Winterlude......The Joy Of Music

I have just spent a weekend away on a winter music camp organized by our community orchestra. Around fifty five enthusiastic instrumentalists gathered at Ulverstone for an intensive few days of music-making.

This is Willem van der Vis, from Melbourne, who was our conductor and mentor for the weekend - he managed to squeeze a reasonable facsimile of a Beethoven Symphony from us by Sunday afternoon!

The ensemble

Fraser - a study in concentration.

An uncharacteristic quite moment in the brass section!

A "backache of basses"!

The loneliness of the long-distance percussionist!

There was time to fly.........

.....play a spot of golf

or just stroll on the beach.

It was a wonderful weekend full of music, laughter and cameraderie. Can't wait to do it again!

Biba

Here's "Biba" - she was made using the patterns I developed for the "Pipkin" prototype and her face was pressed from the "Pipkin" mould. I used the same fabric to make her dress and knickers and blue wool for her hand-knits. Shoes are brown leather. I experimented a bit with her wig......I had a small piece of mohair teddy bear fabric that someone had given me. I shaped it and glued it on her head and it makes a great short, tousled wig!
This doll will be in my Etsy store when I've finished making her a little something to carry.

Biba Bedhead!

Working It Out

Clothed and nekkid!

With a view to offering this new "Pipkin" doll as a kit in my Etsy store, I have made a silicone mould from the original "Pipkin" and slightly modified a couple of things that needed improvement in the pattern. From the mould I will make half-completed doll heads to sell with the pattern and instructions. Now I need to write up the instructions in a clear and comprehensible manner, so I have been taking progress shots as I have been making this second doll. Quite a lot of work goes into creating a set of instructions - they need to be clear and concise, but have enough information so that someone with limited dollmaking experience can follow them easily. I find that clear photographs are very important (worth a thousand word, right?)
So hopefully, this will be ready next week or so: meanwhile here is a teaser!

Sharing Art

I've just participated in a fabric postcard swap with ten other people.........this is a great way to share art because each postcard-sized artwork does not take long to create, but each is a complete little entity in itself. as you can see, the cards I made are all related, but different from each other.
I'm now looking forward to seeing what lands in my postbox!

I used walnut ink stained fabric as the basis for my set of cards, over which I collaged fabric and paper elements. I then used subtle washes of acrylic paint and some pencil work to add some colour.
Here they are all together before I sent them off:

........and here are several of the individual cards:

Pipkin

Here's the little doll I designed last week......meet "Pipkin". She's a 12" (30 cms) tall cloth doll with jointed hips, shoulder and neck and  her head is air-dry clay with clothover, painted with artist's acrylics. I made her a knotted mohair wig and she has a cotton print dress with matching bloomers and knitted cap, cardigan and socks. Her little red shoes are leather. I've taken a silicone impression of her face and saved the body pattern in case I decide to offer this doll as a kit in my Etsy store.

An Update

Here's the little doll I was designing a body for at the weekend. I managed to get it stuffed and put together last night - no mean feat these days as I find it increasingly difficult to work at night like I used to........7:30 often sees me dozing in my chair!
This little doll is only 12" (30 cms) tall - a small size I quite like. He/she (not decided yet) has a flange neck which fits into the top of the body so the head can turn and joints at the shoulders and hips.

The head has been covered with knit fabric, firmly glued onto the sculpted form. Next step is to size it with a special mixture to make it very strong.

I'm pleased with the body size and shape. And I do like this hat on him/her (I knitted it last week at a meeting - it is serendipity that it fits so well!). Next job is to stain the body and start painting the head.

Designing Ways

I love designing stuff..........I love the whole process from having an idea as a picture in my head, to sketching and then working out how to make whatever it is. It hasn't always been an easy process - time was when my ablitiy to make something fell well short of the picture in my head. These days, with so many years of making under my belt, usually I can manage a reasonable facsimile of my concept - the object doesn't fall so short of the ideal picture.
Designing usually takes place on the floor. I have large tables in my studio, but they are usually so covered with creative detritus that the floor is the best clear space available. If it is a doll I am designing, I usually start with a sculpted head. I then use the head as a guide to get the body proportions and size right and then the body sketch is used to make pattern pieces. I need to know at the outset what kind of jointing I am going to use, because that greatly affects how the limbs are constructed.
If I particularly like a head I've sculpted I sometimes make a silicone mould so that I can make more similars, or a series.
I am often asked how much you need to allow to translate a flat sketch into a rounded object......the answer is - I don't know. I do it intuitively and it is usually fairly right, though on occasion I have got it very wrong and have had to start again. My doll-making has entailed a lot of trial and error over the years!

The sculpted head - in this case it is a slightly stylized young child head. The pencil marks are just my way of making sure the sculpting is balanced enough - it's easy to get it unbalanced without realizing. They will disappear when I sand the head before putting on the cloth layer.

How cute will it be with a little knitted gumnut cap?

Original sketch and subsequent pattern pieces

Ready for a test run!