A Summer of Mermaids

Just stopping in to add more pictures for those who purchase the pattern. Each Mermaid will look a little different in comparison to the one before, but they are all being made with the pdf in my store. In the instructions I share how I do the faces and even show how I change it if I feel it is not going in the direction that I want. I have just started another one and should have those pictures here next week.  

Busy Busy Busy

I love being busy, but when you are tired you are tired and need rest. I find rest is not in the picture for me anytime soon. Too many things I want to do, too many things I need to do and always the things you must do!

I started out this spring with my want to do list of being outside and doing some gardening and planting a few plants that were being neglected in there root bound pots. I did get that done, so now maybe they will thrive when the roots have somewhere to go.

Another thing on my want list was to do another cloth doll and a PDF pattern for my store. The cloth doll turned out to be a mermaid. Lilly loves mermaids so it inspired me to try to create one. The first pattern was ok, but needed lots of tweaking. The first face was flat, but the end result was a face with a little bit of a profile and that does look so much better especially from a distance since an Art doll is really for display only.The Mermaid in the pic below is the pattern I designed. She has wire in neck, arms and tail, so she can be positioned in different ways and I love that for display purposes. Have I ever mentioned the fact that I love to tear fabric. Funny, but true. I even decorated one of my work tables with strips of torn fabric. So it is fitting that one of the design elements is a rag fin ( torn strips of fabric).   

The Pdf is finished and in my store. I decided to go ahead and put it in even though my summer will be filled with making more, but I will be using the same pattern for them. Every doll I create takes on a life of its own. I show that in the tutorial. I started out with one face and towards the end felt the face did not go, so I changed it. I also show step by step the drawing of the face, but really each face will look different just by positioning the eyes differently or further apart. It is always so much fun to see what face appears!

Lots of pictures in the tutorial. I spent just as much time taking pictures as the making of the doll.

Will There are more mermaids to make so that will help to keep me busy busy! I will post them here as they are finished. I am calling this the summer of the mermaids and really having so much fun making them. I love to embellish and this project is great for using some of the vintage things collected. 

A Seaside Fairy

 

It was a beautiful sunrise and I found myself not wanting to leave even after the sun was up, So I found a rock climbed up and decided to sit for a while and drink my coffee. I spotted something out the corner of my eye in the sand and decided to take a little walk and check it out. Is that what I think it is?

I get closer and it flies off into the rocks. At this point I am pretty sure it’s a bird, but maybe not!

 

No it’s not a bird. Oh Wow! I can’t believe it. A Sea Fairy! I have heard of them, but never in a million years did I think I would see one. She was not young, but still very pretty. She looked so kind and wise. At this point I can not believe what I am seeing and trying to take in all the tiny details. I am wondering if she lives in the rocks. Maybe in that hole next to where she is standing.

 

I just can’t get over how interesting she looks. She is holding a starfish in one tiny little hand and a shell in the other. She sparkles like the beach as the waves hit the shoreline and the sun shines its rays on the wet sand making it look like glitter. She really does look like her surroundings! I try to get a little closer to see the details of her clothing. She is wearing lots of little trinkets she must have found that people lost while spending a day at the beach. I see a piece of sea glass. shells, pearls, and a seagull's feather wrapped with pearls. She is dripping with some kind of fibers at the bottom of her dress and attached to the fibers are shells and trinkets of some kind. I wish I could get a little closer. She is just so hard to see because she is so small. I am guessing maybe 4 or 5 inches in height. Her head is about the size of a penny. I think what I find to be so interesting is her little yellow wings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope I get a chance to see another little Sea Fairy soon! If there is one there must be more hiding in those rocks!

Folk Art Whimsy

One of my New Years resolutions is to be up and working in the studio by 6:00 am. I am up at that time, but it takes two cups of coffee before I am up and moving around and that means I do not get into the studio until around 8:00. I am a morning person and with that in mind, I need to take advantage of the morning hours. I needed a little whimsy to begin the new year so I made this little fairy and she also has eight sisters who will be joining her if I can just keep up with my early morning resolution.