Baby Collection of Babies

So, apparently, I am now forming the habit to collect small, odd and slightly creepy babies. The latest on the left (standing masterfully atop a mud bridge--he is not attached to the bridge--they are just both muddy looking ;p) is from etsy user "Jessica Vintage." I saw the title "Tiny Joyful Baby with a Broken Arm" and had to have it. Hehe. He's a cheeky fellow. There are more small odd babies laying around my home. Perhaps they will form into a grouping soon.

Skirts and Birdvlopes

Back of Experimental Skirt

The last few weeks, I worked on stitching details for a skirt in my spare time--a few hours here and there. I wanted to try making 'raised paneling' by bunching up the surface--not sure if it looks like paneling--too organic, but it does look kind of neat. I think it will look better stuffed, but right now I am not too keen on it. (It is the skirt for the swamp shoes doll.) I am thinking about adding white paint to help create the look of paneling. Meh. I will figure it out. In the meantime, I will just move it from table to table and glare at it from time to time.

Sue's Seahorse, Which is now mine.

A friend of mine, Sue Von Jentzen, made this beautiful little seahorse ornament--I would love to coat my Christmas tree in these. The seahorse surface is what inspired me to try making the raised stitching (I am sure there is a technical term for this sort of stitching, but I am too lazy to look it up ;p.)

Now my horror story... which has little to do with sea horses (actually nothing). So, anyone who has sewn by hand with upholstery weight ultrasuede knows the stuff is thick! I use beading needles to break through the toughness--and I bend several in the process. (I am getting somewhere with this.)

Couch of doom: Looks harmless...

I have a little red couch-shaped pin cushion that I keep needles tucked away in (the top opens on a hinge). As I was doing so much hand sewing, I had the little couch on my desk. Somehow, in the mad rush of looking for something on my desk, I managed to send it sprawling. There were about 200 needles of all shapes and sizes nestled into the storage compartment of that couch and I watched them all go flying into the carpet, papers and pile of yarns and fibers I had on the floor. I had Alex come help me (actually, I think he heard my anguished cry because he showed up at the door) and verrry slowly, we crawled over the carpet picking out the needles one by one. I think we got most all of them--at least I haven't found any with my foot. Yet. ;/

birdvlopes

And lastly, I got a bunch of free posters from work last year. They are pretty neat--full color images of Washington state birds--the posters are large (at least 24 by 36 inches), so many of the birds are 5 inches long or more. The problem is, I have about 30 of the same poster. So, I have been trying to think up interesting things to do with them. The paper is excellent quality, so decoupage or collage is definitely doable. Also, gift wrap or gift bags. Then I saw these cool map envelopes by etsy seller PaperRoute and decided to try making some #10 envelopes with the birds. They turned out pretty neat. And for now, I will call them birdvlopes because I like silly names.

The Second Skirt

Here is the second skirt in the series of 7 dolls I am working on. I painted a tree onto a black piece of ultrasuede with bronze golden fluid acrylic paint. To make the foliage, I used the same paint watered down with acrylic glazing liquid and titan buff paint--I dipped a q-tip into the paint and dabbed it on to make the little circles. I like q-tips. I stitched tiny potato and rice shaped fresh water pearls to the ends of some branches to enhance the foliage.

I wanted to accent the tree with something dimensional. I remembered seeing those neat little wire birds' nests and did a google search to see if I could find an idea on how to make them. I found a little tutorial and a great blog on "Just something I made."

I went to Shipwreck beads (a huge bead store about a mile away from my day job) and picked out large freshwater pearls to make 'eggs.' I spent about an hour and a half perusing the bead aisles. If you haven't been there, Shipwreck beads is akin to a large gymnasium full of nothing but aisles and aisles of beads/charms/findings. I found a few other beads and bits I had to have...but I did get out for less than $30, so yay me ;p. Below is a picture of the store I pilfered from their website. They have a gallery with more store pictures.

Enough distractions...On to skirt number three! :]

White Lotus Bust

She is finished as of 5/7/09. Bottom picture shows original concept sketch. I stayed pretty close to the original design--even had the odd head pom pom things on top of her head. For some reason, I drew her corset on backwards ;p. The corset is a beautiful and extremely detailed antique doll's corset. The bust is in my etsy shop.

Secrets is Complete!

Just a quick post to show the completed bust :].