Fabric Book / Round Robin 2005

SeaScape: I used to belong to a wonderfully active doll club that met in St. Helens on a monthly basis. This was one of our projects - our first try at fabric journals, where members contribute pages to each person's "theme." The owner/originator of the book created the cover and back of the fabric journal. This was passed from one member to another, each adding a page. 

A few of our other projects can be found on my website:

http://www.blueherondolls.com/Reigning%20Dolls%20&%20Bears%20Club.htm

and Flickr site:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/reigningdollsandbears/

Fabric Book / Round Robin 2006

Mother-Maiden-Crone: I used to belong to a wonderfully active doll club that met in St. Helens on a monthly basis. This was one of our projects. Everyone picked a theme, created a page template, and made the cover and back of a fabric journal. This was passed from one member to another, each adding a page (front and back). We included notes about our additions to each journal.

A few of our other projects can be found on my website:

http://www.blueherondolls.com/Reigning%20Dolls%20&%20Bears%20Club.htm

and Flickr site:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/reigningdollsandbears/

Blast from the Past

After a whirlwind trip to Orlando for ODACA Day, my husband and I was talking about dolls. He told me he had a couple favorites. Bilbo is one of them. I'd forgotten all about him. He's been in storage since 2003.

I used to belong to an active doll club in St. Helens, Oregon, called the Reigning Dolls & Bears club. We would have challenges regularly, which I loved, as they really pushed our skills. We decided to have a Storybook Challenge, the dolls to be displayed at the Hillsboro Public Library. Bilbo is the result of this challenge. I pulled him out of storage and photograph him again (digital cameras have come a long way since 2003!)

After a number of years, our club lost its meeting place. And that was the end of it. I miss my fellow doll club members, but do get to see what they're up to on Facebook. You can see some club photos HERE and HERE.

Mystery Doll's Head Attached

After a brief loss of electricity this morning (we've been having some stormy weather lately), I gave my mystery/challenge doll her head. She's a mystery, because I have NO idea where I'm going with her.

After joining the head to the neck, I painted it with white tacky glue. This will make a nice surface on which to add paperclay. I considered doing some needle sculpting before applying the glue, but decided against it. I put a little tape around her neck to avoid getting any glue or clay on the paint. Let's hope I can get it off again.

If I make any progress today, I'll update this post.

(Taking) the Long Way Home

Ok, I've been listening to Supertramp lately. But what I'm really trying to say is that I always seem to make things more difficult than they need to be.

I'm working on a doll for doll club, using one of the two patterns chosen for this challenge. Someone said the designer of the pattern I'm using creates patterns that don't quite go together. So I thought I'd just make one in plain muslin to check out that theory, without wasting my good skin fabric. As it turns out the body pattern did NOT go together well, and I had to do quite a bit of modifying.

But after all the modifying, sewing and stuffing, I really didn't want to start over with the good fabric. Now I've got a really white doll (and I don't mean Caucasian). So I decided to paint it. Of course, I'd already attached the arms, making this a bit trickier. I also painted on layers of Messy Mix and gesso before the paint. Her arms are sticking up in the air for ease in painting and drying, with one coat of acrylic skin color in place.

She's headless, because I'm not particularly happy with the head shape, either. I thought I could just augment it with a little paperclay. Easy peasy. Except I thought I really ought to paint the neck/body first, before sticking the head on. If I do this right, I'll have a fabric/paperclay head that can turn side to side. Of course, I'll need to paint that, too.

Little Red

It's a beautiful Saturday, and I'll be headed to doll club in a couple hours. We'll be meeting at Roxanne's house in Newberg (Oregon). We've met there once before, and her home is lovely.

Our usual meeting place (fire station in St. Helens) is currently off-limits, due to the prevalence of H1N1 influenza. The hope is by preventing outsiders into the facility, the first responders will have less exposure to the virus and stay healthy so they can do their jobs. I can appreciate that. I got my H1N1 shot a few days ago, will no ill effects.
Little Red will be coming to doll club with me. I used Lucinda Durbin's Presbyterian doll pattern, a reproduction based on the original dolls. I had to adapt the pattern a little, as I wanted to try a photo face doll. She still needs her basket, and some sort of hair-do. You can find some information about these original dolls HERE, on Sherrie Nordgren's blog.

Reigning Dolls & Bears club pin done

Today I finished my doll club pin, designed by club member Martha Checkett. Well almost done ~ I may add a little banner/scroll with my name, so I can use the pin as a name tag. The pin 3-1/2 by almost 4 inches in size. The head is about the size of a nickel.

Next, I'm going to try to finish my Little Red Riding Hood challenge doll, using a Presbyterian doll repro pattern by Lucinda Durbin. She just needs her hair and red cape. I've also got to finish our August challenge doll, using one of two patterns we selected from the old The Cloth Doll magazine.

Presbyterian Doll

Better late than never. Dollmaker Lucinda Durbin (Cinders) posted this doll pattern on the Vintage Cloth Dollmaking (Yahoo) list some time ago. Her pattern was a reproduction of the old Presbyterian dolls. I'll have to scrounge around for information about these old dolls.

Members of VCD made dolls using her pattern, and I've finally gotten around to making mine. We'll be working on this doll for doll club next weekend, so I wanted to have a finished example or two, using some different techniques.

This is my first Presby doll, which has a one-step crackle and light walnut ink wash. Next, I'm going to make one of these dolls with a photo for the face. Still pondering how to go about this. I may have to modify the pattern a bit.

Special Doll Club Meeting Yesterday

Yesterday's doll club meeting (luncheon) was held at Roxanne's home in the Scholls/Newberg area. Roxanne is a supremely wonderful hostess, and her home and property absolutely gorgeous. She and her husband Ed have a non-commercial winery. Ed gave us a tour and explained the process of making white and red wines.

We had our wine/grape themed challenge dolls on display in the dining area, as well as other dolls we've been working on.

I just started a flickr account so everyone can see photos of the challenge dolls (there's also a link to the left under "websites to visit" - Reigning Dolls and Bears: http://www.flickr.com/photos/reigningdollsandbears/

Because we've been meeting quarterly instead of monthly (many of us travel considerable distances to get to club), we started a private Yahoo group to stay in touch, upload patterns, photos and minutes.

Meditrina

Today I've been working on my wine-themed doll for our doll club meeting this Saturday. I've named her "Meditrina," for the Roman goddess of health and wine.

I used some suede knit fabric I had on hand for her body as she's just a prototype (I didn't want to waste my good skin tone fabric while was working out the proportions of the doll, so I used this alabaster colored fabric - really too light for an appropriate skin tone).

Her face is polymer clay with a knit cloth-over, painted to match her skin tone. Her hair is Tibetan lambswool on the hide. Her fingers are wired. She has needle-sculpted breasts.

She's dressed in a very dark navy blue (almost black) silk georgette drapy gown.

I thought she should hold a carafe, bottle, goblet or something fitting with the theme, but had nothing suitable on hand. So I made a polymer clay wine goblet and used fine mica-like powder brushed directly onto the uncooked clay to give it a metallic look. After baking and cooling, I mixed the same metallic powder into a clear varnish and coated the goblet with the mixture.

This photo is a temporary placeholder, because her grapes are not in scale. I've got smaller grapes coming, and hopefully they'll be better.