Hello everyone!  I am so excited I have done some new creating, fixed up my sewing room.  I have a nice new working table that has six cube areas on each side to put my material, and other things I need to create my dolls with. Gives me lots of space to put things in, and next to it is my sewing table.

I have used this area to make one doll so far and found that I really like it.  It has also given me ideas on improving what I do have and how to lay out the things I have in my cubes, and on top I have a file that has all my patterns.  This area I can actually cut out the material from the patterns and have room to do it without going to my kitchen table if I need extra room.  I can also sit there and do my beading or painting if I was too. Makes my sewing/computer room very versatile in what I want to work on. 

I will be making a special picture box to take pictures of my dolls next and once it is finished I hope to take real nice pictures then. Once done I will be snapping pics of the two new dolls that I have done.  

Hi everyone I am getting ready for a few craft shows coming up in my area.  I have been working very hard on my dolls and here are a couple that I am making for the shows coming up.
The first is a Primed Raggedy Ann style called Molly.  She is not for children as she has buttons for her eyes. I sewn her mouth and around her eyes and painted her nose and her shoes.  She is about 20" tall.

(please disregard the date seems my camera is having a bad day.. it always goes back to this date for some reason)

This little girl has found a home!

Getting you all  up to date with what has been going on in my life.  Last year I found out that I may have breast cancer and around my birthday in August I had surgery to remove bad cells, now I am cancer free and have been since my surgery.  It has been a very hard year and then this past July my knees got injured and we (my doctor and myself) are working to see what is going on here. My walking is very limited now.

On the lighter side my daughter had a baby boy this April, he is such a joy - smiles and cuddly and of course her daughter who was born 2 yrs ago in August 2 days before my birthday.. she is the reason I want to live a long time.. watch her grow up, get married and have kids, and then her oldest is 6 and he is just a sweetheart.  Of course all my grand children are special.. my son has 5 boys and I also have loads of step grand children.  My step daughter has a daughter and a son and he has a daughter which makes us great grand parents now!  And my step son has two boys and two girls, his youngest is just 3 and she is such a funny girl! Such a clown, I have a feeling that my daughter's little girl is going to be the clown in her family.

I have many dolls that I don't have on this site, I have been busier than I thought LOL!  I will be getting them on so you can see what I have been doing and also posting the Raggedy Dolls which is something new for me.

At this moment I am also working on a doll for breast cancer. I have a very special place for this. I am making her out of another Jan Horrox design doll but I have switched a few things between the different dolls she has in her book Introduction to Making Cloth Dolls.  I just got this book a little while ago, which has helped me get back into making dolls again which I so so missed.  I think I sold her without taking any pictures of her, but she was going to someone who is a breast cancer survivor, and I am so happy for that.

 This is my latest fall doll that I have been working on, This is Skull Miranda. She is dressed for Halloween as the Day of the Dead. She has orange tulle, black sparkled tulle, and the top layer is black/orange and white skulls. She has a black bat bod-dis with orange and black poke-a-dot legs.  Her top hat and her waist is accented with a beaded fringe.   I love these patterns by Jan Horrox.   This doll is for sale $30.00

Coming into my own

My life has had some very small ups and downs with my health and that has truly slowed me down as well as being a caregiver to my father.  During this time I have gained a beautiful grand daughter and she is so much a joy in my life. 

It's been some time since I worked on my dolls.  I have truly missed working with them, through my daughters encouragement I am going to make room to make this possible for myself.  There are a few minor things to go around, to make it happen but I plan on cleaning out an area in our basement to set up a couple of tables for my craft room.  

Spring Doll Swap

This doll I made for my swap partner to bring on spring or for getting our gardens to grow.  Here you see here already planted in my swap partners pot and she is very happy with her.  She is made of felting and material flowers all up and down her, all her materials were natural .

My Felt Fairy

Okay its been some time since I have updated my blog. Well the truth is I got lazy, and wasn't updating when I did make a doll and then I kinda lost my grove if you know what I mean. But here is my latest and it was for the month of June a little challenge which I am very happy that I got into because I hadn't made a doll since winter. This doll needed to have felt on it and a fairy. She is made of felt with wire in arms and legs. I felted her face, and clothes on her, along with her body designs. Her wings are also felted onto a sheer material and put into place. She has button arms and legs.

She is a Pea Pod Fairy

This doll is Sold.

What I am working

I have been working on an Egyptian doll for the last couple of months. I took the body of the doll and primed it so that it is darker and painted her face on her. I got the design of the clothes from a group that I am on the pattern is free for the clothes and that is what I wanted. I am challenged when it comes to clothes. I got the clothes mostly completed and have just finished the hair. That was a huge challenge for me. After working for hours on how the instructions suggested I was not able to get it to look the way I was after, so I changed it and did it my way. I believe it has come out quite well. I have been debating on how I want to do the arms, there are several ideas that I have in my head - but on the other hand I may not change them at all, but add the embellishments that I want. The primitive polymer clay arms and hands are kinda a signature of mine it seems. This is actually different then the instructions on the pattern.  The doll pattern is from Lisa Li Hertzi.

It's December now

Wow, it's been a while since I have written on my blog. I have been busy with my apartment, moving rooms around (now I can't find things) and making dolls for swaps. I had an ornament doll to swap, and two other dolls. here are the pics of them.

This is the ornament doll, after talking with my swap partner this is what I came up with. I really liked the pattern I found and changed it a lot to make it an ornament. It is a holly leaf, I beaded the edges of all the leaves and added balls for the berries. The face is made from polymer clay and added gold glitter glue around the head and festive trim around the head area.



This doll is made from the same pattern, but I used the original size, the pattern is for paper machete. Which I changed to a cloth doll pattern instead. This time I moved the two small leaves to the back of the doll, and beaded all around the whole doll. The face is painted in a green, highlighted the cheeks with rose and wine color for the lips, the eyes have an amber color under the lids. I made beaded hair for this doll. On the main body of the doll I beaded the berries too. 






This is a faerie doll that I made for another swap partner. She is into them. This doll has different aspects to her. I used a couple of recycled cloth items on her. Her face is made from a white tee shirt and the white body of the doll is made from material that you would choose at a furniture store when picking out the color and cloth design for your sofa or chair - those samples. I get them from a very high end furniture store instead of them throwing them out. The arms, legs, and bodess are made of cotton tie died, and I had painted the face. Her hair is an off white wool fiber with blue Tully. I added a Tully and black and white lace over lay for the skirt. Her shoes are white felt and trimmed with blue beads. She has wings attached to her back made from the same dark blue Tully and wire and I added with silver gilder designs of snowflakes on the wings. She has a silver trim around her waist and as shoulder straps.

I hope that each of my swap partners are happy with what I have made for them for this Yule/Christmas season swap.

We have a Winner!

We have a Winner of "Name my Doll" contest!

Donnely from All my Sisters! Congratulations Donnely!   I know that Namba Teeke will love his new home! May he Awaken your Spirit to wonderful creative inpiration and every thing in your life!

Since I made this doll I have had so many inquiries about him. I will be making others similar to this one soon

My Autumn Spirit Doll

This was a total inspiration for me. I have been working on other dolls and this one came out from no where. I hand made her polymer clay face and painted it, used orange material which I primed, so she smells like vanilla and cinnamon, added some yarn and black wool fiber for hair, used my sheer gold brown material for her dress with primmed cheese cloth and added some beads. She was completely made from scraps laying on my sewing table.

My Goddess Doll Swap

I just love doing swaps! I am in a group and we have these every now and then, and they are just a blast! This time we are doing a swap and the theme is Autumn Goddess. I did her a little different than most of my Goddess dolls. I like this design very much too!

She has legs and her arms are wire wrapped with black pipe cleaners with gold polymer clay hands. She wears a sheer golden brown skirt and hand painted face. Her hair is moss green wool fiber and in a bun in the back. She was a great joy to make! I just know that my swap partner will enjoy her too!

Although this doll went to my swap partner I have had many request for her and I sell style doll for on my website too.

New Pics and some odds and ends

Well after looking at my pictures of my dolls, I have decided that I need to take new pictures of them. I am not that good at taking pictures and my dolls don't have good lighting and too much shadows around them. This will probably be an afternoon event for me and have been looking around the house to do the shots. I have found where someone talks about how to take pictures of your dolls and will be using this as a guide.. I wish I could find a place to set up and keep it set up to take pictures all the time, but space is precious in this little apartment! LOL

I still have a couple of dolls to finish for swaps, the last minute details is all that is left, and I will be able to send them out. I have been fretting alot over a challenge that ends in Nov, and I finally got some inspiration for it, took some notes and will be able to take on that challenge as soon as my swap dolls are done.. thank goodness.

I have two very detailed ideas for a couple of dolls and have the materials already purchased for them, one will be an Egyptian Goddess and the other is a Spirit doll. The Spirit doll will be knew for me, since so far my dolls are mainly Goddess dolls and Tribal dolls.

I will be setting up a new contest very soon for Yule/Christmas for my website. Got some ideas and will see what comes about. My first is going quite well and will be done Oct 16th with the winner of my Namba Teeke doll annouced on Oct 17th. I will really miss this doll, he has been sitting in my studio keeping me company for so long. He was such a delight to make.

Mermaid Doll My Biggest Adventure Yet!

I had an inspiration to make a mermaid doll, well I just finished her. I am so happy with the way she turned out. I actually started out wanting to make a fairy, but as I was laying out my cloth and pattern for my fairy, she came into my head and I could help myself, she just wanted so bad to come out! I used my usual Goddess doll pattern and made some changes and added a tail. I found that I had everything around the house to bring her about.

Red Flannel Goddess

This is my version of the Red Flannel Goddess. I made her in honor of Red Flannel Days here in Cedar Springs Mi, which celebrates "Red Flannels or the Union Suite" from which the very first Union was started. We have a wonderful parade, battle of the Bands, Arts and Crafts and many other activities that have been going on now for 70 years. What is most fun is everyone tries to wear red or you could go to jail by the Keystone Cops! 

Whats going on

I have this doll finished Black & White Goddess. She is a little smaller than the rest, looking at sizes. I made wing style arms for her and added black &white feather for her hair. This doll has been sold.

My first Primitive doll

I made my first Primitive doll. She is from a freebe pattern Donna Veal and I call her Autumn Moth.. she is not for sale just having fun learning how to make primitives. I am seeing ways to incorporate them into my dolls.

This doll is going to the winner from my website

Namba Teeke Doll

My Spiral Goddess

Check out my Dark Spiral Goddess!  This beautiful Goddess Doll was Sold.