Drag Queen Bust 'Viola'!

 

I was experimenting with foam craft and managed to make some great eyelashes on a doll head. 

  Arley Berryhill encouraged me to exaggerate it more, and sent me a picture of what he meant.

Out came the Heat gun and the silicone glue!

After studying the Cos Play wigs a little, I began putting the wig together.

Unruly curls don't just form themselves.

A little glue in strategic places

and 'Viola'!

Pink

Playing with several elements today. 

looking sideways

Foam hair - first time with a heat gun!

Back view - lots to learn!

Got the lips right!

Those eyelashes!

 

It's the little things in life....A Cricket

 Looking for hope in the little things of life – this pattern came about to coincide with major events that rocked the world this year, namely Covid 19 pandemic year two, the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and subsequent overtake by Taliban, and the 20th anniversary of 9-11.

Crazy times call for crazy creative endeavours, and I'd just watched a series of all the fairy tales (in lockdown) and spotted this little character, which inspired me to see if I could make something like it! I call it 'Dapper Cricket', but you can call it what you like - just not out loud!

Dapper Cricket stands at 17 inches tall, and is all cloth but for his hat. The pattern is 19 pages long with plenty of step-by-step photos to guide.

This pattern could be any gender dressed in many different ways! It could even just be a green grass hopper! Imagine!

Give a little whistle - and always let your conscience be your guide!

Times like these, you need someone to talk to! Dapper Cricket is qualified

www.etsy.com/nz/listing/1069862190/dapper-cricket-insect

Steampunk Needle sculpted Busts.

Steampunk celebrations in our town inspired me  to design a male head I had wanted to try, but didn't want to make the whole body, so I found the best stand for it - a drive shaft from an old car we once had, and a flange that just fitted the base, with a screw to hold it there, from my husbands spare parts in the garage.  Here it is in all it's dirty steel glory, just fitting for the job of a stand!

I made the female counterpart first, so she's a different colour, and mounted her on a ceramic candlestick. 

I had great fun putting these two pieces together, and painting the face!

 

Wall Art

 I've been playing with these doll busts for some time. They even came to Hamilton with me!

The thing is, when you make a doll, you have to give a lot of thought and much rummaging amongst your stash, to figure out what they will wear, based on eye colour, lip colour. and hair colour In this case, the dolls looked nothing, until I made them some glasses to wear. It somehow gives them a presence.

You can make the glasses from thin wire, wrapped around a shape, leave a gap for the bridge, and wrap again, making sure the wire is in the same position on both sides. once you are sure they will fit the head and eyes well, you can paint them with any paint, (I even used fabric paint!) You can seal the paint with Modpodge.

Next, cut the arms so they sit within the hair. Thread a needle with the same colour as the glasses, and tie a knot. (Double thread if not using strong thread.)

Insert the needle at the back of the head under the hair, and exit at the inner flare of the nose. Take the thread through the frame, reinsert it into the exit place, and exit in the same place on the other side of the nasal flare!. Take the thread through the frame, reinsert the needle and exit out the back of the head again. Gently pull on the thread to anchor the frames firmly to the nose, and tie off at the back of the head. These stitches will hold the frames in place and will not be noticed!

I made these girls from my pattern Light Hearted Lady. They hang on the wall, and talk to each other out of the corners of their mouths, whilst pretending not to move! LOL! they make great conversation pieces and wall art!

Quartet

  The #Quartet!. I was playing around with head/shoulder dolls in small proportions, much like others I have been making, trying to capture characters. I found a set of ceramic musical figures like this and was captivated by the expressions of the men, and also the idea of white hair!

Making the busts (from stretch fabric) didn't take long, but figuring out how to make the hair work took a bit of thinking. I found a soft cotton rope that I was able to use, stiffened with glue but still keeping it's soft look.

It took a while to come together because I didn't have any idea if it would work, so just did something every day. The violin is made from quilling paper. I saw a tutorial and taught myself quilling! Not perfect, but fun!

I liked the simplicity of the idea - one hand to suggest they are doing something. Mounting it was a problem, but I found some hard packaging foam that I could stitch through, and have stitched them on that.

I am pleased with the outcome.

Hatter and Hare!

I made these as a free pattern for CDC group this week, because I have just finished writing a pattern of the Hatter!  I was surprised at what a good fit it is!

 Topsy-turvy Twins!

I discovered I had these two scraps of t-shirt fabric - just enough to make these, so I thought I'd try my hand at this little twosome for my great granddaughter's first birthday. All the fabric is t-shirt fabric, all the same weight.

I drafted out the pattern and made the pink head first to try it out. I decided the head back needed a bit off it, so the other head looks a tad smaller. I even managed to get relatively the same look.

The overall length is 16 inches, and the heads about 6 inches long.

It was a fluke that I happened to have the fur fabric for the hair to - so it was meant to be! I thought about awake and asleep, but I find littlies like eyes.

So-exactly the same- but totally different!

Covid 19 Lockdown The Lion King - remember who you are!

7 May 2020

Looking at the end of Lockdown and moving into Level 2 - it's important to 'Remember who you are"!

I spent the best part of 2018 designing and making this series of dolls for an exhibition called 'Reflections on the Lion King"!

I drafted all the dolls from the original pattern I had begun with, a head, trunk and limbs., and changed them according to the pose and size I needed. This gave them all a uniformity, except the faces, which shape I changed for each character.

From this, I made both male and female, by widening and expanding, or decreasing chest, hip, arm and leg shapes, lengthening or shortening as needed to fit the character and to keep them to the correct scale. For this, I used images of the performers I found on Pinterest, as a guide.

I was very happy to discover how I could make Scar and Mufusa’s 3 D mask in cloth, and I had great fun making the Hyenas! So much so that I made a pattern of the head, and tutorial video showing how I did it, using a wet-on-wet technique, which I put on my FB page for others to try. I discovered that the more figures I made, the more instinct took over! I was in the zone, and each figure needed no reworking.

Process and problem solving is what excites me about design and creating. Making an expressive face through shape, needle sculpting and coloring, and the look of movement into a cloth figure is something to which I aspire. To make something out of the ordinary, to portray the story gives me a great buzz!

The Lion King is a story of love and redemption, and it was the story as told in the musical, as much as the figures themselves that inspired me to make this series - and to see if I could!

What challenges are you facing with the idea of coming out of Lockdown?

Covid 19 Lockdown Fantasy

6 May 2020

Fantasy in Lockdown. Those who are not engaged in physical activity - or even if they are - sometimes chill out with reading, watching movies, playing games, dressing up - or down - trying not to think about hair care!

I used to struggle with fantasy, living in the world of struggling to get ahead and bringing up kids, so bringing fantasy into doll making was a bit foreign to me for a long time, until I learned to leg go and let it out! I think it's an essential part of creativity because it bucks against the norm - an escape!

Here are a few Fantasy dolls I have made over the years, but never made into patterns.

The first one is small enough to be a christmas tree decoration - or at least to top the tree, or hang on the wall!

The second one is called The Ice Queen Maureen! made for an online challenge. She had a story about ecology.

I loved the third one - which now resides in Japan! I liked the idea of a doll on stilts and this fit the bill in two ways! I had just done an online class on how to make shoes on a clay foot! I used the shoes and put the clay foot on long wire stilts, and it balanced perfectly! So stoked with that!

The fourth pic is a few other dolls i had made that I was not entirely happy with, but they were just prototypes - and someone loved them! The big doll I made into a Dramatic Goth.

The fifth one - Genie of the Jug - because i liked the smoky fabric and the Jug!

The sixth & seventh - both from my Marie Antoinette pattern. I liked the black & white theme, and again, the wool, and the height of it. (I am not tall!) The last I called "the off-white queen" from the Alice in wonderland story.

So over the years I have indulged in fantasy in a creative way that I never did as a young person! Weird how we grow and change?

Lockdown is loosening up a little - hopefully next week we might get a haircut!

Covid 19 Lockdown Dominican Family Group

May 5 2020

Increasing the bubble in Lock down brings many benefits. I saw family today and got all the news and saw some improvements in their well being, just by connecting with them! Having an 'other' in our lives - someone to tell things to face to face - to express the overwhelm and be heard, to reach a place of calm to do what must be done is so important in our lives.

I was asked to make a set of dolls to represent the Dominican family - the family of Saint Dominic, to mark 800 years of Dominicans, in 2015.

This is my version of St Dominic, founder of the Dominican Order of Preachers & Teachers! His two older brothers, Manes and Antonio, were also priests, and Manes later became a Dominican. This set depicts Saint Dominic and his family.

Dominic de Guzmán was born in Castile, possibly a year or two later than 1170. Dominic's father Felix De Guzman was a knight. Legend has it that while Joanna d’Aza, his mother, was awaiting his birth, she saw in a dream, a dog that held a torch in its mouth, running around the countryside to bring light to the whole world. The word Dominicana means: Domini = Lord Cana = Dog. Sometimes referred to as Guzman's Dogs, or Dogs for the Lord! With all the qualities of a good dog - of course!

His mother saw to it that Dominic and his brothers were well educated and understood the pastoral care required of the overlord and family for the village. Later on in his ministry Dominic set up a house for women and children, at a time when women had very little status, or were discarded by husbands and family. Much later they became Dominican sisters, and today are still leading lights in their community, preaching and teaching in a myriad of ways! Dominicans are an order of Preachers & Teachers.

Knowing how to care for each other, to show understanding and kindness is very evident in our communities still in Lockdown.