Fernando el Vejigante

Finally, after much debate, I decided to post a picture of Fernando el Vejigante. He started out as a gift for a member of my doll club. I wanted to give her something personal, something that represented a part of my culture. It was this idea that fueled the inspiration and allowed me to move ahead and quickly produce this fellow. I showed it to a select few and the reaction I received was positive as well as conflicting. Some, who knew the recipient of this gift, thought that perhaps it was not suited to her taste. Those who do not know her were perplexed as to why I would chose this theme for a Christmas gift. The subject matter contradicts my christian upbringing. In my mind, it was not made to glorify the devil. The rich colors of the art and masks that I saw while visiting Ponce left an impression on me.
It was as simple and as hard as that. In the end I made her a boudoir doll that can be seen in one of my earlier posts.

Sophie's Doll Family

While surfing the web, I came across a site which had Edith Flack Ackley type dollhouse doll patterns by Sara Cole. I decided to make one doll to represent each member of Sophie's family. I like this simple pattern. It brings me back to my doll making roots. The hair is made of needlefelted wool. The clothing was partially painted and I also used various cotton prints to finish off their look. I can't wait until she gets them.

Eli makes a doll

I invited my, ten year old, nephew Eli to visit me this week. As I imagined, after checking out the contents of my workspace, he decided that he wanted to make a doll of his own. I asked him to start by making a quick sketch of the figure he wanted to make. After fine tuning the lines of the drawing and enlarging it thirty five percent, he took the copy of the drawing and layed it on fabric. He did a great job sewing it at the machines lowest speed.  Not bad for his first experience sewing on a machine. He used fabric paints for the clothing, made a cloth cape and polymer clay horns. I sculpted the muscles with button thread. I asked Eli what he thought of this experience. He said it was fun and exciting.
Precision sewing

Drawing the details

The finished doll

The Christmas Gift

Our doll club had a gift exchange this year. We all got to draw a name from a bag. I was excited about making something special for my person. I asked my sister, Diana, for a special piece of fabric for this project. She handed me a small wrinkled plastic grocery bag. My first reaction was disappointment until I opened this crumpled bag and saw this gray shimmery piece of cloth. The tag attached to it read, Poganza. I never heard of it but fell in love with it. I must have more. I wanted this doll to have an antique boudoir look with a modern twist. How did I do?This past weekend I handed over my gift in a no frills package. I'm ashamed to say it was a postal box inside a garbage bag. Hey, give me a break. I was burning the midnight oil for the past week. Her reaction was more than positive. I was touched by it.

A Shop Warming Gift

I recently visited a friend and fellow doll club member, Anne Marie, at her beautiful shop in Hillsdale, N.J. The name of the shop is Yarn Diva and More. When you step in, it's like walking into a candy shop. Your senses are overtaken by all the colors and textures. Yum! I made her a shop warming gift which reflects her store color theme, pink and chocolate brown. She is another incarnation of my Grinning Annie doll. Check out her knitting needles. I made them out of toothpicks and knitted some perle cotton under a magnifying lamp. The polka dotted bag is a miniature copy of the bags she sells at her shop. I had fun making it and thought it would add a unique touch. I gave Anne Marie a larger version of this doll, dressed in red with red yarn hair, a while ago. She liked it so much and said she keeps it in her sewing room. So, I decided to make her one for her shop. Along with yarn, she also was kind enough to give us a venue to sell our handcrafted dolls. What a gal. I can't wait to see her reaction to the doll.

Sophie and Sabrosa

How can I forget to share my littlest muse, Sophie. She is the daughter of my niece Tristan and her wonderful hubby, Chris. They came for a, much too short, visit from Portland, OR, this past summer. When I spotted Moda Fabric's line of sock monkey inspired prints, I couldn't help but make her, her own little sock monkey. I made the curl on top of it's head because I knew a baby would just go for it. Sure enough, Sophie did not disappoint. The first thing she did was stick that curl in her mouth. Her parents named the monkey Sabrosa, which means tasty in spanish. I also made Sophie's little shoes. Unfortunately, she's outgrown them since the picture was taken. I can't wait to see what else this little beauty inspires me to make.

Creature Feature

This fall I got inspired to create a few odd creatures. The cat was a pattern that I created five years ago. My husband took a liking to the original, so, I decided to surprise him with one this year. He asked that I place a boot mark on his belly. I'll have to think about that. The moon is made of a stuffed felt circle. The craters and facial details were needle felted. Shading was added with a prismacolor pencil. The little witch is my halloween version of my Grinning Annie pattern. She is approximately ten inches tall and has a wire armature. The little monkey looking fellow was inspired by the talented artist, Magda Trzaski. She was featured in the fall issue of Mary Englebreit's Home Companion. Since I was toying around with armatures, it was the perfect opportunity to make one of these creatures just for myself, and add my own twist. He hangs out in my attic workspace, threatening to run away in his melancoly way.

Birthday Surprise

This September, the Sew Sew Dolls, a talented group of women who share a passion for making dolls and most things creative, celebrated our first official birthday. Tery, our club leader, glue, and gate keeper, gave each of us a present at our club meeting. In it we had the fixings for a quick lesson in silk fusion and a sewn body from Pamela Hasting's Hot Flash pattern. She transferred our faces onto the pattern. It was quite the hysterical surprise. Some of us started stuffing the body before we even went home. Each doll was to have a color theme chosen by the recipient. My favorite color of the moment was yellow. I had a ball embellishing this body. I appliqued, reverse appliqued, embroidered, and beaded. Her hat is embellished with tassels and needle felted beads. Her bag was a die cut made on the Sizzix Big Kick. Inside, a secret note is sealed away. Although I appreciate all the modern conveniences available to crafters and artists these days, I can't get away from the trusty needle and thread. The yellow palette goes well with my squinting face, don't you think? I can't wait to see what the other gals came up with.

Hoffman Challenge 2007

This year I thought I would attempt to enter the Hoffman Challenge 2007. I purchased my materials well in advance. I have to say, I did not care for the busy fabric. I also bought a few coordinates to go with it and placed them amongst my fabric stash. Once in a while I'd take a peek but I hadn't a clue as to what I'd do with them. It wasn't until I started playing with some leftover scraps of material, combining them with Angelina fiber and freemotion, that I realized I had picked up the colors in the main challenge fabric. It took off from there. With one month, to get it together, I was on a mission. Unfortunately (?), I did not meet the deadline and she remains with me. It was such a great experience working on her. Since naming my dolls always is a difficult thing for me, my sister Nancy came up with Priscilla, the butterfly wrangler of Haldonberry. It's got a good sound to it. I think I'll keep it. I have seen the challenge fabric for 2008....hmmm.