Edwardian Era Trio

I have to show you how nice they all look together. I have them hanging on the wall of my studio right now. I figure I might as well enjoy them until someone buys them from my Etsy shop. I think that they all look great as a group, maybe someone else will too.

Grace

This poor doll has been sitting on the back burner for weeks and weeks waiting for me to finish her. I thought I had her done, the head I made for her was gorgeous but just didn't suit her and her Edwardian Era personality. It seemed more suited for a Gothic Fairy type of doll. Can you possibly think of anything more unsuitable for her? lol!

 I've been busy trying ot get smaller projects finished for the fall round of craft fairs locally but it was driving me crazy seeing her hanging on my wall headless. I finally just put everything else aside and finsihed her. I'm glad I did, she really turned out nicely. I put a LOT more time into her and her details than the other two Era dolls. Her floral swag alone took almost 4 hours by the time I hand dyed the silk ribbons and then made them into flowers. Her hat took several hours too. More hand dyed silk and floral details.

I enjoyed working with the Treasure Keeper pattern I made them from. I plan to make more dolls from this pattern in the future. It is the type of pattern that is pretty adaptable to any type of doll no matter how wild you want to go with it. I started on the traditional side but I plan to make the next ones REALLY abstract and even more of an "art" doll.

I had originally planned on making them with the word charms and each doll would have her own necklace with its charm. However, they just seemed too modern for what the dolls were so I guess I'll keep holding onto the charms for some future project.

Autumn Fairy

I've been staying busy trying to get several projects finished up for the upcoming craft fairs where I have booths reserved. I have managed to complete a couple of my larger projects that have been hanging out on the back burner for quite awhile.

My Autumn Fairy was inspired by a wreath I made for my front door. As I worked with all the gorgeous colors of the silk flowers I thought what fun it would be to incorporate them into an art doll somehow. I ended up using silk leaves for her skirt and flower petals for the caps of her sleeves and an overskirt.
 Her hair is constructed from various silk flowers, berries and beaded wire.

Fairy Babies

I can't believe that there are only a few more days left of September. It seems like just a blink ago the kids were starting back to school and it still felt like summer. It is definitely fall here in Wyoming now. The mornings are so crisp and the leaves have started turning a few days ago. Our neighbors apple tree was so loaded this year it could barely hold it's branches up. They were kind enough to share their bounty with me, so I have been busy making applesauce, pie filling and even drying a few.

 Fall is my favorite season of the year. I love the slower pace after the crazy business of summer. I have spent my last few mornings on our back porch. Curled up under an old quilt and enjoying a steaming cup of hot tea and savoring the smells of fall and the beautiful colors that are starting to emerge. I sat so quietly comtemplating this morning that a doe and her fawn walked through my back yard only a few feet away and never even noticed me. How can a day go anything but perfect when you start a morning out like that?

I haven't given up on my last Treasure Keeper doll but I needed to put her aside for a couple of weeks while I gear up for my fall craft sales that I participate in. I try to keep most of the larger more elaborate dolls to sell online as I find that the local shoppers love my smaller and sometimes simpler dolls. That works out great for me since I am able to do more of them with the limited time I have. I am almost finished with the batch of fall fairy babies that I will show at the craft fairs. Then I plan to work up a few Christmas ornaments. I am still working on the design of the ornaments but I'll share a sneak peak as soon as I get all the technical type stuff worked out of them. I am thinking more of a Victorian/Edwardian theme of ornaments this year. I think it is because of all the time I have been spending on the Treasure Keeper trio of dolls.

Here is a peek at some of the sleeping fairy babies, I have a few of them on my Etsy shop.

Last But Not Least

I'm working on the final doll in the trio. They've really been fun and I have enjoyed playing with all the antique laces and ribbons. I feel the need for color now after so much vintage white. The next doll I have already been toying with in my sketch book is a Super bright, whimsical autumn doll.

Here is a sneak peak of the final doll. I am pretty sure I have her name picked out but I will wait to reveal it after she is finished.

This is her swag that she will be holding in her arms.

 I have her face lightly penciled in, waiting for some color. I am in love with her pearl and Sterling Silver choker. I am wishing I had one in my size!!!

Faith

I've finished the next doll in the trio. She decided that her name should be Faith, not "Love" as I had planned. Sigh..these dolls they have as much attitude as my real children do. At least with the dolls I can turn off the light of my studio, close the door and walk away from them until I am ready to deal with them again. If I could only do that with my teenagers, I'd be a happy mommy!

Since I didn't do wings with Hope I won't try them with the rest of the trio. I'll save the wings for some future project. The red heart that Faith holds had been bothering me so I sewed up a pink one but was surprised to see it fade right into her dress. Back to the red one again, however when I put her all together I noticed that instead of taking over with it's boldness of color it seemed to compliment her attitude and her story.

The fun of art is seeing how everyone who views it has a different view on how it makes them feel, what emotion it evokes. With art dolls there is also what is the doll's attitude, what is her story.  So, here is my artist's point of view on Faith's story as retold to me by Faith.............

Faith was born in the early 1900's to a very affluent family. She was brought up with the best education and material comforts available at the time. She posseses all the manners that were expected of a young lady of her station in life during the Edwardian Era.  Upon reaching her 18th Birthday her father announced her betrothal to a man from another fine upstanding family in her community. This union was to increase the social standing and financial security for both of the families involved. Faith is normally a very sweet tempered girl, very obediant to her parents wishes and loved by everyone who knows her. However, unbeknownst to her family, Faith had fallen in love with someone her father considered well below her social status. Her True Love was sent away and Faith was ordered to have no further contact with him.  Hence her name, "Faith" as Faith clutches her tattered velvet heart she dreams of her true love and lives every day with the Faith that he will find a way to return to her and they will be together again forever.

Hope

Well, I finally finished the first of the series I am working on." Hope" was my favorite so naturally she demanded to be completed before her sisters. I am pleased with her, as with all of my dolls she had a few surprises for me. I made her a gorgeous set of vintage lace wings and she announced quite loudly that she DID NOT want to be an Angel, she wanted to be a Bride. I've found it's futile to argue, so a Bride she is. An Edwardian Era bride to be exact. A beautiful bride if I do say so myself. (Ok, probably a little bit of bias here.) I have her up on my Etsy shop hopefully someone else will love her as much as I do!

This was the first doll I have made with a gusset head. I have to admit I was a bit nervous going into this but Kate Erbach has great patterns that haven't led me wrong yet. So I took a deep breath and sewed my first gusset. Easy peasy. I don't know what I was so worried about. I do like the look of the more three dimensional face that the gusset allows. I'll have to do a few more now that I know I can handle it.  I've added a link to the Treasure Keeper pattern that I used for "Hope"

When starting these dolls I really didn't expect them to take so long without having legs, and the costuming being part of the doll. However, using vintage and antique materials I found it took a lot of time to stabilize them so that they will not be too delicate and cause the doll to fall apart in any way. I put at least the same amount of time into them that I usually do on my dolls. I know I am too much of a perfectionist with all of my art but I can't seem to get away from it.

I have "Love's head finished and drawn, now that I have "Hope" done, I plan on working on her next. The red velvet heart is still bothering me so I am going to try a pink one, it won't be velvet but I do have some nice pink vintage satin that I think will work up nice. I really want the emphasis on these girls to be on their fabrics and their face so I plan on trying to keep their head pieces the same neutral white as their gowns. It is proving to be a bit of a challenge, but a fun one!

Shabby Chic Hearts

I know better than to get into the serious part of making dolls when everyone is home on a weekend. For me the serious part is their faces. So much of their personality is conveyed through their expressions. I wanted, needed, to play in the studio so I opted instead for making some fun shabby chic hearts with my vintage stash of laces, buttons, pearls and silk ribbons that I already have out of storage right now for the dolls I am working on. I made 3 of them. I seem to be making items in multiples of three lately, what's up with that? I think they turned out kinda cute. I have them listed on my Etsy shop but if they don't sell, I will happily hang them from my antique Victorian window that I have on the wall in my home. They look gorgeous there don't you think?

Lazy Days of Summer

Whoever coined that phrase obviously didn't have children. The last few weeks of summer are always so crazy busy for me. School shopping, things that have been put off all summer long because there is always tomorrow to get around to it, getting everyone back on some sort of schedule, etc..  However, for the sake of my sanity I have managed to sneak in a little time in my studio when everyone else was alseep.

 I was fortunate enough to have the most incredible Kate Erbach pattern shared with me. I was so awed when I first saw it that I immediately put the doll I was working on aside to play with this pattern. For me that is really saying something since I try not to have more than one type of doll going on at the same time. I love Kate's patterns, they are so easy to follow and turn out gorgeous. I'll try to find a link to the one I am working with now and post it here. It is so easy that a beginning doll maker could whip out a doll with no problems.

I have a packet of word charms that I have been saving thinking they would make a nice addition somehow to a doll. I've had them awhile since the perfect doll for them hadn't come around yet. When I received the "Treasure Keeper" pattern I was so excited because this was the doll I had been waiting for. I have 5 charms so ultimately I would like to do 5 theme dolls with them. They are:  ~~Peace~~  ~~Hope~~  ~~Love~~  ~~Dream~~  ~~Believe~~

I am currently working on 3 dolls. I think I will call them "Inspiration Dolls"  I'll share with you the progress I have made on them so far.


I wanted to make these dolls with all vintage lace and trims. With the antique textiles being so fragile I needed a solid cotton fabric for their base. This chaotic looking pile of lace is actually the layout of laces waiting to be fused to the cotton. Hard to believe a beautiful doll will emerge from this isn't it?

Here is the body of the doll all cut out, lace fused to it and the antique mother of pearl buttons sewn on. I almost forgot to put the buttons on before I sewed the front and back together. Yikes, that would have been a nightmare to add later!

Front and back sewn together on two of the dolls. They are finally starting to resemble something here.

One of them stuffed, two waiting in the wings. Wow, these gals take a HUGE amount of stuffing in them. I like to wait until I have all of my parts sewn and ready to stuff, then I will pick a good Netflix movie and spend the evening with Hubby watching movies and stuffing dolls.  He tolerates it unless I get a little wild with the fiberfill and it starts to migrate to his half of the sofa. Hmmph, he has no sense of humor in walking around looking like a giant lint ball from the dryer.








They still need heads and their wings, then they will REALLY take on a personality but here is what I have so far. I'm actually quite pleased with them.


~~LOVE~~

 This doll is ~~LOVE~~ I still have all the pins in her until I am certain I have her positioned where I want her arms. I am not entirely satisfied with her sleeves and I think I'll end up changing them somehow. Her heart is distressed red velvet, I do like it but I'm not sure if it will stay or not. What I really want is vintage pink velvet but I don't have the right shade. If I go brunette with her hair the red will look fine. Otherwise I think it is going to be way to bold for her personality.




~~Believe~~

This doll is ~~Believe~~ Her arms are not at all positioned yet. I will angle them outwards and she will be holding a floral swag of ribbon roses. (At least that is the plan at this point, dolls have been known to demand things other than what was planned.) I'm not sure if she will have sleeves or not. I'm kinda liking the sleeveless look with her.




~~Hope~~

This doll is ~~Hope~~ I am totally in love with her. I think she is my favorite at this point in time. She reminds me of a victorian bride.

The kids will all be back in school on Tuesday and I will hopefully be able to spend a little more time in my studio working after that. I'll keep you updated on their progress as I go.

My Weirdness

 I love material so much that sometimes I just take it off my shelves and look at all of the gorgeous colors and patterns in it. Yeah, I am major weird that way. but at least it's a healthy weird (if there is such a thing as healthy weird) I think it goes back to my love of any medium of art and of colors.

 I was doing a little back to school shopping for the kids yesterday and got to the Crayon section. I couldn't help but open one of the boxes and look at all of those gorgeous colors, and the smell of a box of new crayons! Imediately in my head I was right back in one of those tiny little desks on the first day of school with my new box of crayons and a big sheet of white paper in front of me thinking "what do I want to create?" the possibilities.............  By the way, the smell of a new tub of Playdough does the same thing for me.  Like I mentioned earlier, I'm just weird that way.

Shhh, don't tell my kids but I bought a box just for me,and as you can see I've used them already too! I snuck out in the back yard and colored when they thought I was hanging clothes, so they left me alone in fear of being put to work. I played with my crayons sketching the landscape in total bliss for a full 20 minutes until the phone rang. Reality checks, Hate them!!!!

Oh, if you are going to buy a box for yourself. Splurge and get the real thing CRAYOLA. I felt guilty and bought the generic brand, Yuck, they are almost all wax and no pigment. I ended up scraping off layers of wax with my fingernail trying to get to the paper.

New Things to Play With

I have been taking a little break from the usual type of dolls I make to try some new things. I found the cutest pattern online for a pincushion doll from doll artist Kate Erbach. She has several patterns that she has designed that are incredibly fun and I just had to try them out. When I contacted her to ask if I could sell a couple of the dolls I made in my Etsy store she told me yes!!! AND she kindly sent me a couple more patterns. YEAAAA! It is like Christmas in July. I am sensing a need to take a trip to the fabric store in my near future. I was impressed with how well written and easy to follow the patterns were, you seriously need to check them out here at Dollmaker's Journey. I've made two pincushion dolls so far but the problem is that now I have fallen in love with them and I'm not so sure I want to put them in my Etsy shop after all. Sigh.... They need a Hoarders show for doll makers, I could star in it!

So many fabrics to choose from, I think I'll have to make more so I don't have to decide which ones are my favorites.

These dolls really sewed up pretty quickly and easily.

I love the shape of the body. It looks like a gorgeous pear. I think I might make up some of the body shapes just to display in a bowl on an end table in my house. They are so cool.

I love these sandals! My 8 year old thinks I need to make some for her play dolls. They are easy enough to make I think I'll teach her how to do it instead. About 200+ sandals later I might regret that decision but at least it will keep her busy for awhile. She's suffering from the late summer, "I'm bored"

The only thing I really struggled with on these gals was their faces.I wanted their faces bright and bold. I also knew that they might actually get used for their intended purpose of pin cushions so I needed something that would hold up a little better to handling than colored pencils would. I dusted off my fabric art markers that I haven't really used since I took a class with Elinor Peace Baily several years ago. I learned doll face creating using markers but honestly, they are a bit intimidating to me in their permanency. One little OOPS, and you could be re doing the entire head. I am so used to working in colored pencils that it really made me freeze up. I think this was a good thing for me to realize, I try not to ever get settled into a rut of always using the same medium for my art or creating the same type of dolls, hence these pincushion dolls.