OH, I promised to post a picture of the doll commissioned as a gift for the man who won the Nobel Prize once I had it all done. And now I can say the man's name since he has already received the surprise. His name is Oliver Smitheyes. And here is what the real man looks like.

Here are the two flower girls made from a Kate Erbach pattern called Etta Mae. The one on the right is my sunflower girl and the one on the left is a daffodil girl made by a friend of mine. We rubberstamped daffodils onto the fabric, large ones on the body fabric and small ones on the petal fabric. We added knee seams to the daffodil so that she could sit prettily.
The daffodil doll is a gift to her sister. I think this is her first 'artsy' type doll. She did a great job don't you think?

This has been such a busy two (no three!) months for me. I am almost done with the nobel doc doll. I have been having a hard time making a mold of the chocolate nobel prize medalion for him to hold. And I can't seem to find glasses that will work for his face. The doll glasses are too small and people glasses are too large.

I made his sweater using a sweater that belonged to the real nobel prize recipient. I did not have a pattern but drew one out on freezer paper and then ironed it to the original sweater. Then stitched around each piece so that it would not come unraveled when I cut it out.

I think it came out very nicely although it does not come off or on very easily.

I may have to try this for some of my other dolls using sweaters bought at a thrift store.

Beats trying to knit them from scratch!

Editing

Well, I decided that I needed to "edit" the doctor. I did not like the painted wrinkles on his cheeks and decided that I needed to sculpt them. More paper clay and paint and wa-la.

Now to decide if his hair needs to be shorter.

A little more blush on his cheeks ( even though realistically he wouldn't have rosy cheeks), a sweater and a clay version of the Nobel Prize medalion around his neck and he will be all done.

Oh, and I have to work on his fingernails.

Today I hosted the Christmas party for my UFDC Doll club. I had the house all decorated and cleaned last night until 1:00 in the morning. I guess that is actually 'today' and not "last night".

I have a few more decorations to put around before our annual Christmas Party and I will be done. At least in the decorating department. I still have 10 dolls to make for a commission I have which I am behind on, three Kings crowns to make before Wednesday for a living drive through Christmas nativity at my church. We have FIVE live scenes complete with huge backdrops, actors, spot lights, narration. I think you can see part of it at the website.

www.cadurham.org

I helped to paint the backdrops and make costumes. But the poor wise men head coverings needed help this year. I'm thinking of using the bottom half of a gourd as a base for a couple.

Oh.. and then there are the Christmas gifts to make. And I have one more Christmas craft show to do this weekend. OK... I'm going to veg out on the sofa and watch tv until I fall asleep.

Nobel Prizes

Today I am trying to finish up a doll I was commisioned to make for a man who won the Nobel Prize.

He is almost done. His head is soft sculpted and then I sculpted his eyes, eyelids and wrinkles with paper clay. His body and head is made of the knit fabric we use to make the cabbies with. I have tons from when I used to make those.

I used the armature and clothes that came with the original doll which was given to the Doctor 20 years ago. The fabric had deteriorated. I need to get my husband to push the arm joints in a little better before I add the second arm. Then he needs his sweater altered.

At first I thought I would try and make him look as much like the real man as possible but then, realizing that he really liked the original which was very whimsical I decided to compromise and go with a more whimsical/realistic look. I don't have a picture of the original doll. oh well.

I try to make all my gourds have an area where the real gourd shows through. Otherwise, what makes it look any different than a plastic piece? I am working on a larg Santa that I think is coming along really nicely. Here are two pics of him so far.

I am going to leave his coat as the original gourd part. I haven't decided about his hat. And I am hoping to do a little kitten and puppy in the back.

I just finished doing two shows in Raleigh, NC. One was the Carolina Christmas Show at the convention Center and the other was the Christmas Carousel at the fairgrounds in Raleigh.

I played hammered dulcimer and sold my gourd art at both.

I have one more show to do in Durham before Christmas. The gourds that do not get sold will be Christmas gifts.

Here are a few of the gourds I made for ornaments. They are larger than you would think most ornaments are but they look great on a tree. They are around 7" tall.