Listings on Etsy and Long-legged Rabbits.

Clara

I posted Alice and Clara in the shop this morning.  I'm so behind on listings, both on Etsy and on Artfire.  But I did get some more photos done, and as the week goes by, I'll catch up.  Maybe.

Alice

Early this spring I got a curly hair up my nose to design a pattern for stuffed rabbits. Clearly the world doesn't have enough stuffed rabbits.  I'll list them for $30 because the pattern is easy to sew and I get such a kick out of making them.  And posing them.  And figuring fabric for new ones...

I think I won't name them, however.  I like their faceless faces too much to give them names.

Boys...

Yesterday the Phil was out washing the Fat Boy.  The name comes from the structure of the front forks, but never mind that.  So I grabbed the camera and headed outside to sweat with him.  It was a cool 94 this evening instead of our usual 100.  The following random assortment of pictures is just what I wanted to catch before the season moves on and the yard/garden looks different.  As always, click twice to zoom.

My featherless biped boy Phil and the Fatboy.  We live on 1.3 acres of pure sand that has gotten 1.5" of rain since last November.  It's a miracle there's green anywhere.  The giant pile of branches behind him is the "bird sanctuary".  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

I think I'll marry him again.

This is our featherless quadruped boy...Schultz.  He's hoping I'll give him a tomato.  Peppers (left) are struggling...waiting for cooler weather.

Baby banana trees and Schultz and a conch shell by the irises.  Banana trees are always boys, and conch shells are always girls.  I realize that's illogical, but ever since I read Tom Robbin's "Skinny Legs and All", that's just how it is.

Baby gourds.  Gourd plants have heart-shaped leaves, and both boy AND girl flowers on each plant.  How romantic is that?  Sadly, the boy flowers die after their job is done, and the girl flowers go on without them.  Phil says it's like that with featherless bipeds, just takes them longer.

 

This is a crepe myrtle I grew from a leafless 5" twig sent from the National Arbor Day Foundation.  He's only two years old now, but he was sprawling all over the path from the gate so the cage is to teach him to grow upright.  It's tempting to think of flowering plants as girls, but this one is a boy, and so are the Trumpet Vines and most of our Canna lilies.  Oh, and in the background is the back end of the featherless quadruped boy. 

These are weeds growing by the gourd plants in the garden bed.  I don't know their gender.

This is an Izzy boy I finished painting.  Long way to go, but I'm encouraged by him, despite his pensive little face.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, filled with whatever makes you (and all the boys and girls you love) happy this summer.  :~)

Izzy dolls in the works.

Finally got over my nerves and began the Izannah Walker Workshop dolls.  Dixie Redmond (awesome lady and fabulous teacher) says "start with three."  Three dolls at the same time...it's supposed to help with the perfectionist fear factor, and it really does help.

My first day was the worst--just cutting out the templates and parts to sew together.  I know how much the foundation affects the outcome.  But I did press on, and have three little head/torsos sitting in cups in my work room.

Their clay is dry, and I've done the face sculpting, but don't have pics of the sculpted part yet.  Still need to sand and get ready for another scary step: applying the stockinette over the clay.  Baby steps...

EDITED to add: Blogger is messing up right now...I've tried for ten minutes to put pictures in this post.  I have to stop for a while...It's said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.

I'll be back to post pics when my sanity has returned.  :~\

EDITED to add: Yay!  Blogger is working again!!!  And I did post a sculpted Izzy...

Shifting Gears

Yesterday I finished up three more of the wooden jointed dolls.  I still have five or six more to go, but I really need to put them away.  Their heads/faces/torso's are done, ready to finish arms and legs and then dress them.  But right now I need to get going on the Izannah Walker doll class so I can take advantage of the expertise she offers and the creative synergy of that group.  The class is over in mid August!

So today I clean the work room, and okay, some of the rest of the house while I'm at it.  Then I'll have room to sew AND sculpt AND paint.

In the meantime, here are photos (click to zoom) of the wooden jointed dolls, which will all go on Etsy this week.  Um, is it Thursday already?  Time's fun when you're having flies...

Cowboy Jimmy...has outgrown his pony.

But he's got new chaps and a six-shooter, and still has his shiny silver star...

Mom said she'd make him a stick horse.  He's asked for a Painted Pinto...

Alice could swear she keeps seeing a white rabbit out of the corner of her eye...

Was it her imagination?

No, she knows she's been seeing SOMETHING.

The trick is to wait...and catch it by turning around really fast!

Leon loves cat-fish.

These are lake bass, but he'll take what he can get.

He plays with his food sometimes.

When he's not fishing, he dreams of fishing.

Do YOU have any catfish?

Amador refused to be the "horse"...and Leon just wants supper.

Cowboy Jimmy would eat eat his silver star before he admits Alice is pretty.

Two more dolls finished today.

I'm trying to wrap up the wooden jointed dolls, but it's going slower than I thought.  I will have finished five by bedtime tonight (fingers crossed) but only two of them are ready right now.  So, let me introduce:

Amador

Amador is Cuban for "lover" and Amador is a total flirt.  He had way too much fun at his photo shoot today.
 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Next is Wimblie.  I really haven't been able to get a word out of Wimblie, even to the extent of determining gender.  It seemed rude to ask directly, since Wimblie was too shy to speak up.

I hope when I list this shy bunny, a kind-hearted person will be gentle and give Wimblie time to adapt to his or her new environment.

Newest Doll on Etsy

I began these dolls a month or so ago, started several of them at a time, but Sophia is the first one finished.  (I worked on four more yesterday, but they still have a way to go.)

Making myself promise to get these done before I started the Izannah Walker Inspired dolls from Dixie Redmond's class, but not sure I can wait that long.  The hub's likely to put an offer on another rent-house soon, so I'd best make dolls while I have the time.

I'd posted a WIP photo of the doll torsos all lined up.  Maybe I should start calling them DIPs (dolls in progress? :~) but here is the one with Sophia in the middle.

I originally saw a sort of Roaring Twenties Flapper Clara Bow character, but Sophia has insisted that she has no intention of flapping, and that I was badly mistaken in my original assessment.  Each doll has his or her own personality, no matter what I envision, and this lady turned out more like Lilleth on Cheers.  Anyway, I'm fond of her, and she does seem willing to listen to the other dolls and give advice, so who am I to argue?

Sophia - JD Conwell Folk Art Doll

Had to Revise my Listing!

I made a mistake when I wrote the listing for my little birds...

Got too specific with it, when the listing was meant for a collective.  So instead of writing it as "you get one of these little birds", I wrote, "you get this bird, or convo me for a different one".  Bad form, really, borne of ignorance. 

I sold a lot of these birds-on-blocks at the King William Fair last April,  which is good, but I forgot to update the listing, which is bad.  So a lady buys the L bird and the bird on the collective listing, only I don't have it anymore.  I'm hoping she will be happy with one of the others...

Revised the listing this morning, and loving the new photos, but I really hate when I make a dumb, avoidable mistake and cause someone an inconvenience. 

Little Birds on Vintage Blocks

 Now to remind myself Pobody's Nerfect and get on with my day. 

Clara

I have been exploring the antique dolls of the 19th century.  Feels like coming home.  My favorites range from the superlatively ugly home-made rag dolls to the cloth and leather bodied china heads and paper mache heads.  I love Izannah Walker's dolls, Kathy Kruse, and all the "babies"--Alabama Indestructibles, the Presbyterian dolls, the Sheppard Babies.  I've signed up for Dixie Redmond's Izannah Walker doll workshop a little late, but still, I think I can meet the deadlines.

One recent doll I made is Clara.  I designed her cloth body and head, laid paperclay over face/neck/hands, and sewed an irritatingly small doll dress.  She's 17" tall, which surprises me because she seems so small for what I think of as that size doll.  Never the less, I am happy with how she turned out.  I know her proportions are all wrong--the Greiner dolls of the mid 19th century all had large upper body and shoulder plate areas compared to small lower bodies, but I like the "creative anachronism" of making my own version of an antique doll.    I still may have to go bigger though...

(Click twice to zoom.)