Edward Scissorhands

I told my hubby I wanted some beading scissors for Christmas. So he sneaked one of my doll forms and made this great doll. : D

I couldn't get the camera to catch the detail of his face which is too bad. It's made on paper, but I'm going to make a cloth face and embroider his face on there.

Just in the Nick of Time

Here she is Jolly Holly, just in the nick of time to enjoy the last of the holidays.

Stitch in Time Doll Club - Christmas Party

Last month we took a blank doll and decorated it for the Holidays from a stash on the table. The rule is you can't use any of the stuff that you bring. This month at the Holiday party we swapped. I received this beauty. : )

November BJP - Calendar Doll

Finally I've finished Miss November - Hiawatha. Obviously she has too many fiddly bits as she's two weeks overdue. She represents the first Thanksgiving.

She is a combination of right angle weave (RAW) on her dress, the sleeves are peyote and the tassles, headband and corn are done in ladder stitch.

Just in time for the Witches Ball - October B JP

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

This little doll took the entire month of October to bead but Wendoline was finished just in time for the yearly Witches Ball on Halloween.

She comes dressed in the latest in witches finery. A cute flirty dress with a matching cape and hat. Of course her striped stockings and last but not least her broom.




Wendolin is 100% beaded. Face and arms are 13 seed beeds the rest are 11s. Her eyes are tiny buttons. She is about six or seven inches tall. Clothing and hat are peyote stitch. Feet - Booce. Hat and broom band - ladder stitch. Face and legs - Back stitch. Hair is loops that intersect itself to make a looooong letter eight.

Fly dragon fly....

I found this pattern on the Bead & Button website. It is so fun to make. You just can't stop. I'm making one for each month in the birthstone colors. Was going to do it for the BJP but it's too easy. So I think I may have to do my dolls for both the BAD Calendar Challenge and the BJP.

The Color Purple

Here's my second doll of the Art Doll Coolaberation. His name is Cass. This is the before picture with out his glorious new hair. It was a lot harder than I thought choosing a medium for it. I think it would have been a blast to bead it but that would have made it quite heavy and it has to be mailed several more times and not just in the U.S. Then I thought about torn strips of fabric but it didn't look right. So I finally decided on yarn but now what color? All along I'd been planning to do greens and yellow but that didn't' look right either. : P Black, black has to look good.... Nope. Finally Cass chose purple and I have to say he was right. : )

Ta da! Still needs a few embellishments for the hair and then he'll be ready to go to Arkansas.

Quite the mane don't you think?

Beautiful Mermaid...

This doll is gorgeous. When I opened the package I have to say that it took my breath away - such beautiful beading. And the journal cover that Rolanda made is exquisite. Made me want to run right out and make one.

I added the turtle on the front left fin and the turquoise "seaweed" that extends from that and around the back up to the face. I also added some hair and the dolphin on the back.

Calendar Dolls - September

Well, I have to say I've had a much more difficult time trying to decide what them and what item to do for the Beaded Journal Project. At first I was going to do a found object for each month, but then decided against that because what would I do with those twelve squares?

Then I thought maybe I'd just do my dolls for both the BJP and the BAD Calendar doll challenge. I would just focus on making them more detailed and trying new stitches and techniques. But there is a part of me that thinks it's a big cheat to do the same thing for two seperate events.

The other day I found the cutest dragonfly pattern so now I'm thinking that would be great for the BJP. I could do one for each month in the birthstone colors for that month.

Here are photos of my calendar doll for September. Her name is Sapphire for the birthstone of September. The stars on her front look like a scarf but it's really shooting stars to represent our stargazing from our new deck which should have been finished in September. : P

















Below are faces for October. The skeleton is for the challenge, notice the coloration in the face. My version of an Opal - October's birthstone. I think I did a GREAT job considering I had no idea how to copy an opal. The green one is for a witch. I love Hallowen.

Seasonal RR

This doll is Rolanda's and since it had a religious theme I decided to go all out and add the cross. The fabric looks like stained glass to me so I went for a stained glass theme. The purple reminds me of grapes which are an Autumn fruit and this is an Autumn doll. Hope she likes it.

Latest Results

I have no idea why Cindar is sideways. Probably part of her quirky personality. She fights me over everything. Had to do her lips TEN times, count them ten times, before she was happy.

Cindar is Mary of California's doll. She is half tiger and half woman and is represents the strength of women to overcome bad situations such as domestic abuse.

She has decided that with all her strength but also compassion that it's time to become a super-hero and help make the world a better place. I'm really excited to see how she turns out over the coolaberation. There are so many talented people in the group and I think we all think a little differently which makes for all sorts of exciting possibilities.

And then you lost me...

I have this dream that I'm uber organized and that I'll post on my blog on a frequent basis sort of a journal of my progress through life. Ha... The summer is almost over and my blog got lost somewhere along the way.

So let's see what have I done since I last wrote? On the Wild Art Dolls group I joined the Art Doll Coolaberation, which has been a blast. You create a doll or part of a doll and the rest of the group adds to it.. I created an alien which I named Plain Jane.

More of those Darlin' Dotees

Wedding Dotee Swap - in progress




































Hippy Dotee Swap

Braiding beads is not easy!

It's a puzzle to me...

It's a puzzle to me how to go about this doll. I was thinking I could do front and back, maybe in peyote stitch and using a curved needle. The doll is two layers of peltex 70 and I was thinking with a curved needle I could just go through one layer in the front and do the same when doing the back. BUT... I wanted to bead the face and those are MUCH smaller beads, and of course the curved needle is too big for the beads. I can only find long straight needles for that size of beads. Sigh... But a thought just occurred to me that may work. I did the hair three layers deep of pellon to add some depth, so maybe all I need to do is make a back hair piece for the back of the head and attach that. Maybe for the body I can still try my curved needle experiment.

Now I'm excited to go try but no time...

J

Catch Up - Never...

A friend in my pattern making class gave me some samples of Japanese silks. I was so excited. I'm not sure what I'll do with most of them, maybe make a bag. In September, my Japanese friend came to visit. She is an expert at Japanese calligraphy and she wrote a poem on a fan for me. I 've been wanting to frame it ever since and found a great shadow box for it but couldn't find the write background. You guessed it, one of the silks made the perfect background. : )

This week is Spring break for my pattern making class. I thought that I could get so much done if I pretended to be in class for three hours today. Unfortunately I felt like crap, but I did manage 2 hours of my "class." Got some patterns drawn and worked on a princess seam shirt.

It's a puzzle...

Well I finally posted my beginning photo to the BAD site for the flat doll challenge. I choose to take the yellow option with a ten percent contrast. Yellow isn't really much of a challenge for me, because I like yellow. However I thought it would be harder to find nice yellow beads. Luckily I was wrong and I've been having a blast searching for yellow beads.

I am so behind...

I can't believe that the last time I posted was the 24th of February. I'm trying to make it a goal to post at least once a week. HA!

Well, I have been working on things even if I haven't been posting. I've been loving my pattern making class. I've got to finish up a bunch of projects during the break.

And here are some of the dotees that I particularly like.

Valentine Swap

I thought I'd share the incredible doll I received from the BAD Valentine swap. We were paired so that that the person we were making a doll for was also making a doll for us. It was a great experience for me as a beginner because I had a fabulous partner. The moderator paired me with a generous talented woman who very kindly answered my questions. When I received my doll I was so amazed when I saw it, it was so beautiful. And the beadwork is incredible, I can learn so much from looking at her work. The picture doesn't do it justice, the beads reflect the light and it almost glows.

J

Swaps Galore....

I have been doing some swaps the one on BAD for Valentine's and some Dottee dolls on swap-bot. I won't mention names as some people don't like their names being used on the net but I've posted the pics of some of the swaps I've received. Such talented people in the world.

The pink dotee, is from a valentine swap. The maker said it reminds her of Dr. Suess and I agree, so I named her Suessie. The other one is from the ugly doll swap where you were supposed to pick three things you thought were ugly to make the doll. However it doesn't look ugly to me! Looks Polynesian or Hawaiian to me.


The blue doll is from the winter icicle swap. If you look closely you can see there are beads wrapped around the middle. It's a bracelet. Very clever.

J

Wow!

I can't believe that I haven't posted at all since the New Year! Actually it's pretty typical but I am trying to do better. Maybe I should have the goal of only once a week and anything else is extra.

I finished my first beaded doll. I'm actually quite pleased with it. I had no clue what I was doing in the beginning, so over all I think it looks fairly professional. It's for a swap in the Beaded Art Dolls Group (BAD for short. : ) ). They are a really great group, which is full of incredibly talented women, who are kind and helpful as well. Does that count as a run on sentence? : P Often talented people don't have much patience to help others, but these people are fantastic.

J