Don't be Afraid

Don't be afraid if you think I'm going over to the other side from cloth dolls to vinyl. I might be in a repaint frenzy but I still love my cloth dolls.I decided to try out repainting my Gene doll last night. It was harder than the Tonner girl because I had to do those tiny eyes. And i think I was trying way too hard to get them realistic.

But here is the transformation.

Not too bad. She looks better in the picture because in real life I think her face now looks a little 'dirty'. But maybe I am just being too picky. One eye is a little bigger than the other but the sculpted mold is like that. i might have to adjust it some though.

I am finally almost done with a little doll that was ordered back in March at the Land O Sky event. Poor little thing has taken so long. Life just kept getting in the way. But little by little she finally came to be. She only has to wait for her little topsy turvy dolly to be made before she can be relocated to her new home.

I used a vintage fabric and trim for her dress. And I embroidered her apron and hat. She has tiny painted toe nailes and fingernails. And her hair is mohair that I sewed to her head in tiny little curls.

Sometimes the things that got in the way of completing this doll was the tug at my creative strings. It is hard to do something for someone else when I am just dying to make something or do something I have not done before.... or to try something new on something old.

I have been wanting to do repaints for a while and I finally got the opportunity to do one.I had purchased a Tonner Magic Attic doll that had received a really bad haircut on her bangs, her face was a little faded and she had blue marks on her body.

I decided to use her as my first repaint. It was SO FUN! And it was easy. I repainted her lips, eyelashes, eyebrows. And gave her shading under her eyes, around her nose, in her ears and even inside the eye rims. Then I decided she would look better with real eyelashes. So I took hair from her wig and glued it to her eyelids. I gave her freckles and blushed her good. And then of course I rewefted some hair to cover the cut places. And finally she got a new hair style.

I have more ideas for her body and I still need to paint her finger and toe nails. Then I new outfit.

I am in an online group called the Coffee with Tea doll artists. We are doing a Red Riding Hood Doll Parade. Here is my Little Red. Some of the artists have their dolls on ebay or etsy or other on line auctions and stores.

I will keep my doll for a while. But it was fun to do a new challenge with a group of such wonderful doll artists.

Click on the Red Riding Hood banner above to go to the Coffee with Tea Group Blog.

About my doll.

She is all cloth and around 20" tall. Her head turns lots of ways. Her face is done with colored pencils, gel pens and pastel powder.

Her hair is made from yarn that was wrapped around a dowel and stitched to make the curls. The curls were then stitched to a crocheted wig cap.

I used vintage fabrics for her apron and pantaloons.

Willa

My new doll is almost done. I have taken a long time to get this one finished. Her name is Willa.

I love everything about her and am looking forward to making another one with an easier body.

She needs shoes and underware. I also need to decide how I like her hair best and if I want a hat for her. I think I am most satisfied with the picture above. Although I had made her an apron and a hat as well.

There will certainly be things that I will do differently with the next one. But I am so happy to have this one at this stage.

I still have a few orders that I need to work on. It is so hard at this point to get around to starting them. I think I have burned out on making dolls for others and just needed some time to work on some of my own projects.

I will be teaching Hammered Dulcimer at the Swannanoa Gathering the week of Aug 2- 8 at the Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC. I am looking forward to that. If there are any out there that live in the area please stop by and take in the concert on Monday night. I will be playing in that as well and my sister will accompany me.

Time for me.

I finally have time to work on one of my own projects. I had a wonderful time directing Vacation Bible School at my church. We had some neat kids, great skits, and learning times. And a number of kids made decisions to follow Jesus.

And now I have some time to doodle around on my own dolls. So I am trying to finish one that I had started almost a year ago.

This is how she looked with her body on and gessoed.

Then I started painting her face and body a flesh color. I always like painting the eyes first. This our first look at each other. We are both pretty happy.

This is her pretty face almost done. I love using chalks and pencils for final touches.

Now her eyebrows are done and its almost time for a wig. I wanted to make one but I'm not so great at that. And this is a pretty big head so I'm wondering how hard it would take to make one.

Smallsville

Today a sweet friend surprised me with a gift she purchased off of ebay. I had shown it to her and said how adorable he was. And today she gave him to me. Isnt he just about the coolest thing? I thought he might be Topo Gigio. But after looking at pictures of the Topo puppet I don't think he is. This mouse has a long tail with a wire in it that goes to the surface and helps him stand up. he also has a head that moves really easily. I'm wondering if there is some mechanism that causes him to do something special.

Yesterday I finally got around to working on the last of the orders from the Asheville event. They are two littl litho type dolls. I draw them out using a template onto cloth and then paint them. Then I stitch the back and front together leaving an opening and stuff. AFter closing the hole I have to make clothes for them. This is the stage that I am at now.You can see that there are more than two here. I decided to make a couple more. maybe this time i will keep one.

These two are my favorites. I will post more pictures when they are done. I also started working on the body for my sculpted face mask doll that I have been waiting so long to make. Judi Ward drew me a pattern for the body while she was here making it much easier for me.

I was able to cut and sew all the pieces late last night but I believe the neck is too large so I am going to unstuff and make a few alterations and then put it back together. I can hardly wait to be able to paint the beautiful face.

Still in Doll Show mode

Although it has been 5 days since the doll event I am still in doll show mode. I can't stop making the dolls and the clothes. I even had to try and paint one of the wardrobes. The picture does not do it justice. I think it came out nicely. I rubber stamped a design over the crackeled and antiqued paint. It was fun to paint the wardrobe. I might have to try another one in another color.