The Magic Bean

Freebie Friday - Wings

It is Friday and what makes this Friday particularly special is that it is the very first Freebie Friday!  Thanks to my frustratingly brilliant husband I am going to post a list of links to free doll patterns and tutorials found on the net in a certain theme every Friday.  This week's theme is wings. So lets get crackin' (or maybe that should be flappin').

Click here for Magic Miniatures tutorial on making Gemstone wings.  This is a very cool idea.

Click here for Allan Vernall's tutorial on making butterfly wings out of Translucent Liquid Sculpey and silk.

Click here  for Katherine Dewey's pattern and tutorial for wings. This includes high resolution wings that could be copied onto transparencies or other materials.

Click here for a tutorial on how to create a watercolour effect on fabric wings from Legends by Valkyrie.

Click here for downloadable wing patterns and tutorial from Aurora Dreams.

Click here for Debbie Hendrickson's method of making 'Flutterby Wings'.

Click here for Barb Keeling's tips on making fairy wings with Angelina courtesy of Doll Street.

Click here for a tutorial on burning fabric wings with Petals and Pleats.

Click here for a very clear and detailed tutorial and pattern on making Fantasy Film and wire wings from the OOAK Guild.

Click here for Paula Johnson's Twilight Fairy wings of burnt organza.

Check out this video (with very jazzy background music) on how to make fairy wings with tissue paper and Translucent Liquid Sculpey. Look at me going all multi media!

A big thank you to Sue McFadden who pointed me in the right direction for a good number of these tutorials.  Let's all thank Sue by going to her website: http://www.suemcfadden.com

If you know of any great wing patterns or tutorials that I've missed out by all means leave a comment with the link.  Or if you have any suggestions or requests for upcoming themes for Freebie Friday please let me know -otherwise I'll just wing it!

 

 

Freebie Friday

Link it and they will come.  Let them know where to get stuff for free and boy, will they ever come.  I know doll makers love free stuff, but holy cow people!  I post one thing about free stuff and you came in droves!  I bet my husband on what my number of hits might be for that day, after I posted Free Doll Stuff and he said over 500. I said 'Naw, maybe 200'.  Well, you went and proved me wrong.  Obviously free stuff is the way to your hearts.  So my husband (I hate it when he's right) comes up with another winning suggestion.  'Why not,' he says with wisdom and aplomb, 'have a Freebie Friday where every Friday you post free stuff that you find on the net along a certain theme.  And have a different theme each week'.  Begrudgingly I must admit it is genius.  It gives me a really great excuse to surf the net for doll stuff, learn new things and then share it all with you.  Don't thank me.  Thank the hubby.  And check back on Friday for the first Freebie Friday.  The theme is going to be wings.

Free Doll Stuff

Ooh, those three delicious little words - free, doll, stuff.  Mmmmmm....they just make me tingle all over.  There really is only one thing better than doll stuff and that is free doll stuff.  I thought that today I would share some of my favourite free doll patterns and tutorials available on the net for your delectation.  May this list bring you many hours of happy exploration followed by many happy hours of creation.  Just click on the highlighted words to get to the link for that particular freebie.  There's that word again - free. Mmmmm.....

Free Full Size Doll Patterns

Patti Medaris Culea's Jiliana a 21st Boudoir Doll - a complete doll with down loadable PDF pattern and instructions including how to dye the doll.

Julie McCullough's Muse Doll Part 1 and 2 - a doll ripe for embellishment with lots of suggestions from Julie.

Doll Street's Full Size Doll Patterns - a pattern created by various members of doll street.

Sherry's Goshon's Elfin - a pattern created for a challenge, but still available.

Kate Erbach's Etta Mae - this is a really fun retro style doll.

Another offering from Kate Erbach Annie La Bouche - a primitive style raggedy doll.

Julie McCullough's cute Mardi Gras Dolls

Judith Prior's Fancy Nancy - a 12" sitting cloth doll

Allison Marano's Teeny Tiny Fairy - she really is small

Donna Schramek's pose-able fairy Callista

Shelley Hawkey's L'il Luv pattern - a retro style baby pattern.

Goddess Dolls

Jill Maas' Friendship Doll - pictured is my doll made from this free pattern.

Pin Dolls

Deanna Hogans Fair Faye

Patti LaValley's Neptune

Artgirlz Mama Uglioni pin

Judy Skeel's Lucky Penny Pin Doll

Ute Vasina's Moon Face Pin

Sonia Brock's primitive beaded pin doll Beadilia

Free Wing Tutorials

Deb Wood's tutorial on making your own feather wings and another great tutorial on making fantasy film wings - Deb is a polymer clay artist and makes gorgeous dolls.

Jean Bernard's wing tutorial

Free Sculpting Lesson

Shelley Hawkey's free lesson on sculpting - Shelley makes dolls out of one way stretch fabrics like doe suede and sculpts entirely through the neck opening so that her dolls look lovely bald.  And they do.

Stuffing Tips

Barbara Willis taught me to stuff and she's great at it so take a look at her tips.

Elinor Peace Bailey also has some great ideas for stuffing as well as how to do basic stitches like ladder stitch.

Taking Photos of your Dolls

Deb Wood's tips on creating an indoor setting for your dolls.

Fibre Art Techniques

Tips from Joggles.com

- how to use Tyvek - a fibre/fabric mix material that can be painted & burned etc

- how to use Lazertran - a photo transfer product

- how to use Lutradur - a spun web product originally used by roofers and now adopted by textile artists.

- how to stamp on fabric - Patti Culea's tips

- how to use Angelina fibre by Sue Bleiweiss - oooh, shiney.

Tips from elsewhere

- how to do shibori felting with Betz White

- how to make your own beaded trim with Romona King

Great Sites that Regularly Feature Free Patterns and Tutorials

www.joggles.com has a tutorial page - subscribe to the weekly newsletter for updates.

www.clothdollconnection.com has a Free Patterns and Tips page.  You can also subscribe for free updates.

www.dollmakersjourney.com has a free patterns page.  Subscribe to their newsletter for monthly updates.

www.dollstreetdreamers.com has a  Free stuff page plus lots of good tips etc in their Gazette. Subscribe to their newsletter for updates.

Free Stuff from Moi

I thought I'd give you some easy links for the free stuff I've offered in the past just so you don't miss any of it.

My free pin cushion doll Pinelope (pictured right)

My bookmark pattern to go with Patti Culea's face stamps.

My painting, stamping and stencilling tutorial

My peyote bead work tutorial

I'm starting to get a cramp and I'm going to stop.  It is very likely that I missed great swathes of fantastic stuff as I feel I could go on until next Tuesday.  If I've missed some of your favourites please share them by leaving a comment.   It might even be something on your own blog or website.  Go on, show off!  Tell us all about it.

If you find a broken link, please let me know.  I am starting go cross-eyed so I wouldn't be surprised if I dropped the ball somewhere.

I'm no angel

Mae West said "I'm no angel, but I've spread my wings a bit."  I hope that by the end of my life I can say the same thing.  Certainly, after making this little angel from Barbara Willis' Lillith Fairy pattern I'm going back to spreading my wings with one of my own designs.  But boy it's fun to use someone else's divine inspiration as the wind beneath your wings for a bit.  Relaxing, but not nearly as challenging. 

I've got piles of fabric ready to go for my next design.  I just need my eyeballs to arrive and have some fishing weights to buy.  Yup, fishing weights.  The things we doll makers end up buying - I tell you.  The weights are just to keep my next little guy rooted to the ground.  We'll leave the lofty heights to this little angel.

If you are in need of some divine inspiration and a very fun class I have it on good authority that there a still a few places left in Barbara Willis' course this October at Teresa Malyon's studio in Clacton-on-Sea.  If you feel like winging your way to Clacton for a fantastic course e-mail Teresa by clicking here.  When you are in Clacton make sure to go to the Thai restaurant - it is heavenly.

We came, we saw, we painted

The Rainbow Doll Club descended on the unsuspecting population of Great Missenden once again this past Wednesday for our monthly meeting at Rainbow Silks.   Our theme this month was painting and stamping - an effort at limbering up our creativity for the Goddess Doll swap with Patti Culea's doll club in the states.   And although I can barely believe it myself I managed two great feats.  The first - I played with paint and didn't get ANY on me.  A miracle by my standards.  Two - managed to come out of Rainbow Silks with only the materials I NEEDED.  Another miracle (that place is to me, as the apple was to Eve - too tempting). 

Because I am pathologically incapable of attending a meeting of any kind without a handout of some description, I created a little hints and tips tutorial on painting, stamping and stencilling on fabric.  Here it is in all its glory for you to download for free:  Download painting_stamping_and_stencilling_techniques.pdf

Jill (shown at left) and the rest of us managed a bit of play with some of Patti Culea's face stamps and I think we got some stamping on fabric questions answered.  There are a few things that make the images come out clearer:

1. Tape the fabric down on the table (although Stella has had good results with putting fabric down on top of newspapers for a bit of padding)

2.  Lay the stamp design side up on the table and push the stamp pad onto it covering the raised surface.

3.  Place the stamp on the fabric.  If it is mounted you may need to rock the stamp slightly.  If it is unmounted I press gently on the design areas that I can feel through the rubber so that all areas transfer.

4.  Clean your stamps immediately with an old toothbrush so that they stay in good nick.

5.   Use a newish pigment ink stamp.  I store mine upside down so that they ink stays at the surface of the pad.

6. Let the ink dry and heat set for permanence.

7.  Paint and embellish like a mad thing!

I know, I wrote an entire tips sheet but still manage to write yet more! 

We had several new faces this month - Sian who came along with Maureen and stamped her little guts out and Karen who decided to make a bookmark like mine using Patti Culea's face stamps.  I also managed to convince her to buy Patti's first book  (I am turning into a little Patti Culea pimp, aren't I?)

Thanks to Mavis for remembering her camera I actually have photos of the ladies to share.  Duh, charging your camera is only great when you remember to unplug the charger.

Our next meeting will be September 13th at 1:30pm at Rainbow Silks.  I will be stunning the group once again with my raging weirdness and a demo on building figures up from a wire armature.  Fancy joining in?  Come along or join our Yahoo Group. There is a button for requesting membership at the bottom right of the blog.  Come on, you know you want to!

I'm a dufus

Just a quick note that I am a dufus!  If you know me this will not be a surprise.  But I am feeling especially dumb as not once, but twice now I have goofed a post or link for Romona King.  When I originally created a link to Romona's blog I, um well, forgot the link.  And Romona very kindly pointed it out.  Then Romona tagged me and I called her Romona Shaw (in my post previous to this one) when I know darn well that her name is Romona King.  Yup, I am pretty dumb.  To make matters even worse Romona is currently taking my online course for Bea in her Bonnet on Cloth Doll Connection so she must be thinking 'What the heck am I doing taking a class from this nitwit?' (except Romona is much too nice for that ).  Let's just say I am better at doll making than typing.

So to make up for my dumbness you must all pay a visit to Romona's website and ooh and ah over Romona's beautiful stuff.  Click here for Romona's blog.

I've been tagged!

I have never been tagged before, so I am a bit a rookie at this.  The super lovely (and fellow Canadian) Romona King of Northbrook Designs nominated me for being nice.  And now I need to nominate 5 other people who I think are nice.  Some of you may think - what is the point?  Well, really this whole tagging business is about upping the number of links that a blog has to other blogs (it is a very interconnected community) and it has the bonus aspect that those people you nominate will know that you like them, their blog, and their work.  And that equates to one big warm fuzzy. 

Anyway, it is very hard who to choose for the Nice Matters Award (aka the Big Warm Fuzzy Award), as the cloth doll world is absolutely full of giving fantastic people.  So I have decided that I'm going to focus on those people with blogs who have really supported me in the cloth doll blog world.

Shashi Nayagam - a doll maker with a heart of gold.  Shashi is so generous and always makes sure to be positive and supportive of other doll makers.  Plus, her dolls are gorgeous.

Natalie Hamade - I've only recently 'met' Natalie via the web but she is also very positive and supportive.  Natalie's faces are stunning and truly original.

Marjorie Dawson - I met Marjorie at a Patti Culea course here in England and she has since moved to New Zealand.  Marjorie always takes time to answer questions and is extremely generous in sharing her knowledge.  Marjorie dabbles in a lot of different textile arts and does plenty of courses so she has lots to share.

Sharon in New Zealand - I met Shar through my own blog and then she joined the Rainbow Dolls Yahoo Group.  Shar has just started her own blog and I want to support her as much as she has supported me. Shar's new blog shows her first original doll pattern and it is fantastic.

Jan Horrox - Jan is based here in England and not only designs and teaches dolls, but also runs a cloth doll supply company.  Jan is great at listening to what doll makers want and supplying them with it. There can be nothing nicer than that.

So how warm and fuzzy was that?  Bet you got goosebumps, right? 

Bragging Rights

You could become a doll hermit if you wanted to just hole up with your sewing machine and speak to nary another soul.  Personally, I think that would be a bit sad.  If you want to debate the finer points of stuffing you need a doll friend.  If you want to drool over trims, fabric and beads you need a doll friend.  If you need to share ideas and inspiration you need doll friends.  That is why doll clubs are such a great thing.  Because not only will your doll friends not think you're weird - they'll join in!  But I think I am particularly lucky with my doll club because although we are relatively new and fairly small we have got some members going out there and getting their doll on! 

Mavis Walker, one of our founding members, just completed her degree from the Opus School of Textiles and guess what her thesis was about - dolls.  I was privileged enough to attend the exhibition at The Mall Galleries in London.  Here is an example of some of Mavis' work and an accompanying statement from Mavis: 

This work is about building faces and heads using stitch, fabric and supporting materials. The face is the most interesting part of a person, illustrating personality and individuality. Cloth is a good skin substitute, and stitch has a great ability to sculpt the cloth into desired shapes

Ancient and modern tools have aided very satisfying explorations of the human form, and have included a digital camera, traditional figure drawing, a camera lucida, and a computer. Research about human anatomy, the history of portraiture and the art of caricature has  informed the work.

Learning how to assemble the information gathered about facial anatomy, as well as individual characteristics revealed through personal facial geography, and then translating it into three dimensions has been a rigorous educational experience.

And as if Mavis' work were not enough to make Rainbow Dolls look illustrious, Jan Horrox's design for Fabulous Philomena is featured with a complete pattern in the current issue of   Stitch magazine.  Jan also runs a doll supply business with a dedicated website so when I see her at meetings I can also stock up. She's feeding my habit I tell you - she's enabling!  But only in the best possible way.

Thanks ladies for being such a great inspiration!