More Baby Shots

Here are a few more shots of the portrait baby - with bonnet off - to show her too-cute wispy baby hair.

In The Pink!

Here is the completed portrait baby commission - dressed in pink at the request of the customer. I'm fairly happy with how she turned out. The little bear was made by my sister, Jan, for my birthday (no..........this baby doesn't get to keep it!)

This is post no. 97 - 100th post giveaway coming up very sooooooon!

Portrait Baby Work In Progress

Here is the portrait baby I have been working on - at last it is coming together - a few more days should see it finished.

Serafina Completed!

Here is "Serafina" - I think I have finished her. I added some bells around her dress, a bag with some witchy goodies in it and a tiny jar containing something essential to a certain spell. So there you have it - my first ever Halloween doll!

This is post no. 95, (I think)

Di Arnold

I first met Di Arnold when she was a student in one of my Adult Education basic dollmaking classes a number of years ago. To say that she has 'taken the baton and run with it' is something of an understatement.

She has become a very fine dollmaker and I am proud to have played a small part in maybe setting her upon that path.

Di's dolls are quirky, witty and her use of colour is intuitive and always spot on. She has more patience and tenacity than almost anyone I know when it comes to her dolls. The attention to detail is exemplified in the two tiny puppet figures with the Pierrot - astonishing - best appreciated 'in the flesh'. Her 'secret weapon' is her husband, Gerald, who makes her armatures and anything else that requires the use of 'blokey' tools and stuff - they really are a team.

Now she has been invited to exhibit her work in the Tasart Exhibition (26th Sept - 18th Oct) at the Burnie Regional Art Gallery (on Tasmania's northwest coast)

Apologies for the picture quality, but here are a few of the dolls she will be exhibiting.

Go Di! (www.diarnolddolls.blogspot.com)

I've also popped in a picture of some dolls made by Linda Searle - another fab dollmaker who occasonally lurks in my studio (http://www.lindasearledolls.blogspot.com/) Hers are the two cloth Kewpie dolls at the top of the post (uploaded the photos backwards - again!)

Serafina completed

Here is my Halloween doll all finished (apart from a little tweaking here and there). As you can see, her 'familiar' is back to being a rodent.

'Serafina' is around 19" tall (48 cms) and the mouse is about 1" (2.5 cms)

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 ;)

A Wonderful Thing to Behold!

Three teenagers, tech savvy, mobile phone-toting, plugged into i-pods and Myspace, just spent two days of their September break from school making dolls in my studio. They used my 'Lou-Lou' pattern, but had very definite ideas about how they wanted their dolls to look. As you can see, 'Lou-Lou' has had a bit of an update. Some gentle guidance and help when they got stuck and here are the fantastic results! I've never seen young people so intensely absorbed in what they were doing - all the other stuff was forgotten for a while. My conclusion? Kids can still be entertained by doing simple, constructive things if the adults around them take the time to help them do it. The rewards for all are boundless. Well done, Leila, Meg and Erin!

Since I last posted, another birthday has come and gone - I like to keep them a little low-key these days for obvious reasons!

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!