Fast times at the Hermits' Garden

I had this idea, see...wooden dowels, some leftover closet rod pieces...of course it'll work!

So I had the hubs go buy a chop saw to replace his old one (poor thing, having to buy power tools on command).  Then I bought dowel rods--I think they're all made of poplar, but I had some oak ones already.  Then I measured and marked, and erased and re-measured and re-marked...so that I had enough sections (nine per doll counting the body) for 34 dolls.

Then came the sanding to round the ends smooth.  Yeah!  That'll save lots of time!  Way smarter than doing each one by hand.  This is true.  It is much faster.  See that bit that looks like a diving board?  It's a sandpaper belt.  You stand facing that part, and goes like a conveyor belt, away from you, only reeeeelly fast.  You don't realize how fast until you touch it with your knuckle when holding a two inch piece of dowel.  Again.  And again.  Things get messy.


The husband smirks but never says I Told You out loud.

Four hours and two boxes of band-aids later, all 306 dowel sections were sanded and drilled, and the Doll Blanks were ready to go.  So I had to make a doll.  Can't have baskets of doll parts laying around and not make dolls.  It's practically a law.

I had a cat's head already made. (Why a cat?  Why not?  Another experiment involving a thrift shop find of 70 pairs of eyes.  Really.)  I'd previously intended to put it on a cloth body, but...she agreed to a wooden one.  With a little skirt made from scrap fabric, a little lace, paint, crackle, some shiny copper wire...here she is.  This is Sydney.

I learned a lot from making her...but now I need to try carving some hinge-joints in some of the dowel sections.  Why?  Because I have a Dremel, and unlike with the other tools, I'm an old hand with the Dremel.

I kinda see why they like the power tools.