Indiana Bound

This wee girlie is on her way to Indiana tomorrow. 

I don't often get to work with pink on a custom, so this one was a feminine treasure to dress.  The doll-mom wanted both a cloth and a straw bonnet, so that the straw one could later go with other dresses.  Reminded me how much fun they are to make!

It's a Mystery...

Working on this most recent Izannah doll, I used the regular Krylon matte varnish, as I have for ages. 

But I'm not sure what happened!  No unusual material/paint/coating under the varnish, so maybe it was a factor of temperature or humidity?  At any rate, there is a very slight crackle effect on the lower part of this doll's face.  As it seems not to affect the adhesion of the paint or varnish, and it is subtle enough to actually enhance the doll, I left it as it was.  (Also, I didn't want to totally repaint, since I was happy with her at that point!) 

Maybe I'll figure it out, but I doubt it. 

Guess we'll see--I've got a set of boy & girl twins to make now! 

Sybil is ready.

The Izannah doll I've been working on over the last several weeks 

(thank you for your patience, Carolyn!) is ready to go to her Doll Mom.  

 

She's 18", with blue eyes and brownish/reddish hair.  I like this one and enjoyed sculpting her a lot.  The request was for an "almost smile" the way some Izannahs have.  She does look like she's about to smile.  The kicker was that she also got an entire wardrobe--a dress for each season!  I have never sewed so much for one doll, ever!  Top it off with a neutral colored bonnet, and she's ready for anything. 

I drafted a couple of dress patterns for Sybil, and stored them away--with notations this time, so the pattern drawer is not such a mess. 

Hope your weekend will be fabulous!

Hard Lessons Learned...

Last October I met a woman at my doll show booth who asked me to consider selling my dolls at her antique booth on consignment.  She seemed so thrilled with my work, and invited me to come down (the shop is two hours away from me) to see the shop--really a series of five booths in an antique mall, and so I did.  The shop was fascinating and apparently very popular.  So we talked, and though I was a little nervous about her scattered, unfocused ways, her enthusiasm about how well my dolls would sell there convinced me to give it a try.

Here are the lessons I learned:
1. Just because she and I are doll lovers, doesn't mean her customers would be.  They shop there for the antiques, and her mass-produced, made-in-china doll reproductions (big names like Nicole Sayers and Bethany Lowe) sell well.  My dolls, hand made and one of a kind, did not.  I sold one, plus the candlestick doll she herself bought.

2.  Get it alllll in writing.  People lie.

3. Do NOT let someone "gift" you anything, blithely tossing things at you as if they are the soul of generosity.  It's a trap.  You'll get charged for them later, when she gets mad.

4. Follow your instincts: if the little hairs on the back of your neck say this is too good to be true, it is.

So all in all, I am getting a third of the amount for the doll I sold, rather than the 90% I would at a doll show after expenses, and none at all for the doll she bought, because I just didn't get anything in writing.  Dumb, and I would beat myself up for it, but I'm just too sad and disgusted by the whole thing.  Lessons learned are not always painful, but you sure remember the ones that are!

Today is a holiday--at least the hubs isn't working--and wet from a couple day's rain, so I can't go out and dig in the slow spring that is warming our high desert.  But I do have some iris catalogues to peruse!  I also have a bunch of seeds to start in little window-sill pots--cosmos and milkweed and Mexican sunflower, and several more.  Good medicine, playing in the soil, even if it's on the kitchen counter.  Also--an Izzy to dress and send to her new momma.

 

Back to work!

I have no excuse for not blogging, except that I haven't taken photos lately and it always seems boring to post with no pictures.  Having joined the Iris Society in our area, I discovered that June and July are the busy time, with lots of volunteer hours getting ready for an iris sale this month.  So there is that.  Not sure it qualifies as an excuse, but I have enjoyed digging and playing in the iris.  :~)  Otherwise, it's just housework, appointments, square dancing, and general busy-ness.

But I have at least been working on dolls.  I went in there and started counting to see how many in-progress dolls I have going.  Embarrassing, but I have twenty!  I know I should finish the first ones before starting any more, but the most recent ones are mostly Izannah type dolls for the upcoming doll show.  There will be three sizes--22", 18", and 15".  So I have lots of tiny thumbs to sew in the next few weeks.

Maybe I'll take some hand sewing with me when we go to see my son get married in Oregon in August.  It always takes longer than I think it will, so it's best to plan ahead, right?

At any rate, I did get a couple of photos of these that I started in the last few weeks.  I work a few hours every day, adding clay to each of them and setting it aside to dry for the next day's additions.

I'm really hungry for autumn weather, so I have a feeling the fabric choices for these bitties will be fall colors.

Cheers! 

Elspeth is dressed now.

She's a very patient girl...just hanging out in the giant purple recliner while I ignore her in favor of finishing other dolls.  Today she got the rest of her unders, and is ready to go.  Willie had to check to see if she approved of everything, of course. 

Here I go again...

I haven't put up a single Christmas decoration yet.  The floors need attention, as do several other aspects of the house cleaning detail.  Forgot to water the flower beds today, (should never have found out it's "supposed" to rain this weekend).

I did manage to walk the dog and go get meat for the freezer.  But the rest of the time?  Working on dolls.  Some that I had already sculpted and MUST finish, and others...well I can't seem to control myself and I keep starting new ones.  Right now I have over ten dolls in various stages of progress.  Hmph.

Here is one I finished painting today...she'll get her arms and legs sewn on tonight and some clothes in the next day or two.  Her name is Elspeth.  She's not quite an Izannah doll, but has some of the face, I think. 

As for Christmas decorating?  I might get it done this weekend.  Maybe.

What's up at House Conwell

Haven't posted since the doll show postmortem blog, but things have been crazy busy here.  Guess everybody says that, but alas, 'tis true.

It looks to be the case for a while to come, but in a good way!

On the home front, my son and his wife and our tiny new granddaughter will come down from Colorado for a while.  We haven't seen them since they left with orders for England years ago!

Montana, Joshua, and little Juniper (Bumpy June-Bug).

Then later in October, Phil's folks will visit, and I miss them so much and can't wait to see them again.  I really hit the lottery when it comes to in-laws, and feel blessed to know them.  And our Schultz will be ecstatic because he gets to see Annie, whom he is slightly afraid of and maybe a little in love with, if you'll pardon the prepositions. 

"I'm all in!"  (Dec. 2012) Phil and his folks playing poker, a family tradition.

Brothers Conwell (Dec. 2012) and quadrupeds, Schultz and Annie, hangin' with the chew toys.

On the realty front, one of our rental houses is empty now, and we've decided to sell it.  So guess who will be painting and house-repairing this weekend on her fiftieth birthday?  Phil and I make a good team when it comes to projects like these, though, so the weekend with him will be a memorable time.

On the doll front, I finished one of my post-doll-show orders, a teeny izzy (9") and she's all ready for bed in a super-fine linen gown and cap.  The lady who will give her a new home has been to visit me at every doll show since the first one...when I teased her at the show for not picking out a doll, she said, "But the one I want is sold."  So of course nothing would do but that I made her one similar.  Miss Mary has a thing for dolls in white, so little Nell will fit right in.

9" Izannah, "Nell"

 

Those tiny applied thumbs are quite a trick!

The small ones are harder to make, but something about them really tugs at the heart.

On the landscaping front, I planted a "Charlie Brown Tree" this week--a baby Honey Mesquite--over the objections of every landscaping adviser ever.  Don't care.  I love mesquite trees, and wanted one on our place.  The weatherman is forecasting rain for our area, but not very hopefully.  I think I will augment that hope and maybe do a few rain dances while I'm watering today.  (It's our day to water, 3 am to 7 am...yes, we set an alarm.)

Hope your weekend is fabulous dahlinks!

Is it Autumn yet?

No, but I can see it from here.  It didn't begin to get light outside until twenty of seven this morning, and at the solstice it's already dawning at six.  So we have that going for us.  I have nothing against light, you understand, but weeks of 103 and 104 (in the shade, yes) gets tiresome.  We don't have anything like what my in-laws in Phoenix get, but then our humidity goes a way to make up the difference, I think.

So I'll take the later dawn as a good sign, keep watering the new landscape so it can survive its first summer, and I'll look forward to Autumnal colors to remind me it's not just about the temperature--Autumn is a state of mind.

I've got a doll show coming up in a week or two--and I think I'm ready.  Since the move, I will have to reconnoiter the set up stuff and make sure I know where it all is, but it's all here.  A few new Izannahs will go this year, and a few silly dolls that I have played around with in designing clothing patterns.

Tomorrow I'll take Marie-Grace to her buyer.  She's a favorite for several reasons (the buyer, yes, but I mean the doll) and I am glad to have taken so many photos of her.  I made shoes of wool felt, and found an antique pinner apron that just fits her.

Hope your Thor's day is fabulous, dahlinks.

She's one I've been working on...long way from finished, but I've grown fond of her unpainted.

21" redheaded Izzy with a 10" brunette.  The tiny white gown is very old, but fits her perfectly.

Marie-Grace, ready to find her new home.

Embroidery on linen, antique lace on antique cotton...I love my job!

 

Hands are clay sculpted over wire, added to a cloth arm.

 

Wool felt for shoes...with a bit of embroidery and a rose for romance.

It's PFATT DAY!

I just have so much fun with that acronym.  Pronounce it Fat.  See?  Isn't that fun?  Okay, I'm easily entertained.  PFATT, as lots of you might know, is Primitive Folk Art Trinkets and Treasures, and the PFATT Marketplace is a fun place to shop if you love folk art.

I chose this month to have wee Becky represent my "market debut" on PFATT, because down here we've had summer since April and are ready for FALL.  Becky is an autumn harvest themed Googly Izzy, with fall colors and teeny veggies on her dress.  A hybrid of the old Googly dolls, but with a cloth and clay body, made the way I make Izannah Walker dolls.

I like this idea of hybrid dolls...combining aspects of several types of old dolls into something new but still reminiscent of each.  Becky has a mix of "effort levels" as I call it...some of her clothing is antique, some is reproduction, some is just fun.

If you feel like browsing and love primitive folk art, the 10th of every month brings new and beautiful things to be found on PFATT.   And you can shop in your bunny slippers, if you want.