Swivel Head Sally

A few months ago when I became interested in making art dolls I showed you a picture of a red and white apron that would eventually turn into Swivel Head Sally.  This apron was from a box lot I won at an auction for $1.00

I draw all of my own patterns so when I was thinking about her torso I thought of two triangles, one inverted so the waist was small.  I created the body out of the red fabric because there was more polka dot fabric and I knew I wanted to make the legs real long.

I was only going to use the fabric from the apron to create this doll.  I went ahead and cut out a little red skirt.  I had in mind to layer the polka dot fabric with the solid fabric.  There wasn't enough to do this so I went to my fabric stash and picked out three random pieces of fabric that I had leftover from other projects.

Eventually I would use the decorative stitches on my sewing machine to "hem" each layer.

This is swivel head Sally waiting for her head:

She was without a head for some time because I didn't want to make another fabric head.  They are art dolls because one uses different mediums in the same design.  I decided I would mold a head out of Celluclay.  This would be fun because I could get my three and five year old boys involved too.



This head turned out to be her sisters head because I wanted Sally's a little bit more round and this ended up being very flat on the bottom.  But I ended up doing something a little bit unique with this form that I'll tell you in the next blogpost.

Meet Swivel Head Sally:

Her ponytail sits right on top of her head and is held by a scrap of fabric from one layer in her skirt.  After I painted her face I sealed it with Delta Ceramcoat Interior Varnish.  Then I painted the free form design on her torso.

  And last but not least her shoes...

Before I painted the red and white polka dot fabric blue I coated it with Aleene's Fabric Stiffener and Draping Liquid.  This has a total of about five coats including a sealant.  After everything was dry, the very last thing I did was to lace up her little ballet type slippers. 

The Crafting Community

This morning the YMCA was hosting an arts and crafts show.  It's the first one I've been to in a long time so I couldn't wait for Saturday to get here.  I knew it would be small so I told my husband I shouldn't be long plus it was right around the corner from our house.

When I walked in there was a lot of jewelry, Tupperware and stuff I wasn't interested in... but I am here to tell you that in this gymnasium (where they had the music way too loud) I met three amazing people.  As an artist I look for unique things, things that I've never seen done before and these three people had that.  

Daniel Wayno was the first booth that made my jaw drop.  What attracted me to his booth was the fact that he was wearing a vest made out of jump rings.  And if you've ever worked in jewelry you know how frustrating jump rings can be!  When I commented on his vest he pointed out to me that his viking Lego man had the same one on but in his size.  Wow.  He had bracelets, necklaces, earrings and anklets made out of jump rings.  All sizes and all colors.  I was fascinated by the smallest jump rings that he used and how tedious that must be.  He was extremely nice and I ended up buying one of his ever-so-small-jump-ring bracelets.  (Picture coming soon)

The second artist's name was Katherine Gonzalez.  What initially attracted me to her booth was light switch plate covers.  There was a cat cover that caught my eye.  As I was pondering this purchase I glanced over to another table of sepia photography.  As I looked closer I noticed her sign that said "Alphabet Photography".  Amazing.  All of these pictures were images of different towns and locations that seemed to form letters.  She had one in black and white but I liked the sepia much better because the letters just seemed to sneak out at you.  She had phrases like Faith, Hope and Love.  I ended up purchasing one that was personalized.  I spelled my name KIM and was able to pick out the pictures that formed these letters.  I have never seen this done and I've been doing photography for a long time. (picture coming soon).

The third lady's name was Fran Thompson.  She was actually the aunt of Daniel Wayno (the first gentleman with the jump ring vest).  What first attracted me to her booth was brightly colored fish painted on shudders.  The shudders were horizontal and two fish were facing each other kissing.  They were precious.  She was very personable and the more we talked the more intrigued I became with one of her works on the backside of her display.  It was a lighthouse that was cut out of paper.  It was very intricate and the colors just seemed to pop off the paper.  She explained to me that they were paint chips that you can get (free) at any hardware store. I loved, loved, loved it.  She told me other things she had made with paint chips on note cards for family and it was so much fun brainstorming with her.  This is why I love the crafting community, when like-minded people get together beautiful things happen.

I wish all three of you the best of luck in all of your crafting endeavors!

Perks of being creative

I am an organizational freak.  The clothes in my closet are arranged by color, my linen closet has labels on the shelves and all of my thread hangs on the wall neatly organized.  

I have recently started hand sewing clothes for my art dolls which means one thing... I need to organize my needles!  Look at this, this makes me crazy, this is how I used to keep my needles, in a plastic Ziploc baggie.  (When I decided to take the picture I had already taken out all of the needles but you get the point)

One of the perks of being creative is that I can do something about my needle fiasco without spending a dime... make something a little bit more attractive and organized.

Let me backtrack just a bit.  A few weeks ago when I asked my mom if she had any Elinor Peace Bailey patterns or books (and of course she did!) she also had fabric.  Elinor Peace Bailey Fabric, who knew!  I wanted to save it for something special and unique because it's so cool looking, and you can't just use this fabric for anything because it is so eccentric.

I wanted to make a quilted needle holder so I picked out a solid color for the interior (so I could actually see my needles) and free-form quilted it.

Then I squared it up

And as I was sewing the binding on I decided to put a clear pocket on one side for other sewing essentials like a thimble and scissors.  The binding isn't perfect but it works.  Now my chaotic world is in harmony again because I can find the needle I need just at a glance.

Innertubes and Pleather

When my mother-in-law came for a visit last week she wore this beautiful pin that I had to "pick apart" to see how it was made.  She explained to me that she had gotten it from an art show and that it was made out of innertubes.  An innertube... as in tire, innertube?  Yes.  And it was beautiful. 

Well that got my wheels turning, of course.  Hmmm. I know I could just go to Walmart and buy an innertube for less than $5.00 but let's hit the thrift store first.  I ended up finding a steering wheel cover at the thrift store that I could cut apart, perfect.  I did end up buying an innertube at Walmart also.  Wow, experimenting is so much fun!

Yesterday I was in JoAnn's buying pleather (fake leather) to experiment with also.  I was quite disappointed that JoAnn's only had black, cream, grey and bright yellow.  Where were the rest of the bright colors?  Hot pink, lime green, radical reds?  In the same shopping center was another thrift store. So I head on over there to find... innertubes, pleather, hard fabric... anything that I could make a pin out of because I now have more ideas in my head.  

As a side note I LOVE painting on buttons.  I have about 100 buttons in various stages of being painted.  But I don't exactly know what to do with them.  I can always turn them into pendants which I have done in the past and wear them quite frequently but the artist in me is always trying to create new things.

My idea was to create a larger base for my painted buttons and turn them into pins that women could wear on their coats and also light weight enough to be worn on blouses as well.

In the thrift store I stumbled upon the purse section.  WOW!  Why didn't I think of this before!  Purses are made of various pleather, vinyl and  "hard fabric" that could easily be cut up.  Perfect.  This is what I found (totalling maybe $5.00):

And this is what I created last night:

I just love the way they all turned out but here are my two favorites:

To me, the one on the left looks like a face with it's hair standing straight up.  The black and white one is my largest one so far. The diameter measures 2.5"

Eventually all of these will be for sale at my Etsy shop but I don't think some of them are quite done yet.  I want to add lime green backings to some and make others bigger and bolder.  The thrift store had one green purse, why didn't I buy it?!?!  "oh darn" I say sarcastically "I may just have to go on another search today".

Can I have your shirt to make a pair of legs?

Since I am now a stay-at-home mom, and am not currently looking for work outside the home, I have to watch every penny I spend.  I have enough arts and crafts supplies to keep me happy for quite a while!  And since I am now into art dolls I have a renewed interest in my fabric stash.  I am looking at patterns and colors differently now.  Not through a quilter's eye but like "This would create a CUTE look for her legs!"

I have a very small fabric stash compared to some people but I have found lots of goodies in my bins.  I only have a small curio of fat quarters and halves (and there's still room to add more!):

And this is the rest of it:

My first doll was made out of a sequin dress I found at the thrift store for maybe $3.00.  My second doll, still a work in progress, is being made out of an old apron I found in my stash.  (more on that story in my next blogpost) and my third doll is being made out of one of my mother-in-law's arm rest covers.

For the third doll, I did have to go buy some black fabric for her skirt, and I was just going to buy that... but then I saw some Halloween fabric that I couldn't live without!  So I have a loose rule of thumb "Try to use fabric from my stash first" but I did walk out of JoAnn's only spending about $10.00.

Update:
1.  Mermaid finished
2.  Only head to go on my "apron-made" doll but I'm using a new technique for her head so this one is taking a little longer.
3.  "Arm rest cover" doll - only body and legs made, cutting fabric for skirt.
4.  Halloween fabric doll - still a thought in my head right now, too busy stuffing arms and legs for the other two.

Irene

So last week I get this wild hair that I want to sew a soft sculpture doll.  The only ideas I had floating around in my head were 1.)  I wanted to use bright colors and 2.) I didn't want it to be realistic, I wanted it to be whimsical like Elinor Peace Bailey's style.

I looked through a ton of my mom's soft sculpture patterns, I looked in Barnes and Noble, I looked at Amazon.com for patterns.  I couldn't find anything that I liked.  Then I got this brilliant idea to search online for free patterns, I found two that were acceptable.  It finally occurred to me "Why don't I just make my own pattern?" OF COURSE!! and I decided to design my own mermaid doll.

Don't you just hate when you can't sleep at night because you have so many ideas running around in your head?  It happens to me a lot so one night I got up, sketched, drew and cut out my pattern.

Next fabric.  I wanted glitter/sequin type fabric for her tail so I went to the thrift store and found this little sequin dress that was perfect.  I bet the lady that wore this to her cocktail party didn't think it would become a mermaid tail!

Next I was just going to use muslin for the body but I wanted to make it more fantasy.  At JoAnn's I found this pink cotton fabric with tiny specks of glitter on it, perfect.

For the face.  In my mind I was going to use buttons but it just didn't give her the look I was going for so I decided to see if I could paint a face.

GO!!

I made her eyes brown because I love brown eyes (I have blue myself) but then when I did her eyelashes black I kind of got carried away.  So to balance it out I decided to make her lips black too, with a hint of pink to tone it down just a little.  Let's just call the pink swirls tattoos.  I am very pleased at the way this turned out:

Next the hair.  I was going to buy some of the curly synthetic type hair but I couldn't find any that I liked then I thought YARN!  I used a whole skein of Lion Brand Homespun #405 Parfait.  This is the back of Irene.  After I stitched her hair on I had to tie each strand at the bottom because it unravelled very easily.  The left side has been knotted:

Now she needs arms, boobs, a belly button and more tattoos:

Meet Irene, aptly named because I live in Portsmouth,VA where Hurricane Irene blew through yesterday.  While my husband, two boys and I were holed up in our house I worked on her all day.  My first ever soft sculpture doll.

She stands 27" tall.

AND I already have ideas for my next soft sculpture doll.
Two hints:
1. It's not going to be another mermaid but Irene will have a friend in the future and
2. A photo:

And yes this apron will be cut up.

My little slice of heaven

Otherwise known as:  My Art Room

We moved into this house about 2 months ago and I have finally gotten my art room/work space organized enough to want to take a picture of it. 

We live in a 2-story house and the second floor consists of two bedrooms.  One is the master bedroom and the other one is a spare bedroom.  But then off the spare bedroom there was this door.  And upon opening it I discovered heaven, well almost.  It was a finished attic with slanted ceilings and an unfinished hardwood floor.  This was to become my mine!



Right hand side






Left hand side




















This picture was taken while standing at the circular window looking into the spare bedroom

The spare bedroom is actually where I keep my art table.  My husband and I like to call my attic my store, Kim's Arts and Crafts store.  Because if I ever need anything chances are you'll find it in my store.

I have my art table set up in a corner of the room with a white shelving unit to the right for items I may need to locate quickly when I'm working on a project. (I'll be reorganizing this when the boys go back to school in two weeks).

Welcome to my little slice of heaven.

I love when I am inspired by another artist

And this happened right before we moved so I had to put my ideas on the back burner for a time.

I have been a member of Flickr for about four years now and I have been inspired by one of my contacts.  Her name is Kerrin and she lives in Australia.  She does the most beautiful things with felt, beads and sequins I've ever seen!  I have asked for her permission to post some of her artwork on my blog so you can get a true sense of what she does.  This one is called Strawberry Sundae Wall Art:



Dream Fragments Close Up 4:



Terrain - Felt Textile Art:



I wish I could post a lot more photos but I just asked permission for these three.  On Flickr she calls herself A Little Bit of Just Because and if you click on her name it will take you directly to the rest of her beautiful work.

I know mine won't be half as good as hers but like my husband always says "Kim, if you have the desire to do something you won't let anything stand in your way" so here I go:

The first thing I did was to pick my colors (I choose 4) and decided which of the four I wanted as my background color.  Next I cut random designs from the other three colors and hand sewed them on.  Then I cut three different size circles from each color.  I didn't need a template I just used the lid from a spice jar.  If you look around your house you will be amazed at how many circular things you can find to trace... I'm thrifty like that.  

 I then started playing around with the colors and shapes of the circles and started laying them on my design.  I then hand stitched the smallest circle to the next size up and so on.  I then stitched the three piece circle to the background.

I haven't gotten to the really fun part of sewing the beads on it yet but I wanted to thank Kerrin for waking up another creative side in me that I didn't know I had.

This is a picture of how it looks today as I'm typing.  I've added a few more circles but it's still not ready for beads yet.  Please stay tuned because I'm in love with this project.