The Scary Room

I was visiting with Dixie online the other day and said something about That Awful Room Where I Should Be Making Dolls. Well, I do make dolls there, but it's a miracle.  Of all things I've gotten done to this house, this room is not one of them.  I've put up shelves, and unpacked boxes (sort of) and gotten most things off the floor, but it's a nightmare.  In a week, after my visit with family, I will begin the overhaul of this room so it will be more useful than a place to shove things and run.

In order to keep myself honest, I'm posting "Before" photos here, so you can call me on it if I can't produce "After" photos in a couple weeks (let's say by Veteran's Day...there, you have my commitment, with witnesses.)  A few of you kind souls should consider it a mercy to call me on this.  Please.

The Blogger photo zoom feature is broken right now, so you can still zoom photos by clicking on them, but then you have to hit the back button on your browser, old school. 

The first photo is proof that I really can, oddly enough, get a little bit done.  All those dolls lined up on the hearth?  They need arms and legs.

The second is the Great Wall O'Fabric, which I must sort through or risk being found later, buried in an avalanche.

The third is just because I love monkeys, and had to put them somewhere.  So, they stand guard over the egg-gourds, which will eventually become tiny art dolls.

And the last, and perhaps scariest, is the Wall O' Paint.  This will eventually become two stations (the sewing cubby is to my right as I take this photo), one for painting and one for sculpting.  I've done this long enough to know that I need things OUT where I can see them, or I forget I have them.  And the paint is close enough in front of me that I actually do put the bottles back on their shelves, instead of setting them all around until the workspace is filled.  Of course, the workspace is a hellish nightmare right now, but I swear--I'll get it clean!

Hope your weekend is fabulous dahlinks.  I plan to ignore this room for the next week while my mother and father-in-law are here.  After that, the transformation will begin.  In the meantime, please don't send this to any psychiatric personnel as evidence that I need to be put away...it's hard to get anything done in a straight-jacket.

Original Works

Yesterday I had about 2/3 of the current (and mostly unfinished) doll projects lined up on the hearth, assessing what I need to do to finish each one.  Out of the ten dolls, six were Izannah Walker type dolls, and the others were original works that tend to take their own direction with or without my permission.  The other ten dolls in Studio Limbo are originals, too.  Their stories will have to happen later.

The lineup.

I love making the Izannah Walker dolls, and if I do say so, 

I'm pretty good at it, for no longer than I've been at it.  

But as I described what all I needed to get done with them, the husband said, "I like your original work best."  To be fair, he's not a huge fan of the izzies--that's an acquired taste.  But he's always liked the weird and whimsical things I make with gourds or wood or found materials.

Fox and Parrot...pals.

Hope

Lucy

Gourd Skelly and Bat

Scarecrow Annie

Harvest Queen

It's easy to doubt, that original stuff.  Just because I think it's fun, does that mean somebody else will?  But a lady wrote to me today after buying the Rag Doll Pattern I just published, and reminded me that she's bought three of my dolls already, and would love to use the pattern to make her own "work of art".  How great that felt at a time when I really needed it...not only that my goofy folkart spoke to somebody, but that it also inspired them to make their own art.

There's no end in sight for me and this love of making Izannah Walker artist dolls.  

But I might make a little more room for Jan-made originals...maybe one sort of art feeds the other?

What feeds your art?

Delia, a new/old Izannah Walker doll

I have to thank my friend Martha for inspiring me to use lamb skin for her hair. Scary, because it's expensive and hard to cut into. I used a cloth template to get the shaping right, but still...scary. Delia is 21" tall, has big feet and a sad countenance. Her complexion was my effort to replicate how some of the really worn Izannahs have suffered under poor storage and care, so that their paint has cracked and the paste come off in places. I like this one a lot. I'm thinking she should wear the deep red wool for her dress.

Two Finished Rag Dolls

The Plain Ol' Ragdolls pattern is coming along.  We're having some electrical work done on our house (put off from last week, and the week before) so I'll have a few hours with no electricity...and that's a good time for hand sewing and pattern instruction writing!  I'm hoping to publish it by the end of the week.

So far I have two of them finished...I want to finish two more.  The pattern will show different ways to "face" the dolls--drawing, embroidery, painting, button eyes, etc.   I'll include a simple line drawing for one style of face, (not the ones here) and suggestions for ways to make hair.

Alice is my answer to our MAIDA challenge doll--making one type of doll out of another type of material.  But since I do that half the time with half the dolls I make anyway, I figured I'd just jostle things around a little and make an Alice that was NOT the stereotypical blue-eyed blonde.

This next one is not yet named.  She's simple, wears a natural linen dress with a gray-blue embroidery, and I love her!  I haven't thought of a name for her, so if you have a suggestion, please leave it in the comments!

So...here's hoping that all goes well with our electrical work, that the dog doesn't encounter any more 5 a.m. skunks (long smelly story), and that I get two more dolls finished tomorrow.

Cheers, y'all!

New listings in the Etsy Shop!

I had a fit a while back, and luckily it coincided with the purchase of...antique jump rope handles.  Yes, antique jump rope handles.  They had to become dolls.  Of course they did!

Dibeaux

At the time, I was also exploring the joys of vintage circus graphics, and the two made a very interesting limited edition of tiny dolls.  I've listed them on Etsy finally, and can I say I had a blast writing their stories?  I did.

Have a great week, y'all.

Plain Ol' Rag Doll

I've been working on a project since this last July...a rag doll. Just a plain one, maybe a little long & skinny, but really basic.  I messed around with the shape a little, and made a few for the August doll show this year...finished one and gave it to my June-Bug when she was here.  The rest of these will have faces--so I can illustrate different ways to finish them in the pattern when I list it on Etsy.

A rainbow of dollies.

The pattern for Plain Ol' Rag Doll will include drawings for the face to use for painting or embroidery, and a nightie / bonnet combo.  Later I'll list a pattern for various dresses to fit the doll, so she can have something besides sleepwear, should her Mistress desire to make her a wardrobe.

Night-night.

For now, I like them without faces.  Not sure why that is, but I think their body-language is louder this way.  The clothing they're wearing in the photos is (all but one) made up of things I've picked up here and there at doll shows--it's amazing how easy these gals are to fit!  The doll is 19" tall, but being so slender, she doesn't feel like a "Big" doll.

Audrey and Helga

The twins.

A Rag Doll family Portrait!

  I'm hoping to get the faces done and photos ready for a listing in my Etsy store next week.

Cat and dog lap-warmers not included...sorry.  Ciao!  

Schultz and Willie are helping me sew Izzy hands at the moment, but there's a rag doll right next to me, and a giant box of stuffing at my feet.  Such wonderful helpers I have!

Back in the Day?

I was going through my doll photo files, trying to clean and sort.  This happens to me every fall, the urge to clean, clear, sort, and organize.  Dunno why, but I know well enough not to fight it.

At any rate, my photo files were a mess, and now they're not.  Yay me!  Getting ready to list a bunch of stuff in my Etsy store, and needed to see what I have/have not regarding listing pics.  But while I was digging through the virtual closet, I found quite a few of my old photos, dolls I made back when I was still VERY new at the whole process, playing with all kinds of new ideas, techniques and materials.

I'd say don't laugh, but some of these are pretty mirth-inspiring, so chuckle away if you feel the need.  I'm still proud of some of these starts, because they represent the very best part of finding out what I can do.

"Good Bones"

Made of a cornucopia basket, paper clay, and found stuff.

Her wings move on their hinges...but she's pretty lazy.

Josephine, Witch in Green Plaid.

Old Gardeners never die...they just become great compost.

Lord Elfwin, my second gourd art doll.

He's the Keeper of Santa's list...don't tick him off.

My FIRST gourd art doll...Tiamat.  I think she weighs 8 lbs.

Six months after she was finished, the clay finally dried and she cracked all over this nice smooth bottom.

Marcelle...made with a wooden spoon, various toys, wood bits, and paper clay.

Dreaming Bunny...she's preggers, and dreaming of the baby clothes she'll sew.

Jack Frost was a challenge doll when I belonged to Art Dolls Only.

He is proud of his skills.

This one is called "Twa Corbies" after a very old Celtic song...

...again, mixed media, with lots of found stuff. 

My first wooden cat doll.  These are so fun.

Learning cloth and clay...

Mostly these days I'm making the Izannah Walker dolls, wooden jointed dolls, and gourd art...but I can't completely get away from the mixed media, because I will always look at things and see something other than what's on the surface.  That is another Best Thing I've learned from doll making.

Ciao, y'all.

Blooms!

The worst of summer is over, even though we still have temps in the 90's and will for a while yet.  But we had an incredible soaky 2" rain this weekend, and another one a week or two before that, so things have begun to green back up a little.  I always think it's funny how lots of folk in other places spend their summers gardening, while here, we just ride it out til fall.  Of course, we can garden almost all winter, so there's always a trade-off.

I got the camera out and went around the yard...some of the photos didn't turn out, because Jan didn't use the right setting, but the far shots are okay.  I did get one great one of the giant palm tree in the back, because I was asking a palm expert what kind it is.  Apparently we have a "Phoenix canariensis" and a healthy one, by all accounts.  Yay!

There are a couple new iris beds needing mulch, and I plan to move some roses around, and...maybe do a perennial border bed in the front between ours and the neighbor's house.  I thank my husband every day for providing a livelihood that enables me to garden so much.  My life is blessed.

Yellow Lantana and Mealy Blue Salvia

This ice plant needs to be moved out from under the Flame Acanthus...which apparently really likes this spot!

The back deck, now that the cannas are hitting their stride.

Lab-lab purpureus.  Not kidding...isn't that an unscientific sounding scientific name?  :~P  Commonly known as Hycacinth bean...and grows cool purple bean pods.  Edible, but only after cooking.  I haven't tried them.

The last of the "privacy fence" flowers..morning glory is all over the dead stalks of the sun flowers I grew this spring, and the Coral Vine (pink stuff) is a perennial getting herself established.

Other side of the deck.  Yes, we will paint the cedar trim, soon.  Hubs painted that corner so he could change up the gutter system there.  Now we have no more humongoid rain barrel taking up space on the porch.

Orange Sunset bougainvillea.  She's new, and seems happy here.  

I would know the name of this flower, but I threw away the seed packet.  Oops.  Hummingbirds LOVE this flower.  The squirrels are loving the seed heads and climb all over the fence to get them.

The baby Desert Willow tree, surrounded by red salvia. 

I need to weed-eat.  Soon.  Okay, yesterday.

The mail box has been eaten by morning glories.  Again.

I cannot WAIT til these flower next spring.

The "desert corner".  Well, the coral vine isn't desert, but she's happy there.

Double Take: a cross between mini and hybrid tea roses.  The underside of the petals are white.  Blooms his little head off, and lives right by the front door.

Purple cone flower, mealy blue salvia.

Same bed...roses, rosemary, salvia, and a canna that just won't quit.

That little tiny red rose is a ground cover / climber called "Red Cascade".  I'd rooted it from a cutting, but when I put it in this bed, I thought it was something else.  Oops.  Now I have to find a new home and put something else here.

Sorry for the fuzzy closeup.  This is a lantana that has naturalized here, and I find seedlings allll over.  This particular one was here when we moved in, and has gotten almost five feet tall!  Butterfly magnet.

And here is the Phoenix Canariensis.  Or "Canary Island Palm".  They're supposed to be extremely expensive to purchase as large trees, and very slow growing.  Since this house was built in '65, I'd guess it's about halfway grown.  :~)

Thanks for humoring me with this photo-heavy post.  Hope you have a great Tiw's Day.