Lemon Tree Tales

Doll Gifts

Over a year ago I signed up for a Pay-It-Forward giveaway on Facebook from doll artist, Angela Jarecki. I then offered one on my Facebook page. Ah, but then life got in the way and well, let's be honest here, I totally forgot all about it. Oops! Judi Wellnitz reminded me about it in December and many weeks later I got my act together and made beaded kumihimo bracelets for both Judi and Angela (they had signed up for the giveaway). I don't think that I took pictures of them but one was a mix of hot pinks and the other was mostly turquoise. Perhaps I still had those colors on my mind after making the doll bed quilts. At any rate I was super excited to see this box on my doorstep:

 

Isn't that the most darling lil' bee ever? I wanted to sustain the surprise so I made myself wait until after I did my grocery shopping and errands that day. Yes, it was hard to do but then when I finally was finished I carefully opened that box and found the sweetest little dolls. The first was this little kimono clad doll:

 

But wait, there was more, also this fantastic jester pin doll which I will definitely wear to my next doll club meeting:

 

I love them both! Thank you so much Angela!

Miss L's new doll bed

It's finally complete... Miss L's turquoise doll bed with a striped mattress and matching doll quilt. I do hope that she likes it. Maybe this weekend I'll make a matching pillow for it. But first I have to work on the set for Miss J.

The doll bed is a duktig from IKEA (very reasonably priced and it will fit an American Girl doll), and the quilt is one that I just made using a template from Anita Grossman Solomon's book Rotary Cutting Revolution. The mattress ended up a wee short but I don't think that it takes away from the effect. I didn't use covered buttons, just a series of unmatched ivory ones. Next time I'll use a colored floss to sew them on instead of the cream thread. I had a lot of fun making the binding... it seems to really finish off the quilt (16"x20"). The quilting is simple stitch in the ditch around the pinwheels and a bit of straight stitching on the border. Before I give it away I'll throw the quilt in the wash so that it gets soft and crinkly.

Now it's time to put a second coat of pink on Miss J's bed. Ooh, I can't wait to see the two of them together.

Progress on my EJ Taylor class doll

I've been slowly adding more details to my EJ Taylor class doll. So far I've added a bit more oil paint, deepened his blush and eyes. Then once the oil paint had dried for a week I went back and added details to his eyes with colored pencils. Now I'm slowly adding layers of paperclay to build out his chest. So far I've used 3 1/2 small packages of Creative Paperclay on him. Not sure if I'll need to go to a fifth one or not.

Face before:

 

Face now:

 

And more paperclay chest (because every guy should have a broader chest):

Of course looking at all these pictures I realize that I didn't make his neck wide enough. That's okay since I plan on having him dressed in a high collar... that'll add the necessary bulk.

I can't begin to tell you how much fun I'm having with this technique. It's so very satisfying to get your fingers messy with paperclay and just add bits to the figure.

Now sometimes bad things happen... such as dropping one of the ProSculpt arms and having a wrist snap off. Oops!

Thank goodness none of the fingers broke or I'd just have to start from scratch. So how's your 11-11-11 day going?

EJ Taylor workshop

Last week I took an EJ Taylor doll workshop that was hosted by my doll club, the Flying Phoebes. It was amazing! Fortunately for US dollmakers, EJ has moved from England to Vermont and has spent the last few weeks on a whirlwind teaching tour. It sounds like he will have more workshops so if you have an opportunity to take one, please do. You'll learn a lot! I know that I did.

This was the first time that I've sculpted with paperclay and only my third sculpted doll. EJ was so nice and shared so much of his talent as well as being an entertaining teacher. It's very obvious that he's a passionate artist and loves his art which was so lovely to see. 

I learned how to make an armature that allows a doll to stand by itself .. a better way to sculpt realistic looking hands out of ProSculpt (a polymer clay) .. how to paint a doll's head with oil paints .. and a really great way to get started on sculpting a head. He talked about wigging and draping but sadly we ran out of time for the draping demo. That was okay because he used the time to go around the room giving lots of one-on-one assistance for every step of the class. I don't think that anyone walked out of that room without EJ giving a tip (or two, or three or more) for their doll.

If you want to learn more about EJ Taylor (he's a NIADA artist who has designed for the theater in NY, an illustrator and children's book author, as well as doll maker extraordinaire) go to his website here and keep a look out for his book, Dollmaking. It's out of print but sometimes you can find it on ebay, Amazon or in used bookstores. Fortunately I've had mine since the early 90s. Yes, I was a geek and brought it to class and EJ very graciously signed it for me.

Here's a few pictures that I took of the doll that I made in class. I tried very hard to make a female, but as I was sculpting the head it insisted that it was male. So rather than making the Venetian Renaissance woman that I first had in mind, instead I'm making an Elizabethan gentleman.

His head before painting .. I had one eye too close to the nose and EJ helped me. Now I see that I made his left eye too high. That's okay, he has a few problems but I'm still happy with him.

 

His hands were made from ProSculpt .. these are probably the best ones that I've made so far:

 

Painting the head in class:

 

He's alive! And he stands! (Oh no, he's a stick .. someone give this man more form.)

By the end of the class, everyone had a figure that could stand on its own two feet, an oil painted head, and two baked hands. Some figures had more complete bodies than others but we all knew how to go home and complete them. I'd say that it was a very successful workshop indeed.

DQS11: Beautiful quilt from Sew Vivid

The postman was very kind to me yesterday and brought me a package that had travelled from a land far, far away. So far away that they're experiencing winter with snowflakes! Yes, my gorgeous DQS11 quilt from Viv of Sew Vivid in New Zealand had arrived. I had admired the colors and the large polka dots when I saw her making this on her flickr photostream. So I had a very big smile on my face when I opened the package. Plus she sent me two postcards of the beautiful scenery of New Zealand (which I'd love to visit one day) and the most lovely turquoise metallic thread and floss. I'm very lucky. Thank you so much Viv!!

Look, doesn't it look right at home on the turquoise doll bed that I'm working on for Miss L?

 

Rachel insists that both the bed and quilt belong to her. Seeing as she's making herself right at home I may have a hard time convincing her that the bed at least has to go away. (She's a cloth doll that I made from a Patti Culea pattern many, many years ago.)

 

I think the hot pink binding is perfect .. it adds just the right punch to frame this lovely quilt. The colors and prints are just right. AND, Viv says that this is her first time hand-quilting too! You wouldn't know that at all if Viv hadn't spilled the beans - the soft grey and aqua threads are wonderful. I love it and will soon add it to my wall of doll quilts in the hallway. Once again, thank you Viv!!

Akira Blount Workshop Doll - done!

It's been a while coming, but yesterday I finally finished my Akira Blount workshop doll. I just needed to get some clear silicon caulking so that I could add the twig decor to her head. I sprinkled coffee grounds over the bare spots so that it would look complete. Now I wonder where on earth she should hang in the house. Right now she's on the wall above the mermaid wall-hanging quilt in my studio. As always I'm a bit of a loss for a name. Laurie says that she looks a bit Renaissance and I agree - perhaps a lady from the Italian Renaissance? Mayhaps she ran afoul of the Medicis and lost her legs? That being the mercy that she earned for previous good service - much better than the poisoner's brew some say. What say you? What is her Lady's name?

Akira Blount Workshop

My doll club, the Flying Phoebe Cloth Doll Club, hosted a workshop taught by doll artist Akira Blount during the Memorial Day weekend. For five days we listened, watched, experimented and learned some of her doll-making processes. I never really thought of using nature in my doll art but it was amazing to see how Akira used twigs to make doll limbs. A bend or tree knot became an elbow or knee. She touched on how she's begun using rust dyed fabrics in her latest series of dolls and how that tied in with the natural elements she favors so very much. It turns out that she doesn't really like to buy fabrics but prefers to walk out and about her "back forty" to gather materials from mother nature. We may have changed her mind when she saw some of our member's fabulous Japanese textile collections that were used on their dolls. Hopefully she found some lovely Japanese fabrics to take back home with her after visiting one of our local quilt shops that has a quality selection of Japanese imports.

Most intriguing to me was the concept of using fabric stiffener on sculpted knit cotton head/hands to create a hard surface to make the next step of fabric skinning with tea-dyed scrim easier. Wow! That is indeed something that I'd like to play with some more. Also Akira insisted that we all draft our own doll patterns. Suddenly everyone had minor differences depending on how they drew their head patterns or used the stretch of the cotton knit. That's definitely something I'll be going forward with! It's about time that I made my own patterns.

Since our group was comprised of experienced doll-makers Akira didn't have to go back to the basics. We most likely would have been quite happy with only three days of instruction. As it turned out, the extra two days were well spent in the company of friends while experimenting with new techniques and ideas.

Results of my experimentation (notice that I used oranges/rust as opposed to my usual color palette):

 

Just a few of the dolls created by other Flying Phoebes:

By next week my doll should be finished and hanging on the wall. She'll have a twig skirt and some interesting dried twigs as her hair ornamentation. Then it'll be off to trying out some new patterns. I need to practice making smaller noses!

Open Studios Sale at Alameda

This weekend I will have my framed faces for sale at the Open Studios that the Flying Phoebe Cloth Doll Club is hosting on Saturday June 4th and Sunday June 5th from 11am to 6pm at the Goose Cottage in Alameda, CA. It is at 1610 Minturn Street just off Lincoln between Grand and Union. If you are in the Bay area please come take a look. There will be some spectacular dolls and other art on display and for sale.

Clean Studio, New Project

Ahhhh! That's the sound of relief after I cleared away the previous mess in the studio. The tables and desk are clean, the floor vacuumed, a couple new pieces of artwork on the wall, and I feel refreshed. The polymer clay doll, forever after to be known as Mademoiselle la Monde du Coleurs (thanks for the name suggestion Sandi!), is now proudly hanging on the wall above my lemon branches and next to the gorgeous mermaid quilt that Calamity Kim made me. Above the quilt I have put up a beautiful print that I got in a studio in Dingle Ireland years ago. It still needs a frame but for now it's making me happy on the wall as opposed to just sitting in the closet waiting. After all what's the use of having lovely memories and artwork if you don't display them and let them give you pleasure?

The clean desks inspired me to do a quick sort out of my patterns. Now there's a stack of ones that I no longer want. I'll probably save some to donate to the doll club's auction in October but a few may be up for sale or as a giveaway - not sure yet. Next I looked through the WIP boxes above the hutch. I didn't realize that one of the boxes was empty! I broke it down and then consolidated everything into the two large boxes. Bonus, I found a stash of fancy materials that I had been saving to make a Renaissance doll. It was driving me crazy wondering where in the world these things had disappeared. They reappeared just in time since the Treasures of the Gypsy's challenge for 2011 has a theme of Renaissance Gypsy. Outstanding!

 

Yes, the studio is clean - as of yesterday! Now it's starting to be a little messy again because I've started on another project with my doll friends. We're making a 12" Victorian doll. She'll be dressed in her unmentionables and the pieces of her wardrobe will be pinned next to her - all in a shadow box. The plan is to give everyone an assignment of which clothing to make for everyone else. I can't wait to get to the fun part of making her clothing. Right now I'm struggling with sewing her body. I didn't walk the pattern before cutting it out and following the directions. It turns out that not everything aligns as it should. Ugh! Plus it's a rather odd way of construction. I'm sure that it'll be fine once it's finished but let's just say that my friend the seam ripper has been used quite a bit this morning.

Framed and Boxed In Doll

Here's the polymer clay doll all nicely framed and boxed in .. I just need to find the right wall to hang her on.

I found a wood box and a wood frame at Michael's. I painted both of them and then glued them together with wood glue. I'm hoping that it'll be a nice permanent bond. Then I used superglue to attach the doll to the box. So she's all done. All that remains is to find a good name to call her or the piece. I just can't think of the right thing. Any suggestions?