Xanthe Comes Home and Other Stuff

When you are a doll maker, you get to play with other doll makers quite a bit.........one thing we like to do is a kind of doll round robin, where you form into groups, each person starts a doll off and send it to the next person on the list who adds something and sends it on and so forth. Quite often, these dolls have accompanying journals, so not only to they acquire clothes, accessories and a personality, they have stories written about them as they go. I have just participated in the Art Dolls Only Travelling Doll Project in a small group that was within Australia.  My doll has just returned home from a farm in Western Australia where Kailee (Sophia La La) gave her gorgeous silk clothes. Before that she had been in Hobart with Grace at Little Arty Crafty Crow where she got her underwear, a handknitted cardigan and beret and some cool artist's supplies, including a sketchbook which is filled with drawings!

I still had Grace's doll, Netty, here when mine arrived back home, so they had a bit of time to "hang out" together before Netty went home to Hobart. Here they are together, chewing the fat.

Netty arrived with no face and a sad story of abandonment, all beautifully told and illustrated in her journal. I gave the story a happy ending, Netty a new face, hair and shoes and some warm things to wear over the silk clothes that Kailee had made. (It's colder here than in WA!)

Grace managed to give Netty a wonderful "found-in-the-attic" look by using a crackled paint finish and staining.

I loved working in Netty's wee journal - I tried to replicate some of the character that Grace had given it.

And one more thing: my grand-daughter has befriended a German exchange student over the past few months. The exchange student is returning home soon, so she is hosting a special farewell dinner on Saturday night. Ten girls all dressed in formal dresses and high heels! I think this will be the first time my almost fifteen year old grand-daughter has got so dressed up! (*thinks*: have to get a photo of that!) Anyway, we made a special little "Zozie" doll for The German girl to take home from Tasmania - the little heart-shaped pocket on the front has a rolled scroll with a hand-written message from my grand-daughter.

Busy week - even managed to fit in a bit of olive-picking in a friend's grove on Wednesday, started back with violin lessons and I'm cooking for a visiting Japanese businessman tonight. Bob is showing him around the state and has set up meetings etc. for him. Whew!

How To Repair A Sheep and other Miscellany

Our local butcher is a very sweet fella with something of a sense of humour. For some time now he has had a very realistic sheep made of fibreglass or something peering IN the window of the shop. (Silly sheep! I'd be running the other way......)

A few weeks ago, I noticed that poor old lamby had a large hole where his ear should have been and a smashed elbow. When I inquired about it I was told that it had been the victim of vandalism by kids........I had a bit of a look and knew I could easily fix it, so I offered to do just that, much to butcher Nigel's delight. I forgot to take "before" photos, of course, but did remember the "during" and "after" ones which are posted here. The things we do!

The doll is "Delta Dawn", Cindy's doll in the ADO Travelling Doll project. I've had her way too long, but I've finally sent her on her way with a new hat, a hand-woven shawl and a pup. Couldn't do much about her forlorn expression, though! She is doomed to forever be sad and wistful, I think.

New ADO Treasury

My 'Moxie pattern has been featured in a new Etsy treasury - Thanks Abi! If you have never had a look at Etsy - you should! So much cool hand-made stuff.

BTW, if you are interested in my 100th post giveaway - this is number 92 ;)

Progress

I have made some progress on this new doll 'Serafina'. She is another ADO challenge piece. She's all held together with pins in this picture - I've done a bit more since I took it, but I won't get any more done now until the weekend. Oh yes, the rodent in the original sketch has become a hatching dragon!

ADO Treasury

SpiritMama from ArtDollsOnly (http://www.artdollsonly.blogspot.com/) has put together an Etsy Treasury of work by ADO members. She included one of my dolls. Thanks SpiritMama!

Check out these other great pieces!

ADO Blog

I belong to a fairly active online art doll group called Art Dolls Only (ADO)

Guess who is the featured artist this week? Thanks Vania!

http://artdollsonly.blogspot.com

Sylph Revealed!

Here is my "Sylph" - an Air Elemental - revealed for the ADO - Art Dolls Only "Elements" blog event. To find links to all the other pieces made for this event, go to http://www.artdollsonly.blogspot.com/.

Please leave comments.

A Sneaky Peep

Here is a little peep at my 'Sylph' - can't reveal all until the ADO blog event this weekend.

I've also listed this 'Clothover Kit' in http://www.susiemcmahon.etsy.com/

Should have more new stuff soon (Iknow, I know - I said that last week too!)

WIP Update

Here is my Sylph, 'Aeris', with most of the assembly completed. She now needs to be prepared for painting and then painted. I haven't yet decided finally on a colour scheme, but I'm veering towards something fairly muted and limited. With blue.

I've Been Busy!

Apart from getting new items ready for my Etsy store (http://www.susiemcmahon.etsy.com/), I have been working on my ADO 'Elements' challenge piece - here are some w.i.p. pictures. I need to get a wriggle on with this because I only have about nine days to get it completed. I'm calling this piece "Aeris - an Airy Wraith".

I also have this new head ready for a body. The glorious Tibetan lamb wig is from http://www.dollmakersjourney.com/ and was part of my prize for winning the 'Discworld' challenge. I got to choose stuff from their wonderful online store - I chose two colours of this Tibetan lamb (each piece is big enough for three or four wigs) and a yard of wool blend felt in a yummy cinnamon colour - I'm planning to use it to make some dolls with moulded felt heads, which is something I haven't done in a while. Dollmakers Journey has a great list of quality stuff for dollmakers - worth checking out if you haven't yet done so.

I will most likely be posting some new things on Etsy this weekend.

ADO Challenge - Preliminary Drawing

This is one of the working drawings I have done for my interpretation of 'Air' for the ADO 'Elements' Challenge. (www.artdollsonly.blogspot.com)

The head is sculpted and with a glorious un-busy-with-other-stuff weekend looming before me, I plan to get a lot done.

Ophelia

I have joined a rather wonderful online group called ADO art dolls only, which was started as a networking group for artists who sell their work on Etsy. The group is quite active and has been promoting a few challenges to help get the creative juices flowing - one of the challenges is "Much ADO about Shakespeare" - the challenge being to create a doll of a character or characters from the plays of the Bard himself. I have always wanted to do an 'Ophelia' - here was the catalyst - but I didn't have too much time to get it done. I compromised by making a bust mounted on a piece of weathered turned wood that I found on the beach (been saving it for years - knew I'd use it one day!)

Here is the finished piece - head is paperclay with cloth overlay painted with acrylics; hair and cap are cotton, stiffened and painted, and the fabbric at the neckline is silk.