A Week Away

I spend a wonderful week in Courtney, BC with four good friends.  We rented a house on Dove Creek (called Dove Creek Farm) and the place was even better than advertised:

Charles and one of the two horses

The two brothers grazing in one of the nine paddocks

The back view of the house with Mason bee homes under the eaves

Dove Creek from the trail on the property

Another view from the trails

One of the three trails as seen from our back porch

We had a glorious time and even took time out from our mad creations to visit the Farmer's market and downtown Courtney (including the thrift stores!) Fun had by all!

Here is a sneak look at some of our ventures:

Four of us were making a wee Waldorf doll

We made wee elephants (6" tall)

Bobbi's sweet dolly in progress

Joan's Raven doll waiting for hands and a head!

There will be a future post to reveal all of the finished (or almost finished) projects!

2019 Warrior Woman

I cannot believe that a new year has dawned and the first month is coming to a close!  Time does pass swiftly.

The first doll of 2019 was inspired by some remnants of kimono fabric donated to me by a fellow member of the Coast Collective Art Centre.  I made another warrior woman with asian aspirations.  I am including the reference photos that inspired me for this creation.  I used Arley's Candlestick Diva pattern as the starting point ( I just love his patterns),

 The doll came together quite easily as I decided on the bones for her and had them in my stash from Halloween.  You can see some of the fabrics I piled up to use for her costume above.

 Notice that the candlestick I used in in shades of brown, just like her costume.  This was done by sanding and repainting the black candlestick and then adding a glossy sealant.

 The back of the Kimono is pieced with an accent silk piece of Kimono that was included in the package I received from my fellow artist.  I just love to work with silk as it drapes so nicely.

 The hair is done with a mix of yarns and I added fine braids for that messy, warrior effect.

 Her feather head dress was in my stash from an item I purchased in the summer at a local decorating store.  It worked perfectly in her hair.

I hope you enjoyed seeing her in photos.  Yes she does have real fur from remnants of an old fur coat I was given (the majority of the fur coat was repulsed into fur teddies in memory of a grandmother).

This warrior will be in a show at Tullista Park in Sidney BC the first week in May.

Warrior Women

I was inspired by Arley Berryhill's blog showing his Warrior Women.  I loved the image of the strong female character displayed outwardly using fur, leather and chains to represent the inner strength, character and knowledge that women possess.

I decided to make three Warrior Women to represent the three stages of women:

• The young maiden, with her vitality, beauty and strength.
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• The mature mother figure Warrior with her confidence, fierceness and protective qualities.
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• Finally, the third Warrior Woman, the older sage, full of wisdom, knowledge and integrity.

For the Warrior Women series, I used Arley's "Candlestick Diva" pattern and then went to town with her exterior "armour", using fur, leather, chains, feathers, horns etc.

Here are the results:

The Maiden Warrior:

Next is the Mother Figure Warrior:

Finally, the Mature Warrior, the Sage:

The three Warrior Women together:

Until next time, bring out the inner Warrior in you for unity and strength for all!

Doll Week in Cedar BC

My, it has been a long time since my last post!  Now that the weather is warm and sunny, it becomes more difficult to sit and write, but here goes.

Our doll group is mainly involved in cloth dolls but many of us also dabble in mixed media.  There is a group of us that love, love the work of Kate Church and we learned that she was teaching a new doll "Pinocchio and Bird" in southern France.  Unfortunately, none of the five of us could afford the trip, so we organized a week closer to home in beautiful Cedar, BC!

The cars were loaded with food, sewing supplies, fabric, polymer clay, etc, etc.  Not only did we want to attempt making "Pinocchio and Bird" on our own, but we also wanted to make a cloth doll in the woodsy style of the late, great Akira Blount!  We knew, in our hearts, that five days was really not enough time for us to finish both projects, but hope springs eternal.

We stayed at a lovely cottage at Kiwi Cove Lodge.  Yes they grow Kiwi.  The cottage had everything we needed, a full kitchen, large living/dining room (we turned that into our workshop complete with additional folding tables), two large bedrooms with a full bathroom each and an adjoining suite with another bedroom and kitchenette.  In short, perfect for our needs!
Five glorious days of crafting and we achieved our goals, we started both the polymer clay figure, based on Kate Church's creation and we started a "woodsy" doll (two in my case) based on Akira Blount's techniques.  Two of us went for a walk in the surrounding woods to collect honeysuckle vines for the dolls!

Here are the finished dolls that I made: first is the polymer clay figure "Pinocchio on his wheeled bird".  

We loved making him, so much fun putting him together and balancing him on his bird.  The feathers on the bird were made using paper beads.  The bird has polymer eyes and polymer wing/hands.  Pinocchio is made with polymer clay (head, hands, legs, shoes, hat) with a soft, wired body.  The cart was designed by one of our gang, Joan and her husband, and painted and assembled by us.

Now on to our next project, the Akira Blount style dolls:
The first one I made is called "Guardian of the Thicket"  She is about 16" tall and is a wall doll with dupioni silk dress and wings and faux rose thickets for her skirt.  She protects the birds that flock and take refuge in the rose thicket.  The birds are made of felt. I tried to make her expression gentle and welcoming.

The second doll I started at the cottage was made using the honeysuckle vines I collected on my walk through the woods of Cedar.  In addition, Bobbi and Joan supplied additional vines and woodland materials that I incorporated in my piece.  This doll I called, "Nesting Angel":

This second doll is my favourite as the costuming turned out just as I had envisioned.

We loved our week of doll making so much that we want to make it an annual event and plan to book for March of next year at Kiwi Cove Lodge, perhaps inviting a couple more doll makers to our event!
We even managed to have an outing on Sunday morning (it was hard to drag ourselves away from making dolls).  We went to the Cedar farm market and sampled local food and crafts.  We were happy we took the time as it was great fun.

Joan then took us up the road from the local pub "The Crow and Grate" to a gallery owned and managed by the talented glass artist, Ted Jolda.  Joan is a talented mixed media artist and she has many pieces of her work in the gallery.

Ted, demonstrating his glass blowing in the studio

Some of Joan's birds and robots

Ted's newest ornaments in glass, his "Dragon Eggs" inspired by Game of Thrones

Sadly, on Monday morning, our crafting week came to an end.  We packed the cars and said our goodbyes and headed home.  Next year we will choose another couple of projects, take less food and have just as much fun!