The Magic Bean

My Mum's Going to Have to Get a Bigger Coffee Table

I set myself a goal to get published this year and I'm at it again.

This time Water Lily is featured in Art Doll Quarterly.  Oooh, shiny paper.  It even smells good.

I've tried to think of a clever segue to tell you about what I found in my loaf tin in the pots and pans cupboard in my kitchen but my brain hurts too much to be clever right now, so I'll just hit you with it.  I saw a recipe for a yummy looking marmalade and Muscovado sugar cake and fished out my loaf tin to see if it was the right size.  Inside I found a single stray sock of my husband's.  What was a stray sock doing in the loaf tin?  I strongly suspect that a pixie spirited away that sock and has been using it as a duvet while sleeping in the loaf tin.  Definitely pixie mischief!

Surprise Post

I had a pretty ordinary day today and then I received this in the post:

All the way from Quebec, from Louise.  If you regularly read my blog you'll remember Louise's doll from my Bea in her Bonnet class.  The day I received those pictures from Louise I was really down, but her pictures and e-mail really cheered me up.  Now for no reason at all, except that Louise is a sweetie, I received this magazine!  And the best part is that I didn't have this one yet.  I have a subscription to Cloth Paper Scissors but this is a special issue that doesn't come with the subscription. What did I do to deserve such great internet doll friends?  Merci beaucoup Louise! 

I have been dying to show you what I'm working on but I can't because it's a gift and the recipient reads this blog.  Bum.  Can't share. So I thought I'd share this instead, cause it made me so happy when I saw it:

Let your inner child rock out!

Off the Top of My Head

Judi at Doll Street suggested that when I offer the Soul Whisperer as an online cloth doll class, I should offer a small free pattern for people who sign up by a certain date.  I had something in mind and started to do the pattern, but then the idea for these came to mind.  I'm so much in love with these little cloth doll pencil toppers.  Sometimes the best ideas come off the top of your head.

First there is Beryl.

Beryl is a graduate student in creative writing.  Her father thinks her degree is a waste of time.  Not a day goes by that he doesn't tell Beryl to get the lead out and finish with school.  But Beryl isn't ready to write off academia yet, after all she works as a supermodel and that more that pays for her tuition. However, Beryl's mother worries that she is thin as a pencil.  Only Beryl's grandmother is as proud of her degree as she is of her modelling career and brags that Beryl is 'such a sharp girl'.

Leda is one of Beryl's model friends.  Leda loves designer labels and luxury items. But Leda only wears fake fur as she is the face of PETA (Pencils for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).

And this is Tracey.

Tracey loves modelling the bridal wear at the end of the catwalk shows.  She fancies herself a bit of a comedian but as her memory is a bit sketchy she tends to forget the punch lines, so her jokes go down like a lead balloon.  Bless.

I had so much fun making these.  I hope you like them!

A Grumpy Muse

My muse has been rather grumpy of late.  She doesn't want to co-operate.  So it has taken me for ever to test my Soul Whisperer pattern, but I did finally get my second version of the Soul Whisperer finished.

I've used quite a different colour scheme, just for fun really.

But still the same funky shoes.

Gotta have those shoes.

So now the class is all ready, but Judi at Doll Street has suggested that I do a free pattern for people who sign up early, so I've got to sort that out before posting the ad for the class with Doll Street.  But I've got something in mind.  Maybe, just maybe I'll share that with you soon.  I'm such a tease. 

Ups and Downs

My poor hubby.  Himself has had to suffer through putting up with me this week.  I've been grumpy.  No real reason.  Just a big old grumpy pants.  Yesterday I got bummd out cause the gallery that has been selling my dolls decided not to sell them anymore.  They have sold some of them, but what sells are these tiny fairy's I used to make and frankly I'm not interested in cranking out endless identical fairies just for the sake of sales.  And I'm not hurt about the fact that they've told me they're not interested anymore.  I know that what is selling there is kids craft kits.  Finished crafts aren't a big hit for the shop.  And I have no issue with that.  But due to the fact that I'm generally grumpy, I started thinking 'What do I make all these dolls for?'.  I know the answer - I make them for me.  I don't really want to have the finished product for ever, I just love the process of designing and making them.  People ask which is my favourite doll and it is always the one I'm working on.  Granted, I care that the finished product is beautiful and well made, but it is not why I do it.  Himself said it's like when you are really enjoying a book and you rush to get to the end because you need to know what happens, but when you finish you are devastated that it is over and you are no longer part of that world.  And that's it.  The crux of it.

Plus.  I live in a shoe box.  Not literally, but my flat is very small.  London small (as opposed to North America small) which is really small.  Did I mention that it's small?  So there isn't the room to store a large collection of dolls.   I could sell them on Ebay or Etsy.  But then I'd have to regularly meet my nemesis - the post office!  I hate posting things.  I have issues.    So I'm undecided as to what to do with these dolls. 

But in the cheerful department, one of my students from my online class for Bea in her Bonnet , Louise Bergeron from Quebec, sent me some pictures of her finished doll and she is a stunner!

Louise even crocheted the hat herself.  Fab, huh?  I love that each student interprets the pattern differently.  Louise really went for a garden theme with the little shovel and mossy socks.  So this answers my question too - What do I make dolls for?  I make them for this.  Seeing other people get joy out of what I've designed.  Man, I'm welling up.  And now Louise has gone and signed up for Water Lily.  Sniff, sniff, don't mind me.      

The Soul Whisperer

When you are at the end of your rope and you feel like you might finally lose your grip, something or someone suddenly whispers words of encouragement to your soul and you feel as if you've been given a little boost of whatever it was you needed to hang in there.  Those whispered words might have been courage, support, inspiration, or love, but they kept you going.  In my imagination, those words are whispered by a guardian of our souls - a Soul Whisperer.  And my latest doll is what I imagine this Soul Whisperer might look like.

I don't know where exactly I got the idea for the Soul Whisperer.  I think it may have started with the fantastic co-ordinated cottons that I bought from the Marsh Store, in Ilderton, Ontario, Canada.  I really loved the faces on the fabric and started collecting buttons and push-moulds with faces on them.

While pondering what to do with these yummy fabrics I remembered a dream that I had in high school at a time when I was particularly stressed.  I dreamed of a beautiful and extremely calm woman. Whenever she appeared I calmed down immediately.  The woman in my dream was a gorgeous black woman with long beautiful braids.  So immediately, I started to picture this doll with her face.  And the faces on the fabrics were the souls she was whispering to. 

I have never made a black doll before this or in fact, any doll that wasn't white.  When I mentioned the idea of this doll to a friend who is black she was very excited about the design.  However, another friend who is white said that I'd better be careful or I might offend someone - a reaction I wasn't expecting.  The idea behind the doll was not political. I just happened to picture the character as being black.  I am not black myself, true, but I am not blond and I've made blond dolls before. 

I think part of the reason that you see many more white dolls than black dolls is that the cloth doll world, and in fact, the craft world is still predominantly white.  And we tend to make dolls in our own image.  Very often people say that we make dolls that look like ourselves without realising it.  However, my friend's cautious reaction to making a doll that is black suggests another reason that we see far fewer black dolls.  Maybe we are afraid of offending people.  How very sad if that is the case.  We are missing out on so much beauty.

I hope when people look at this doll they see what I imagined - a beautiful woman (with extremely stylin' shoes) who just happens to be black. 

I am thinking of offering this doll as an online class so it will be interesting to see how people react to her.  Please let me know what you think. 

When it rains it pours

And this week it seems to be raining magazines.  I got the latest Soft Dolls and Animals magazine and discovered that my doll, Water Lily is featured in the Inspirations section.

That brag collection is getting a little big, huh Mum?  Make more room on the coffee table!

When in doubt check the dust buster

Well, I fulfilled one of my life long ambitions on my Roman holiday:  I stuck my hand in the Mouth of Truth (a la Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck) and  came out with my digits intact.

I saw lots of really old cool stuff.

I ate a gelatto from the place where the pope gets his ice cream.  It was divine!  And I learned that they weren't above a good waffle cone in the Renaissance.

I even learned the secret for crossing the street in Rome - pretend that you don't care, saunter out into traffic with such self assurance that they wouldn't dare hit you.  If they smell the fear you are done for!  Either that, or cross with a bunch of nuns. 

By the end of my holiday I had the sorest feet and one heck of a crick in the neck.  Why did they have to make all the beautiful stuff so high up?

 

So now I'm home and back to my doll making.  I'd like to say 'with a vengeance', but I had  minor set back yesterday - I lost an important piece of fabric.  It doesn't look so important.  In fact you'd be forgiven for mistaking it for a scrap.

But it actually sits like this in the bodice.

See?  Important.  But I lost it.  And I only had that tiny piece left.  AND I bought the fabric in San Fransisco last year.I tore my sewing table apart.  I looked in drawers.  I took everything apart. I looked in impossible places.  I got myself in a dither.  Then my hubby came home. And calmly suggested that I look in the Dust Buster.  I wouldn't have vacuumed it up, I scoffed.  Himself took the hand vac apart and voila - my little piece of fabric.  I was torn between between being ecstatically happy that my bodice insert was saved and being really miffed that I had spent 2 hours looking for the sodding thing and Himself found it before he even took his coat off.  I settled for washing it in some Eucalan and giving my hubby a big smooch. 

Just hanging in my new pad...

Well, the only thing greater than making a new design is making it all over again.  As I have done with my Water Lily pattern. 

The weird thing is that you figure out all the little things that just have to be done to make a little fairy raised by frogs turn out exactly right.  I discovered the secret of getting the shape of this little one's pointy chin, well, pointy.  It all has done to do with the seams.  And the seam allowances. Folks,  I designed it and even I didn't realise that - until I made another head from my own pattern and was forced to spend several days pondering where the heck her sweet little chin went to.  So that first little fairy head went bye, bye.  And will hopefully not be found by some poor unsuspecting bin man.  I find that even little cloth heads freak people out when not attached to a body.

 

The other thing I discovered is that organza as toe webbing is bad.  Very bad.  Silk georgette?  Good, very good.  Angelina fibre in the wings also very good.  Shiny....mmmm..... We like shiny.

I always wondered how doll designers figured out all sorts of weird little tips that make the doll go right the first time.  Now I know, they get it wrong first so you don't have to!

I am getting really excited about this online class.  Several people have told me that they have registered.  Whoopee.  Getting paid to play with cool people while making dolls.  Yup, never gonna grow up!

If you feel like playing too you can sign up by clicking here to visit Cloth Doll Connection. 

Frogtastic New Online Doll Class

I will be teaching Water Lily as an online class with Cloth Doll Connection starting January 14th, 2008.  Click here to see the description.  I know, January seems a long way away, but I thought starting the class in December might be a bad time with the holiday season and all.  I, for one, will be knee deep in tinsel and LOVING IT! Bring it on!  Plus, I figured that people wishing to take the class could put it on their Christmas wish list.  Is that enabling your doll making habit?  Probably.   But I love it when people feed my habit - gives me somebody else to blame for my addiction.

I've been doing something a little fun with this online class (besides the obvious fun of making dolls, I mean).  While I was looking at pictures of frogs at the design stage, I found out some really cool facts about our amphibian friends.  So I am including Frog Facts throughout the class. For example, did you know that there is a frog called the false-eyed frog.  It has a set of large fake eyes on its bum!  When it feels it is in danger it hunches over and presents its tushy to show its fake eyes.  And if the creepy big eyes don't work, it oozes a foul smelling liquid. Dudes, how weird is that?

Of course, Water Lily is a much more delicate creature - no foul smells and one set of eyes.  Tee hee.

I'm sure we'll have just as much fun in this class as we did with Bea in her Bonnet.  Can't wait!