Faces and Clouds

I have been working on dolls again after a long gap. A friend of mine is opening a vintage clothing shop in October and is interested in some of the things I make, These four dolls have taken me nearly a week to make-a day to sew and stuff, another day on the dresses, one on their cardigans and one on their faces and hair. A labour of love more than one for profit I think! I have enjoyed making them though, so am not complaining. I hope my friend likes them! I will show you them all when completed.
The clouds were last night and I thought they were lovely so am sharing them too.

Rapunzel

I didn't know the story of Rapunzel very well. The fact that her mother and father could not have a baby for a long time, and that the herb that the husband steals from the witch's garden is called Rapunzel. It is horrible really because they lose their baby until she is quite old. The morals are hard to fathom. The husband was only taking the leaves because he was worried about his wife, and the witch was only taking the child because she was stolen from. I don't think a child for some salad really constitutes an eye for an eye though. Ah well, those are questions I did not have to worry about today when I used my dolls to help tell the story. And I expect, like me, most of the children will remember the most exciting part of the story, the fact that Rapunzel has extremely long hair which people climb up and down. I bought some herbs for a touch of realism-today was mint-we all had a sniff and some liked it more than others. Tomorrow is dill and coriander. I made two of each of the main characters-so each carpet had a set, and there is a set for the children to play with afterwards, and one to keep for the adults to use. I was most proud of the design feature that Rapunzel has detachable hair! A long plait, a bit of weaving and some elastic worked very well.

Here are a few pictures of the Rapunzels, the Princes and the witches posing on my book ladder. (It became my book ladder earlier in the year, rather than my lovely but doesn't have a purpose ladder. It works well, though needs to be attached to the wall at the top or it pushes away with the weight of the books and falls over)

Two shades of green and curly wool tops from Skye became the hair for the witch. I needle felted it on which worked really well. Some yellow wool I have had for about ten years is the hair. I used some recently bought hessian to make the bodies, and wrapped pipe cleaners with wool to be the arms. Don't cut up loads of hessian while wearing flanelette pajamas. I had to get the sticky roller out even after they had been washed. I really enjoyed making these as they are quite rough and ready, and I am better at that than polished and smart!

I embroidered the initial sounds of the characters on their fronts so they can never forget who they are.

Rosebud and Robots

Lots of dolls seem to be called Rosebud. I have two and they are very similar. I am not sure if it is a make of doll or if it is their little rosebud lips. This doll came with no clothes on. Tonight I finished her little crochet dress and made her a red silk petticoat. I also made her wired tissue paper wings so she can be a fairy on the tree or somewhere else if we don't get one. I need to make her a wand and then she is complete. I couldn't decide if I liked the black and white or colour photos better.
She looks like a little 1930s film star to me.

On a different subject, I can't believe my eyes when watching these Asimo robots. I am sure you all have seen them, but there was one on QI tonight, and in the end I could not make myself believe it was not a person in a suit. Amazing-and chilling in equal measure.

Asimo avoids a person.



Asimo plays football (it made me laugh how the human misses the ball in Asimo's first go!)



Nao Thriller



Qrio robots dance salsa



People dressed as robots get out of a Nissan and dance robotically

Views

This is our new view. A large blue fence, behind which we can hear diggers. It is amazing how different it feels with this here-the lack of space in front of our eyes is horrible. It can be drawn on with chalk, which the children have enjoyed, so there is a small compensation. I want to make a periscope so we can see over the top and keep an eye on the works!
The view through the tunnel-taken for my photo course. I have never looked inside this tunnel, so never realised it has brick paper on the walls-what attention to detail on the part of Brio!
A view in the supermarket tonight-it is the hats on innocent juice time of year again. As well as looking good, it is interesting to watch people trying to make their choice! I didn't buy one tonight but I probably will-such great doll hats. Speaking of dolls, I had to rescue one from the dark, wet and windy playground tonight, as I was leaving school-she was in a corner with her face in a puddle-a mini horror scene. Now she is washed and in the nursery-phew!

The Stone Witch

This head is called The Stone Witch. I wanted to make a witch, and I wanted to use this lovely Gotland sheep wool for her hair. Other than that I didn't know how she would be. I wanted to use the big eyes-one of 10 pairs I bought recently which are huge. So the Stone Witch has turned out quite big-about 10 inches high. Her name popped into my head before I started her-I was drawing how she might be and there it was. I am not sure why, but I like it. She sounds hard but I think she is actually quite ethereal and dreamy-at the same time as looking slightly like Oscar Wilde!
Pondering...

Posing.

The page on the left is a picture from the latest TOAST catalogue(I have just had a look and it is full of beautiful pictures set in the countryside and including some really lovely weathered and rusty buildings) -and the woman in it has the Stone Witch's hair! I didn't see this picture until halfway through making her, and I just don't know how the people at TOAST knew! My hair is grey under all this dye, and if it looked like hers I would let it remain so.

The witch likes to fade in and out at times......

She is thinking about Halloween-and wants to be shown my squashes in the garden, in case they would be useful as pumpkins. (It doesn't make total sense I know, but I think it is best to humour a witch)

Art Day

The last few weeks have been so busy and tiring at work, that I have had almost no time to make things. I have been thinking about making things though, and today I had almost a whole day of doing so. It was lovely! This is a teabag painting, done on a washed out, cut open and ironed teabag, with watercolour. The teabag material is strong and absorbent so the paint spreads nicely. This is a little doodle to try the technique. I have seen it on Lynne's blog recently and have had it in mind to try.

Once it was dry I dripped candle wax all over it, then ironed it on a low heat between two pieces of greaseproof paper. Beware if you do this as the wax melts quickly and spreads. I nearly had wax all over my ironing board!

Now the little painting will go in my Saffron Sea Journal. I will sew it in as glue might not work on the waxy surface. I have also seen some lovely teabag paintings at The Fairy Yellow Bug Queen blog. In fact one is in a give away this week!

Another thing I started today is making plaster surfaces to paint on. I am waiting until the summer holiday to have a go at some of the projects in Judy Wise's and Stephanie Lee's book "Plaster Studio" but adding some plaster bandage to fabric and card ready to paint on is very easy so I thought I would start that one now! I have used this plaster bandage before at school, with kids and adults-that was one of my best staff meetings-where I showed colleagues how to make junk model sculptures and cover them with it, painting later. Lots of the teachers there that year tried it with their classes and some great things were made. However, the use of this stuff is now frowned upon due to health and safety reasons-it produces lots of dust when cut( I used to advise teachers to pre-prepare the pieces outside for the kids) and also there have been a couple of incidents of burns where kids had their hands in plaster or plaster bandage as it set-and the temperature in the middle of plaster setting gets quite high. (Not in my school I hasten to add!) Anyway, all that aside, it is very easy to use!

The tinfoil is my table protection. You just dip the bandage in water and smooth it onto whatever surface you are using.

My final project today was to begin the doll of this man. Although he does not look hugely like him, he is enough like him that I am pleased! I find it really hard sculpting faces, and because I am a bit scared of it all going wrong I don't often attempt it! Not the way to get any better. However, today things went quite well. I think it was because I was working from a photo and not thinking too much about the final result, but more about how to make each bit look like the face I was looking at-like when you draw something. I find mouths the hardest, but today had a slight breakthrough. I first made the upper lip, then added a whole other section for the lower jaw, which gave him a slightly more realistic look-and profile. The pictures I took were blurry but I will show you soon. He has now been baked and has a cone fabric body. I wanted him to stand up and this was my solution for the day! I watched the video in the link below about how to tie a turban. I am going to try to do it realistically.

This is the video.

Rosebud and Nature

Meet Rosebud. Rosebud likes crochet, recycling, the colour grey, storms, red lipstick, and sleeping in the afternoon. She is made of plastic and her eyes open and close. She is about five inches high and is nearly able to stand up on her own. She has delicate little hands with a tiny little finger which looks ready to be held up as she holds her teacup.

Nature in the form of sweet peas, battered by some of the heaviest rain I have ever seen. It went on for ages and there was thunder and lightening to go with it. There were huge puddles on the roads as I was driving home, and people were recklessly speeding through them!

Also nature in the form of a little frog. Brought out by the rain and chased by Cassie, then rescued by me. I think he was alright-just a bit stunned. He managed to jump back into the pond from my hand and hide away under a rock. I love frogs and have no worries about picking them up. I could not do this with a spider but I can with a worm or a snail. I don't mind slimy things but am a bit scared of scuttley things!

I found out today that the Tamil alphabet has 247 characters and 12 vowels. How does anyone ever remember all those?! Having just read a bit of this wikipedia page, assuming it is right, there are thirty one letters and 216 combinant letters making a total of 247. It looks beautiful-lovely elegant shapes.

River Bank and Travel Plans

A trip to Sainsbury's was improved by a visit to the river to drink coffee and sit in the mild air. The beach was busy for once, with beach combing families, and this man who looks like a beach artist. His purple top looks good against the yellow boat.

This family were all intrepid beach combers, not letting mud put them off!

Little flashes of red and a great square of yellow contrasted well with the greys and browns of the scene.

The travel plans are those of my travelling doll project doll, who is now all done and ready to go! She has a little cardboard suitcase, a guide book about her destination Budapest, and her passport. She can't wait to get there!

Forest School Sun and a New Doll

Sun at Forest school. We were very happy!

I didn't know that daisies bloomed at this time of year.

The children loved the catkins from the alder tree with their wiggly worminess!

I am pleased to say that two out of three displays are finished, and the third is all ready to be stapled up in the morning. I am hoping to leave early tomorrow night. Tonight I left late again and then got stuck in traffic for over an hour!

Below is the start of a new doll. This one is for ADO's (Art Dolls Only-a group of doll artists I am a member of) travelling doll project. I am in a group of four other doll makers. We all start a doll, then send it off to the next person who does a bit more, and so on. I think that the doll you start comes back to you, but I am not sure! You also have to start a journal for your doll that is sent around with it. I decided to do a doll with a wire frame-it is an aim of mine to eventually make a doll who can stand up and thought I would try this way! I am going to wrap it in batting then make a covering for that. I have not done a doll this way before so hope it works. So far so good. I drew a sketch of the size I want the doll. Then I used the sketch to make the wire version the same size. It did stand up briefly!

I used my tall thin sketchbook.

There was not enough room for the feet,

hence the little sketch to the side.

These are the other artists in my group the Chic Chicks.

Laurence of Feltoohlala. She lives in Hungary and makes beautiful needle felted dolls and creatures.

Patricia of Papillon Bleu. She makes sweet cloth dolls who always have a story to tell!

Traceyanne McCartney of Jasmoon Butterfly. She makes beautiful cloth and clay dolls. I first 'met' Traceyanne in Suzi Blu's Ning group, then again in Jane Des Rosier's cloth and clay doll class. Traceyanne lives in London and Patricia somewhere nearby.