Ok heres some more pics of the chair

I really dont know where Im going with this but boy am I having fun, just using what I have on hand in my sewing room.... Sorry the pics are not good but its that time of the evening when there are lots of shadows. And yes I chucked some paint at it - just to see what it would looks like.... (I know, I know, I am an impatient little sod)

Hello Again (big grin)

Hello, I'm back again he he....its so hot here at the moment phew just flopping about in the heat and not doing much, but another week and its Christmas holidays, whoopee I have some plans to sew and finally try and get my pattern finished.

I still felt like I wanted to muck about today though (as you do) and have been looking at the fantastic fantasy chairs on the net and have been intrigued and blown away by them. Soooo in my New Zealand number eight wire mentality (grin)..... I decided to have a go myself, even though I am unable to get the supplies that seem to be needed locally, (and cannot afford to get them in either) So the number eight wire (or equivalent) has come out and I am mucking about with a chair and some clay stuff I found in a store....... is heaps of fun and will be interesting to see if it works or not, not sure if the "stuff" will paint up or not, hey but that's half the fun of jumping in and having a go.................Here are some pics of the start of it - lets hope there is a finish eventually LOL........ waiting for the first bit to dry so I know if its worth carrying on. See the head on the bottom - spooky - but I love it.......what fun

Finished Her

Well I carried on this evening and got her finished, I just wanted to see how the hair would look on her and I am quite pleased with how its come out.. Actually am pleased with the whole doll really considering I have not played with clay before, it was a good experience and a lot of fun. I hope you like her, I think she is rather cute.

Geez a whole month nearly with No Posts - Eeek

Have been so busy sorting out the website and of course real life work job....... but am back on track again I think, hmm sure I have said that before, Oh well it happens to everyone LOL..

I am waiting for some molds and patterns from Sherry Goshnan for my site so thought I should make up one that I have had rattling around in my doll patterns for a while. I love these molds, this is my first time doing this and I didnt really have much of a problem with it. The first couple of times I put the clay into the mold and took it out I wasnt happy with it so just smooched the clay up again and did it again until I was happy, then into the oven and all done in 15 mins.

So here is a couple of progress pics in the meantime, am shooting to have her finished tomorrow with hair and everything - hehe of course dolls look nothing with out their hair.

The Headless Doll - poor thing


No modesty here, had to show the bloomers



And here is my hand holding the head up to the neck

At Last Some Sewing done

Pheww at last I have been back to the sewing machine (I missed my friend heaps over the past few weeks) I decided to give my two lonesome heads some bodies today LOL so got stuck in and finished them. I feel much better now Ive got my sewing mojo back .... :o))))) I feel the need to paint again, hopefully next weekend.

Im Back Again

I suppose you all thought I had fallen off the planet LOL.......... no have just been super busy over the past month with a heap of work (in my day job) and have just launched a website here in New Zealand, so that has been taking all my time up..

If anyone would like to take a look here is my site............... http://www.fabricarts.co.nz/ - let me know what you think.

No crafting for the past few weeks and boy am I feeling it, I need to get back to that sewing machine very soon and make something or finish something would be good. I have started a neat stitchery by Angels in Disguise and am loving doing it, its so much fun and not hard to do at all, so hope to have some pictures to share with everyone after the weekend.

Ok am off to bed shortly but will be updating again regularly from now on - happy sewing everyone

Hugs Sharon

Mucking About and UFO's

Well its the weekend and have heaps on my plate this week so to speak, so really have not felt much like sewing this weekend. Although I did feel like painting so decided to paint another little face that I had lying about here, which I just love doing. Pictures below - not quite finished yet, I need to do a bit more blending etc and a bit more shading yet to finish off.

We have been having a discussion about UFO's in my favorite Yahoo group, CRAFT, and I replied to one of the posts with the following, which I thought I would share with you all - it works for me.

"Well I dont have any UFO's mainly because this year I have decided that if I am making something and I am hating it or not enjoying it then out it goes...........I am doing this because

a) I want to

b) I want to have fun

c) I enjoy creating

so if it doesnt come under a, b or c.................then in the rubbish it goes. I figure if I dont enjoy doing it now I am not going to enjoy doing it later either ........and no guilt trip cause I never see it again to agonise over"

Project Finished

Ok not quite finished but good enough, just the wee legs to sew on but all done apart from that. Am quite pleased to actually get something finished in a day, usually its about two to three weeks for me to get myself sorted, just what I needed to make me feel like I have accomplished something this weekend. Spent the afternoon in bed yesterday not feeling the best, and I totally hate doing that, what a waste of a day, my weekends are very precious to me for creating and crafting so get quite huffy when something interferes with it ....... LOL

(click on the pic for a larger one)

Todays Project

I have started a little project this weekend, a bit different than what I normally make, but I just decided to do something simple and fun for the weekend then I shall get back and finish my doll which is languishing in the craft room. It doesn't look much at the moment but it really is very cute, of course the head is not stuffed as yet and was just posed against the body for the progress pic and needs the nose bit appliqued on and of course eyes etc. I have appliqued a star on the body and you can see that I had a little bit of fun with the motif inside the star, makes me laugh every time I look at it, the cheeky little sod. If you didn't already realise I like to do fairly small dolls most of the time so this pattern is reduced down by quite a bit to make it a miniature. Sorry for the dark photos, as the material is country colours its hard to get a clear pic, will try to get a better one once it is finished.

(click on pics for a larger image)

Birthday Parcels

I have two internet friends whose birthdays are one day apart this month... Hmm Internet friends, friends I have never met in person but friends nontheless who I talk to every day without fail and I cannot imagine not talking to these girls (and all my internet friends) We share laughs, tears, birthdays, photos of our family and crafts, in fact we share our lives. So I have sent of two parcels today, one to America to Karen M whose birthday is 21 September so I hope it gets there in time for her to open on the day and the other to a friend I have here in New Zealand whose birthday is 22nd September. This friend is called Lily (but her real name is Sharon) and she is a very special friend even though we have never met. We have found in talking that our lives have had certain parallels outside of having the same name. Lily has helped me to learn about sewing techniques, fabrics, all sorts of neat new products and just being my cheerleader extraordinaire. We have a special connection I think, if thats the word, its a hard one to put into words but I thank you Lily for your special friendship and am grateful that we connected over the net, you have made my life all the richer for knowing you.

Thanks

Thanks, to all of you who come by and read my blog and leave comments, it is truly appreciated.

At last a finished doll

At last i have managed to get one of my faces onto a doll body and finished, I wasnt happy with this body so it took me a while to get sorted in my mind how I was going to dress and embellish to make it look ok. Hope you all like her and now will continue on and get the other one finished hopefully later this week. The hair is a mixture of lavendar, white and pink tibetan lambskin and it looks much better in person, (well I think so LOL) the decoration on the arms and top of the skirt is really sparkly and I made it from a mix of different coloured holeless beads and glitter, its a shame that the camera has not managed to pick up how shiny and sparkly this looks.

(click on pictures for larger view)

Fathers Day

Its Fathers Day here in New Zealand today and my husband Peter and I have been to see my dad this morning for a visit. We had a lovely time and dads friend Ngaire baked us some yummy cheese muffins which my husband demolished in no time flat......Dad has just had a hip operation and has had problems with ulcers on his leg since, but today we thought he looked great, dad had his 70th birthday last Christmas and we had a party for him. I made him a doll for his birthday from a pattern by Kate Erbach which was great fun to make. Below is a photo of my dad and the doll I made for him....... (see any likeness...........)

Mess mess and more mess

I am currently working in a total disaster area in my workspace, but dont want to tidy up until I have finished all the faces I have, but heck its an almighty mess..... thought you all might like to see how messy I work, I think I am a slob when I am creating.......(nope I definitely am)

(click on the pictures to see a larger pic)

Small update for today (very small)

Well everyone it hasnt been the greatest of creative days today, everything I touched seemed to go badly ..... you have days like that (well I do) when things just dont go as you had wanted or planned. You will notice in the below picture that there are no hands with fingers...well they turned out to be too small in the wrist to be able to sew onto the arm, I am used to using doe suede for hands this small and decided that the cotton was becoming too frustrating so went back to the original arm and hand pattern, after also blowing out two legs in the long toe the day became a lost cause hehe..... anyways here she is all pinned together for now, certainly no where near finished at all, but at least a pic for you all for the weekend........

Turning hand tip

Heres a great tip, (sorry cannot remember where on the net I read it) when having problems turning fingers, wet them......I just tried this little tip out and it worked like a dream, wet the top of the tiny fingers and they turned no problem........whoopeeee two hands ready, now to do the arms and I am in business......

And more hand woes

And the saga goes on LOL....... ony still one hand that is ok, just blew another one out, turned fine and I thought - Yipeee here we go and once it was turned out, Eeek a huge hole in the end of it... blasted thing. I have been doing small hands for ages and never have had this trouble before, that will teach me for being too smart for my own britches......hehe

So back to making some more I am determined to get these done so I can get this doll half finished at least so I can show some more pics for an update this afternoon as I only really can get crafting on the weekends so need to make the most of the time.......

Stay tuned..........

Hand Woes

Hmm the pattern I am using for the Elf has mitten type hands which I am not too fond of, so in my wisdom I decided to draw a hand with fingers at the end of the arm, (remember this is a small pattern quite tiny) ok so far so good. Got all my material out and sewed hand coloured fabric to the arm fabric so I could sew and cut all four out in one go, so far so good no 2. Sewed them all up, looking good, then the turning began........ Ohhh dear...... what a mess..... hmm nothing a bit of glue wont help with on the seams.... Ummm no way...... more blown out fingers........ Ok try again... make some more, ......and some more......give up........NO I am stubborn this will work........hehe

If you look closely you will see all the frayed ends at the top of the fingers and also the fingers I didnt even bother to try and turn after poking the rods through them ..

Ok made about 7 in all - all blown to pieces so back to the drawing board and finally I have a decent hand. Now I shall have to make separate arms and add wires and stuffing - not tonight though, nearly tea time and I think my patience has left the building.... LOL

Elf Update

Hi there, a whole week has nearly passed without an update.....Eeeek..... Anyway it was back to work this week and I managed to pick up some sort of virus so was feeling a bit under the weather for a lot of the week which is not good for being creative. I have managed to get some of the body done today and wanted to update you all as to where I am going with this.... well somewhere I hope...hehe

These two pics are of the body and one leg all stuffed - shes only pinned together at this stage but wanted to show some progress

I have popped a wee bit of hair onto the head in this pic just to show how much of a difference it makes once some hair goes on. I doubt this will be the hair that I use, but I had some cut off so plonked it on for the pic ......

Ive been tagged! how cool is that

Ive never been tagged before, well I am also new at this blogging game (go figure LOL).. hehe..

Colleen Babcock who has a blog called The Magic Bean has tagged me with "A Nice Matters Award". This was very kind of Colleen, (if you have not been to this blog and you enjoy cloth dolls - go now is all I can say ) I need to nominate some more people for this award, its a great way to network and get your blog out there.




So here I go............

Kate Hampson http://raggedyrambles.blogspot.com Kate like me is a new blogger and is a designer who has had her designs in numerous magazines in Australia.

Anita Riley http://rileysrambles.blogspot.com/ another new blogger friend of mine. Anita has just started blogging and is doing a great job

Stephanie Novatski http://novasblossoms.blogspot.com/ I just love this blog - Stephanies costuming is outstanding and I have spent hours trawling her site

Kat Lees http://designsbykat.blogspot.com/ Kat does the most gorgeous faces and is also a lovely lovely person, if anyone deserved a nice award it is Kat.

Another update of the faces for you

I have zapped home from work tonight and put some more colour on the faces, they have now been sealed and once they are dry I can do some more shading to finish them off. Once I have done that then they will be sealed again. Pheww. Actually cannot wait to see what they will look like with some hair - totally different of course. I still need to do more colouring and blending yet.

(click on the pics for a larger view)

More progress pics of elves

Ok, I managed to get some more layers onto the faces, so here is a pic to show the next stage. Not finished yet, still more layering to go.

Update on little elves or whatever they decide to be

Pheww, three posts in a day, this wont happen often as I am back to work tomorrow. Here are some pics of two of my little faces partially painted, there is heaps more that needs to be done to them but they need to dry now as I am starting to get some bleed whilst painting, no problems because once they dry I can fix up any bleeds. (I love paint) Thanks so much to Natalie Hamade http://creativecharacters.blogspot.com for her awesome online classes on painting faces, she has taken the fear away for me. These little faces are only just started, but I thought it might be interesting to see the start and then what they look like when finished....... well hopefully they will turn out, you never know until things are finished... hehe....

(click on the pictures for a bigger view)

An Orphan Felwyn Head

I found this little Felwyn head this morning when trying to clean up my mess in the craft room, and it is in an awful mess at the moment LOL. Hope you enjoy the picture, I love them myself, but of course its my design so I am biased. My photos are not very clear at the moment but its raining here and I cannot get outside to take good pictures.

(click on picture for a bigger view)

What I am working on now

I have had a week off work and for some reason have not got any sewing done, I figure that I must have needed the rest, but it doesnt feel right to have wasted the week when I could have been sewing up a storm. Anyway I decided to make something fun, small and hopefully cute, so have made up a few little heads ready to paint and colour and have picked out some material for the body and legs. The yellow will be the body and the darker fabric which is a lovely deep mauve batik for the legs. I am making up a little elf pattern which was a free pattern by Sherry Goshon

http://sherrygoshon.blogspot.com/

(click on pics for larger view)

Well Here I Am Finally

Well here I am in blogland finally LOL..... took me while to get here but here I am. I have put a link to my picture trail site in the My Pictures bar so you can see what I have done in the past couple of years.

This wee one will be a pattern - hopefully soon (once I get my bum into gear again) it needs refining a bit more but I shall get there in the end. They will be named Felwyns (I love this name)