The Troll for the Breast Cancer Fundraiser is done !

I have finally completed this project. The Stone Cold Troll was a blast to make. I had a whole lot of fun figuring out the paint technique to make him stonelike. I had never worked with greasy fleece before either so that was a kick too. I like hair like this - you don't have to worry about styling it! This I can handle. I think when I make the next one I am going to 'borrow' Tia Linda's idea and make him the 'One that Got Away'. With a club in one hand and trailing a bra behind him from the other hand. Sounds like a hoot to me!

I have more photos .. just click on the continue reading link.

You click on the photos to enlarge them. Remember you can click on the photo again once it shows up in a separate window if you want to see more detail.

Mossy Oak

Okay - so it's not really camouflage - but it is real moss. I couldn't decide if he should have clothes or not and I was sticking the moss on the base when it dawned on me that the moss could be the clothes too. At first I just gave him his, uh, loincloth but then I thought I'd try for some chest hair. Don't ask why. It looked silly and turned into his chest strap instead. Kind of a Tarzan look.

His hair is unwashed wool fleece. I didn't realize it was unwashed until I was half way through sewing it on. My hands were nicely moisturized. I think I might add another lock or two in the front. I find it really helps to take photos to critique your own work.

I'm really loving this guy!

Pretzel head is done

Don't work on projects when you are dieting ... strange things happen.

Here is the clock before she got hacked to bits .... She's an Iowa girl ... Sherry Goshon found her at a yard sale and sent her my way last spring. She's a long way from home!

Now here she is today ... all gussied up ... she has a very odd head piece ... I think it's a pretzel, LOL.

Switching gears : Back to the clock doll

I had to put the troll aside for now as I have to finish this piece to put it in the gallery. Our club does a show each February at a local art gallery and we have to have our pieces submitted this coming weekend. So I finished up the pants today and wefted the hair. Now all I have to do is make her a headpiece, attach the head to the box, attach the legs, and stick the clock in it. I should have it done tomorrow. Wefting the hair was fun. I used silk waste and eyelash yarn. I've taken photos of each step so I can teach this online or make it into a CD if there's interest. This clock's costume is way more complicated than the one I did for the magazine. This is another piece that I set aside for months because I got frustrated with it.

Stone cold troll

I worked on his skin tone today and although I'm happy with the base color I'm not too happy with the 'cracks' I tried to paint on him. I think this will have to be reworked a bit. He's looking cool though.

It's time to pop him in the oven to heat set this first layer of paint. I hope his eyes don't melt!

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A Breast Cancer Fundraiser

I've finally got back to working on this guy. This is my contribution to an Art Bra fundraiser. He's due to the organizers of the show in March so I have to get him done. Let me tell you a bit about him ...

He is my own pattern and I made him hunchbacked and with oversized hands and feet. He has a really strange head but I like it. His eyes are those plastic animal eyes with big hooded eyelids. I love how his feet came out - they are big and only have four toes. Now that I see him in the photos I might have to move his legs down - his thighs are up around his waist, LOL. I am planning on painting his body a couple of shades of grey. I have an idea in my head and we'll see if I can get it out through my hands!

You might not realize it but he is holding a bra. Since this is an art bra fundraiser he has to have one and he told me in no uncertain terms that he wasn't going to wear one! I don't think the gallery will have any other bra-toting trolls! I have plans for the bra too but they are only half baked at this point. Quite obviously his base is too small too - will have to get another one. Or maybe not.

Oh - off the subject for a moment - I noticed with the Flickr photo hosting that when you click on a photo to enlarge it , it doesn't show the biggest photo. If you click on the photo a second time (in the new window) it will enlarge once more. Strange.

He has a name .. the first person who can guess what it is will win a little prize! It's actually more of a title than a name. Leave me a comment with your guess.

Beginners rock!

Tonight was the last session of the beginner doll class I am (was?) teaching down at the quilt shop. Two weeks ago at the end of class my ladies had their doll bodies sewn and we were working on stuffing them. Tonight we were supposed to joint the dolls and work on faces. Unfortunately life intervenes and only one of the ladies had body parts ready to joint. Thank goodness she did or I wouldn't have had a body to demo with. We used watercolor pencils and prismacolor pencils for the faces, didn't they come out great! I think they did fantastic for their first time! I think they were all really pleased with their babies! We had a lot of fun and I'm really proud of how their dolls are coming along!

Flower fabric

I wanted to make that saran wrap fabric that a couple of my friends have been talking about. So I got out my saran wrap and I THOUGHT I remembered the instructions from Di's blog - but I was obviously mistaken because my plastic didn't fuse. So instead I made this using silk flower petals, fabric snips, and tulle. I fused it down with BoNash powder and then I free motion embroidered it with black. I'll probably use it for postcards. This was fun but I think I better re-read Di's instructions!

Dressed in the Empire fashion

See the little bit of lace around her neck? A stand alone collar? Maybe a fabric necklace? My friend Karen gave it to me - it's a bit of hand-dyed lace trim and I developed the entire color scheme around it. According to my fashion history book this dress style was worn in the Regency/Empire era - about the late 1700/early 1800s. Except with little puffed sleeves. Ummm - and maybe not the train. The color is wrong too. Their dresses were usually white to represent purity and what they believed was worn in antiquity. But, by golly, I got the waistline right!!! They also wore turbans with these dresses - whoo hoo - finally - my turbans are fashionably correct! Of course I'd use one regardless of that fact; after all, I am hairstyle-impaired. But anyhow ... meet Josephine.

Oh - this is the tall, slim body from the Lost and Found post. It is a Patti Culea pattern - from her Valandrial class.

Miniature clutch purse

I am working on a piece that seemed to call for an evening bag. I wanted it to be durable rather than soft like a quilted piece would be. So this is what I came up with ... a black velvet clutch ... photos and instructions follow.

To decide what size purse I wanted I just took a little piece of paper and folded it in thirds. Decide how big you want to top flap to be and adjust the top fold of your paper Trim until you get the size you want. That will be your pattern size.
Step 1: Get hold of some stiff double-sided fusible (I used the Pellon brand Peltex 70 available at most craft stores). Cut a piece about 1/2 inch bigger than your paper pattern. Follow instructions and fuse fabric to both sides. Square it up and trim to the proper size.

Step 2: Satin stich the inside edge of the purse.


Step 3: Fold the bottom half of the purse up. Satin stitch around all 3 sides. This will sew the bottom half of the purse together and finish the edges of the top flap.



Step 4: I don't need this to be a useable purse so I am going to sew the top closed. The edges might curl open a bit so you can sew them down too. Or glue it down if you want. You should also sew a button or some beads in the center of the top for a faux closure.




Simple, simple, simple!!!

Starting the year off right

Have a couple of things to share today.
First is a little 'voodoo' wooden spool dude that I made at club the other night. It is supposed to be a visual representation of a New Year's Resolution. It should remind me to spend less money on 'stuff' and instead concentrate on trying to make some this year!!!!

The next thing I want to show you are a few ATCs that I made for a vintage nude swap over at Swap-bot. I haven't done any swaps for a while and these aren't due to go out for a while. It's nice to have them done ahead of time!

A wee bit sad...

I bought these beautiful girls on eBay and the seller told me that his daughter took very good care of them. So what I am going to do with them? Probably cut them up into little pieces and make something else out of them - like a clock. So knowing these were loved makes me feel a little bit bad that I'm going to mutilate them. But not bad enough not to do it!

No more empty space!

No, it's not between my ears! Since I sold the original Whisper I have had a big empty space on my wall. But it's empty no more! Although I still have to make something for her to hold in her left hand I'm saying she's done! I came up with a really unique headdress that, for once, I'm not telling how I made, LOL. The headdress is really special because the purple sequin trim was bought for me by Shashi when she went to India last summer, and the part of her headress with the beautiful fall colors was made from a gift from Natalie. How do you like her 'tassel'? I think it's cool. I was afraid that it would bounce against the wall once she was hung up but, nope, it hangs freely. I'm really happy with her.

The basic pattern was from a class that Barbara Willis came up here and taught a couple of years ago. I changed the angle of one of her arms but the rest of it is hers. The face is a cloth over clay, it is the face that I sculpted in her class. I think this is the first time that I've used that face since the class. We learned how to make a flexible mold so that was nice.

Much more svelte!

I have sewn another torso and I am much happier with her now. I used a nice batik that had a much higher thread count than the previous fabric so there wasn't as much stretch. I triple-checked to make sure the slight stretch was going lengthwise. I did not use my freezer paper pattern either - I drew around the original pattern template. So, all in all this made a big difference in the shape, as you can see. I had to take her corset in about half an inch at center back - it looks great now.

Disassembly

So I had her nearly complete - skirt was sewn on, arms attached, head glued on, and I had beaded her corset and had it pinned on when I decided her torso was too wide. This is the result. I think it was due to a couple of reasons. One - because I traced the pattern onto freezer paper and then cut outside the line, I made the pattern bigger by millimeters. Two - I used a low thread count fabric and stuffed the heck out of it. It must have had more stretch than I anticipated. I know the grain was going vertically because I double checked it. These factors made for a thick torso and she just looked terrible. So now I have to go back into the stash and find something else. Do you ever do this?