Foxes, Oh My

Well just in time for the end of the month I have a fox felt family.  A group of foxes is called a leash or a skulk.  Foxes are so beautiful with their red and white coats (most common fox in North America is the red fox).  They are social and nimble and have great eyesight and hearing.

I made these wee ones (about 6" tall) from a pattern by Cynthia Treen that I found on etsy. The instructions were very clear and they were fun to make.

Here is the big daddy Fox, Felix with his red jacket. His son follows his dad everywhere, taking his pet duck with him!:

 Next is Mama and her pup.  Mama has a lovely periwinkle coat with hood that keeps her warm and stylish.

Under her coat, mama has a very sweet yellow felt tunic:

Finally here comes the stylish auntie with her niece.  Auntie has a gorgeous lilac coat over her skirt while her favourite niece has a hand knit dress.  They are ready for shopping!

I hope you enjoyed this leash of foxes.  They were so fun to make.  They can stand on their own with help from their full tails but they prefer to hang and swing!

Dragon is Born

I have always loved dragons, their mystery, their strength, their spirit  and their protection of hearth and home.  Dragons are composite "mythical" animals that have both hot and cold blooded features.  As such, they are symbols of the changing seasons.

Last year I featured one of my dragon creations (a water dragon with mermaid riding him)  in a show at the Coast Collective and it was so well received that two customers wanted the piece!  This was personally satisfying as working in isolation one never knows how one's work will be accepted by the general public.  I sold the dragon to one lovely lady and promised the other that I would make another dragon/mermaid in 2015 for her own.  She was thrilled and requested a dark-skinned mermaid with straight black hair.

Last week I started choosing my fabrics for this project.  I knew that I wanted blues/purples for the dragon and greens for the mermaid.  Here are the fabrics I choose for the dragon:

I find that the fabric selection is a vital part of the creative process because as a doll maker you are in essence painting your doll art with the fabric as your palette.  If the colours in the fabric do not form a pleasing palette, then no matter how good your work, it will not resonate.

I love using Melinda Small Patterson's (Smallworks) dragon patterns as they are very detailed and excellent to use.  For this piece I used her "Kells Wyvern" pattern.

For the dragon's mermaid companion, I used Patti LaValley's "Mareena" mermaid pattern as she is a sweet young looking mermaid that is in a reclining position, perfect for my needs.  For the mermaid, I used four fabrics of green print and crazy patched them together so that I could decorate the seams with embroidery and beads as I love to do.  I thought this would be perfect for a mermaid as she picks of seaweed and foliage from the sea floor as she swims.

The resulting piece turned out very well and I am thrilled!  I hope my customer loves him as well.  Here is the proud water dragon's face:

Noticed that I painted his eye and enhanced the fabric by using metallic silver paint for his jaw line and top of his muzzle and horns.

The entire piece was inspired by my love of dragons and mermaids and living near the Pacific ocean.  I thought of a water loving dragon who soars near the waves picking up dragonflies along his daily fly by.  One day he spotted a beckoning beautiful mermaid who was not afraid to stay close to his flight path.  She jumped on his back and he took her for a ride that thrilled her to this very day.

 You can clearly see that I love to add details to my pieces and this dragon has a sequinned/beaded belly and beads on his claws that follow the pattern on the fabric.

The mermaid's face is painted using acrylic paints (eyes and mouth), pigma marker (eyelashes, brows) and chalk (shading, blushing, highlights).  The dragonfly on the mermaids's arm is beaded.  The dragon's tail also has dragonflies.

The mermaid's body and tail are beaded and I added beaded fringe to the dragon's tail.  For the mermaid's hair I took apart a doll wig that had the perfect black hair that I wanted and altered it to fit her head.  I had the perfect sequinned decoration for her hair in my stash.

A final look at my piece, showing the lace fingerless gloves, the facial features and painted fingernails of this sweet mermaid.

Bunny Sofia-Marie

A dear friend of mine gave me an old Persian lamb fur coat that she was about to discard.  I always thought that although I would not wear a fur coat, it is a shame that fur coats that exist are left idle to waste away when they could be used to make beautiful animals.

Finally at the start of 2015 I decided to turn the coat into a large, lop-eared bunny.  I chose a pattern I had by "The Hughston Collection" based in Ontario, Canada.  

The bunny was fun to make but working with fur is very messy and I had to be careful not to breathe in the tiny fur that flies once you cut into the fabric.  I removed the coat lining and broke the coat up into manageable pieces, backing each piece with iron-on interfacing to stabilize it and make it easier to cut out the pattern pieces.  Once the pattern pieces were cut, I zigzagged each piece before stitching the pieces together to stabilize the cut edges.

I used the mink collar for her belly and part of her bunny tail.  The ears, nose and paw pads are from a faux ultra suede.  The muzzle is from a soft ivory "minky" fur (I would have used the mink but there was not enough for both the belly and the muzzle).

I am very pleased with the final result:

Sofia-Marie, sits at 20" tall, fully reclined she is 25".

 I named the lop-eared bunny Sofia-Marie since she spends her time hopping between the Tuscan countryside and the south of France.  She loves all things "shabby chic" as evidenced by her bows and collar piece.  Her locket contains pictures of her bunny mum and wee bunny brother.

A close-up of her face showing her blue glass eyes

Back of bunny showing her mink and minty tail.  The "gold" key in her back turns on her music box that plays "Down by the Old Mill Stream"

Sofia-Marie bids adieu and ciao!

More Pincushions

First and foremost I would like to wish my family, friends and followers a very Happy Christmas, joyful holiday and a healthy and peaceful New Year!

Just in time for Christmas I finished a new pincushion, a felted calico kitty that I call Calico Kate. 

This pincushion is made with wool felt and embroidered.  The kitty is all wool and needle felted.

Next I made a needle felted wee mouse that is dressed in her pink finery.  She sits in an antique teacup.  Inside the teacup is a lavender sachet covered in lace!  I made the mouse in an on-line class with Barby Anderson.

Finally, I wanted to make a very special white wool felt rabbit for a special young woman that is having a difficult time recovering from a car accident.  I had fun making this wee bunny and she has become very dear.

 I wanted to make her some bunny slippers and I love the way they turned out.  I added embroidery details all over her sky blue coat.  She is ready for the winter market.

Pincushions Galore

Like many other sewers, I never seem to have enough pincushions so I love, love making them.  They are small, use different fabrics, are prime for embellishments and are the perfect cushions for wee felted animals (which I love to make as well).

Here is what I came up with: first there is Thumper who is sure to steal your heart

Next is Love Bunny who will melt your heart:

Both bunnies are needle felted using Perendale silver wool fibre.  Needle felting is fun. Felting needles (I use the number 38 star needle) are mostly in a triangular shape.  The smaller the number the larger the needle and the larger the hole it will leave.  The felting needle had little barbs on the sides that catch the scales on the wool fibres and lock them together.  As you poke through the wool, it shrinks up and felts together in the direction that you poke the needle.

Now I turned my attention to the mice:  This is the first one that I am calling "Hearts and Flowers".  The heart is made of 4 felt wool hearts sewn together with wool hand-crocheted flowers and wool felt leaves.

This little guy is only 3 and 1/2 inches tall and needle felted around a pipe cleaner centre core.
The final wee mouse pincushion is my favourite and I made it for a dear friend who also loves wee felted mice:  He has a hand knitted scarf and hat and a key around his neck that says "love".

 I made him a wee backpack that holds extra yarn.

Good-bye little fellow, I know my friend will love you too!

Betty Boop

Recently, a customer asked if I would make a Betty Boop ornament for his girlfriend.  I said yes and obtained the original vintage Betty Boop cloth doll pattern from over a century ago.  I had to reduce the pattern (original is about 18" and he wanted it about 8-9").

The original pattern called for felt but I used doe suede in a pale colour (shiny side up).  I decided that I wanted her iconic curls so I used paper clay to make the curls and then painted the hair.  I did not paint her body, only her facial features and hair.

The customer had seen a tiny ornament of Betty Boop in a red, high-heeled shoe an wanted that look.  I had a white acrylic white shoe in my stash and I used sand paper to rough it up and then painted it bright red on the outside and a yellow/gold on the inside.

The result worked well:

 Betty Boop is holding sheet music from an old song "Blue Heaven" as the intended recipient is a vocal teacher and piano player.  The dress is made from cherry red jersey and her stole and fur on her Santa hat is "minky" fabric that is very soft and nice and thin-perfect for the scale of the doll.

I gave her bracelets and gold earrings, of course!

Hope you find a good home Betty:

Santa

Well it is that time of year and it is wonderful!  Yes, I am speaking about the Christmas season with all its lights, colours, giving and receiving.  

One of my customers challenged me to make her a 4 foot Santa and I accepted the challenge.  She wants to surprise her husband with an "over the top" gift for their home.  Once I accepted the challenge, I went to work.  I learned which style of Santa she wanted and then I looked for images on the internet and in my many reference books.  Armed with about 10 photos I started by gathering possible fabrics for my project.

I started with the head of the Santa.  If the head does not convey the feeling of merriment and mirth that I want in the Santa then the Santa will not be good enough no matter how lovely the costume.

I was prepared to make as many heads as it took but I lucked out on my first try:

I loved the way this fellow looks like he has a twinkle in his eye.  I made him using knit fabric that I stuffed as usual with polyfil and then I needle sculpted his face.  I then added paper clay to enhance his nose, eyes, eyebrows and add wrinkles to his sweet face. I then  added a thin coat of gesso and painted the face.  I was quite pleased with the effect.  The inspiration for this face was from an old illustration of Santa by Thomas Nast (from the book Christmas Drawings, Dover publication).  I have always loved his cheery depictions of Santa and as it turns out, my customer loved his drawing as well.

Now on to the body:  once again I used knit fabric as I wanted a nice round belly.  This Santa would not have legs as the size would make it very difficult to have cloth legs.  Here is the body:

Notice that I made the arms with a cotton fabric and then made knit arms as the overlay to blend in with his body.  I placed him on an old lamp stand with the rod through his body and head for support.  It worked well and made him easy to move around.

Now I could concentrate on the costume.  I decided that he would have a tunic and a luxurious cape.  The customer mentioned that her home is in the Tuscan style and colours so I used burgundy, gold, and ivory with hints of greenery.  It was fun finding just the right trims for him.  

 He needed a staff so I used an old broom handle and painted it and added a finial, trim and tassels to enhance the rich Tuscan feel of this Santa.

He needed a hint of greenery so I added some and placed two wee birds on his branch.  That is what he is looking at with his sweet grin.

Here are more photos from various angles:

 His beard, hair, and eyebrows are made from Tibetan mohair-perfect for Santa.

I had a piece of real fun in my stash and I used it around the hood of his cape and around his hat.

Final photos, I will miss him when he goes to his new home!

 I added some fun toys around his belt (he is Santa after all)!

Good bye Santa!