Arctic Storm in Shilo Basin

Here in the Shilo Basin, the Portland area and SW Washington we have had an unusual artic storm that brought snow into our area. this part of Oregon and Washington does not get much snow and when it does happen, the media loves to make a huge thing out of it!!

I could not resist taking some pics as it will probably be gone next week and really wanted to capture the beauty of my own front and back yard in the snow.

KWG 8 in Portland was asking for viewer pics to be sent in and the one of Bear in the snow was aired on Saturday. He does not even know he had his 10 seconds of fame!

Best Friends Gypsy

As many know Pamela Armas of Treasures of the Gypsy carries many of my patterns. For each of my patterns in her line, she sends me the fabrics and I make a sample doll for her booth.

the latest of my patterns to be added to her line is Best Friends, so I have been working on her sample for Pamela.

I am accustomed to the rich and very textured silks she carries and have learned to use a lot of fray check and zig zag as soon as you cut.

But the body fabric used in this doll could not stand up to the dollmakers stress test, and dart and side seams blew out after the piece was completed. (of course!)

We have to be resourseful as dollmakers so I welded the seams together with Fabri-tac, used fray check around the sites and then ironed the area with my little Clover iron for strength. All the sites were then cleverly hidden from view by the doll's accessories. You cannot see any of the blowouts!

If this were a doll for sale I would have had to start over or at least take her apart entirely and make a new body.

I do LOVE Pamela's fabrics!

Sunrise in Shilo Basin

This morning I was gazing out my window and the whole sky was ablaze with the most stunning sunrise! It played out over the entire sky as far as the eye could see, with a fog bank below and t he Shilo Basin in the background. I just had to grab my camera and run out to take some pictures! Just in time too, because the painted sky was just a flash in the pan, and minutes later it had faced to a muted gray.

Here at my home in the Shilo Basin, Oregon I rarely see any sunsets because the entire west facing portion of our property is bordered by about 300 acres of Longview Fiber forest and blocks our view of the setting sun. but we do get to see some beautiful sunrises, especially in the winter season.

Little Phart

Little Phart is 2nd in line to the throne of the ruling line of the Gasheous Elvin society. They live deep in forest of Phlatulence and are hunter gatherers. While Little Pharts grandfather, the King Old Phart was away on a hunting party, he decided to try out the Royal Phart throne for size. Little Phart is quite full of himself, even though his legs are too short to touch upon the forest floor.

This piece was inspired by a piece of ivy that was cut from a tree used for firewood. After it had dried and the ivy leaves were gone, it left a woody root system that came away clean from the tree. I sanded and stained the piece, added a chair seat of grape vines and embellished it with silk leaves and fabric wrapped wire.

Little Phart was created from my I Dream of Flying pattern, which is my first original design.

Primoria

At the beginning of time, on a moonless night, the Goddess Terra, ("Of the Earth") dropped her seeds of life into carefully chosen nests. These seeds were germinated and nutured by the spiritual essence of the Earth. From such a nest has emerged the Goddess Primoria, her time has finally arrived.

Stuffed!

I saw this in the comics t oday and just thought it was too funny!!

Flossie

This is my Hoffman doll for the 2008 challenge. Flossie will be traveling with the exhibit. she is 18", has bead ball jointed elbows and button jointed at hips and shoulders. Her hand painted face is needle sculpted and sealed. the challenge fabric, a large peacock motif print, is in her skirt and around her shoulders as a wrap. Her shoulder wrap is paverpol treated as to hold its shape. Molded felt hat with lining and trim. Chair is all fabric and adapted from Barbara Willis's chair pattern.

Our wine theme meeting in June

Our June meeting of Reining Dolls and Bears was held at Roxanne's house and winery. WRoxanne extended her home and hospitality to all of us, and what a beautiful home and grounds she has! A view from every window in her lovely hisside home overlooking Hillsboro, Oregon. We were wined and dined and got a tour of the winery by her very accomodating hubby Ed. The wine theme dolls and IW dolls were displayed around the large dining room where we were served lunch ala Roxanne. Her upstaris studio is so organized and clutter free, with natural light and ample space to display her dolls.

We also brought our Izannah Walker style dolls that we are working on for a project. Some of us had finished dolls, others brought their DIPs to share.

My wine theme doll pictures did not turn out well as there was a large window lighting the background, and my camera did not like that at all. but Idid get some winery pics, lol, and some of the IW dolls and DIPs.

Altered Astrid stump doll workshop

In May I held a one on one workshop here at my studio in Rainier, Oregon. rosie was an RV traveler from San Diego area who was going to be coming up the Oregon coast, so we scheduled a class for her. We had a fun filled 3 days where we covered a variety of technques including making and painting the mask, using an armature and making tiny articulated hands, wire wrapping, use of Apoxy sculpt on art dolls, pryo enhanced techniqes for embellishing, free motion embroidery, and more! Rosie left with a completed doll she was very happy with!

Lorna Mae, a doll club project

This is Lorna Mae and she is a project for our doll club, Reining Dolls and Bears where we are to create and Izannah Walker inspired Early American style doll.

I used Sherry Lutz's techniques from the Fall 1998 issue of the now defunct cloth Doll Magazine. I really miss that magazine, it was the one that featured my very first design and cover doll, Dixie Belle.

This doll has a clay sculpt mask over cloth , and cloth skin added which is hardened with modeling paste. It is then painted with acrylics. I used the modeling paste for her applied hair as well. I aged the face a bit and sealed head hands and legs with gel medium, with a final brown paper bag buff.

I am thinking that her head is too round and hands need to be reduced, so this first attempt is just learning some of the techniques.

Jester Tyme

Our doll club Reining Dolls and Bears has a bag of fabrics and goodies that is donted by a member for each meeting. We draw names to see who will take it home with the challenge of creating a doll from the contents. Last time I won and so Jester Tyme came into being. There was also a little plastic scarecrow in the bag that did not make the cut so was not used, as Jester Tyme took her own direction as our dolls often do.

since I got caught holding the bag last time, I am to bring the bag of fabrics to the next meeting for the next lucky recepient whose name will be drawn. the little scarecrow thingy went back into the bag. lol

Annies Kittens

In the fall of 2007 a stray female tabby came in through the cat door. She was emancipated and obviously starving. I fed her and she eventually adopted us and thrived. We named her Annie after the character in Little Orphan Annie. Annie repaid our kindness by becoming pregnant thus solving the question whether or not she had been spayed. lol

I have two adult female spayed cats and have not had the experience of kittens in about 15 years, so I decided to document them here in my blog.

Earth Bound

For our March meeting of our doll club Reining Dolls and Bears, we are to create a doll that represents our muse. I have a variety of interests and several muses so this was not to be an easy tassk forme. but as I wqs cleaning up from recent storm activity on our 5 acres, I started collecting some natural items such as wood, bark, acorns, pine cones and moss. So Earthbound started to evolve and depicts my love of the natural world. she has a cloth over clay mask, fabric body and paverpol accents. she is quite different from anything I have done.