I'm working on some dolls at the moment. They look a bit like this.
Stitching, knitting, stuffing, giving. Drawing them takes a lot less time than making them. They are labours of love and an expression of an urge to create little characters. How strange.
Greetings from Sleep Deprivation Land! Woah - sick kids and no sleep are beginning to get to me... I have tried to edit this post over 24 hours and I just can't get a nice flow so publish and be damned, I say, and sorry it isn't more sparkly:
I have just finished this doll to give to a good friend on her big 4-0. I based the idea for this doll on a quick doodle I did last year. She's a bit more clown-like, but I quite like her. I made up a new pattern using elements of my punkdorf doll pattern (arms and legs - less seam allowance), and a crazy adaptation of my marshamllow rabbits, believe it or not. Her legs are attached with buttons - a technique I learnt from Mimi and her fabulous felt doll tutorial at Purl Bee. Her dress is lifted directly from Fiona's gorgeous Poppy Doll pattern (such a good pattern!) which was so quick and easy to make that I am looking forward to finding some time to make an actual Poppy doll. I used wool fleece to stuff my doll which was a great choice for something that needed a strong form and not much squish. Even so, I had to stablise her neck with half a paddle pop stick and it still has wrinkles (grr).
Off to have a coffee (my best friend).
Tomorrow we are off to Byron Bay but I am going to auto-publish next week's What's Hot and What's Not on Wednesday so join me then - hopefully the widget works. xx
Yesterday I finally took a little leap of faith and starting working on a Waldorf doll.
I am calling her Prudence because if it hadn't been for the gorgeous Waldorf dolls which Prudence makes and sells on Etsy, I would never have attempted it. Prudence, the doll, is a big tribute to Prudence in Montana, who inspired me to ignore the "rules" of Waldorf doll making (something which I have found very intimidating hence the reluctance to ever attempt this before) and do an alternative interpretation.
I like that she has injected huge amounts of personality into these dolls. They are a little bit Waldorf, a little bit Raggedy-Anne. Each one looks so incredibly sweet and endearing. I love their distinctive faces. Quite obviously I was very taken with her idea to use multiple soft and stretchy fabrics to make up the body rather than the traditional skin toned fabric. This is the bit that really appeals to me - lots of nice texture and crazy colours.
The head construction was challenging. I gotta tell you - if the Steiner ideal is to create a unique doll full of love, with a specific child recipient held lovingly in mind etc etc, then this poor wee doll is going to have to be stashed away in the cupboard because not a lot of love went into that head. A lot of "frigging" fleece went in, but not a lot of love. That being said, don't let me put you off. Once I finally finished it I felt pretty sure I could do it again with far less struggle.
I did some free form cutting (that was fun) based losely on my rabbit pattern and came up with something that does quite well... if a tad derivative and just a little wonky.
Is there a way to avoid those little gathery puckers around her neck? I am hoping that goes with practice.
Yes - I want to make more now - I can see how people get quite addicted to it. I was thinking it would be fun to make each one without a pattern so no two are the same. That would be pretty radical for me - a person who has been making rabbits and cats from the same pattern for the last four years!
For those who might like to try it -- I got all my supplies for the head from Winterwood here in Melbourne where I also got the book Making Waldorf Dolls by Maricristin Sealey which has very clear instructions. This tutorial helped a lot too - and Sooz has a great tutorial for a simple Steiner doll to get you started. Magic Cabin looks like the place to get your supplies in the States.
