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)