The Magic Bean

Wordy Wednesday: Extreme Doll Making with a Choral Twist

Normally, Wednesday is for lovely pictures and no words, but today I decided I wanted to be verbose. It's my blog so I'll do what I wanna.

This Wordy Wednesday is brought to you from Southwestern Ontario where I am currently visiting my parental units and preparing for the Creativ Festival where I will be both exhibiting (in booth 202) and teaching two classes (the Green Man and Dive Into a Book).

In between prepping for my classes, pricing up patterns and making giant spools of thread (yes, you read that right, giant spools of thread - you'll have to come to the show to see what I mean) I've also managed to fit in a bit of Extreme Doll Making. For those of you who are new to my blog, Extreme Doll Making is when I make dolls in unlikely and public places.

This time I made dolls while sitting amongst a choir, namely the Embro Thistle Singers. The vocally delightful group includes from left to right, front row Bonnie, Attie, Elaine, Moi, Kathy, Kay and Carolin (who I have a hard time, calling by her first name because she is the mum of one of my school friends) and in the back row we have the masculine musicians, from left to right John, Glen, Harold, Damon, Harvey, Gary and Doug. Behind the camera is my mum, Kitty Babcock the conductor of this group of gifted virtuosos. If you want to get an earful of some fantastic music you can hear the Embro Thistle Singers at Brooksdale United Church, Ontario for their anniversary service on November 6th, 2011.

So while I'm busy at the Creativ Festival, why not try a spot of Extreme Doll Making yourself. What group of people can you convince to gather round you while you make cloth dolls? If you've got your own blog, blog about it and let me know, or send me photos at colleenbabcock@uwclub.net and I'll tell the world about the extremes you go to in the name of doll making.

Extreme Doll Making: Making Dolls in a Kayak

If you are regular reader of my blog, you will have noticed that I haven't posted a new Extreme Doll Making location in a while. This is down to be unable to wrangle some time with my official photographer (read: my hubby) for some weird and wacky public doll making. Added to that, the recent riots in London have made the prospect of Extreme Doll Making a bit more extreme than I'd like.

However, Jan Wiebe came to the rescue.

Jan, of the Cloth-a-Dollics Doll Club in Victoria BC (one of the groups I taught in April of this year)got in on the Extreme Doll Making by sewing on a doll in her kayak in the middle of Tuc-el-Nuit Lake in Canada. Dudes, that's cool and that is extreme.

I want to be like Jan when I grow up.

Feel free to get in on the Extreme Doll Making action yourself. Think of some place weird to make dolls and go for it! If you send me pictures like Jan did to colleenbabcock@uwclub.net , I'll blog about it or you can blog about it yourself and send me a link.

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Extreme Doll Making: The Tower and Tower Bridge

When you are sitting stitching a doll head at the Tower of London it gives whole new meaning to "off with their head". 

This public and unlikely spot for making cloth dolls was requested by two people, my mum, Kitty Babcock and by fellow doll maker and friend Mary Wilkes.

 

So I obliged.  I sat right next to Traitor's Gate and made myself comfortable.  Well, as comfortable as you can get while perched on a tiny cement ledge.  The large group of tourists who filed past me didn't seem perturbed by my presence in the least.

 

Since Tower Bridge is right there, I did a spot of Extreme Doll Making in its imposing shadow.  Actually, the very first day I arrived in England from Canada I stood very near this spot and watched fireworks for Guy Fawkes Day.  I certainly never pictured myself sitting here making dolls.  Isn't it funny how life works out?

Do you have any spots that were the site of life changing moments for you?  Did you make dolls then?  Why not revisit those spots and engage in some Extreme Doll Making and then blog about it.  Just make sure to tell me all about it in the comments section.

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OR

Leave me a comment asking me to make dolls in a public and unlikely place. It can be a famous London location or just a really strange spot to make dolls in. When I blog about it, I'll link to your blog or website.

Extreme Doll Making: 221b Baker Street

What exactly is 221b Baker Street?  Elementary, my Dear Watson. 

 
It is the home of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective. 

And how does a fictional character actually have a home?  221b Baker Street is the Museum of Sherlock Holmes and is in fact the first museum in the world to be dedicated to a fictional character.

 
Edwina Sutherland, doll designer and teacher suggested this location as an unlikely public place to make cloth dolls.  Edwina dared me to go do it and I did.

I stood as close to the door as I could and sewed up a doll head.  The fictional cop behind me barely glanced at me.  A few people in the very long queue gave me some strange looks, but that could have been because they thought I was trying to jump the queue.

 
I think that people wearing bowler hats with a hooded sweatshirts probably aren't staring at me because I'm weird. 

I doubt anyone would guess that I was not queue-jumping but rather indulging in a bit of Extreme Doll Making.  I'm not sure their powers of deduction were up to that level.  I didn't clue them in as to what I was up to.  After all, a girl should be allowed a little sense of mystery. 

Do you want to engage in some Extreme Doll Making?

There are two ways to get involved:

1. Leave me a comment asking me to make dolls in a public and unlikely place. It can be a famous London location or just a really strange spot to make dolls in.  When I blog about it, I'll link to your blog or website.  Go on, get creative. Dare me.

OR

2. Why don't you try making dolls in public and unlikely places? It can be a famous or notable location or it can just be a weird one, like in the produce aisle of your grocery store or on the bench of a public park. Londoners tend to ignore public weirdness, but what do they do in your city or town? Blog about your bout of Extreme Doll Making and let me know about it.

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Extreme Doll Making: Where Will and Kate Got Married

Since I first asked for suggestions for unlikely places to make dolls in public, I've had a number of suggestions.  First, Helen suggested that I make dolls at 84 Charing Cross Road, which I did.  And while walking from Charing Cross Road to my next location suggested by Carol Craven, we saw actor Mark Christopher Lawrence who plays "Big Mike" from the comedy show Chuck standing outside Winston Churchill's War Rooms.  We played it cool and walked right past.  Well, OK, so maybe I poked my hubby and wiggled my eyebrows, but that is as cool as I get.

From spotting Big Mike, we moved a bit closer to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey where Carol wanted me to engage in a spot of public doll making where Prince William married Kate Middleton. 

It may not look that extreme, but when you have to fight the throngs of tourists who are swarming the place since the Royal Wedding - trust me, it's extreme.

Thanks to Carol for suggesting this location.  If Carol had left me a URL of her blog or website, I would have linked to it, but I didn't have one.  So instead I will just take a moment to salute Carol (I'm saluting right now even if you can't see me).

Do you want to engage in some Extreme Doll Making? 

There are two ways to get involved:

1.  Leave me a comment asking me to make dolls in some public and unlikely place.  So long as it isn't illegal, dangerous or indecent, I'm in.  When I blog about it, I'll link to your blog or website.

OR

2.  Why don't you try making dolls in public and unlikely places?  It can be a famous or notable location or it can just be a weird one, like in the produce aisle of your grocery store or on the bench of a public park.  Londoners tend to ignore public weirdness, but what do they do in your city or town?  Blog about your bout of Extreme Doll Making and link to your post below.

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Extreme Doll Making: 84 Charing Cross Road

The fastest way to make yourself some room in a crowded tourist spot in London is to do something a bit weird. I suggest making cloth dolls in public. Works a treat.

A while ago I asked you to challenge me to make cloth dolls in public/slash weird places. And Helen who shares her work on her blog Dollz and Thingz asked me to make dolls at 84 Charing Cross Road. At the time it seemed like a pretty random address to me, but it turns out there is a book of the same name.

And a movie starring Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins.

Here is what Wikipedia had to say about 84 Charing Cross Road:

84 Charing Cross Road is a 1970 book by Helene Hanff, later made into a stage play, television play and film, about the twenty-year correspondence between her and Frank Doel, chief buyer of Marks & Co, antiquarian booksellers located at the eponymous address in London, England.

Hanff, in search of obscure classics and British literature titles she had been unable to find in New York City, noticed an ad in the Saturday Review of Literature and first contacted the shop in 1949, and it fell to Doel to fulfill her requests. In time, a long-distance friendship evolved, not only between the two, but between Hanff and other staff members as well, with an exchange of Christmas packages, birthday gifts, and food parcels to compensate for post-World War II food shortages in England. Their letters included discussions about topics as diverse as the sermons of John Donne, how to make Yorkshire Pudding, the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the coronation of Elizabeth II.

Hanff postponed visiting her English friends until too late; Doel died in December 1968 from peritonitis from a burst appendix, and the bookshop eventually closed. Hanff did finally visit Charing Cross Road and the empty but still standing shop in the summer of 1971, a trip recorded in her 1973 book The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street. A circular brass plaque on the building that now stands on the shop's former site acknowledges the story.

So I made my way to the site, stood in front of the plaque and made dolls.  I had a whack of doll heads to baste together, so I did it at 84 Charing Cross Road.  It didn't faze the passing Londoners one bit, but we may have scared off some tourists.

From here we made our way through Trafalgar Square and cut through Horse Guards Parade.  It was outside Winston Churchill's War Rooms where we spotted a celebrity.  Hint:  He is American and stars in a hit hour long comedy show.  He is a "big" celebrity.  Any guesses? 

Thanks to Helen for this original idea for a bout of Extreme Doll Making.  I've got several more Extreme Doll Making locations to reveal, but in the meantime, does anyone else have any suggestions?  Leave a comment and suggest a location or activity for me to do while making dolls and I'll link to your blog in the post.

Extreme Doll Making: Making Cloth Dolls in Unlikely Places

I've started to play a little game.  I like to work on my cloth dolls in public places.  An activity which is particularly fun in London.  Londoners do notice that weird things are going on around them, but they try desperately to pretend that they don't.  I once saw a man wearing only a t-shirt and white Y-front underwear with thick black lines painted onto his calves walk boldly down a London street and everyone made like he was just another commuter on his way to work.  "Nothing strange here", said everyone's body language.

Once when I was taking a course with Patti Culea at Rainbow Silks in Great Missenden I ended up stuffing my doll on the train journey from London to Great Missenden.  One man kept peering over his newspaper to try and make out what I was doing.  Eventually, I took one of the doll's little hands and waved at him.  He dived behind his paper, never to be seen from again.  I love messing with the uninitiated.

So I was trying to think of an unlikely place to make cloth dolls.  Somewhere that is the antithesis of making cloth dolls.

I ended up making a cloth doll at an England rugby game at Twickenham Stadium.  Hard men and soft dolls - yup, nothing more opposite than that.

For the record, England lost.  But my cloth doll is done.  Score on that one.

Anyone fancy a bit of extreme doll making? 

Here's what we'll do, you suggest a weird place for me to make cloth dolls and so long  as it isn't illegal, indecent or going to threaten my safety or that of others, I'm up for it.  So don't ask me to make cloth dolls while tightrope walking outside the front door of Number 10 Downing Street while naked, cause I'm not doing it.

But if there is somewhere in London you've always wanted to go, leave me a comment and I'll go there and take a picture of me making a doll.  Or maybe you just want to see if I'll stuff a doll head in the middle of the produce section of a supermarket. 

Go on dare me.