Work in progress

I have to start pushing myself to get some stuff ready for the holiday craft show I'm doing with my friend Shirley at the end of November. I made some mini-magnets yesterday and found a tin lid to display them on this morning. I tried to take a photo but the crystal microbeads looked funny from the flash. I'll have to take a photo of them in natural light. Anyhow - this is the beginning of an ornament that Jacque Uetz writes about in Doll Crafter/Costuming's December issue. First time I've even done a wrapped armature. I've covered the face with cloth since this picture was taken. It is supposed to dry overnight so the face mold adheres to the armature. Grrrr - I hate when I have to wait!!!

Crafty Mom

Sometimes having a crafty Mom is a good thing! Yesterday my daughter came over and we turned a thrift store tablecloth into a table banner for her. It took more time than I expected - the cloth was way too long so we had to shorten it - then we found tears on the edges - so it had to go back through the serger (overlocker) again. Then it took a loooong time to cut out all those letters! But she learned about the wonder of Wonder Under and it was a good thing. Best of all was spending time together.

This is Tara holding Chicote - a lizard who thinks it is a dog. She and her fiance held an adoption clinic at the big pet store tonight.

The Mummy

So what do you do when it's nearly Halloween and you don't feel like doing hair and clothing? Why, you costume your little one as The Mummy. Using wool roving, of all things! My husband said only the eyes are supposed to show but I couldn't bear to cover her face!!

Making samples

I love teaching but I really don't like making samples, LOL. I have a class in a week and a half and I am just now getting this done. I have to take it in to the store tomorrow so I know what I'll be doing tonight - hair and face. I'm not going to worry about clothes as another of my friends is going to teach that and she will use my body for the sample. Well, my doll body, that is. I'll probably just drape something filmy on her and call it a robe. This is from the latest Patti Culea book - Cloth Doll Couture. I used Judy Ward's invisible jointing method - I like how it looks.
It's amazing how the camera shows every little lump and bump from stuffing.

Lots to share !!

The hard drive on my laptop crashed last week and so I've been pretty quiet, LOL. It is replaced now and I'm going through the headache of reloading all my programs. That really cuts into creative play time!! I do have some things to share though. I'll start with what I found today at the clearance aisle in JoAnn's for three bucks ... it's not very pretty but I'm sure I'll think of something to do with it!!

Next are some ATCs that I've received in the past week for various swaps. First up are Vintage Ladies in Hats, a swap I hosted over at swap-bot. She named all the ladies and their names are just perfect for their persona.



Then we have the Words, Words, Words ATC swap - again over at swap-bot.



Last in this bunch are some from a swap with the unsexy name of Unthemed V .. swap-bot again. These came all the way from New Zealand.



Now lets look at the 'paper dolls' that I kept from the swap I hosted over at Doll Street. It's fun to see how everyone interprets the theme of paper doll.
From Belinda:


From Jaque Uetz:


From Beth Ann Williams, who used a pattern from Elise Peeples:

Hands all around

I taught my severed hand pincushion class last night at the quilt shop. I had four students and we had an absolute blast. We just laughed and laughed. I think everyone had a great time and they all learned something new. One of the gals had her camera so when she sends me photos I can share. I forgot how much I enjoy teaching - it's been nearly a year since I gave a class. I'll be looking forward to my next one !

Lending a hand

Tired of these yet? I submitted a photo of my last hand to the Halloween contest photo pool hosted by Craft magazine.. They featured the hand on their blog on Tuesday. It generated a lot of traffic to my Flickr photos and I received two orders for hands. It's very satisfying to know that there are people who appreciate your work, as well as having my slightly twisted viewpoint. I have one more to make for my friend Kai - I'll be working on that at the quilt shop on Friday. You do realize that this Friday is 'Friday the 13th'??? I couldn't ask for a better day to teach a severed hand class, LOL.

I'm stuck on these hands !!

I finished another pincushion today to put up on eBay. I did a bit more decorating on the glove this time and gave it fake fingernails. The nails give it a whole other look - it's pretty freaky. My dogs really aren't thrilled about modeling for me, but I'm having fun. I'm easily amused, what can I say ???

The things I do

Sometimes I wonder about myself - I get myself involved in the strangest things. Usually they are my own ideas too! This time I decided to host an art paper doll swap. I was really surprised by how many people signed up for it - there were 67 when sign-ups closed. I was really apprehensive about swapping that many pieces - could have been over 200 in the end. But life happens and people dropped out and I ended up with 48 envelopes and 132 paper dolls. It was fun and I hope people like what they get.

This is the mass of envelopes ready to inundate the post office ladies ...

I had to move all my living room furniture out of the way to get everything where I could see it.

But I'll do it again ....just you wait and see!

If you want to see all the paper dolls... click here

Posted by judi at 9:55 PM | Comments (13)

Drawing class

Okay so this has nothing to do with soft sculpture .. I am taking a beginning drawing class at the University this semester. I think we're in our 5th week. I'm learning a lot - mainly that it takes a lot of time to make a nice drawing. This is my homework from last week - we had to draw something with internal negative space and interesting planes. In other words, stuff with holes that's not flat. Oh - and it had to go off the page at 3 sides and we had to draw shapes not lines and it had to be done in charcoal! Phew. Not easy finding something with holes that would be interesting. I tried a bicycle helmet - boring. I have a doll bench with scrollwork but it was too complicated. So I ended up drawing a revolver and, hey, it actually looks like one!