Rabbits 'n Eggs

I've been busy this past week making some things to list in my Etsy store which has been looking decidedly sparse. There is a bit of a rabbity-egg theme happening, given the time of year.
Still working on that wig PDF (more work to it than I had anticipated). It should be ready for listing by the end of this week - I know some of you are waiting for it.............

Hairy Thoughts!

I'm currently working on a new PDF for my Etsy store all about how to create a knotted mohair doll'a wig. Which led me to thinking about all the ways you can wig a doll.............
There are many, from the "no-hair-at-all" option which works wonderfully well on some dolls:

to painted-on hair, as for the Izannah Walker style of doll:

Or you can make a moulded hairstyle like this:

And then there are options like using mohair still attached to the skin, or fur fabric:

Those are all very fine options, but the subject of the new PDF is, in my opinion, the best way of all to create a doll's wig, by hand-knotting mohair and stitching it onto a cloth wig-cap. Why is it the best? Well, you can create any style at all, depending on how you stitch on the strings of knotted mohair; it can be brushed and styled without falling out in clumps and it always seems to look just right on a hand-made doll.

It is time-consuming to make a wig in this way, but once you get the hang of it, it's the kind of thing you can do, like knitting, whilst doing something else. Take care, though........mohair tends to insinuate itself into everything, especially the dinner!
I'm hoping to have the new PDF in my store next week
PS: Here's a knotted mohair boy wig I made some years ago - this is a digital image from a photograph (can you remember the pre-digital era?) so apologies for the quality.

A Blast From The Past

You can see what I found attractive...........to me he looked not unlike Pete Townsend of The Who. Or Cat Stevens. This picture is a still from a climbing film made at Freycinet ca, 1974/5 by the Launceston Walking Club. The film-maker might have been Norton Harvey. This was sent to me by a young acquintance who happened upon it while going through the LWC film archives. Well, after more than 40 years of marriage (yes, I was a Child Bride!) he doesn't look like this any more, but like a good wine or an old violin, I think he is improving with maturity!

My little Thursday's Child is coming along - the doll itself is pretty much finished and now I need to work on the accoutrements - a little bag, a book, maybe.........The box she is sitting on will become a steamer trunk with a bit of work. To me she looks like a lonely little Irish immigrant.

Thursday's Child

"Thursday's Child has far to go........."
Working on this piece for a storybook-themed submission. She's a little traveller and will be sitting on a steamer trunk dressed in travel clothes ca 1900. She might also have a few treasured possessions. A book. A doll.
Here she is so far:

The Valentine's Day Love Carrot and other Miscellany

There is love even in Carrot World - look at these inseparably entwined in-love carrots we uprooted today - couldn't bear to separate them, chop them up and eat them!

I sometimes get asked to do some unusual/interesting things - these past few days I have been repairing the concrete eagle sculpture that is the emblem of the school I worked at until recently - it was badly vandalised during the holidays. Concrete is a difficult sculpting medium, but I managed to restore him to something approaching his former glory. This is the second time I have done this job - don't you just LOVE vandals! Here are a few before and after shots.

And lookee here! My Sukeshi dolls were featured in Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine in the MuseFlash section.

Ah! Little Girls!

I don't know what it is, but I do so love to make these rather nostalgic little girl dolls. Perhaps they are comforting reminders of my own childhood - a sunny and wonderful place in the 1950's. (That sounds so long ago now!) Anyway, whatever the compulsion is to making these dolls is, here is the latest, as yet un-named. She is the model for a wig-making PDF that I am in the process of writing up for sale in my Etsy store. The wig is hand-knotted mohair.......a time-consuming process, but it makes a very fine wig if you have the patience and time.

Any suggestions for a name gratefully accepted!

The Hand Problem..................

Cloth doll hands can be a real problem - often they are the one feature that will let down an otherwise fine piece, because they are clunky, or unnatural looking. It took me quite a few years of experimenting to come up with a cloth hand that I was happy with - the biggest breakthrough was using the idea of a separate thumb - I was able to locate the thumb in a much more natural relationship with the rest of the fingers, rather than having them all on the same plane. Here's how I do it:

Arms/hands sewn and turned; small hole nipped where "thumb bone" would be.

                    Pipe-cleaner framework made to insert into hand - stuffs and wires in one go!

Frame-work inserted - note the wire protruding from the thumb hole.

           Hand and arm filled and a small piece of wadding wrapped around the base of the thumb.

Thumb covering slipped on - it will be ladder-stitched in place.

                                                                    Expressive hands!