ART DOLL FUN...

My word, I can't believe I haven't posted for so long... I should have posted last Saturday but it was a nice day and with Father's Day on the Sunday and my parents being away for my birthday later, we went out for a special meal. A very nice time was had by all and the weather stayed remarkably sunny too- a blessing considering our recent wet trend.

I spent a couple of days last week getting on with one of the Elements dolls I'm creating for a Doll Challenge on Stitchin Fingers . We are only supposed to do one, but if you are doing one element, you should really make the set- I think, anyway! If you have followed my previous posts you will have seen I spent some time cutting fabric and designing/ painting symbols on the body pieces last month.

I've been hung up on finding suitable fabrics for the rest of the bodies in the set, but I found some rather nice pieces eventually so I've had to continue with the "Earth" doll.

Here she is complete... I'm not entirely happy with her face, and I plan on making a clay mask that I can paint up for each doll.

She has little suede pixie boots and bag, her own elder wand, and funky earthy dreads. As I said earlier, I want to create a mask for her and at the same time I still want to make a mold for clay hands, which can be smaller and more detailed. So I'm not too displeased with her, all in all. 

She'll be perfect once I make the adjustments.... and then on to another element, with my new sewing machine that should be arriving within the hour... goodbye to my 20 year old Toyota, and hello to my QE404. I'm so nervous it's killing me- I hope it's a good one, it does everything I want but I don't know the make... but for my budget it looked the best- so we'll see. I shall keep my Toyota as backup, no computer bits to go wrong there- it just doesn't do what I need nowadays. I'll be posting some textile work soon I expect- wish me luck!!!

Stitch, stitch, stitch...

I seem to be getting back into textiling more and more lately... I have done alot less painting, but my sewing machine is getting a hammering!!  I've been taking part in a few swaps on stitchin fingers , and this is what I've been working on for the Spring Fabric Postcard swap

It's collaged fabrics and plastics over felt, with ribbon flowers. It was great fun, I love building up with materials, coloured threads and different stitches... each new layer can dictate a new direction and look. I work alot with ribbon, but not like this- I might have to do some more!!

This pair are for the March challenge- Architecture. I love stained glass panels and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to play with the idea. I also love Tiffany and Macintosh, but didn't feel up to such intricate designs... so I chose a star shape and worked out from that, utterly random and intuitive.

As always I work a large panel so I have some left over, and cut the chosen areas from it. I bound these with ribbon to match the scheme and finish the look. I added angelina in places to give an extra bit of sparkle reflecting the light like real glass panels.

I hope the recipients enjoy them as much as I've enjoyed creating them.