Pop-up doll number two!

Slowly.....

Peeking.....

Seeking..........

Wriggling..........

Stretching................

Ahhhh...................!

I am enjoying making these!  Next one - hopefully photo's tomorrow!

A pop-up character doll- for a change! My design, but not my idea.

He's playful - not shy, this pop-up-guy!

He surveys from his cone that he calls his home,

and looks around, without making a sound,

With a nod and a wink, he begins to sink,

With his one little eye he will furtively spy,

Until all that is left is his hands and his hat!

Fancy that!

This fun character is inspired by Kathryn Walmsey, a doll artist I really  admire for her story book characters. The original is made with cloth and clay, but I am useless with clay, so wanted to see if I could needle sculpt it instead.

 I have been lucky enough to take one of Kathryn's online classes a few years ago and the doll I made from that is now in a restaurant in Nelson! 

 Kathryn is currently teaching a class of the original on Doll Street Dreamers!  Go and check it out! 

Baby dolls.

I am making two baby dolls jsut now, to use as models for baby clothes in a shop.  These are Kezi Mathews gorgeous Oregon Babies and I just love them!

 So easy to make and so effective for children to play with.  They come with a face transfer, but I lost mine, so had to do my own off the pattern.

Their arms are not made yet.  I'll post a pic when the babies are done!

The other little doll is a challenge from Cloth Doll Artistry I thought I'd enter and see if I could make.

These dolls could be any size.  I just copied a picture and coloured it with prismacolour pencils and pens (on paper)  Front & Back.  I scanned this and put it in a word doc.  I used printable fabric and printed it out.  I should have left it to completely dry before handling it.  I left it in the sun and it faded or the ink was absorbed into the cloth - or both!

 Anyway, not giving up now I was this close, I stitched it together and stuffed it, because I had to see how it would turn out!  It was easy to stitch and turn, so after stuffing it, I went over it again with the pencils and pens.  It is no good for children, but as a little project - I am pleased to know I can do this!  Yay!  Now I have to learn how to make it more permanent so children could play with it!

CDA Cloth Doll 3 Q Challenge winner!

I am delighted to announce the winner of the 3rd Quarter Cloth Doll Challenge,  Txatxa Ma, with her unique and creative use of a pattern face and her off-the-frame presentation!  So cool!

What do you think of this!

Txatxa turned a very simple face pattern into this amazing work of art!  

Congratulations Txa Txa!

Making brooches for fun!

Another fruitful evening with the OCDC group on Tuesday.  Here is Joanne's Santa, posing with Julie's High Octave Hester.  Seems these two are related - hopefully!  Same designer at least!

Some art dolls in the making here, by Judy!  These dolls are fun and Judy had good ideas about them.  Hope she brings them next week!  I'm dying to see what they will look like now!

Julie has been making these cute wee mermaids!  Her daughter has also had a go at drawing the faces - pretty accurately too!  She's only 8!

Joanne has been making this doll for a wee while now.  Jo likes to have many things on the go at once and does a bit on each one.  It's amazing how they all come together!

I've been making an Aboriginal doll called Kyeema, meaning 'of the dawn'. It's an online class with Marilyn Halcomb and I am loving it! It's similar but different to what I make and already I have learned some new techniques!

 I have enjoyed making a dark skinned doll and this cotton lycra fabric is wonderful to work with!

Get a load of those teeth and that profile!  It's so cool!

Showcasing dolls made from my pattern "Dance Like nobody's watching!"

These two dolls have been made by Sharon Chanley  of US - delightful Pole Dancers!  Love this idea!

Sheryl D'Ath  of Ruakaka NZ, made these two.

Sheryl is an accomplished Bear Designer and doll maker, so she had no trouble modifying the faces to suit.

 Lost in the movement!

Lovely Flapper doll!

This charming doll was made by Jackie Grant of Oamaru NZ who quickly learned dollmaking skills!

The back view!

This doll was made by Patricia Young of Westport, NZ - Zany!

Check out all the great shoes!

Thank you to all who have shared your pictures with me!  I love seeing your work and how you interpret my patterns!  Keep up the great work!  I am always delighted to hear from you about your dolls!

Steam Punk Dolls

I was looking through my Blog and couldn't find a picture of this fellow.  It's probably lurking here somewhere, but in case no-one has seen him, let me introduce Maximillian Masterfell (Masterful)!  With his companion Professor Theodosia Thrumm!

Maximillian is sporting a well made Top Hat *(Buckram and all). and his mechanical arm had my inventor friend baffled about how it would work!  That was fun!

He's on my list to make for a pattern one day!

Here they are in the 2012 Steam Punk Exhibition, held in Oamaru's Forrester Art Gallery!

And here he is at home with his....er........Friend and  Landlady!

Showcasing another Krista Doll By Tatana Zueva

I'm proud to present this  lovely doll, made by Tatyana Zueva from Russia, who made the doll from my pattern Krista! Isn't she wonderful!  I love it!

Tatyana is a very talented dollmaker and her blog is http://skazki-u-kamina.blogspot.co.nz/ if you want to go and look at her amazing work yourself!

Showcasing a doll made from my pattern - by Vera (Bepa) Drozdov.

 This wonderfully constructed doll was made by Vera Drozdov, of Russia!Vera, (Bepa) made the doll so faithfully from my pattern Jeanne - the Innkeepers wife!  She made such an excellent job of it and I am really delighted to share it here!

Look at the boots!  Very professional looking!  But what a fabulous face!  I am very impressed! What do you think?

Over the moon!

 Here is a fun pattern I am making!  I call it "Over the moon!"  The 'far flung' Santa has no filling, but his hands, boots and head are stuffed, so he hangs quite well.

The moon is only needlesculpted on one side because it needs to be flat against the wall.  Santa's face is needlesculpted and you can see he looks a little disgruntled!

My clever granddaughter Frankie photoshopped this delightful background!  Wouldn't it make a great Xmas Card?  Would also make a good Xmas ornament for a wall?  What do you think?

New dolls!

This saucy little minx is waiting for summer to come!  Love Jane Coughlan's pattern of the Beach Babe.  Had to reduce the size by half, but it was fun to make! Jane is a very clever pattern designer!

The Pig Hunter!

My apologies to all animal lovers!  This piece was a request from my niece Alice, who is a Nanny during the week and a Pig Hunter at the weekend! These are West Coast feral pigs and can be quite dangerous to hunt.  Alice only a wee thing but very brave, so I made a wee doll.  Alice wanted something to encapsulate this time of her life!  She is quite pleased with herself!

The head is made from velour and coloured with Hybrid Gel pens and white acrylic paint highlights.

 The body is made from cotton and is needlesculpted.  She has no fingers because of her 'pleased with herself' pose.  She wears a knit ribbed teeshirt.  Her shotgun is made from two straws, balsa wood wrapped in masking tape and painted with a bronze paint that came out looking like silver!  I made a wire trigger handle attached with hot glue and wrapped in masking tape, so I could attach it with cotton in place for a casual look.

 Her Jeans are also her legs, cut to shape from stretch denim (recycled), as are her boots.  The legs are stuffed with doweling for armature, wedged into her boots, which are weighted to make her stand.  I made some pseudo socks around the tops of the boots and stitched some heavy thread for laces.

I designed the poor old pig in his demised state, from some brown synthetic fabric I had (recycled) and used a brown pastel as well as black prismapencil to deepen the shadows in the needlesculpting of his body.  He has white calico tusks.  Rather pleased with the way he turned out, but hoped his legs would all droop to the ground, but  because of his belly, they didn't. Never mind - he really looks like rigor mortis has set in!  I luckily had some rope-like string to tie his front hocks to make it look authentic!