The Magic Bean

Freebie Friday - Behold the Goddess

I received a couple more pictures through from Rainbow Doll Club members of the goddess dolls they created for our swap with Patti Culea's doll club. 

Wendy created this little cutie.

Karen , one of our overseas members who participates through our Yahoo group created this gorgeous goddess from a free pattern provided by member, Janet Clarke.  Isn't she fab?

Getting these pictures through inspired me to point you toward some free goddess doll patterns on the net.  Here's  the round up:

Here are a whole bunch of simple goddess doll patterns from Kivett Studio.  The examples on this website show some beautiful beading.  Beads...mmmmm...shiney......

Click here to see a free goddess doll from British designer Sara Maddocks.

Or how about this beautiful goddess doll designed by Jill Maas.  Click here to see the pattern.  I love this little one and have shared her before, but it's my blog and I'll do what I wanna.  Here is a goddess doll that I made from this pattern.

Click here to see Sherry Goshon's Goddess of Love pattern.

Or this very funky goddess pin doll, Jump Start my Heart by Heather Gailey.  Click here for the pattern.

I keep meaning to make this Healing Goddess by Marcia Acker-Missal.  Click here to see it.

Mary Tressler has a great goddess doll called the Totem Doll.  Click here to see the pattern.

I bet you are feeling all spiritual just looking at these right?  Mmmm....the peaceful zen of free patterns.

We Came, We Saw, We Swapped

On Thursday October 11th, Rainbow Dolls had their monthly meeting, this time at Blue Haze in Chesham.  Stupidly, yours truly booked the day off work and bought tickets for the Knitting & Stitching Show at Ally Pally for the same day.  Yes, I am a moron sometimes.  So Mavis did the head honcho-ing duties and gave a talk on her method for constructing fist-sized heads after the method of Lisa Lichtenfels.

Jill, Maureen and Mavis brought dolls for the swap with Patti Culea's club members.  Jill's goddess featured lovely draped and beaded clothing. 

Maureen made a snake goddess, who can be detached from her "snake throne." Maureen says that the eventual new owner of this goddess might like to do some more beading on her or her throne.

Mavis created a blue goddess, called "A goddess of the wild blue yonder".  She was made as a result of a printing, painting and stamping class with Sherrill Kahn.

Mavis also made a green goddess, named "A garden goddess from across the sea," which was also made after the Sherrill Kahn class.

Shashi, made a mermaid sea goddess that she posted on her blog, click here to see it.

A number of or other long distance members participate via the Yahoo Group.  Maybe if we're good we'll get sent some links to photos of these dolls?  If you fancy joining our Yahoo Group their is a nifty Join button at the bottom right side of my blog.

I've already posted my primitive style, British babe created out of the Star Spangled Banner Sheet music which I printed on fabric then painted with the Stars and Stripes.  But here she is again. I obviously, took a slightly different interpretation of the Across the Sea theme.  I was going for that 'special relationship' angle.

A couple of new members also joined in on the fun on Thursday.  We'd love to have more fresh victims, e-mail me if you are interested.  We don't bite and are only slightly crazy. 

Freebie Friday - Free Doll Armature Tutorials

Rainbow Dolls had our monthly meeting today at Rainbow Silks.  Jill had requested some help with wire armatures and I duly obliged with a demo on one method of creating a doll body using a wire armature.  I adapted this method for cloth dolls largely from Maureen Carlson's book Family and Friends in Polymer Clay.  Although the book is meant for polymer clay doll artists I feel it is indispensable for all doll artists.  Besides the bits explaining making armatures, this book beautifully illustrates what happens when you play with facial and body proportions.  Unlike some polymer clay artists (not all, but a few) Maureen's Carlson's approach is 'Here are the rules - break them if you want'.  I love her playful approach.  Too much reality is just stifling. 

Too see how I have adjusted Maureen Carlson's approach to better suit cloth dolls download this free tutorial on building a wire armature:  Download wire_armature_tutorial.pdf .  But do invest in Maureen's book - you won't regret it. 

In our demo today I used Shelley Hawkey's pattern for the head and hands of Dylan the Elf from the December 2006 issue of Doll Crafter & Costuming.  Everyone seemed really impressed with him.  Well, he is pretty cute.  I gave him a little hat and slippers for his photo, but the wadding on his body has not been tacked in place, nor has he been skinned (that is the body covered in fabric, not skinned like a 'coon)  If you want to purchase back issues of this magazine click here to buy the magazine from Jan Horrox.

To my mind,

There are 2 basic ways for making a doll with an armature:

1. 1.  creating a pattern for the body pieces, inserting the wire and stuffing around it
2. 2.  creating head, hands, and possibly feet, attaching them to a wire armature and using batting (wadding) or similar and building up the body by wrapping

My tutorial covers method number 2.  If, however you are keen to learn method number 1 click here to see Mimi Winer's free tutorial on wire armatures.

For a good general article on wire armatures by Martha Checkett click here.

If you want a simplified version of the wrapping method to make a simple doll with a bead head try this free tutorial from Susanna Oroyan via the DIY Network by clicking here.

It is hard to believe but I actually managed to make the armature and talk at the same time all in under an hour.  Even I was impressed.

I was even more impressed by the dolls and projects the other members brought to show.  Here is Chris' in-progress fairy:

Jill's gorgeous Oriental quilt:

And Stella's own design for her interpretation of Klimt's the Kiss in cloth, also inspired by our last meeting where we played with stamps and painting:

 

See, you never know where something you've learned at your doll club will take you!  So let's start seeing some dolls with wire armatures.  Go on, wire you waiting? 

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!

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! 

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. 

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!

Rainbow Doll Club June Meeting

Well, we were at it again!  Talking shop, bragging about our dolls, and learning new stuff at Rainbow Silks in Bucks for our monthly meeting of the Rainbow Doll Club.  One of our Head Honchos is relinquishing her honcho status, but we got one last chance to learn from Wendy before she moves away. 

Wendy gave us all a tutorial on stuffing.  The top tips were:

• 1. to use the largest bit of stuffing you can fit in at a time. 
• 2. to think of the stuffing as bones, pushing down into the stuffing with a stuffing fork in the centre of the wad of stuffing
• 3. use a steamy iron to iron the body parts once stuffed to settle the stuffing
• 4.  that the stuffing needs to be really firm - if you press the baby finger to your thumb on one hand, feel the heel of that hand with your opposite hand.  That is how hard your head should be.  Or at least your doll's head.

Wendy credits Barbara Willis and Patti Medaris Culea with giving her the best lessons in stuffing.  Barbara is teaching one last time in the UK at Teresa Malyon's studio in Clacton-on-Sea in October and Patti is teaching at Rainbow Silks in October.  If you have never had the opportunity to take classes from either of these fantastic ladies then don't miss the opportunity.  If you can't get yourself to an in-person class try these free stuffing tips from Barbara Willis by clicking here.

Wendy was a busy lady as she also taught Jan Horrox and I to do some basic crochet. And with Stella's & Maureen's help I think we may have got it.  It all makes sense now.

Stella also brought in Doll Magazine which features a write up about  Rainbow Dolls thanks to Stella who brought us to their attention. 

We also added my contributions to our display in the workshop room at Rainbow Silks.  Here is the board before my additions.  Not bad huh? 

We also had a couple of new faces this time - Josie who is travelling around Britain popped in for some fun and body part stuffing.  And Maureen who brought her lovely dolls to show off. 

To see more pictures of the members and their dolls check out the Rainbow Dolls album on the side bar.

Our next meeting will be Thursday July 12th at 1:30 pm at Rainbow Silks.  We'd love to see more new faces. E-mail me for more information.  Our future projects include a trans-Atlantic swap of Goddess dolls with Patti Culea's doll club. 

PS  I have just managed to write this whole post while eating ice cream on a stick WITHOUT getting any on the keyboard - now that's accomplishment.  Of course, I was only eating the ice cream to use the stick for stirring paint.  One must sacrifice for one's art.  Sigh.

Yoohoo! We're on Yahoo!

Rainbow Dolls my fantastic doll club is now in cyberspace on Yahoo Groups.  The aim of the Yahoo Group is to keep up the doll enthusiasm between meetings which are held at Rainbow Silks in Bucks.  If you are living in Timbuktu, but would still like to join in on the fun - you might have questions, you might what to participate in challenges or you just might want to drool over what other doll makers are making then we'd love to have you.  And we'd love to drool over your dolls too!  Well, figuratively of course.  It isn't really good doll etiquette to ACTUALLY drool on someone's doll. 

There is now a very handy dandy button on the side bar of my blog where you can sign up for our Yahoo Group and join in the fun!

Flower Child

I am on a roll!  As I sit here not so patiently waiting for my stuffing to arrive from America I must still find something doll-related to do.  (It's kind of like inhaling and exhaling after all).  And as I have all sorts of problem with my hands, I have to get going when the going is good. 

So here is another contribution to my doll club's display board.  I bought this fabric and trim with Barbara Willis and Betts Vidal on a terrific buying spree in San Francisco.  I saw a very similar trim in MacCullogh and Wallis in central London recently for £15.75 a metre.  I bought this trim for 75 cents a yard at what Barbara and Betts call the 'cheap and nasty store'.  I personally think it should be called the 'cheap and fantastic' store.  If I ever go there again I may have to genuflect at its entrance.

The pattern is a great one designed by Jill Maas.  Even better than cheap, it is free! The fantastic thing about the internet is that there is an abundance, a plethora, I would even go so far as to say a glut, of free stuff out there for doll makers.  One great way to get free stuff is to sign up for the Doll Makers Journey newsletter.  It arrives once a month with news on challenges, conferences, tips, new patterns being released and yes, free patterns.  You can still get this pattern by clicking here.