Autumn - 2022

This is Autumn. She is a pumpkin girl created in an online class with Karen Baker. I always enjoy Karen’s classes, you can always be sure of learning new techniques. This doll has a clay pumpkin head. Her hands are the vines coming from the pumpkin. Her feet were going to be the same, but it just changed along the way to be come leather shoes.

She is wearing a pair of pantaloons, striped socks, a cotton skirt. Her blouse is silk and tied at the wrists are strips of the skirt fabric. Her vest is a boucle type of fabric and the look is finished with cowl for her neck. She can free stand, but I’ve chosen to have her sitting.

The whole look is completed with a basket of felt oak leaves, a pumpkin, cotton and felt acorns, and a sprinkle of real acorns donated by a friend. Enjoy

Ohren Hare - 2022

Here is Ohren Hare, from a class I took with Maria Saracino. The name of the class is Retro Cane Jack Rabbit. A fun class creating mosaic tiles with polymer clay and a bottle.

We made tiny mosaic tiles with the number of colours you choose. The tiles are then fashioned onto a bottle, along with tiny green leaves to create the illusion of them growing out from behind the tiles.

My favourite part of Ohren is his ears. Inside the ears, we also added the mosaic tiles. I gave him big lashes, it gives such character. Whenever my cat drops his whiskers, I scoop them up and that’s what I used for Ohren’s whiskers.

I added light smudges of green paint on the ears and face for interest. He’s finished off with a lime green ribbon around his neck. It picks up the subtle touches of green paint.  Enjoy…

Dimples - 2021

This is from a class with Ankie Daanen at Niada Academy. This is Dimples. A clown made with paper clay and polymer clay. I used the polymer clay for the hands and shoes. The head is paper clay. 

I created the boots in a way to compliment the colours of the clown costume. The hat is my own as well. Otherwise, the costume is all Ankie. She makes the best dolls doesn’t she….  I’m so happy with how Dimples turned out. There aren’t enough girl clowns, so that’s who I decided she should be.

  

Molly and Ella Impish

Molly and Ella were my only clay figures this year. They are so cute. I took a class with Sherrie Nielson making her very cute “Brownies”  The style of doll is very flexible to create in your own style. This is what came to me as I worked on them.

These are sisters and I just couldn’t resist the mullet hair styles. They’re outfits are made with wool scraps and embellished just a little. Check out those nails. ;o)

They are so bright in colour, they didn’t need anything more. Their necks are jointed so they can turn to look at each other or anywhere else they want to…. Really love these girls, they are on a shelf where I can see them every day.

Big Catch Up…wow

I haven’t posted in ages, did you notice the last date… ooops. I have so much to post, I’ll just post one or two pictures of each project, unlike how I usually post several. I’m going to have to post a few separate posts because I’ve been doing a number of different themed art projects.

Here are some ornaments and small pieces. Some things I made very just to try something new and used that as a learning curve. So here you are…

This is a fairy designed by Shashi, my version is red and white and was ready for Christmas.

 

  
This was an order for a special customer that has ordered these fairies for a few years now. She sends them to family in Australia. They have a separate tree for them now. ;o)

These are some pins I made using wool scraps, some beads and other embellishments.  First a couple of cat faces.

These are the lady pins. I again used some beads and other embellishments. I really loved making these. Like the cats, they are my own designs.

Flower Fairies

This is the other class I signed up for on Adele’s site. It appealed to me because I’m making fairy ornaments for sale from September to December and these will compliment the shabby Rose ornaments very nicely.

Here are the four girls I made, all standing nice and tall in a row, but a back view first.  Starting with the orange/yellow theme, I used the floral sprays and leaves that are recommended in class. From there I moved to a combination of leaves, floral sprays, shabby roses and some velvet leaves, as in the two blue/purple/green tones. The last fairy on the left is made with shabby rose, silk flowers and velvet leaves.

In the front view, you can see three of them are wearing little crowns and there is a little beading on the bodice and at the bottom, and they have earrings. The fairy on the left deliberately only has one earring. ;o)

In the next picture you can see them  a little closer in the upper body and a little bit better view of the embellishments.

On the bases, I covered the blocks and stems with handmade papers. I think creative people have a stash of every conceivable form of art supplies, am I right.

To finish up, here are the close ups of their faces. The hair for all of them is different colours and blends of colours, in wool rovings. It’s so soft, you can twist and shape it and do pretty much whatever you like with it, to create the hair styles.

Hansel and Gretel

I finished this class with Angela Jarecki a few days ago. I don’t take that  many classes anymore, but this was just too cute to pass up. I enjoyed making these dolls and am hoping in the fall they will find new homes.

Here they are together and then some pictures to show what I did a little differently. Of course. For the most part I did things like the lessons, except one big change. I confessed to Angela that I changed the head pattern, I used a different one all together.

Basically I just didn’t like the shape of the one in the lesson. The head I used is also designed with a chin gusset but it just came together so much easier. This is the only major change I made, others used the head pattern that came with the class.

Angela’s dolls are free standing, but since I had these wood stumps and because they are Hansel and Gretel who lived in a small cottage in the woods, these bases seemed just perfect.

I have a stash of needle point wool and it’s doubtful that the printed canvases I have, will ever get stitched, but the wool made perfect hair. I mixed colours for both dolls so they would have some highlights throughout, like our own hair.

For their scarves… Hansel has a piece of previously dyed cheesecloth, which just happened to be the perfect compliment for the colour in his clothing, and it’s wrapped around for interest as is Gretel’s. Her scarf is from a repurposed silk scarf and I left some of the fringe on it.

The clothing is a mix of cotton prints, tapestry fabric for the hats, repurposed work socks for Hansel, stretch knit for Gretel’s stockings and felt. The shoes are made with faux suede. Hansel’s pants are corduroy with flannel used for sleeves, cowl and trim on the cuffs. There is beading on her vest and satchel and on his hat.

In the next picture, you can see that Hansel has found some sweet blackberries, while Gretel has discovered a blueberry bush. Hansel also carries a flashlight for those walks in the forest which can be very spooky. 

And that’s all. I hope you like these two. The class was on Adele’s site, it’s finished now, but maybe it’ll be back in the fall. Enjoy  ;o)