NEW Puppet Pattern Now available on Etsy

I've been asked so many times for a copy of my puppet pattern so I finally made one!
This is developed from the puppet workshop I did at the office. Originally developed as instructions on a power point presentation the instructions are easy to follow and have wonderful colour step by step photos of the process.

Available as a PDF for almost instant gratification. You still have to buy the supplies, but they are easy to find in your area! Check it out here!

Watch for a puppet kit coming soon!!

Art doll only's Traveling Doll Project: Team Bambola D'sil & Olin in the UK. Final Stop be...

Art doll only's Traveling Doll Project: Team Bambola D'sil & Olin in the UK. Final Stop be...: "'I'm getting far too old for all this travelling Olin old son' D'sil said wearily to Olin as they arrived in the UK. 'Hope we can rest soon ..."

Meet Tabitha

Tabitha is a little shy, she's ascared of meeting new people and hides behind people until she feels comfortable.
She has a very small voice and only speaks up when she is gets to know you a little better. By then you'll get tired of hearing her constant questions "Why?, Whas that? whacha doin? She does have a great giggle though!

Tabitha was a gift for a co-worker who is having a new baby, won't she be great for storytime!

Travelling Doll Ruby

Ruby, the last of the travelling dolls, arrived from England last week. She's really gorgeous!
It's kind of sad that she is the last travelling doll I will receive before I get my own back. She is gorgeous! She didn’t do so well on her travels though. Broke her ankle and is in a cast, and then developed a rather serious crack in her neck so she also wears a rather stunning neck brace. Pretty though isn’t she?

I made her some silk knickers, pink silk lace up sandals (I know another pair of shoes!) and a pink silk purse. I still have to work on her journal before I can ship her. I’ve made shoes for all the dolls but one I think. I don’t even like making shoes.

I had so much fun and it was so wonderful to work with some of my favourite doll artists. I can't beleive it's nearly over!

Eco-friendly Puppet Experiment

I had a co-worker ask if I could make some eco-friendly children's toys. His brother just had a baby and they were very much trying to keep their eco-foot print to a minimum. So the search began for fabrics. I wanted to do a puppet and as I prefer to work with fleece I wanted something with a similar weight and texture. Unless I wanted to take a garment apart I found I wasn't going to get what I was looking for.

I stopped again at a different Fabricland and asked the same question I'd been asking at every fabric store for the past few weeks. Do you have any eco-friendly fabrics, cottons, bamboo? Only this time I found an employee who knew her stuff. While they didn't have any fabrics, when I suggested perhaps towels, drapery, blankets. ah-ha, light went on. I found some fabulous bamboo throws that were perfect and colourful! Price tag... gasp... $90 for less than two meters. But wouldn't you know they were marked down!!

A whopping 60% off made this project suddenly doable. So I bought several colours! YAY I also found felt made from recycled water bottles and stuffing made of the same stuff (it's slightly green in colour). Perfect for handwashable puppets. The puppets are machine and hand-sewn, eyes are soft rather than plastic and are oh so soft!

Meet the two I made so far. Emmett the fly-fishing frog and Edgar. I sold both but will be making more to sell on my etsy site. I just love making puppets!

WIP The Healer

I started working on the Healer around the same time as the Satyr. For some reason my sculpting figures all end up being male so in an effort to conquer that I tried an elderly female head. Not for me the pretty fairy figure I guess. Which is fine with me, I love the character that is expressed in an elderly face. A face with wrinkles says so much more! It's easier to create all these wrinkles in clay perhaps than cloth, maybe that's it.


After painting in the face, a wash of colour to show the aging detail, a light blush on the cheeks, light wash of colour on the lips and detail in her rhuemy eyes. I bulked out her body, attached her hands and feet, sewn some skin on her and began costuming and hair.











After this shot I realized I wanted her hair in an upsweep and her costume needed more colour. 

 

Now she needed to hold something she was healing. A bird!

A little more work still required. She needs something in her hair. The crown I made didn't work... still thinking about the possibilities....

Super Molly's Mom and her Super Art Capes

I met someone through facebook today, she wrote me to tell me I won a Super Molly Art Cape. Isnt' social networking wonderful! I was thrilled.
Although I have no children of my own I know a few special kids through my friends at work and thought it would be wonderful to pay it forward and run an auction for the Super Cape at work and give the proceeds to our Charity campaign.
I'm not sure how it will work yet but I wanted to introduce you to my new friend, neighbour and all round special person.

Kerry, a Hamilton Ontario neighbour has opened an etsy shop only a few short months ago.

She tells me superMOLLY capes started entirely by accident. She made a really, truly sad cape for her daughter one year for Hallowe'en, that's when superMOLLY the superhero was "born." A few years later, she needed a birthday present for one of her school friends, and thought, "why not see if I can do something... well, super?" So she made another for another friend's birthday... and finally, she got around to replacing Molly's old, sad cape with something pink and shiny, and generally more befitting her superhero-y status... She wore it to school one day and before Kerry knew what had happened, she'd sold four of them on the playground. With some prodding from her friend Jonah over at BabAzOoBeE, she opened an etsy store superMOLLYcape.etsy.com, and the rest is history. She's had a fun few months!

She is also working with the Victim's Services division of our local police service to see if they can work out the logistics of making superhero capes for the bears given out through the Trauma Bear program. She has a group of volunteer sewing gurus waiting for the go-ahead to make a few hundred bear capes to donate to the program. That's going to be so much fun!

Kerry admits she's pretty lucky. She has a superkid who rocks, and she gets to share what she loves to do with new people every day. I say you are very, very lucky Kerry!
Congratulations and I wish you continued success!


Please be sure and check out what makes Molly's mom so very, very lucky and read her blog! You won't regret it! 

Here are some more of Molly SuperCape products available on etsy! Click on the photo to go to the listing!