The Magic Bean

Doll Swap Thingy-bob

I made up a fun little goddess doll thingy for Rainbow Dolls' upcoming swap with Patti Medaris Culea's doll club in the US.  Now I'm really starting to sound like my mum with my 'thingy'.  They say that happens as you get older.  Soon I'll be making a hoogie for the whatsit with a special doo-jack-a-pivey (that should really throw off my spell check!).  It won't be long before I'll be telling large shaven-headed men with multiple body piercings that their nose ring is 'Neat!' and recording answer phone messages that are so impossibly cheery that people will actually start calling just cause they are having a bad day.  Yup, that's my mum.  Can't say it is a tragedy to turn into my mum, but it may be cognitively challenging.  Anyhoo....

I am never really sure what a 'goddess doll' is.  The main requirement seems to be that they should be 'stumpy', that is, lacking either arms or legs.  So I drew up this little girl, sans upper appendages.  Then I printed some sheet music for the Star Spangled Banner onto photo ready fabric sheets.  Our theme is 'Across the Ocean' .  I think a number of the members have interpreted this as a 'sea theme', whereas, I thought it was much more about cross-Atlantic relations.  So I imagined a little British lady with a wry smile dressed in American patriotic garb.  We are supposed to be using painting and stamping techniques as part of the challenge so once I had printed the fabric, sewn the body and stuffed it, I drew and painted on the features with textile paint.  The sheet music is only faintly visible but I think it is cool just knowing it's there. 

The effect turned out to be rather like American primitives with a modern twist.  I'll just pretend that was my intention all along.    Yup, meant to do it.  I'm a genius at these thingys. 

An Auspicious Start

This morning I was very cosy in my bed, cuddling my husband's pillow.  Very comfortable.  Until my husband got back from having a drink of water and insisted on having his pillow back.  The nerve!  I really like that pillow.  It smells just like my husband but does not talk, does not snore, and does not hog the duvet.  But himself demanded the pillow back, so I had to relinquish it.  Then, the gall of him, he decided to start talking to me!  He has a habit of doing this.  He decides that he is awake and therefore I should be.  Doesn't matter that my eyes are shut and my breathing rhythmic.  He is awake and therefore I should be too.  So I woke up in a rather grumpy mood.

I shuffled to my computer this morning, grumbling under my breath about husbands and pillows and the rights of a wife.  Not a very auspicious start.  However, when I inspected my in-box I found an e-mail from Natalie Hamade.  Natalie had made a pin cushion doll from my free pin cushion pattern - Pinelope.  Is that not the coolest?  Admittedly, I am still new to this whole pattern designing gig so I get inordinately excited that someone would want to make my pattern, but it is even more exciting when someone as talented as Natalie makes my pattern!

Natalie is particularly gifted at doing faces.  You can always recognise her work. Check out Natalie's blog to see what I mean by clicking here.

If you want a chance to learn about how Natalie does faces, she does teach regularly on Doll Street.  Click here to see Natalie's current online class.

If you missed the free Pinelope pin cushion pattern the first time round, just find the post cleverly titled 'Free Pattern' in the archives.  Then make sure to share your photos of what you make.  It just might save my marriage!

A cloth doll confession

Well it is difficult to say this, but it is true.  I've never confessed this to anyone before, but they say admitting it is the first step.  Despite having made many dolls of a mythical nature - fairies, trolls, elves etc, etc.  I have never before made a mermaid.  Yes, it is true.  I swear it is not because I have a mer-phobia or anything, I've got nothing against fins or anything, but I just never ventured into the mermaid world before. 

But yesterday I finished my first mer-doll.  I think she turned out to be fishily fetching.  My mum and my mother-in-law were both buying me sea themed buttons for some reason recently, so I painted them up to match my fabric.  This fantastic wave motif batik I bought online from Hannah's Room.  They are a UK based quilting company with a vast collection of batiks.  And the best part is that if you call up and ask if the weave is really tight and therefore suitable for doll making they are very honest if a fabric won't work and they are not the least little bit thrown off by weirdo doll makers. Although, I must confess (again, it is a day for confessions) that I quite like throwing people off. 

I was once doll making on the train from London and one bloke was fixated with watching me.  Finally I waved the miniature hand that I was stuffing at him.  Let's just say he didn't peek out from behind his paper again. Cloth doll making - the last taboo!

   

Flat Dolls

Flat things usually leave me - well, flat.  I really like dolls because of their three dimensions.  I get on with fabric journaling because it isn't totally flat.  But I've never been into quilts, for example.  So the idea that flat dolls have gotten a lot of attention lately (largely due to Elinor Peace Bailey, Patti Culea, Betts Vidal, Barbara Willis amongst others doing flat doll days) leaves me feeling oddly repelled and attracted at the same time - it's flat, but it's a doll.  I don't know whether to clap my hands in glee or run away. 

But when I saw Patti's article in Stitch magazine on how to create fibre postcards using her fantastic stamps I thought they would be a fun way to make a flat doll - one that could be used as a bookmark. 

I used Patti's Kessa stamp on ivory Pimatex with a brown pigment ink stamp (as opposed to a dye based ink pad).  I then drew a body for the stamp.  If you fancy giving it a try you can download my body drawing here for free:  Download bookmark_flat_doll_body.pdf .  I also haloed the stamped head with a circle so that the shape would be easy to stitch around at the end.

I outlined the drawing using a pigma pen in brown.  Then I stamped some patterns on the dress with the same brown ink pad, using tape to cover areas I didn't want covered by the stamped pattern (like her hand and arm for instance).  I then bonded the stamped fabric to double sided bonding sheet (like Wonder Under or Steam a Seam 2), peeled off the paper side and bonded that to a piece of Pelmet Vilene (Timtex would work too). 

I painted the body and face as advised in Patti's article and I used a mix of Sakura gelly rollers and fabric paint to colour in the stamped motifs. I also used a silver ink pad to stamp words on the dress (they are barely visible but add some texture).  I then free motion machine embroidered over the stamped designs with metallic thread. 

When I was happy with the front of the bookmark, I ironed some double sided bonding sheet to a fun printed cotton and ironed that onto the back of my stamped and drawn image.  I then cut out around the image and machine zig-zagged around the raw edge.  

Lastly I added a flat sun motif hovering over her hand and added some bling to the flowers with stones.  I think that she makes my Harry Potter look even more tempting, don't you?

   

Almost Famous

Today was shaping up to be an ordinary day:  almost got flooded at work with the torrential downpour, was mercilessly teased at work for being too much of a mother hen, was berated by friends for always drinking Diet Coke at the pub and for knowing the waiter's name at my favourite Thai restaurant.  Just another day in the life.  But received my copy of Soft Dolls & Animals from Jan Horrox, flipped through and lo and behold, found my doll, Isadora featured on the gallery page. 

This doll was made from Patti Medaris Culea's Calypso Caly pattern in the Aug/Sept 2006 issue.  I made her way back in January.  Boy did this make my day!  I've only be published once before in Patti's latest book Creative Cloth Doll Beading. 

The doll I made for that book, Loiseau, was a huge labour of love. Don't even ask how long the beading took.  I stopped counting. 

So a huge thank you to Patti for bringing your cloth dolls to the UK along with Barbara Willis and Betts Vidal and inspiring me (or should I say, ensnaring me?).  For asking me to do the book and for providing such a great pattern that got me published a second time.  I am humming 'Wind Beneath my Wings' now and if I had a lighter I'd hold it aloft.  If the cloth doll world had rock stars - Patti Culea would be Elvis.

We came, we saw, we beaded.

Rainbows Dolls had its July meeting at Rainbow Silks.  The demo this month was was done by yours truly on peyote bead work.  This is not the easiest thing to grasp, but everyone seemed to have learned the basics by the end of the meeting with minimal tearing out of hair (which is more than I can say for when I taught myself this stitch).   I created a handout on the peyote beading technique which you can download for free here:  Download peyote_bead work_handout.pdf .  On the left is a picture of Chris storming along with her peyote and on the right is Stella beading for England.  For more pictures of the members have a look at the Rainbow Dolls photo album on the right of my blog.

We also discussed our upcoming swap with Patti Medaris Culea's doll club in America.  We will be swapping goddess dolls using stamping and painting techniques on the theme of 'Over the Sea'.  As a lot of the members felt a bit in 'Over their heads' we have decided that next months meeting on Wednesday August 15th at 1:30pm will be a play day - using painting and stamping techniques to have some fun on fabric.  It is going to be a day of experimentation.  We may use the fabrics we create on that day to make our goddess dolls or we must just have some fun and stretch our repertoire of techniques.

As much as I would love to claim that I am perfect, I am not (shh, don't tell my husband I admitted it).  I must admit a glaring faux pas in a past post.  I posted a photo of this gorgeous doll head which I mistakenly credited as being Wendy's creation.  This stunning head is actually by the very talented Stella.  Many apologies Stella for crediting your work incorrectly.  (a true doll making sin - Mea Culpa, mea culpa).  Isn't she lovely?

If you are interested in joining Rainbow Dolls please e-mail me.  If you live farther away and cannot always make meetings in person then consider joining our Yahoo group.  You can find a button to join at the bottom of the right hand side of my blog.  Handy that!

Good things come in small packages

I have a problem.  I am really not capable of doing something that I think has been done before and then call it my own.  I am quite happy to copy the masters if that is what I originally intended.  But if I set out to be original it has to be truly original and the best that I can make it.  So when it comes to working on my own designs I am becoming a bit, hmmm what is the right word here?  Ah yes, anal.  So my anal desire to be new, different, and the best that I can be, is stalling my tackling of my re-vamped Venice inspired doll.  With an Irish inspiration this time round.  I swear I'll get there.  Might take me some time as I have to be as thoroughly anal as only an anal person can be.  But I will get there.

In the meantime I decided I have to make something or risk losing my mind.  So I started on a mermaid based on two different Patti Medaris Culea patterns - Audine and Franalazia.  She is turning out to be very fun way to distract myself.  She is coming over all Venus de Milo at the moment, but she will have arms at some point.  The beading around her head has been very fun, assisted by my mum's stash invigorating shopping sprees (you have to love mums who buy buttons and beads).

As I was snapping my mermaid's likeness among the detritus around my sewing machine it struck me that I should share what my studio looks like.  Here it is.  I like to call it 'my table'  because, well, it is a table.  It is nestled in the space against the wall of my living room between the entrance hall and the kitchen. I have to laugh when I see other people's studios on their blogs.  Simply because my flat (the whole thing) is under 350 square feet.  So the fact that I have a whole table is pretty significant.  I look at Heather Bailey's stylish studio or Stephanie Novatski's huge work area and I am filled not with jealousy, but rather an incredulous sense of awe.  They actually have to clean all that space!  I'd rather make dolls.    

My Doll Mojo

Last post I was mourning the loss of my doll mojo.  Well, today a breakthrough.  As I sat wallowing in the bath (my primary place of meditation) it suddenly occurred to me that my Venetia doll,  as much as I liked the design at the time, could have been better.  It is a hard thing to admit, but upon reflection (and immersion in a lot of bubbles) I could have done better.  Don't get me wrong, I don't think that the doll is terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but I am not sure that she is the best that I can do. 

This train of thought came about after hearing my students in my Bea in her Bonnet class and others enquiring about it, say that what captured them was Bea's expression.  Her face is not just static, it is telling a story.  THAT is what Venetia is missing - personality, storytelling.  Yup, I missed a trick on that one.  She could have been peeping flirtatiously from behind a carnival mask.  But instead she is being very sedate.  And I'm just not sedate, so this doll is not a very good expression of me.  They say that dolls are always a self portrait  of their maker and in this case Venetia is not a very good likeness.

As I jotted down some ideas for improvement on this design I came across this quotation in my inspiration book:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?  Actually, who are you not to be?  You are a child of God.  Your playing small does not serve the world.  There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.  We are all meant to shine, as children do.  We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.  It is not just in some of us; it's in everyone.  And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others..." 

So I am going to try again.  Same pattern, but with more kick.  More fun.  More me.  Maybe people's lukewarm reactions to my first attempt really affected me because I felt in some part of my brain that I knew that it wasn't my best.  So now, I'll give them my best.  The ideas are coming thick and fast. The mojo is back.