The Magic Bean

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!

Water Lily

One night as I lay in bed, I was thinking about Mowgli from Jungle Book and wondered if a fairy were abandoned by her parents in the wild what type of creature would raise her?  Frogs.  That much was quite clear.  And so I began to think of what life would be like for such a fairy.

This is Water Lily.  Her parents were tragically killed in a mid-air collision over a pond, leaving the young fairy all alone.  A family of frogs adopted her and raised her as their own.  They put a water lily on her head to help her blend into the pond which is how she came to be known as Lily.  They gave her little frog flippers to help her keep up in the water.   But they couldn't come up with a substitute for their long sticky tongues, so Water Lily has some trouble catching flies.  She has just missed a meal and is pouting as she watches yet another tasty morsel escape.

My hubby and I had many discussions on what Water Lily's parents may have collided with when they met their untimely demise.  Himself first suggested a Frisbee.  I wondered why someone would throw a Frisbee over a pond.  Then he suggested a flying squirrel. I ask you.  Unless the squirrel had a sudden desire to do the backstroke why would it leap over a pond?  Lastly,  he declared that it should be a pigeon.  Pigeons are flea and disease infested birds and so are easily vilified, but they fit into the setting of Trafalgar Square better than a pond.  What do you think collided with Water Lily's parents?

I am hoping to offer Water Lily as an online class, so now to writing it all down and then making the pattern all over again.  Is it weird that I actually look forward to that?  Probably no weirder than sprawling on my belly at side of the pond in the park near my flat to get these photos.  At least Londoners are adept at ignoring weird behaviour.  It's a honed skill here.  That many people in one place and you are bound to get a few quality weirdos.  Including me.

 

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.

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!

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.

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.

 

When the roll stops rolling....

Recently Jan Horrox commented that I have been on a roll (not a bread product, but a creative roll).  And I have been.  Since about January I've been happily making doll after doll and doing my own designs.  Happy as a clam (an aside here, but just how happy can shellfish be?). 

Then this week my roll came to a halt.  It just stopped rolling.  I started to make another doll from Barbara Willis' Lillith Fairy pattern and that went horribly wrong. Let's just say it involved two heads and crossed eyes and it just wasn't pretty.

So I thought, 'This is the cloth doll muse telling me to get on with my own designs'.  So I tried to go back to a pattern I have started once before and devise a head for the already created body.  Well, that didn't work.  Nope.  Non-starter.  Let's just say that this one is still bubbling, but is not yet ready to come out into the world. 

So shock, horror, I haven't done any doll making in days.  Days I tell you.  It is just unheard of.  I've been caressing my fabrics and re-reading patterns.  It has been sad. 

So while trawling though some doll blogs I came across this fantastic site.  Ironically, it is all about wire art.  If you've read my very recent blog posts you will see that this is a medium with which I struggle.  I did manage to make a wire dragonfly, but it involved some rather creative expletives and a large amount of frustration.  So when I saw this site it filled me with three things:  jealously, appreciation, and a whole lot of laughter.  If you are having a bad day, check out this site Bent Objects.  If it doesn't make you want to giggle, guffaw, or express mirth in any way then you are just dead inside. 

Warning: cloth dolls affect the brain!

It is true, cloth dolls wreck havoc on your brain.  Once you get started making cloth dolls it starts to affect every last bit of grey matter.  As I finished my latest doll off and was busy asking my hubby what he thought of my firefly's wings, he said, 'Don't you mean dragonfly?'   I paused.  I contemplated.  I blinked.  I briefly looked bewildered.  Then I asked, 'Isn't that what I said?'.  No, he informed me that I had been calling it a firefly for days now.  Well.  That made me feel dumb.  Cause not only had I been an idiot in the privacy of my own home, but rather publicly out there in the blogosphere.  So just to be clear - this fairy is inspired by a DRAGONFLY, not a firefly.  She does not glow, she is just sparkly and pretty and has wings.  Dragonfly. Dragonfly.  I think if I repeat it enough times it might actually sink in.   

I am really rather proud that I managed a bit of wire work with the bead dragonfly (see, I think I must be catching on. DRAGONFLY).  I seem to have had a bit of a wire disability or something because I find it a real struggle to do any sort of wire work.  So at least I can feel smug about tackling a skill that has previously eluded me.  Even though during the course of its creation the name of the insect I was creating seemed to have eluded me.  It's a trade off I suppose - all the grey matter cannot function at all times.

I also discovered a couple of neat little tips while I was finishing off the bits of ribbon with some Fray Check.  Tip No. 1: don't get Fray Check on silk. It stains.  Tip No 2:  if you do get Fray Check on silk then use a bit of silk tie stain remover to get it out.  Magic. The silk tie stuff I used comes in individual sachets and looks like wet wipes and can be purchased at some department stores or menswear shops.  Just rub it on the stain and it comes out.  Lovely.  You see, I wasn't really being careless with my Fray Check.  I knew what I was doing all along.  I just wanted to test that stain stuff in case anyone happened to spill some Fray Check and needed to know how to get it out.  Yup, just testing.   

Then, a peculiar thing happened.  Something that seems to happen to me with Barbara Willis patterns.  It was weird.  When I make a doll I go through my stash and gather up all my materials for that doll and put them in one big Ziploc bag.  When I'm finished I put it all neatly way.  It is very therapeutic - the transition from one doll to the next.  Except this time, like one time before with a Barbara Willis pattern, I was putting stuff away and suddenly a whole other colour scheme for the same pattern popped out at me.  Very different in colour, very luxe I think.   

So even though the plan was to move to a design of my own that I've started I think there needs to be another Barbara Willis doll.  Just has to.  My grey matter doesn't work at the best of times, but when the Cloth Doll Muse says 'I wanna make this doll right now!' I listen 'cause my feeble brain will not engage at all unless I listen to the muse.  So, one more fairy.  Then my own design.