Miniature cobbling and so forth........

This new rather quiet child is nevertheless a little demanding - she DEMANDED I make her these hand-knitted socks. I haven't made any of these in quite a while, so I was happy to oblige. She also wanted some brown ankle-strap shoes with black buttons, so she got those as well. Of course, she has no underwear yet, but she doesn't seem too concerned about that. Little hussy!

She's now waiting patiently for her brother to be finished.......she might be waiting a little while as I have quite a bit on my plate for the next week or two.

Two Heads Are Better?

I'm working on these two little dolls at the same time - a boy and a girl. I am very happy with how the moulded boy hair turned out - it's the first time I've done it like this. And if they look a bit familiar I used my "pensive child" mould to make their faces, so they are sister and brother to the little girl I blogged about a few posts ago. It's been a bit damp and cool the past few days, so I've had the woodheater in the studio going - just above it is a great place to dry out works in progress!

No Words Required

Birth Of A Ragamuffin

Head/body stuffed, face mask made, limbs traced and sewn ready to cut out.

                                                     
                                                     All together - face pinned in place.

Oh No! Where's everyone gone?

                                                     All done.........what a ragamuffin!

And a close-up.

Tiny Shoes...........

.............for tiny feet! I made these yesterday for my new little girl. You'll be pleased to know that she also has underwear.

Making Dolls: Different Approaches

Dollmaking encompasses a wide variety of styles and approaches and I like to dabble in quite a few of them.............here are some recent ones that are poles apart in concept.
The first one is more or less in the tradition of a Waldorf play doll - I say more or less, because this doll with fingers, toes, knees and nose has a fair bit more detail than the really traditional Waldorf dolls.......but I couldn't resist! It is definitely play-proof, though. She is just waiting for some clothes knitted and sewn from natural fabrics and yarns.
The second pensive little miss is far more detailed and while she could be played with, she is not as robust as the other. She is quite small (see reference to hand in one picture) so painting the face and hair presented a bit of a challenge. She's still waiting for her unders (of course!) and I'm going to make her some leather shoes. Both of these dolls will be for sale in my Etsy store next week.

Anti-profligacy

A long time ago, I realized that out-of-control consumerism is probably a road to ruin and in my own way I have always railed against it. To me, the idea of endlessly unlimited growth on a finite planet just doesn't add up - at some stage there must be a clash and a crash. I feel that we are near that point.
We have always made do, done it ourselves, resisted buying "stuff" just for the sake of having the newest "stuff" and tried to grow much of what we consume in the way of food. Our home is comfortably furnished with a rather eclectic mix of hand-me-down, home-made and cast off furniture and I don't own many gadgets. I don't see any need to change any of that just for the sake of changing it.
It's a good feeling to produce a meal when you know it came fresh out of the garden minutes before it was cooked. Here's what we had last night: spinach souffle; oven baked pink fir potatoes; corn on the cob and fresh tomatoes. Our summer garden is almost at the end of production, but vegetables to carry us through winter are either stored or quietly growing away in the garden.

As far as possible, I try to carry this anti-profligacy message through in my work as well. I don't throw much away (anyone who has seen the inside of my studio will attest to that!). I can always find a good use for something that others might pass over as useless junk. For instance,  a while back, I devised a way to make an excellent sculpting material from sawdust and glue and made quite a few dolls using it - I even won a recycled-materials design award with these dolls.

And just this week I have been knitting up a storm using scraps of leftover wool - even the tiniest bits can be used. The mouse is of my own design....it was fun and quick to make!

I'll climb down from my soap-box now, but will conclude by saying that you don't need to be spending bucketloads of cash on fairly useless stuff in order to be happy - you can live very well on considerably less that what you think you need and if more of us did it, the planet would be the better for it.