I've got some long term plans for my dollies.  I want to paint their portraits eventually.  So I need props.  Lots of props, animals, food, furniture, back drops etc.  Which is going to be awesome.  All kinds of fun! 

This little guy's the first.  I'm not in love with him.  His nose is too big.  I'm not thrilled with the overall shape either.  I used a really simple Japanese pattern.  So he came out looking more like a toy instead of a real animal like I wanted.  Next time I'm going to  try something out of Soft Animals A to Z.  From the cover it seems like these patterns closer to what I'm going for.  I know that if I gave it time I could design the animals like I did with the dolls.  But since good patterns are already available I'd rather spend my time on other things. 

I am pretty happy with the embroidery.  Good thing too, I don't want to think about how many hours I spent...

I've still been spending tons of time down in the basement studio.  It's fantastic.  I've never had this sort of momentum.  I used to be a person who slept in until about 9:00, but I've switched up my schedule so that I'm getting out of bed at 6:00.  I feel like such a grown up! 

Stitching up all these heads makes me feel like Dr. Frankenstein :D   I trashed a bunch of heads last week.  These are the ones that made it.  One of the problems is that I'm sculpting the nose and mouth by needle felting and sheets of felt aren't really meant to be used this way.  I have to been really careful because it's a fine line between getting the shapes I want and puncturing the felt so much that it rips apart.  Obviously I've been asking myself if this is the best way to go about things.  I've read up on molded felt heads like these ones by Maggie Iacono.  (One of you mentioned her on a previous post and I saw her dolls in Anatomy of  Doll, too.)  But I've sorta decided against this technique.  For starters I think the process would really annoy me.  If I thought I could get the results I want using this technique I would absolutely be willing to learn.  But this isn't the look I want for my dolls.  Molding the face gives a very soft, innocent look.  It looks fabulous on pretty little girl dolls.  However I want my girls to be slightly edgy.  I especially like their bulging eyes which make them look a bit alien.  I'd loose this a molded head where the eyes are painted flat on the face.  I like the sharpness I get by needle felting the nose a lips too.  So I guess I'm just going to have to get better at this weird technique that I've invented...

I really want to thank everyone who has followed me here from my previous blog.  But I feel like I need to make a few things more clear.  Many of you have left comments or otherwise contacted me about amigurumi patterns.  And a few readers has asked for information about making my new dollies.  So I need to stress that my work is going in an entirely new direction.  My pattern shop will stay open but nothing new will be added and I have no plans to offer specific tutorials concerning my new techniques.  I completely understand that this post will cause me to loose readers.  And I apologize to those of you who are disappointed.  But this is the right thing for me to do.  I am fortunate enough to have loving spouse who supports my art and we are in a happy position of only needing his income.   So by all means don't feel bad if you stop reading my blog.  But for those of you who continue to visit, I hope to give you an interesting glimpse into my new pursuits. 
Best,
Beth

My brain hurts.  Why?  Because this week, after MUCH trepidation, I am teaching myself about designing dolls clothes.  So fine, I can built the doll.  But covering her 3D body with clothing that fits and drapes properly is edging me towards hyperventilation.  Well maybe that's putting it a bit strongly. 
I love learning new things, don't get me wrong, but sometimes, with some new must be acquired skill, I develop unnecessary amounts of anxiety.  It was like before beginning to sew my new cloth dolls.  I was so used to crocheting a long piece of yarn into 3D shapes that I put off figuring out how to make that happen with felt instead.  After finally getting over myself I started from zero and had a finished doll in one month.  So I have a good track record, I guess. 
But getting over the initial inertia takes one hell of a heave-ho.  When I'm feeling like this I do ridiculous amounts of research.  I don't like to think about how many hours I have spent googling tips and techniques.  I was able to cobble together lots of the info I needed to construct the doll, but doll couture turned out to be a different thing altogether.  So I bought a bunch of books instead.  Some went back to Amazon straight away.  But The Doll's Dressmaker and The Dolls' Clothes Collection both seem to have real potential.  The latter because of it's chapter on general construction and the patterns that go on to show how those techniques are applied to specific projects and the former because it gives lots of advice about how to adapt and change basic patterns into lots of different looks. 
The photo shows my dolly wearing a paper towel muslin that I drew after much trial and error.  It fits pretty well, but the shoulders need to be widened and the back narrowed, but it's a good start.  I'm starting with a simple shift dress because I figure it will be easy to change a close fitting pattern into more interesting shapes.  And that's a whole new problem...I'm not fashionable myself so it's going to take a lot of brain prodding to imagine what she should wear.  But it'll come to me soon, I hope. 

P.S.
I know I need a doll stand.  She looks awful leaned up against the wall that way :(

My first attempt at a button jointed doll has been finished for about a week.  But I'm super lazy about blogging.  Here are pics finally and a bit of the design story...(the in-progress pics are dim, sorry about that)

_ I've been working mad hours in my studio for the past three weeks, so I think it's time to show you guys a glimpse of my new work.  Like I hinted in my first post, now is the time for me to learn a new technique.  Not that my previous dolls were perfect or anything, but I've reached the end of the line with amigurumis and crochet.  I need to move on in order to express my ideas.  I love fiber art so I've decided the use wool blend felt to sew my girls (as opposed to paperclay or fimo or something like that...)  I love the warmth and touch-ability of wool and didn't want to give that up just because I'm giving up using yarn as my construction material.

So yeah, after all that...I guess...here she is.

I've got a 160G ipod.  The plain, basic model 'cause all I want is the music (and audio books!)  Needless to say it's loaded with music and only half full and can be a bit overwhelming.  But the links on the sidebar are some of my current favs.  If I'm a good blogger I'll update when the mood strikes.

Thanks for visiting my new site.  Updates to come :)