and the methods she uses. She works in air dry clay and sometimes makes ball or ribbon jointed dolls, but look at this...........

It has to bee the most beautiful doll I have ever seen. And I was in awe of the costume. I was trying to work out how the sheer fabric could be made to hold its bubbled shape. I searched the web, asked heaps of people andthen decided to take the picture to the show to see if anyone there could work it out.

Well in a moment of serendipity one of my friends said " I am sure they are doing workshops on that technique at the front - go and ask them"

Well, of course there was a whole stand with chiffon, silk, organza and satins all in various stages of being manipulated into variations of this beautiful technique. Which is related to the Japanese Shibori and the humble tie dying we westeners use. The secret is in the .................I wonder if I should tell you?

Maybe next post.

See if you can work it out.

You can see the type of art
Sharyn Hall has on her web site.
Beautiful stuff.........
The fantastic shawl that Sharyn is wearing is an Issey Miyake

I bought lots of little necessary things, I will show you in the next post. So much fun, so much to see, so much to buy...................

Pink Champagne...........well not exactly..

2010-11-01T06:55:00.000-07:00

I have made some progress. I have to admit this doll - even though she is a frankenstein doll - is coming together only as an interpretation of the charecter from Moulin Rouge. So my expectation of how she will look is very low. She is not a competition doll. She is only for display for a one off show. I have no burning desire to make and own a Moulin Rouge doll, and she is mostly cloth (which I am not so interested in compared to clay). So making her at the moment, is quite a liberating experience. I am not too worried about how wonderful she will look, she just has to look a bit good - if you know what I mean........
But she did go through that 'ugly stage' that happens in doll making - where your creation looks very very bad and you think there is not much you can do to save it. Well I took a deep breath and accepted I needed to do a bit more to get a better result. I am trying to make this doll with as little output as I can. I have used everything from my stash, the one thing I did not have was pink ostrich feathers - which I would not go searching for. So I went to the $2 store and found a dress up pink feather boa to make into the costume.
I used paper towel to create her costume and stitched it straight onto her body (one good thing about cloth dolls!) Beading was not a new experience for me, I have lots of beads, but I am just not very creative in that area. Neverthless, I think the beading works and I quite enjoyed adding the beads to make the costume sparkle. In the previous photo I had attempted to use a beaded trim from my stash, but it was too heavy for the outfit and I knew I had to redo the whole front with a beaded trim, it took nearly 4 hours to do, but was worth it. I just hope I don't have to go searching for ostrich feathers because the $2 ones are no good!!

Her shoes have been a challenge, and you can't see it here but I had to add paperclay to creat a heel that will go over the rods in the stand. I know her legs are really out of shape, and her arms a bit chunky, but I am hoping that with the right pose and all the feathers, you won't really see that flaws. My poor frankenstein girl.

This is my Frankenstein doll....

2010-10-29T06:49:00.000-07:00

There is no other way to say it. She has a reject body without arms or head.

Not the clearest image, but you get the idea. So the idea is I am making a doll for the Craft show here in Adelaide next week. Now the theme is Musicals, which I assume is like 7 brides for 7 brothers or the Phantom of the Opera? So I decided Baz Leurhman's Moulin Rouge would be an appropriate choice. So then I had to find a doll idea. Well there was a costume called Pink Campagne which was beaded and all ostrich feathers - perfect for a doll.

So I have this reject body, which needs a head and arms. But I am too lazy to make new arms, I knew I had some arms somewhere, hopefully they will be to scale........................
Then there is the head. This is for the Cloth Doll Association, so she has to be cloth, so I decided to make a head. A Barbara Willis style head would be good, all sculpted and cloth..................Well.............. you always should make more than
one head......................

Well, I thought I did a great job of sculpting the head.
I even managed to add eylash wool for eyelashes.
But.................... the eyes were too small, and so was the head for the body. So I had to make another head!!

But like Goldilocks, this one was too big and did not look very good. My thing is mask faces, so of course I will have to find a mask face to make a whole new head!

And you know I did have a rather nice face that I could use, and I did find those arms, and I still have to make shoes, which I think will have to be sculpted from paperclay, because the Frankenstein feet are so out of shape..........................

Stay tuned to see the next episode of the Frankenstein doll alias - Pink Campagne!

Where do old dolls go?

2010-10-28T08:11:00.000-07:00

I decided to add a couple of pictures of my early dolls, that I may not have shown.
This one is a pattern doll from Sherry Goshon, it is one of the first mask face dolls I made. She turned out quite well, but she is nothing like the pattern that Sherry did.
(When I have more time I will add the links, it's a bit late at the moment.)

This is another mask face doll created by Leslie Molen. The pattern is The Gossips.

Now here is Moxie. Another mask face doll which I had the pleasure of making in a class with Susie McMahon. Again, she is nothing like Susie's Moxie, but at least I did finish her. Often with workshops, if you don't finish the doll on the day - she becomes a UFO and then it takes forever to get back in the mood to finish.

You will be shocked to hear that the first 2 dolls have been dis-assembled. I feel bad about doing this, but the challenge is in making the doll - then what do you do with it? It can sit on a shelf for forever, with all the other dolls that come along. You might be saying sell them on ebay, but you know, because they are another artists design, you often cannot 'sell their work' and as I have designed my own dolls now, they are not really my dolls, they are someone elses vision. So the sad fact is that a lot of my dolls have been dis-assembled. Many. And there are currently a few more hovering over the bin. So if you think I am wrong in doing this, you are welcome to suggest an alternative. The more dolls I make, the more they change and some of these old dolls just don't belong anymore, and sadly are just not good enough to sell.

Hannie Sarris

2010-10-21T05:04:00.000-07:00

I have just found out that we have lost Hannie Sarris. I beleive she passed away in May of this year The pictured bust is called sadness and it is a recent work. Hannie had for the past couple of years been doing workshops teaching her sculpting method in air dry clay. When you visit the web site have a look at the wonderful dolls her students made. I am devastated, especially since I bought her book

I learnt so much from her clear pictures and instructions. Her dolls are beautiful. I am ashamed to say I have lost her book. I have a terrible feeling I put it out with the recycling. I have searched hi and lo and with all the shifting from room to room and going through my stuff......................it is definitely gone. And now Hannie is gone and there will never be that workshop to go to.

This quote I found on Annadan - the translation from russian is a little wonky......
I know that angels are all around us,
we go through life "the way" and are confronted with them at every turn.
Books that we read
The colors that we see
All information that passes through us
and we are through it - all is the manifestation of Angels,
manifestation in all - the main thing to feel.

The more things change the more they stay the same......

2010-10-18T05:42:00.000-07:00

Surprise! I could not stay away from my blog. Even though I have not been making any dolls - well actually I did make these................but I will elaborate on that later...........
I just need to put something out there, I guess as a personal journal - although the whole world can see it if they choose - not that personal?
Anyway, I just have not had the time or inclination to make dolls. Remember I moved into this terrific new space, and I had room to do workshops and blah blah blah. WELL, I decided my creativity was stifled in that part of the house - it was too removed from the living areas and I would walk in and walk straight out again unable to pick up a piece of work! There are so many UFO's that I could just quietly work on to finish - but nothing!
Soooooooooo - I am moving back into my tiny workroom. Malcolm refuses to put any shelves on the wall, and the storage is all on one wall, not quite how I had it before.

So now I will see if I do get to make a doll in this space. In November there is a craft show here in Adelaide and the theme is Musicals - so I will make a Moulin Rouge type doll, because I promised a friend I would make something.
A few weeks ago, there was a doll show in the southern suburbs and I found this.......................

When I was little, my dad would get books from the second hand shops, I remember reading the Rupert annuals. I loved Rupert. He was such a helpful friend - not as silly as Pooh bear (but I still liked Pooh bear too).
Many years ago I found a small Rupert bear in a shop here in Adelaide, but I did not buy it because I thought it was too expensive. So when I saw this one, I had to have him, he is about 14" (45cm) and compared to the little one (20years ago) he was a good price.
So, let's see if I can get something made in between all the work I have now I am working full time for my husband.
Also, I have come to a decision about my doll making. I will no longer make or sell doll patterns. As much as it is a great little sideline to earn money from this craft, I just don't want to do it anymore. I don't actually want to teach either! I still want to explore my own methods and create a distinctive style - which I do not have- so any dolls I make now will be just art. I am a doll artist or figurative artist or whatever...........I am still trying to find my way, so teaching others is not really logical. What do you think?

Well, I did make one thing

2010-05-24T04:35:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of little Elenor who is holding a dolly I made as a special present for her. This dolly is not an original design by me, she is Lizzie by Karlene Atkins of katkins. I had to reduce her size, she would have been bigger than Elenor!
At the moment I am knitting - my Winter craft - this is a pattern I found on the net
Mr. Bean style Teddy
Nathan has always loved Mr. Bean and we both think his teddy is the best, so I think I will be making a few of these.....one for me, one for Nathan, one for my sister, one for my cousin, one for my friend................

A quick way to make a quilt!

2010-05-15T06:56:00.000-07:00

While surfing the net I discovered a new kind of puzzle. Give it a try and see what you think. At the bottom of the page you can go to other pages of puzzles to do. Good brain exercise - and some interesting quilts!

Quilt puzzle

The Mystery of the Little Clock

2010-05-11T05:28:00.000-07:00

It was this time last year that I was travelling all
over Europe.

While on our last stop in London, I happened to find a lovely little shop selling Royal Doulton with a 30 % off sale! Now, I was very disappointed that I did not buy a Louis XIII clock when touring the Palace of Versailles. So I really wanted a little clock and this one would do as reminder of my travels. ( The truth is I still want that Louis clock, and I am going to have to go back to France to get it) - but I digress - I bought this little clock and was so pleased with myself.

So I have had this clock in the wall unit, and not really realised it is keeping time, but not the right time! So, I will have to wind it forward........... but I looked and I looked and I could not find a winder or anything that kept it going! I looked into the bottom of the clock and there was no way you could set it through the little holes in the bottom.... I asked my husband and he looked at me blankly - I thought men knew everything!

Then a while ago, a friend visited me to do some quilting, and when I told her my problem, she just smiled and said " Oh, I worked in a jewellery shop, I know how to fix it " and with that she popped the front face out with her fingernail and adjusted the time and popped it back into its little resting place! What about that !

Well I tried

2010-04-29T07:28:00.000-07:00

I have decided (with a heavy heart) that I am going to take a long break from doll making and , so too my blog. This has not been an easy decision. But circumstances have forced me to realise the truth, which is that I just will not have the time to make dolls to sell/ put into competitions/ create patterns or just for fun. I am basically going to be working pretty much full time in our carpentry business. I know that I cannot be 'thinking about dolls' when I need to concentrate on 'office admin'. We are at a transition stage in the business and there is a lot of planning and development that needs to take place from now on. I don't mind using my brain, and as far a my creativity - well, I can knit, quilt or do some embroidery. Dolls do take a lot of time to make. You cannot make a doll in a day - well not the sort of dolls I make. I find it hard enough now to get on a roll and I hate the thought having UFO's. I so wanted to finish this one but, by the time I think about the type of beading and costuming and colour and fabric choices, it will be forever in the making. So I am stepping away from dolls and blog land for a while. Knowing me, that will be about a week before I get itchy to do something. It just seems, with the work load I have at the moment, dolls will have to be last on the list. So I will leave the site open, but it may be a while before I add anything - I think!
Till the next time.................
Sandy :-)

The Unsold Sweethearts

2010-04-13T03:26:00.000-07:00

These are the two little dolls, that did not sell at the show. You can clearly see the difference in the mask faces, even though they are from the same mold.

The doll on the left has a mask made from buckram under the cotton lycra, you can see the original process I used here.

The other mask is paperclay over the original head and you can see it here.

The doll in blue has a much softer look for an all cloth doll.

She looks a little worried or shy to me, which is good because it does give her character.

So these girls can stay with me a while, I may sell them, when I decide to set up ebay or etsy. We'll see.

So the show is over

2010-04-12T05:58:00.000-07:00

Yes, the Hahndorf show has been and gone. There is the merchant side of my personality, which likes the buzz of setting up and manning the sales stall. But, I always end up with a tension headache, because no matter how early I start to prepare, I am always up at 2am still planning and packing and checking items. Then I can't sleep because I need to be up bright and early..............well you know I am not a morning person at the best of times........
Sooooo.......I get to the show and fumble around and fall over myself trying to settle in - and the crowds, that have been lined up at the door, swarm in and start perusing. Well, as it happened, I had only just got my doll on the table and a wonderful lady, who is a collector of ooak dolls, saw my little red head girl (I sort of named her Mary Jane - but not properly) and she said "yes, I'll take her, she's lovely".

Now as you may remember I had 5 dolls to finish. I can't believe I forgot to take a finished picture of Titania! The last picture I took was of her in her panniers - but I kept adding finishing touches to her, and in the end - I never took a final picture! Someone I know must have taken a pic so I will ask around. The lady who won Oberon and Titania in the raffle is going to contact me in the future, so I may get a pic.

I did finish the other 2 dolls that made up the Cloth Doll Club sign - I had the 'S' and 'h' to do, so here is the 'h'
and the finished sign with all the doll letters that other members made are in this picture.............

It is a fun concept and the costuming ideas that doll makers come up with are astounding. These are all the same doll pattern - with adjustments ( except for the 'o' faces and the 2 'l's). It shows how much fun you can have with dressing cloth dolls.

And the final 2 dolls were the little sweethearts (my name for them) - which I did manage to finish - with the help of one of the traders (I'll post her details and tell you her trading name when I find it) - I needed hair to finish the second doll. So I actually had 3 dolls on the trading table - the little red head, a blond dolly and a dark haired girl. Tomorrow I'll upload the photos of those 2.
I can show you the WIP of the blond girl..........................

Still unpacking and restoring order to my 'Studio', which now has curtains

Finally - Continuum

2010-03-25T04:58:00.000-07:00

So here I am, in my new room, with 5 projects that I am committed to by April 10th! These are:- Titania, the partner for Oberon ( a pattern by Suzette Rugolo) - seen here. I made Oberon several years ago as a competition entry. He won first place. He is rather small - being of the fairy realm.... Suzette created Titania (the fairy) as a complementary pattern and I had always intended to make her. Well, with the Hahndorf Doll Show so close, our cloth doll club will have a display table with a sales table and a raffle. So, I decided to donate Oberon and Titania for the raffle - BUT Titania was not made ...............so here I am madly trying to put together doll project 1.Titania is dressed in full 18th century panniers, underskirt, dress jacket etc..............................So tell me - does this look like an 'S'??

The Idea is that the club will have a sign that is made up of dolls marking out the letters of the words for the 'Cloth Dolls Club' So I have an 'S' and an 'h' to do........... The doll is not the problem, it is all the costuming and adornments to make it look interesting! Dolls 2 and 3!

And lastly, my little sweethearts. Remember I started these back here, then got all caught up in my new doll making frenzy here. Well that poor doll is waiting, partly dressed and at the moment, these 2 little girls take priority and are numbers 4 & 5.

It will be a miracle if I get all this done in just over 2 weeks, but I will try. I do really like my craft, and if I don't have time to do it I go a bit crazy and cranky. My new room is good, and spacious, it's just at the front of the house and we live on a fairly busy main road, so the traffic noise is something I have to get used to. When I have a moment, and I tidy it up, I will take a picture of how I have settled in to the new room.

It's all good

Well, I had to move again!!!

2010-03-11T02:31:00.000-08:00

I actually don't know what to say............. For the last two days I have been in total disarray! After my last post, where I had discovered that a tidy workspace was one of the things to keep me motivated..........my DH decided it was a good idea for me to move into the vacant room that Brad left behind - so...................
from my cramped tiny studio, that I have only been in for a few months.......

From this space .........

To this space................

and moving all my stuff..............................

The room is painted and waiting for curtains

Somehow, now I have so much room, I don't know how to make it look lived in!! There is a wide open space along one wall, which IF I do workshops, I could set up a group table (small group that is), but to be quite honest, this is the last thing I needed in the middle of a creative surge I have had going. No wonder I run out of steam and lose my motivation. All this white furniture and neatness it too much for me. So I now I have to get busy and make a mess so that I can feel settled - but I don't feel like it now :-(

I'm tired!

I can't work like this...

2010-03-04T00:36:00.000-08:00

I have come to realise something about my work style. When my desk/studio is a mess - I can't work. I need to clean my desk and start fresh frequently when I am working on a project. It's like I can't think straight when my desk is not straight. This doll is really taking me through a process of learning - what I need to do and what I like to do. I had a huge dilemma when it came to how I was going to dress her. I feel like I need a step by step pattern to make a doll. But, the reality is, it is so much easier not thinking or trying to find a suitable pattern. This doll will have her clothing stitched on and so her clothing can be quite fitted. To do this, the easiest way is to get paper towel, wrap it to the body part, I trim in darts or draw the shape (e.g. underarm shape) and then stitch up the paper pattern. Drape it on the doll and make adjustments, it is so much easier than trying to find a pattern part that will fit the body. In the past, I have made dolls with a mind to explain the process, scribble down each step, so that I don't forget it for next time. Well blow that idea!! No wonder I can't make a doll to please myself, I'm thinking about an imaginary doll maker while I'm still thinking it through! That's like an author anticipating what the reader expects the story to be, when it's not even written yet! Amazing - I could not put my finger on why I was so blocked creatively! What a revelation!

So here is the desk a little tidier. You can see the paper pattern for the gathered skirt on the desk under the doll. I think she is a little too lithe, the challenge was to make her features elongated, and it was good to try it, but I think a little more muscle would be nice, but she is very elegant - I think.

Blog friends

2010-03-03T05:03:00.000-08:00

The internet has opened up a whole new world to me, and I guess for those of you reading this, it is the same. I have only a couple of close friends - lots of aquaintences through my craft - but my close friends, they don't make dolls, knit, or sew - they work full time, with only the weekend free to catch up and 'do lunch' or dinner. So to make friendships, far reaching friendships, with people who are interested in what you do and understand crafting, is new to me. Jules who's blog is Adventures in Thread sent me a gift this week.

It is the sweetest hand felted teddy in a silk pouch.

Jules lives in the UK and she does beautiful embroidery - something I cannot do.
She has made a few cloth dolls, and you must visit her blog, her dolls are great!

What I love is that she made this herself and decided to send it to me.

Having come all the way from the UK - which is in a cold snap at the moment - I knew I had to protect teddy's delicate coat from our harsh Australian summer sun!

Of all my dolls, Aliyah is the one who most wanted to look after the new addition.

I just love this little guy, he is so soft and has the sweetest face.

Thank you Jules.

There's a reason I'm called Sandy.............

2010-02-25T03:32:00.000-08:00

Sanding, sanding, sanding and more sanding.................

Here are a few of my favourite tools for sanding.

I realised that the little pedicure tool (far left) has just the right sized sanding heads for getting into the fingers and hard to reach areas.

Progress

What an improvement! You see you can get past the ugly stage!

The ugly stage.....

2010-02-21T22:38:00.000-08:00

Oh my Gosh!! The camera does not lie!! What the................it's the ugly stage!!
Now this is somehow true for my creations. They all have an ugly stage. This is a warning to all you inexperienced doll makers, if it happens to you - there is a solution - I have been here many times and the solution is.............you just have to push through it! Trust me.
There is a stage of doll making, where you look at what you are doing, and you can easily be put off. How is this mess ever going to be what you have visualised in your mind's eye? Even with cloth dolls, there is a moment where you think - "How can I make this look............"

So here I am, in the middle of my "creation"
I excitedly take a picture - and I have this ..................
As you can see, I enthusiastically added a possibe hair style.
I thought she would look like Rapunzel - obviously not quite!
Now there is a lot more sanding, painting, finishing and adding of body parts to improve this situation. A lot more work to be done!
So I am not disheartened - yet. I have faith I am on the right track.
We are all going to be surprised by what this doll is going to be!

A Doll Making Frenzy

2010-02-18T02:17:00.000-08:00

So as you can see I have gone mad. I have heads, hands, legs - it's all happening at the moment. This is very strange, I have just moved from one part to the next and thankfully with it still being Summer the warm weather is helping the clay dry quite effectively. While I'm waiting for one thing to cure, I move to the next bit - see there is a reason why I make more than one thing at a time.

Head in progress, I'm still working on the eyes as you can see. The second head is also waiting to be finished and sanded.

And then there are the hands. I actually found these to be not as daunting as in the past. The small stick on the left is a paper wrapped floral wire with a coating of clay. I made 20 of these and then made them into 4 hands. Bending the fingers to a pose and adding more clay is just the start. There has to be a lot more sanding and adding of clay and shaping.............................

Finally some inspiration!

2010-02-17T06:03:00.000-08:00

Two years ago I made a doll with Ankie Daanen. I don't know what happened, but after that doll, I did not sculpt another since then. I have been working on clay over cloth.............which is similar - but not........... I just did not want to go near a full sculpt since that workshop! Admittedly it was an intensive 2 days which are usually a 5 day workshop. I was so excited to meet Ankie, and she was so supportive and encouraging, and yet for some reason I was totally put off this style of doll. There is something about this doll which I am not happy with. To be quite honest, I think it is because there is a lot of Ankie in the doll and not much of me. That is all I can put it down to.

But this week I met a lady who is a textile artist, she was doing beautiful work with beads and embroidery and papers. She showed me a small journal she had made and we talked about art and self expression. I have been complaining for months about my lack of inspiration, my lack of time management and my inability to be creative...............well after our talk, I suddenly got excited about making a doll - my own way. From what I have learned so far..........

So I rummaged through my cupboard and found these heads!The little one peeking around the bottle on the right is one I have started to work with. She needed her eyes fixed, but other than that she was pretty good. When I did the original sculpt, I started with a styrofoam egg and applied Darwi air dry clay - it is a little heavier than paperclay, but she will do. She is the right size. My plan is to make a doll which is about 17". However, I know that for some reason, I need to be working on more than one thing at a time, so I decided to start another head, this time with paperclay. I am amazed that I am so focused at the moment. I actually can't wait to finish the dolls to see what I make! What a surprise!

This time I'll try this........

2010-02-08T04:49:00.000-08:00

So in an effort to try to get something creative done, I thought one of the easy mask face dolls would not take too long, and I would have a new little doll. I decided to experiment with a method using buckram - a stiff pre-glued mesh used in milinery. Now, the buckram I have comes in 6" strips - not quite big enough to cover the doll head I chose. Because this is the base of the mask, it would be necessary to make 2 layers crossed so that the main part of the face was covered. It should work. We'll see.......................

2nd layer of buckram - dryingNow the buckram has dried, a first layer of cotton knit fabric needs to be applied. Using the doll head to keep the shape, an application of PVA glue to the buckram mask, and then gently pressing the fabric into place..................

And another layer..............

Now making a smooth edge, pressing out the folds

to the edge of the mask. Making a ball for the back of the head from a cut off sock and glued into the back of the head, then stretching the cotton knit over. I then had to wait 24 hours for the glue to dry!! The mask was softened until all the glue dried, then it went hard again. Very interesting..................

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T21:22:00.000-08:00

Here we are at the start of another new year. Leaping into the unknown. I remember my feelings of excitement and apprehension at the start of our European trip. I knew we would have some interesting experiences, but what they would be, I would only know at the end of the trip. Well, a new year feels just like that. In hindsight you can see where you have been and the choices you made to get you there, but you still have to go through it to get there. 2009 was difficult. Malcolm's health was terrible, hospital 7 times. The stress was evident by the end of the year, I was exhausted. I guess I still am. At the moment I have a head cold, coughing, sneezing, headache etc. Perhaps I will have some time to set some goals.Mimi Kirchner has a great way of reviewing her year and her next year's goals see her blog at
http://mimikirchner.com/blog/
So I will take some time to do some planning for the new year, let's see what I can come up with....

Graduation day...

2009-12-16T04:02:00.000-08:00

Today was such a busy day. So many people, waiting for photos, lunch, a big day.............

I had to add this behind the scenes photo.

Noone seemed to want to sit in the mock Library

I can't imagine why?.......

Countdown to Christmas

2009-12-15T05:49:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are just days away from Christmas, and time is just flying by. I am struggling to keep up with all the social engagements and dining out. This has been a strange year, I can only hope next year is better than this one. There have been many highs, our trip to Europe, Nathan's new house, Brad's engagement...........and tomorrow.........Brad graduates from University. He has said very little about it, he tends to take things in his stride, it is sometimes hard to get information out of him. Tonight I pressed his robe, I raced out and got him a present this afternoon - we got him a car ages ago, so he just gets a keepsake gift, I'll show that tomorrow, don't want to spoil the surprise.

I started working on a Santa a couple of weeks ago, but he has had to be put aside, because I decided to give little Santa gifts to my little nieces and nephews - of course I actually had to make them.........I had all the stuff in my stash, I just had to find the time.

So here I am madly sewing - I haven't even decorated the house for Christmas yet! All my Nutcracker men are waiting to be positioned.
So much to do, so little time.............

The girls are finished!

2009-11-23T04:17:00.000-08:00

So finally I have completed a FEW dolls. I didn't really show a good pic of the Mother Goose. She was originally going to be

the Fairy Godmother, but I could never work out how she wanted to be dressed. So, I guess she didn't want to be a fairy she was a Mother - and she sat so easily on my hand felted Goose, dolls really do tell you who they want to be................

And so to my little 'Glorex' dolls.................

I have managed to finish them both. They are just little girl dolls, I made them jackets and blanket stitched the raw edges. I enjoyed adding little felt flowers to one jacket, and the other I finally added little wool flowers that my mother gave me a few years ago!

The little teddy I made a few years ago from some reject fluffy bunny ears!

I don't have any names for the girls. Any suggestions? I am totally blank as far as their names......

Who would have thought it!

2009-11-04T04:47:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-27T05:00:00.001-07:00

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.......

2009-10-26T04:28:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-23T06:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-21T03:58:00.001-07:00

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....

2009-09-19T06:40:00.000-07:00

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.........

2009-09-16T06:14:00.001-07:00

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

.

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

2009-08-25T06:02:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-08-22T03:58:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-07-27T05:18:00.000-07:00

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!

A computer whiz I am not

2009-07-07T22:30:00.000-07:00

Well I have been trying to add a new pic to the top of my page, but html savvy I am not, so it will have to wait. I need to spend a lot more time on my blogging, which is at the moment almost impossible, so I will only do what I can...
I am very pleased about the doll I made especially for Australian Dolls, Bears and Collectibles magazine. Her name is Colleen and she is featured on the front cover... I have been published!

Back and starting over.

2009-07-07T07:25:00.000-07:00

Well they say a change is as good as a holiday, so I am making changes - not entirely by my own choice!
Oh, it has been so long since I have posted. Sorry to those of you who have dropped in and seen nothing happening here. The truth is ....... nothing is happening! Since coming home from my whirlwind tour - 1 month........ many hotel rooms -
I have not had the clearness of mind to do anything apart from basic housewife and home office duties. I have been dreaming of making dolls. The problem has been my DH has decided he needed my working space for our office and I had to pack up all my stuff and relocate to a VERY SMALL ROOM! I have accumulated so much stuff I am at a loss as to what to do. There are 6 tubs of fabrics in the shed that I have to find room for! Consequently, I have been very distracted and unsettled since coming home. I did do a Barbara Willis class in June. I will post those pics as soon as I can. I hope to blog a bit more frequently. I have a lot of catching up to do. Here are some photos of the wonderful places we visited. I am so glad I took a lot of photos, for the memories...........

One month in Europe!

2009-04-29T06:02:00.000-07:00

My husband and I.............(the Queen always says that and I think it is rather nice!) My husband and I are taking a month off work and travelling to Europe with friends. No.1 son will run the business and No.2 son will run the house. They are such good kids, I have no doubt all will be well. So 10 days in Italy i.e. Rome, Cinque Terre and Venice. 3 nights in Prague. 3 nights in Latvia (the homeland). 3 nights in Paris, 3 nights in London, 3 nights in Aberdeen, 1 night in Hong Kong.

This is a picture of Portofino. Since seeing the John Malkovich movie "Beyond the Clouds"
I have so wanted to go to the little village in the film. It is actually Portofino and I am obsessed. I can't wait to go there. So in two days I will be jetting off for a month.
Consequently, I have not had time to do any doll making or quilting. when I come back I will be doing a Barbara Willis class - she is visiting Adelaide and we will be making the "Forget me not fairy", which will get me in creative mood when I get back. Hopefully I am inspired and have artistic inspiration from travelling!

Keep well, I'll be back soon........
Sandy :-)

I'm still here......

2009-04-22T04:50:00.000-07:00

Finally I can show you Colleen. She is a doll I have created for Australian Dolls Bears and Collectibles magazine. This year has been so busy for me right from January. I was contacted by Shirley Dougan who is a contributor to the magazine, and she asked me to submit a pattern suitable for the readers. Well I had to actually make something that would be appropriate for doll makers who may have limited experience and in making the doll I did try to keep it simple. I must say this is the type of doll that comes together so easily for me. She is pretty, has paperclay over cloth, and is painted. I realise that these are all the things I enjoy doing when I am making a doll, so she had been a breakthrough doll for me. The only thing is that right now, when I am in a creative head space, I am too busy doing office work for my contractor DH and planning our overseas trip (for which we leave on the 2nd May!) and there is no time to create dolls!

There has been a lot happening in the past month and I have pics to post, I just have not had time to sit at the computer and upload them. Hopefully I can get some done before we go away. There is always so much to do.....

Some pictures of my pattern dolls

2009-03-24T06:49:00.000-07:00

Actually Impossible Princess is not a pattern, but I made her a couple of years ago and she is a mask face doll that I can make into a pattern.

Is a fox a doll?

2009-02-28T05:12:00.000-08:00

Here is my fox. He/she is life size. I was asked by a friend to help make an animal for a puppet theatre play that a local school puts on every year. I love a challenge, but I stress so much. Of course there was no pattern and I had to blow up a photocopy of a photo to the size I needed. I then had to create the pattern and decide on how to make the fox stand without falling over when picked up and put down by the players. I took these pics before I did the final stitching up, you can still see the pin in the ear. I have to say I am very pleased with how my fox turned out. I think the director will like it. The play is in June so I will be attending opening night to see my fox perform. By the way the play is 'The Secret Garden' and my friend Lois has made a red robin, a black bird, rabbit and a lamb. She is amazing, there is no way I could make the things she does. The fox was quite enough for now...

So very sad

2009-02-09T01:48:00.000-08:00

For the last two days we have had terrible news reports about loss of life and complete townships from fires in Victoria. It brings home the importance of life and loved ones. These tragedies make you realise just how fortunate our quiet lives are and how people pull together to help those who have lost so much.

Something new - but it's a secret......

2009-02-03T04:28:00.000-08:00

I have had the inspiration to make a doll. I will just show some progress photos for now, because I don't want to jinx this. She is paperclay over cloth, which is different to the Darwi clay I have used in the past. After adding clay,I painted the legs, arms and head. I find I do enjoy this method. Making dolls is like a process of elimination. You start to make something and if you don't like it, it just takes ages to do. It seems this is why I get stuck all the time and have so many UFO's. When you enjoy the process, you just do the step by step and before you know it the doll has come together. So this is what I have learned......find the thing you really enjoy doing and do lots of it. Each time you do it, it gets easier and you then develop your own style. I feel like I am so near, yet so far. I have lots more to do to find what my dolls really want to be. What a revelation!

Where have I been????????

2009-01-18T14:41:00.000-08:00

I have not posted anything for ages. It's not that I haven't been doing anything......I have actually been extremely busy. Of course Xmas took up a few weeks of socialising, family and travel to the country. We visit the South East where DH's sister lives and aside from all the drinking and eating we visited this gigantic tree which is a feature of the South East. The core has been burnt out, but the tree is still alive and it is the biggest and one of the oldest trees there. It is beautiful country with so much bird life. The old swamps have dried up, but it is still wonderful to see.

And just before Xmas I made 3 quilts as gifts for family. That was a monumental task. I was so busy doing them, I didn't take photos of them at the time. I must make records of my finished projects......

And I had to finish a Santa for my son Nathan. I am only just getting back into routine now and January is nearly over! Haven't even had a moment to get out my Susie McMahon dolls that are half finished.

I have the newsletter for the Cloth Doll group to do now so the next 3 days will be busy and I have to do the Tax for my DH's business - someone has to earn the money..........

Susie McMahon was here!

2008-12-06T04:50:00.000-08:00

The wonderful doll maker/artist Susie McMahon was here for a workshop this week. She was teaching Moxie, this sweet little fairy. She brought some of her other dolls to show us and you can view some more on her website
here
There were 12 ladies in the class and Susie was so wonderful, showing each one of us how to create with paperclay and fabric. I sculpted a head and attempted to also make the mask face doll Moxie, consequently neither doll were finished in 2 days! So I will post photos in a couple of days.............

Quilt show, Newsletter, dolls..................

2008-11-27T02:32:00.000-08:00

These are the pictures from the South Australian Quilt show. We had a themed display of "Fairies in the Garden". The two red head dolls are mine. There are some fantastic dolls that have so much work in them. Take a close look....

So, here is a tiny santa that I have made. I have just spent 3 days working on the doll club newsletter and wanted to make a Santa pin doll for the Xmas meeting.
I am still trying to work out how to do a link to the pattern. Will get there soon.

Next week Susie McMahonSusie McMahon will be coming to Adelaide and I will be doing her workshop. I was a keen supporter to have her come here, but when I saw the doll she was teaching I was disappointed - I have my own style and I didn't want to make a doll that would look like someone elses - like the Anke Daanen doll. But gradually, after some thinking I know I will learn heaps and I am sure she is a great teacher. So I will do the doll and see how it turns out. In life you need to try new things or life would be very boring.

Sidetracked again...........

2008-10-23T06:12:00.000-07:00

I have been doing 10 things at once at the moment.

Having joined the quilter's guild, I am in the process of finishing 3 quilts started more than 18 months ago.
This is just one that is in pieces, yet to be joined.

I have also had fun working on a doll with a friend who needed some confidence with covering a paperclay mask with cloth on a
"Barbara Willis doll".
This pattern is called Eau de Parfum and she is very sweet. The pictures are of her progress, Ruth has made her jacket from the most beautiful fabric and there are lots of finishing touches to make the doll perfect. Her hair is not actually attached in this photo and it needs styling - I will try to get a photo of her finished.

And I have a new Brother! Well it is not a person Brother, but a sewing machine Brother. My DH heard me cursing as I was struggling to quilt one of my projects and he tagged along to the shop and put the money down for a new machine! Well now he expects me to use it for everything so I dilligently started on one of my Santa's. The pics are of the crazy patch coat in progress and the "machine embroidery" all over the coat. It was a breeze to do with my Brother, so I am going to be very busy sewing..............

Another attempt to make something

2008-09-25T03:07:00.000-07:00

So this is Francie. She has fought me all the way with her clothing. I know how I want her to be dressed, but for some reason, every dress I make her doesnt't fit or just looks wrong. So far I have made 3 dresses. Here she is with a petticoat on, but she will wear a pinafore so she doesn't need bloomers, a slip and a dress and a pinafore. I ended up making a cute blouse top to go under the pinafore, just the skirt needs to be the right length and not too full. She is going to have to wait now because I have been working on this for days and I am sick of it.
Next project..............

I did finish the doll..........

2008-09-03T04:02:00.000-07:00

Yes, I have finally finished the Ankie Daanen doll. It was not that there was so much to do to finish her, just the excitement had worn off a bit. She is really a "Dutch Touch" style doll.
The only difference is those ladies in Spain have 2 weeks to make their dolls! Ankie provided a kit with the body pattern and costuming ideas. Most of us purchased an outfit that Ankie had pre-made so we could finish our dolls. I think most of the ladies would have finished theirs - but all of them were from interstate or New Zealand, so I have not had any contact with them to see the finished dolls.
I have decided to call her Niva - I am not sure why, but that is who she is.I do like her - but I don't love her...... As a doll maker/artist you do develop the techniques you like to use. So - I would change a few things - the body would be different and I am going to experiment more with clothing - I also prefer to fully paint the dolls features, this doll is varnished straight onto the natural colour of the clay.

Now just a bit of back tracking..........

In the last post I had a picture of my interpretation of Miss Mint.
She is a storybook charecter illustrated by Wayne Anderson and you can see more pictures here...

Miss Mint won a First Place in the Adelaide Doll and Bear Convention. I have one picture of her in progress here.

I am so excited about the bee. I made a bee!
After looking at pictures on the net of bees
I discovered they are hairy all over!
Of course it is not hairs as such
- but all the same I love my hairy bee...
what do you think?

Ankie Daanen came to Adelaide

2008-08-10T19:27:00.000-07:00

What a week it was last week. I am exhausted. But very very happy. The wonderful Ankie Daanen actually came to Adelaide (who ever comes to Adelaide?) for our inaugural Doll Convention. I was so excited, I took these dolls in to show her what I managed to make just from her books ("Costuming the Doll" and "Make Dolls with Ankie Daanen")

She has such a sweet nature and is so modest. There were 10 of us in the class and we all worked very hard to finish our dolls in 2 days (it is usually a 4 day workshop) - so it was impossible! But what a wonderful experience and so much was achieved in such a small space of time. View my picturetrail site for the workshop pics. I will upload a photo of my finished doll and if the other ladies post them I will show those. The Doll Convention itself was 5 days of workshops, lectures, there was an antique doll auction and dinner with a fun auction. Lunch, breakfast, trading stalls on the Saturday and Sunday and a doll competition for porcelain, cloth, other media dolls and teddy bears as well. I won a First Place ribbon for my Miss mint!
There were so many other entries and I really didn't take many good pics
but when I have more time I will upload them. I must go and finish my doll now.....

Always working - just not on dolls...........

2008-07-16T03:19:00.000-07:00

I seem to be very busy every day and I would love to just get up and go into my "Studio" and work on dolls. But I am so not a morning person. I get up have breakfast,shower,read the paper(always do the Sudoko), do household chores and by that time it is 11am. Then I usually have some book work to do for our home business, then it's lunch time............no wonder I never get anything finished, my time management is terrible. Anyway, among the many projects I have on the go, here are a couple of pictures of air dry clay added to cloth. I love that with the clay you can slice off bits you don't want, sand it smooth as silk, remodel what doesn't look right and add or remove any bits you're not happy with. This doll is patiently waiting for her sculpting to be finished and her peronality to be revealed. I 'm not sure who she is yet, in similar circumstances last year, I created my award winning doll Marionetta.

New Santa Doll

2008-06-03T17:12:00.000-07:00

I decided to bite the bullet and just make a Santa doll with a Trapunto face. Here he is:-

His face is made with a trapunto style mask, stitched to a tab head body. I was surprised how quickly and easily this pattern came together. I will put this one out as a pattern - when I get it written up! I am very pleased with him. He is called Steppin' out Santa.

Time to make dolls.........

2008-05-10T17:36:00.000-07:00

So, here it is such a long time since I posted and what have I been doing? I have had a couple of days where I have been motivated to do something.......... and then it goes. I have been doing a lot if knitting - see knit4charities
- only because I like this time of year and I have so much wool and I like to knit, it is relaxing, which is what I must be needing at the moment.

Any way I HAVE tried to make a start on a pattern doll with the trapunto face. I am feeling a bit happier with this design, but too distracted to actually think and design the clothing at this moment.

I have also made a start on one of the paperclay styles. She has heavy paperclay shoes which I am not so happy with.

So I am a bit stuck with her.......
Here is another girl waiting to be dressed and given a face and identity. I thought she was going to be a Red Riding Hood but she has other ideas I have yet to work out.

And now I am working on another project - to dress a Polymer doll who has been hanging around the studio. It's not that I don't finish anything I start, it seems I need to have the identity develop before I progress, sometimes it happens quicker than other times. I will post a picture of that progress soon. I seem to like costuming but it is torture trying to work out what colour/style/fabric to use!

I'm back - I think!

2008-03-31T00:43:00.000-07:00

It has really been ages since I have had the energy to even look at my blog. Sometimes life gets in the way and you can lose your motivation. I have tried to work on my pattern dolls, but did sidestep with a drawing class that was a disaster. I cannot draw. Have you ever tried to draw a tissue box? when I thought I had actually managed to draw a box - I realised I had just drawn a box as I knew it to look - not actually the box in the still life on the table! Then there was the issue of relative size and perspective........I could draw the items, but they were nothing near the actual size in reality! I cannot draw.....and I haven't even mentioned the mess that charcoal makes.................

Anyway, my greatest achievement was the 'Capsicum' in willow. What do you think?

TRAPUNTO MASK FACE DOLL

By the way, it seems I have had visitors to this site, and it would be lovely for someone to make a comment or contact me. Sometimes art and craft can be a very lonely business so if you have viewed my dolls or have a 'constructive criticism' - let me know you are out there.

crazy pattern making......

2008-03-10T04:24:00.000-07:00

Well I HAVE been doll making in the last month, but I have also been taking every spare minute to recreate some pattern dolls that were waiting for release. I remade the Princess, giving her a book to read and a tuffet to sit on.

More UFO's

2008-01-24T05:56:00.000-08:00

Oh dear, I just can't get into doll making mode. I have tried and tried, you can see from the various attempts in the last few posts.............I just keep getting distracted. I am itching to work with air dry clay, I prefer it over polymer because you can really sculpt and sand it and smooth it. It takes time to dry and is messy, I always think back to making mud pies when I was very little........I actually liked making mud pies.

This is a Santa head I whipped up just before Xmas, I was so busy making Santa's, this one was a 4 foot decoration.

Remember Gordon the Rock Collector well this is another unfinished fellow in that style (spoon doll), who I may never finish, but he is in love with the impossible princess so even if he does get dressed, he will stay with me.

So again I am wanting to start afresh and make a whole new doll. The fairy godmother has to wait, the little Lottie has to wait, the polymer fairy has to wait and Nathan's Santa definitely has to wait. I have a clay fairy head waiting for a body, and another clay head for a 20" doll. But I want to start a whole new doll. Just to see who it will be. That is if I ever make the time to sit down and start!

Some days are very trying........

2008-01-15T17:28:00.000-08:00

You see my dilemma. Here I am tring to create an older face on a cloth doll. I don't want to use the "common" method of needle sculpting, so I am experimenting with trapunto - a stitched and stuffed method, air dry clay, and next I will just try - needle sculpting..................

Because I want to make this a pattern doll, I need to consider how easy/difficult it should be. I am totally rethinking my pattern designing becuase I don't want to limit the possibilities for doll makers who buy the patterns.

clay over cloth

2008-01-10T05:33:00.000-08:00

So I am trying to develop an easy way to add clay to cloth in a pattern form. As you can see from my pics of my first pattern in this technique, you change the complete look of the doll. That's okay, but the cloth only doll to me is more difficult than sculpting in polymer or air dry clay! I may be working too small, but then I don't want to do anything bigger than 20 inches. I have to make a lot of dolls to get this right.

Work in progress

2008-01-09T02:43:00.000-08:00

Today I had a breakthrough, as an "artist" I seem to get stuck making design decisions, and it is the whole process of creating a doll that is all about decision making - height, pose, hair colour, costume, eyes. Every doll that is designed goes through this process. Susanna Oroyan wrote about this in her book Designing the Doll and I am terrible at it. I can't draw a sketch of what I want to do, I often look for inspiration from other sources, pictures, fabrics, other dolls. And I tend to get side tracked because there are so many options it can all get a bit hard - well it is for me. After talking to my sister Ingrid yesterday, I started with new determination to just start somewhere - like at the beginning - sculpt the head. My friend Jill said - make it and they will come.........the doll lovers, enthusiasts, buyers, it will all happen, just do it. And I did. I sculpted clay over cloth on a flat face and then I tried a seamed face. Next I will do the cloth sculpted face with clay over. All this is about getting a mature look to a cloth doll. I have already experimented with this method for my pattern doll Aliyah. Knowing what I want to achieve and creating it are two different things, but I am getting there - very slowly...........

Oh Dear it's the New Year!

2008-01-05T03:59:00.000-08:00

It has been such a long time since I have posted anything here. It is not that I forgot or didn't care - life just gets in the way and I am still getting the hang of recording my efforts. My darling eldest son Nathan married his long time dream girl Shannyn in November and with all the birthdays and Xmas I really didn't have time for my blog. I was madly making Santas to decorate the house and give to my family etc. etc. Here are some WIP pics......

So I am working on another pattern doll. I sometimes get very lost. I tend to have doubts about how good or bad my dolls are. If I should just sculpt and sell - which I tend to undervalue myself - or should I create lots of pattern dolls and sell those? I have just created the first part of my new pattern and I like what I have done - but will it be "acceptable" to those who buy the pattern. So much self doubt..........

2007-09-26T07:01:00.000-07:00

I have just spent 4 days doing the newsletter for our doll group. It is more time consuming than I remember, but I am very fussy about the format and layout, so it takes ages to get it just right. It seems to satisfy a creative mental need whereas dolls satisfy my physical need. I haven't posted a picture of my Impossible Princess so here she is.............

She is a mask face doll. I intend to do a workshop on her in the new year. It is such a busy time at the moment and with Nathan's wedding just weeks away, not many dolls will be made. I have so many things on the go right now - I was going to release the Princess (and frog) pattern ,

while I am still designing the trapunto face and body for the Fairy Godmother - all of these to be patterns.

Then I think, well maybe I should just make dolls and sell them on Ebay, it would be so much easier. I am going away for the weekend so it mayhit me as to what I really want to do. Design and sell patterns, sculpt fairies, do clay over cloth, sell at craft fairs, sell on ebay, teach workshops................ oh boy...................I can do this - I just am not sure what this is!

Patti Culea

2007-09-12T07:39:00.000-07:00

In my last post I hinted that we had a special guest at our doll group meeting. It was Patti Culea! She was able to offer a couple of workshops while visiting our part of the country. I was not able to attend the doll making workshop and because it was Father's Day on the next workshop I could only stay a short while (my boys wanted to have a BBQ with their dad).

I would have liked to have made the paper doll the girls embellished on the day. I LOVED paper dolls when I was little and am still fascinated with them. Patti's was the prettiest fairy which could be embellished with tyvek, angelina and embroidery tecniques. I have the pattern, so when I have time I will try to make her, she is such a sweet fairy.

Anyway........Patti was the sweetest lady. She is tiny, probably 4' nothing (Australian expression......) and was just so nice to talk to. She made time to mingle with the ladies and talked about the dolls and was genuinely interested in what we could do. Her comments were very kind, she said our dolls were better than some she had seen at the Houston Shows. We did excel ourselves with our display, and there were a lot of entusiatic dollmakers who brought a doll for Patti to judge. I do not know who won because I left early - not me had to take my doll and run...............but I will find out shortly.

Now Suzette tells me I am such a groupie and I am a bit for rubbing shoulders with famous faces, so I took my Patti Culea books for her to sign and she graciously put in a personal messge in both. I was so pleased, little things like that mean a lot to me, becuase when I am 99 and can't do stuff anymore at least I can sit and look at all my stuff and see I did meet some great people and had a great time learning from some very talented artists. Well that's my plan anyway, I still have lots of artists to meet!

Leslie Molen - The Gossip

2007-09-03T08:02:00.001-07:00

I recently sent away for the CD to make "The Gossips" by Leslie Molen. I learn so much from doll makers, each pattern or even photo I see gives me so much to work with.

I admire the giving nature of doll makers and I will share a pattern on this site very soon. I am still getting used to adding information and finding free space. I will be expanding my picturetrail so that may be my best option.

In the meantime take a look at this lady. I actually made her some bread and a cheese to go in her basket after I took this shot. she came with me to meet a famous doll maker who has been visiting Adelaide......................I'll tell you about that tomorrow!

New Spoon Doll

2007-08-31T01:16:00.000-07:00

Well after last weeks episode when Gordon was sold I decided to look at the spoon doll technique again and try a Santa doll. Here is the result............

I am so pleased! This is such an easy way to make a Santa.
I would love to submit the pattern into one of the magazines and have tried to contact Australian Dolls Bears and Collectibles - but to no avail. After 2 phone calls and 3 emails - no follow up. I have been trying since February to submit. Obviously they consider me to be a dipstick. I am really upset about this. So I am going to push it and be annoying. It just makes me wonder if it is worth it. I don't beleive I am not good enough, I haven't even been given a chance. Anyway I have another trick up my sleeve - let's see if this works......................