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