Sunday, May 27, 2012

Calorie-free Chocolate Bunnies and Giveaway reminder.

 For the GIVEAWAY, go HERE

More adventures with fabric 
and a remarkably well-behaved inkjet printer
This time, I used the very popular Chocolat Lombart graphic
from the even more popular Graphics Fairy.
(Thank you, Karen!)


I printed the image onto white cotton lawn
using the freezer paper method.
(Is lawn called batiste in the USA? I never know) 
and sewed it into a pair of chic chocolate rabbits.


 Of course, it would have been more seasonal 
if I'd thought of this around Easter.
Anyway...
They need little tails and possibly real glass bead eyes
and maybe a ribbon or a button.
but for the moment, I'm just enjoying them 
as they are.
My free (and very easy) pattern
for these bunnies is available here.
I enlarged it a little for these bunnies,
so the image fitted nicely.
 
There will be one in the Bag o'Bunnies
that I'm offering in my Giveaway
along with vintage lace,
and some of this and that. 
A little doll. Chinese flowering tea.
Beads. Trinkets. Buttons.
Nutmeg. Cloves. Rosemary.
All kinds of interesting little things.
Go HERE to sign up.
Giveaway will be drawn at 
Midnight in Arkansas
(does that sound like a Redneck perfume?)
on  Friday, June 1st.






Friday, May 25, 2012

The Giveaway Hunt. A Quest!

Well, I thought as I'm having a giveaway, 
I'd go on the lookout for some others and add them here. 
Then, you can sit down with your morning coffee,
 afternoon tea, lunchtime smoothie 
or bucket of moonshine
and enter one after another.
 You're bound to win something!

In an unashamed act of self promotion,
 first is mine which you'll find  

Next is 
who is giving away all kinds of crafty goodness for
their first blogoversary.

Go here to the Mouse House,
for a HUGE giveaway event.
All kinds of goodies, lots for babies.

Here's another, from Sarah at
 

I'll add more as I find them.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

The return of Dollmakers on Thursday

and an update from Sarah Beare and her 1/12 scale figure, Twelvemo.


Sarah's prototype figures are on their way to her,
 from China.  I'm so excited about this enterprise.
Read here for the latest from her blog.

I've also made some progress on the Munzerlite Lamp.
Miss Munzerlite poses for the admiration
of  Aliénore's Birthday party.
Now she has a petticoat 
(and arms instead of wires.)
 


 Miss Munzerlite  would originally have had.
 a 1850's Victorian ballgown 
topped with a poke bonnet.
Now, obviously, a Victorian lady wouldn't wear 
a ballgown with a poke bonnet, but this is
Victoriana seen from the perspective of  a 
1930s boudoir doll.

I vant to be alone...
  Hence Miss Munzerlite's 'Greta Garbo'
pout and sultry eyes. See?

There's still a week and a day to sign up
for my first ever GIVEAWAY ! ! !
There will be flowering Chinese teabags, 
vintage lace, a bag o' bunnies,
all kinds of little goodies.
Just put a word in the comments section here.



Monday, May 21, 2012

Aliénore's Birthday Party and Giveaway.

 Aliénore's Birthday party 
and the 
Mysterious Parcels

A play in three acts
performed by 
the Doll Company.

Act one; The Party Table
Here we are, to celebrate,
we have to hurry, don't want to wait.
It's time for cake, don't be late!


Here we sit, for a birthday tea
there's enough for Aliénore, you and me
Look at the clock, it's  half past three!

Act 2: The Exotic Packages
Oh my goodness what do I see?
Little round packages  One. Two. Three
Oh, whatever can they be?




Now they're in the fancy tea pot.
And pour on water, nice and hot.
Oh! Of course! Tea's what we've got!


But stranger tea you never saw.
The Dollies all watched it with quiet awe
For a moment it looked like a bundle of straw.

And then, like a plant in a sweet rain-shower
the tea opened up, just like a flower.
Pretty enough for a lady's bower.

  Act 3 The Finale

And the dolls all agreed, the tea was charming
even though, at first, it had looked alarming.
The tea was ready; time to be pouring!

 Flowering tea, so pretty and sweet
in the shape of a basket, isn't it neat?


That's enough gawking, it's time to eat!


Join up with Aliénore's birthday celebrations 



To celebrate such an auspicious occasion, 
I'm giving away 
a sweet little flowering teabag
(which really does make real tea!)
and a box full of other surprise goodies.
Vintage lace. Wee bunnies
A tiny doll. Little interesting things.
Consider it my Blogoversary treat.

Be a follower and comment here
for one chance to win!
Mention this giveaway on your blog
and let me know,
and you'll get another entry
Two ways to win!
This giveaway runs until Friday, 1st of June.

Bonne chance!

Friday, May 18, 2012

The Pillow

Update:-

I've changed the title of this post
 as I'm getting a huge amount of spam.

Now, I usually don't have any spam,
so I'm wondering if it's the title
that's attracting the little buggers.

I'll keep you informed.

If you're not spam,
thank you for visiting my blog.


This isn't going to be a tutorial for printing with your inkjet printer using freezer paper. 


There are a lot of very good, very clear and very thorough ones about 
and adding another would just clutter up the internet.
The method is fairly simple. 

Cut a piece of freezer paper to the size of your printer paper.
Cut a washed, dry, ironed piece of white cotton 
slightly larger than the freezer paper.
Iron the shiny side of freezer paper to the cloth and trim the cloth to the size of the paper.
Put into the printer, making sure the cloth side will be the printed-on side
Hit "PRINT".
Peel off freezer paper.
Iron image to set.

See, no tutorial here!
*whistles innocently*

My only comment would be to make sure
 the image you're using is nice and big 
with lovely crisp resolution.


This is Bouguereau's Madonna of the Roses
printed out onto a piece of  white lawn
and then sewn onto golden yellow cotton
and trimmed with lace and broderie anglaise.
(eyelet, to my USA cousins)


And here is a cushion 
for my lovely Mother in law
for Mothers' Day.

I hope you all had a wonderful Mothers Day.
Me, I ate a whole cheesecake
that my lovely, wonderful, bride-to-be
sister-in-law made for me..
And I'm not ashamed.



Saturday, May 12, 2012

The Munzerlite Lamp Restoration: Progress report


There's some lovely Munzerlite dolls out there, 
and the fashion now is to display them as they are, 
in all their faded glory.
But I was commissioned to dress the lady up
as close as she had been.
I'm happy to touch up her paint, but I don't want to
damage or compromise the original.
With that in mind, here is the doll as she was given to me.


and the back.


I had a rare miracle, when I painted her.
I'm a little smug 
(all right, very smug)
about my ability to match a colour by mixing paint
but this time I didn't have to mix anything.
I had an ivory coloured acrylic 
and it was a perfect match
right out of the bottle!


I've used the paint to pad out chips and flaws.


 and refine some of the features. 
I was lucky that the detail painted on her face
was pretty much unscathed and just needed touching up.


After some research on-line, 
I discovered that some of the best preserved 
Munzerlite ladies had rosy cheeks and sultry eyes, so
I used powdered artist pastels to give her some rouge and eye shadow.
I sprayed on some sealant, 
dabbed on the powdered pastel just like make-up
and sprayed over everything to seal it.
She did have a rather shiny finish when I got her,
so I'm assuming that a glossy skin is the right way to go.


Now I have the silk and the wool felt for her hat 
and we may be looking at getting her finished!
I'm going to miss her when she's gone.


Sunday, May 6, 2012

Happy Blogoversary

To ME!

I'll be announcing my 
first ever giveaway 
to celebrate my blogoversary
as soon as I get the pictures up

In the meantime, I'd like to say 'thank you' to everyone 
who I've come to know through this little blog.
You're all such nice, witty, talented, CREATIVE people 
and it's been a real privilege
to know you and see your work.

You've made a big difference to my goals in doll making.
You've given me inspiration 
and encouragement and support.
Thank you.

No, she's still not finished. But I bought the fabric. You know how that goes...
It's also a new chapter in the Steampunk Linky Party
Go have a look-see, 
pick up some special ephemera
and link up your 
Steampunk creations,
favourite tea time recipes
for cake and scones
 and Victoriana.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Sarah Beare and Twelvemo

Sarah Beare is a Dollmaker in Norwich 
(England)
and she makes a tiny little articulated doll 
called Twelvemo


It was the pose of this doll that first 
caught my attention on Etsy.
She seemed to be telling a story with her eloquent
stance, all the more remarkable for 
a doll not quite six inches tall.

Twelvemo with graphite finish
Sarah's scuplts are cast in resin and the doll
 is pieced together and fitted by hand. 

The doll above looks to have the patina 
of ancient ivory carvings.
This finish brings out the detail of her face 
with its enigmatic expression,
allowing us to interpret the doll's emotions.
I find the joints more attractive 
and less intrusive than strung BJD
and I'm really impressed by the doll's flexibility.


Sarah's blog  narrates her experiences 
in turning this one-off, handmade art doll
into a doll that allows some mass-production. 
It's an interesting journey and I'm completely behind
 her mission of making the doll more affordable.

For purely selfish reasons. 
I want one.


Prototype on left, original on right
 Sarah is new to blogging, 
so if people could go over there and say 'hello'
I'm sure that would be much appreciated.

There's an Etsy shop, too. 
Sarah makes more than dolls. 
She also creates these versatile and 
compelling figures in silver
for pendants or earrings or just tactile play.



Also, if you're in the Norwich area, 
I think today is the last day of her exhibition.

(That's to you, Kate Dogherty! 
You and your FORTY TWO
 twelfth scale dolls houses...)