Bunny Girl

I'm still here.  Working slowly, a bit too slowly.  Things are changing and I am getting ready for the changes.

This is Bunny Girl.  She is made with a Vintage Bonnet Head German doll head dug from the ruins of the doll factories in Germany.  I added a cloth body and molded hands and feet.

Isn't she sweet dressed in vintage lace.

Bunny girl measures about 6" tall.  The entire piece is 9.5"tall  x 6" wide.

She is riding a treasure of mine that has been repainted and a wood base was added.  She is ready to be adopted on e-bay this week.  

My seller name is lel2952.  She is listed along with a few of her friends.

I love working with these vintage doll heads that have been underground for so many years.  Each one speaks to me, asking to be made into a doll to be put back out there into the world for someone to cherish.  

Little Red and Santa Girl

Here are my 2 newest creations, Little Red Riding Hood and Santa girl.  I had so much fun creating them both.

Little Red Riding Hood is made from a vintage German broken head doll dug from the factory ruins in Germany.  I gave her a body and papermache hands and feet. She is about 6" tall.

She and her doll are dressed in vintage linens and laces.  The cape is made from red flannel. Her doll is made from a vintage broken German frozen Charlotte dug from the factory ruins in Germany.

Little Red has it all under control for this visit, and has the wolf pulling her wagon.

She even is daring enough to go for a ride!

The piece measures 13" x 7"

Santa Girl

This piece came together as if by magic.  

Penny and her friend Baby Cupid are off on an adventure to surprise their friends.

Penny measures about 6" tall.

The piece measures 11" x 6".

Come check them out on e-bay. 

seller lel2952

My Lovely Bones Icicle

Have you read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold?  It was one of those books I didn't want to read yet I had to finish.   Not a favorite, yet it did make an impression.

If you did, remember the part about the icicle of death?  My house has one of those. It is HUGE.  HUGE!!!!!!  It is right where I park my car.  When this one comes down, I am afraid it will do some damage to whatever or whoever is in the way. 

There are a few wires going into my house, but my biggest fear is that it will hit ME as I get into my car. Today will be a bit warmer with rain, and either increase the size or it will fall off. 

I'll keep you updated.

Oh for those who didn't read this book, and want to know what I am talking about, this is it.

A little girl was murdered at the beginning of the story. The case was never solved even though the little girl could look down from heaven and see him.  In the end her killer was walking beside a building, and a huge icicle broke off at that very moment stabbing him and he died.  Then it melted away.  The perfect murder. The question was always did she have anything to do with this murder or was it a coincidence?

Penny enjoying the snow.

Gotta have a Penny photo as she is the only one loving this weather in my house.

Sneak peek

Here is a sneak peek at what I am working on this week.  Can you guess what they might be?

This one is kind of easy.  Can you guess?  A wagon and  who is driving it?

What can this one be?  A cute reindeer, and a basket filled with toys.  It's not as easy as it looks.

This is my dog Penny, 9 months old.  She realized this morning that freedom from the yard is just one leap away.  We have so much snow, my fence is not doing it's job.  I just happened to be out there with my camera this morning as she made this discovery.

I can see I will never be able to let her out alone until the snow melts a bit more.

2 Santas listed on e-bay

My 2 Santas from the last post have been listed on e-bay.  They are so adorable. Please come check them out!

The elves have decorated Santa's Rolls Royce with tinsel and a wreath, and he has decided to take it for a spin to deliver a few toys.  

Here is the link

Vintage German Style Santa riding in a Rolls Royce

For tonights delivery, Santa is taking his faithful donkey Francis.  

Here is the link for this fellow.

Vintage German Style Santa riding donkey

Santa and the act of giving

It's a whopping - 3.7 degrees here in Boston today. Yes I did say MINUS 3.7!!  Chilly!  That is not why I am talking about Santa.  I'm here to show you my latest creations.  Altho I do wish I had a warm Santa type coat to wear today.  

Santa

The Spirit of Santa is something that should be remembered all year round.  It is a good feeling to give to others.  This gift doesn't always have to be something you can hold in your hands.  Another type gift comes from the heart.   

Santa driving a Rolls Royce

In these cold winter days, when all the holidays are over, and life is kind of waiting for the next event, surprise someone and give a gift.  This can be a kind word to someone standing in line at the store, or help a neighbor, make cookies for someone. 

Santa is about 4.5" tall.

Call a friend you haven't spoken to in a long time, as sometimes we forget the joy of hearing someones voice and expressions rather than just reading an e-mail.  A true gift is giving something without expecting anything in return.  

The bunny is checking to be sure everything in is place,  Can he see there is a toy snowman trying to sneak out of the bag?

 Take some time today and try to give a gift of your heart.  Maybe your small act of kindness might change someone else's day.

Santa riding his faithful donkey to deliver gifts.

Santa has a beard made from sheep wool still on the hide.  His coat is trimmed in vintage mink.

Santa's backpack filled with gifts.  Included is a hand molded bunny and a vintage German head doll.

Santa is 7.5 " to the top of his hood.

Santas- These will be appearing on e-bay shortly.  They were both great fun to create.  I hope you like them.

Highly Prized

I'm involved with the Sketchbook Challenge and the theme for January is something that is Highly Prized.There are many things in my life that are important to me.  I really had no idea what I wanted to do or what medium best represented what I wanted to say.

A sneak peek!

 Friday, my friend Roberta invited me over to her house to create our sketches for the challenge.  Ok, I guess that solved the problem on what medium to use.  While remembering my sketchbook, I forgot all my pencils.  Luckily Roberta is willing to share.  I got to try her Derwent Water Soluble Sketching Pencils.  These are very cool pencils, as after sketching, I used a water brush to smudge the lines.  I feel it made my sketches complete.

I haven't sketched in a long time, but figured I'd do this and see what would happen.  I am a fast sketcher and a noisy one.  Usually when sketching, people look at me and wonder what I am doing with that pencil to create such a racket ( scratch scratch sketch scratch scratch scratch sketch scratch).  Now multiply that by 10 minutes worth of sketching!  You get the idea.

Here are the 2 sketches I made.  I must admit, they are both done from memory, fast and each took less than 10 minutes.   I also used a technique I learned from the book Creative Illustration Workshop by Katherine Dunn.  I love her work.  She is so whimsical and yet still to the point.

This is highly prized #1, walking my puppy Penny.  I really enjoy the times we are out in nature, in all sorts of weather.   On this adventure we were greeted by a cat in the tree, as we walked along our path.

Highly Prized #2.  Penny is a very affectionate puppy.  She loves to give kisses which brought to mind that she needed to open a kissing booth.  Altho now that I look at the sketch, Penny would probably want a dog cookie for payment more than 10 cents.

This exercise was a great experience as it reminded me how much I really love to sketch.  Also that I like to make up stories to go with sketch.  I hope to add more this month.

My secret obsession

Anyone who knows me and has been to my home knows this.  It is not a secret.  I really am not trying to hide anything.  At this time of year it can all be explained.  Only when people are around in April, or June, or even September, they don't know what to say.  What is my obsession?  Creating Santas.  My house is, well, lets just say they are everywhere.  Ok, it is out, whew.......

Santa, waiting for his sleigh to be packed and ready for a ride.

I've loved Santa since I was a child.  I made and sold Santas when I was in High School for my extra spending money.  There were 2 sizes, small and large.  Both were sets with a Mr & Mrs.  Unfortunately I have no photos of these.  One day I saw a set for sale in a yard sale.  Kinda sad.

Next I moved onto making bigger and better Santas and sold them at local craft shows.  It was alot of fun to see which face would speak to which buyer.  My work has also been exhibited at the Wenham Doll Museum. I put away my passion  when I discovered paper arts after 9/11.  Now it has resurfaced again.

Those Crazy Elves!  Harry "borrowed" one of Santas toy race cars to help deliver the mail with his brother Henry.  Then Irving jumped on the back as he didn't want to be left behind!  Wait until Santa finds out what those crazy elves are up to this time.

I will be showing more of my Santas and friends, as the list does include bunnies and elves.  Lately they have come back to life to tell their stories.  And I can't argue with Santa or the elves, as they can be loud!

Here is a parting shot of the sextuplets wishing you all a Happy New Year!!  Soon they will all be bundled up and going their separate ways!

"Happy New Year!!"  squeals six little voices.  

Happy New Year from me too.

Another Santa

I had so much fun creating the first Santa collage I made another.

There is something I find very inspiring in the process of using vintage laces and trims.  Wondering who they belonged to and what they were used for.  Then to give them new life for others to enjoy. Plus I just love to work with fabrics and trims to see what might happen when they are combined.  Sometimes it is magic.  Other times, well, it needs to sit and be worked out a bit.  That is where I am with my Elves.

I found elves are particular and don't play well with others unless they are in charge!

Santa time!

Santa time is getting closer.  I was inspired to today to create a Santa collage.  Ok, I admit, I had dreams of making many of these and sending them out as Christmas cards.  But as usual, here it is Dec 14th and I just made the first one.  Here is the finished card...or is it a quiltie? I'm not sure what to call it?

The photo is one of my handmade Santa Candy Containers that I photoshopped.  

Here is the original photo and then what it looks like after I did some magic.

I took the photo and printed it out on Inkjet cotton to make it look cool.  I figured I had seen others take photos and make them into fabric collages, how hard could it be?  I could whip out 10 of these in an afternoon and send them to special friends.  HA! It is more difficult than it looks.  Or maybe I am just too picky.

It took quite a while to come up with the perfect combination of fabrics and trims.  I will also add a ribbon at the top so the recipient can hang this in their home.  I hope she likes it!

Tomorrow I will try this again using one of my Elves.  

And also do a few more Santas.  They were fun.

Here is the Santa Candy Container I made.  He holds a antique broken doll from Germany which I repaired and a dog I molded from one of the broken German dog figurines. 

Chinese Tea

Creating these 9 RODs for my friends has me thinking alot about China.  It was an amazing experience and I feel the need to start sharing bits and pieces with the world.  Or you 5 people who are reading my blog.

Anyway today I decided to treat myself and have some of the Chinese Tea I purchased while over there.

We were in Xi'an and at one of the stops visited a Tea House.  If I remember correctly it was at the TerraCotta warriors.  

A beautiful Chinese girl ( she looked so young) performed a proper Tea ceremony for us.  I'm a tea drinker and it was wonderful for me.  Of course I knew she was only doing this to sell us teas. 

It was interesting to see how they prepare tea in China.  First she poured the tea thru the leaves to wash them and threw the water away.  Then she poured more water thru the strainer and it was tea.  No steeping for 2 + minutes as I usually do.  We were all given little cups to try the teas.  She used a terracotta pot for a few teas to give them a different flavor, which is what she is holding in the photo.

This morning I got to dream I was in China again.  I got out my special tea and realized I had no idea how to prepare it.  I have been drinking loose leaf for years and know certain teas have to be made certain ways or they are no good.  This was a special tea, a green tea, from a foreign land, how was it made?  It is called Dragon well.  I googled it hoping to find something.  And to my surprise I found it is a popular tea, available right here in my own backyard at Teavana!  ARGH!!  Here I thought I had something rare!  

Anyway, at least I know when my stash is gone, I can buy more.  It is GOOD!

Finished China RODs!!

YES!!  I did it!!  I created 9 RODs in 4 days.  It's a miracle!  It was so much fun.  I hope the recipients will love them as much as I do.

In June I was fortunate enough to travel to China with a group of 11 other people for 2 weeks.  It was an amazing adventure.  I think about China every day.  

Monday Dec 6th we are having a reunion as we have not seen each other since.  I  have made these books as a surprise for my friends, hoping they will use them to store their precious memories and treasures they picked up along the way.

The books are small, 6" x 6".  The outside is a red Chinese brocade with green dragons.  Inside is a print with Chinese characters.  I also added a plastic pocket.

I'm a bit nervous giving these as gifts, as I don't know how they will be received.  

Check out my flickr site for more photos.