Friday, March 13, 2015

Needle Felting, Knit Wrapping and Wire Sculpture, Oh My!










I've been playing around with new techniques in fiber and doll making, and I stumbled upon this idea---it is a  combination of my first step in doll making---using wire forms---but I decided to play around with fiber media.  I made the doll forms by bending wire, and then played  around with various fiber media and wooden beads to make unique doll forms.  On the last one, I formed her over a small vase, and then added wire to form the upper body.  All faces, hands and feet are needle felted.   what do you think?

Sunday, March 8, 2015

A Rose By Any Other Name...

So I may have mentioned once or twice how obsessed I am with doll making.  I've been so thrilled with the response, and am amazed at how many people love dolls and doll making as much as I do.

My most recent dolls have been a very satisfying (for me) combination of fun fabrics, hand painted faces, yarn sculpted hair.  Like this doll whom I call Rose:


One thing I really love about this doll is that I didn't even realize that she resembled a rose until she was almost done.  In retrospect, its hard to imagine how I could have missed it. To start, her dress is a linen print of a rose.  That should have been my first clue, but I've used the fabric before in non-rose themed dolls.  I chose olive green linen for her leggings, perfect as a rose stem, but still, I had no plans to make a rose.  Then I chose that green/pink silk for her scarf (you know, like those small Rose leaves at the base of the flower).  Still no plan.  Even after I chose hot pink for her hair, I had no plans on making this doll a rose.  I was going to give her long wavy pink hair.  But as I was finishing her up, on Valentine's Day of all days (really, it could not have been more obvious), I started playing with her hair.  All of a sudden I looked at her and realized that I was, in fact, making a rose.  I piled her hair up on her head and sculpted it in a floral wave.  I added the little pink rose to her hair, and it was done.  A rose for Valentine's Day!