Nature Table Figures: The Spring Collection

Ever since 1987, I've wanted to write for the J. Peterman Company. Whenever I write a description for an auction catalog item, J. Peterman's influence is present. I keep meaning to dig out the letter J. Peterman wrote to me in response to an impassioned plea to bring back the "Jane Austen dress," a simple but elegant gown I wanted to wear for my theoretical wedding.

Here my Spring Shade Garden Collection nature table dolls for the school auction:


Johnny Jump-Up, Wake-Robin Trillium, and Bleeding Heart

1. Johnny Jump-Up is a 5 ½ nature table figure inspired by the part-shade perennial also known as heartsease and referred to as “Love-in-idleness” by Oberon, King of the Fairies, in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.* This garden jester is dressed in yellow, purple and green with a removable lined vest. He is created out of wool and cotton plus metal pipe-cleaners for the arms, legs and flower staff. He can stand without support as long as his legs are bowed. Johnny-Jump Up will bring color and joy to your early summer nature table for years provided he is kept out of reach from animals and children who still put toys in their mouths.

2.Wake-Robin Trillium is a 5 ¼ inch nature table figure inspired by the three-petal woodland perennial. Most trillium flowers are white, but Wake-Robin wears a skirt of three deep red petals complemented by three dark green leaves. A simple garland of green merino wool adorns her auburn French twist. She is created out of wool and cotton plus metal pipe-cleaners for the arms and flower staff as well as metallic embroidery threads that border the sleeves and underskirt. While you should never pick trillium from the wild without a permit, Lady Wake-Robin will gladly come indoors to grace your spring nature table. However, she should be kept out of reach from animals and children who still put toys in their mouths.

3.Bleeding Heart is a 5 ¼ inch nature table figure inspired by the heart-shaped garden perennial and created for the person who can’t get enough of the color pink. Her ball-gown is decorated with tête de boeuf, wheat-ear, chain, petal and point russe embroidery stitches. Gold metallic thread winds through her hair of many braids. She is created out of wool and cotton plus metal pipe-cleaners for the arms and flower staff. While her natural counterpart is a shade-plant, Lady Bleeding Heart does not shrink from the spotlight. However, in order to assure that she blooms for months and returns the following year, she should be kept out of reach from animals and children who still put toys in their mouths.

*That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,
Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took
At a fair vestal throned by the west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
And the imperial votaress passed on,
In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,
And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once:
The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
--A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Scene 1

Goldie the Dollmaker

A few years ago, my mom sent me her collection of M.B. Goffstein books: Brookie and Her Lamb, Two Piano Tuners, and Goldie the Dollmaker. The last one has always been a favorite.

Goldie is an orphan of indeterminate age. Her parents were dollmakers, and she has continued the business, only Goldie's dolls are much more in demand than her parents' creations ever were. Goldie carves each doll out of wood with movable joints, and then paints the doll with attention and care throughout the day:

Then she painted a little gleaming black eye on either side of the doll's nose and finally, holding it firmly arund the waist with one hand, Goldie smiled and smiled into the doll's eyes in the friendliest, sweetest way, and she painted a smile right back to herself on the little doll's face.

That smile was why shops could not keep Goldie Rosenweig's dolls in stock, and that smile was why there were more orders for her dolls than she could fill... Bcause the truth about that smile was that it was heartbreaking.

Goffstein's spare pen and ink drawings convey Goldie's loneliness as she longs to be friends with Omus the carpenter (who doesn't understand Goldie's connection to her dolls and her thirst for beauty), and her joy when she finds an exquisite lamp that far exceeds her income but which she can pay for in dolls. Omus' reaction to Goldie's purchase of the lamp unleashes Goldie's despair, but Goldie finds grace and new hope in the dream she has about the creator of the lamp.

While Goldie the Dollmaker is a children's book, the nuances of the story resonate with me far more as an adult than they ever did when I was younger. I would recommend this story (which is out of print, unfortunately) to anyone who has ever created something into which so much of the self has been invested, and been casually dismissed. I would also recommend it to the person who sees the beauty in simple things. However, I would not recommend it to someone thinks dolls are for sissies. That would be a fruitless endeavor.

You may find a complete bibliography of Goffstein's books here. At this time, it appears that they are all out of print. I wish you well in finding the books through your library systems. Don't forget about Interlibrary Loan, too!

P.S. I just found this photo of a Goldie the Dollmaker doll on a Japanese website called Rakuten:

Poetry Friday: Dandelion, the golden summer queen

I've created three summer-themed nature table figures for my daughter's school auction. Here is the description I've submitted:

Chances are that as a child, you enjoyed blowing dandelion “clocks” and couldn’t understand why grownups looked askance as the multitudes of seeds parachuted over their lawns and gardens. Now, you can enjoy the beauty of dandelions without the drawbacks by way of your summer nature table. Lady Dandelion is created out of wool and cotton plus metal pipe-cleaners for the arms and staff. She is dressed in gold, green and white with embroidered details and stands 5 inches tall. Her flower staff is guaranteed not to go to seed.

This dandelion doll was inspired by a poem in the out-of-print poetry book The Winds that Come From Far Away, by Else Holmelund Minarik (the author of the Little Bear books). Not too long ago, I found the poem in my collection of clippings and scribblings from my New York Public Library days. Here is the poem:

I am the sun in sky of green
I am the golden summer queen.
I’m the friend to every child
Because I’m strong and bright and wild!

Grown-ups cut me when they mow—
forget they loved me long ago.
But when I’m gone, then don’t you sorrow.
I’ll be back again tomorrow!


Here is Lady Dandelion with her summer nature table companions, Lady Forget-Me-Not and Lady Fuchsia:



And now, I'm off to dig some spiky-leafed weeds out of my flower-beds.

P.S. I cannot recommend highly enough Mary Thomas's Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches. I've given you the Amazon link because it has the most information out of all the online bookstore links I've seen. I work with the book in my lap, as most of the techniques are new to me. As I mentioned in the comments, the basic stitches I used for these dolls were:

Blanket stitch-- for sewing felt pieces together with the raw sides out-- no seam allowance needed.

Chain stitch-- a simple loop stitch that allows one to make lines and curves easily.

French knot-- for dots. Sometimes my French knots don't get tucked in all the way, and I just anchor the knot with a few tiny regular "in and out" stitches

Daisy stitch-- these are the loops for flower petals. Once you learn the chain stitch, you'll have the "aha!" moment with the daisy stitch.

I used a wheatear stitch for the dandelion hem, and added green French knots to it. Wheatear is quite accessible, but I recommend that you be familiar with the chain stitch first.


This week's Poetry Friday Roundup is at Laura Salas: Writing the World For Kids.

Permanent Rose has a blog!

I was glad to find out via Charlotte's Library that Rose Casson of Hilary McKay's Casson family books has her own blog. It took awhile for the messy, creative Casson family to grow on me, but I ended up enjoying the books very much. The books in the series are:

Saffy's Angel
Indigo's Star
Permanent Rose
Caddy Ever After
Forever Rose

Here is a Publisher's Weekly article about Hilary McKay and the appeal of the Casson family books:
The Appeal of McKay's Casson Children, by Sally Lodge

CPSIA: Get the lead out (but keep the small-business owners)

Norm in jail

From the Haddy2dogs shop posting on Etsy.com (photos and text used with permission):

Meet Norm, a mild mannered playful house gnome of modest means. He could not afford the testing required by the CPSIA so he was fined and sent to jail. He was forced to trade his natty red cap and charming green cloak for garish prison attire.

Norm longs to be adopted by a loving family with children who love natural toys, open ended play and fairy tales. This will never happen if the CPSIA forces small business folks to test their toys. Norm is made from 100% wool. The wool used for him was from a small flock of sheep in rural Oregon far from a plastic toy factory.

Farewell my gnomey friend, you will be missed but not forgotten.



Norm in happier times

The CPSIA was created to hold toy companies accountable for the products they create and import. Many of us do not think their intent was to punish the small business owners who have been using natural materials to make safe toys and clothes in small batches. However, that will be the case when the law goes into effect on February 10, 2009, without any modifications. This law covers not only toys but clothing and books intended for children under 12.

Fortunately, small business toymakers are taking action to petitioning our elected officials to modify the law. Please help by contacting your elected officials before February 10. The Handmade Toy Alliance has sample letters you can send, as well as a petition to sign at http://handmadetoyalliance.org/.

Diamonds and Toads: a Fairy Tale Blog

Diamonds and Toads is a blog devoted to the study and research of fairy tales. Why didn't I know about this blog before? It's right up my alley. I found it when I was reading a comment thread on Sarah Beth Durst's Obscure Fairy Tales page. Speaking of "Diamonds and Toads," here is Durst's commentary on "Mother Holle", the Grimms' version of that tale.

Revving Reluctant Readers & Diversifying the Homeschool Plan: Two Posts

I've been using my available pockets of time to work on school auction projects, and with the exception of yesterday's voice lesson, I've neglected music and storytelling for the past two days. I will eventually show you what I've been working on, but I want everything to be completed first. Facebook has been a good outlet for me to post what I've been working on-- I can post a photo in the Things I've Made photo album and be done with it.

In the meantime, here are two literacy-related posts for you to check out:

Author Susan Stephenson of The Book Chook has a good post on Revving Up Reluctant Readers. The accompanying photo is fantastic, too.

Adrienne Furness of What Adrienne Thinks About That has an article on the Lee and Low Books website called Diversify Your Homeschool Plan With Vanishing Cultures. Adrienne is the author of Helping Homeschoolers in the Library, published by the American Library Association.

Rapunzel Battles the Gruffalo

From the New York Times parenting blog Motherlode, Are Fairy Tales Too Scary For Children? by Lisa Belkin:

Of the 3,000 British parents polled by the TheBabyWebsite.com, earlier this month, 50percent said they would not read fairy tales to their children until they were at least five-years-old. Of those, 20 percent said they rejected the oldies as politically incorrect, while close to that number, 17 percent, said the stories would give their children nightmares.

I'll let you read the rest of the post without quoting the best bits here. While I'm glad that the discussion of fairy tales continues to thrive, I'd like to see more mainstream articles move beyond the "Are fairy tales good for children?" motif to discussing children's reactions to particular fairy tales and delving into some of the lesser-known stories.

Check out The Princess Questionnaire. The post will only be up until January 19th, as it's part of the author's thesis.

Thanks to Pipers at the Gates of Dawn for the article and tony.dowler.com for the princess thesis link.

Eight Year Wedding Anniversary

"Bride and Groom With Daisy" by Lucia

The Snow Maiden and the Five Laws of Storytelling

"Snegurochka" plate based on art by Boris Zworykin

My daughter's assistant-kindergarten teacher told the story of The Snow Maiden two days in a row. On Thursday, while I was typing, Lucia said to me, "I had tears in my eyes, but I didn't cry when my teacher told the story of the Snow Maiden." I looked over, and her eyes were brimming. I closed my computer, swooped her up, and encouraged her to talk about the story. She said, "I was so sad when the Snow Maiden melted. She comes back each year. Why am I crying?"

"You are moved by beauty," I said. I told her that had I listened to the story with her in class, I probably would have felt like crying too.

The next day, the assistant-teacher told "The Snow Maiden" again, and this time, Lucia wept openly. The main teacher told me that the other children looked at Lucia in wonder-- not critically, but with curiosity. We talked about how different stories move us in different ways. I told Lucia that The Clown of God and Elsie Piddock Skips in Her Sleep always make me cry, every single time. "Those stories don't make me cry," she replied.

I cannot help but think of S. R. Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science. They are also applicable to storytelling, I think. Here are the laws as modified:

1. Stories are for use.
2. Every listener his or her story.
3. Every story its listener.
4. Save the listener's time (i.e. don't overexplain).
5. The story is a growing organism.

The Gesture of the Lion

Even Cuffy and Mona found themselves interested in the progress of the cocoons: they were so ingenious, beautifully knitted, and in some cases lovely to look at. The monarch caterpillar, for instance, contrived a waxy chrysalis of pale green, flecked with tiny arabesques of gilt. It hung from the twig on a little black silk thread, like the jade earring of a Manchu princess.

“How lovely!” said Mona. “Oh, if there were only some way of preserving them. I’d like to have a pale-green dress all buttoned down the front with those.”

Oliver was outraged, and Rush said, “There’s a woman for you. Always thinking of the beauties in nature in terms of wearing apparel. Can’t see a shiny spider web without wanting to make a snood out of it. Can’t see the Grand Canyon without wanting to dye something to match it. Can’t—“

“Oh, Rush, if you could hear how stuffy you sound!” cried Mona. “Pompous and stuffy and about fifty years old. I suppose you’d rather have me quote a poem!”

“Well, you never lost an opportunity yet,” Rush observed. “What’s the matter, didn’t Shakespeare ever write any poetry about cocoons?”

--From Then There Were Five, by Elizabeth Enright, in Chapter 5, “Oliver’s Other World”

How I see my daily surroundings sometimes depends upon what particular project I’m working on at the time. When origami was my passion, I looked at objects and imagined how I would represent them in three-dimensional paper figures. After I learned to sew, I started to notice clothes and furniture in terms of the individual shapes of the pieces of cloth that came together as a whole. My mom had a friend who worked in interior decorating for awhile, and would think about how best to wallpaper the people she saw in the streets. (This scenario was preferable to the time that same friend was working with turkey parts.)

As I work on different figures for the circus-themed class project, I am attempting to picture how different animals would look as felt figures. I realized for the first time that tigers weren’t actually orange—their coats are orange-tinted brown. Lions’ tales sloped differently than I imagined. My first attempt to stitch a lion resulted in a bulky, four-legged figure that did not evoke anything catlike once it was three-dimensional, despite my efforts to capture the sweep of the back legs:



Bede has an artist’s eye, and encouraged me to simplify my sketches. My daughter’s assistant-kindergarten teacher said that she tried to make a sheep in one of her teacher-training classes, but she didn’t capture the “gesture” of the sheep. As I worked on the plans for the lion, I knew that I would have to figure out how to find the “gesture” of the lion. The basic lion form I drew for my pattern could just as easily have been a horse or a lion-colored sheep. I tried to evoke this:



This is what I came up with:


Elvis the lion and Buddy the circus friend (note that it is Buddy who is wearing the blue suede shoes)

I tried to get a little bit of white in the fur, as you can see here:



Despite all of the gussets (little triangles of fabric that add three-dimensional texture to the lion), finding the gesture of the lion was difficult. A second attempt will involve more attention to the shape of the face. I am glad that I had needle-felting tools to attach the mane, otherwise you might be looking at a lion-hued horse.

Materials used: wool felt, pipe-cleaners (to keep the legs from splaying), wool stuffing, wool roving (i.e. "fairy wool" for the mane), embroidery thread

Generosity... or not?

I'm working on some new stories and songs for my repertoire. One story is a variation of the Nasreddin/Nasr-ed-din Khoja story called "The Loan of a Cauldron" which you can find here and also in collections of Yiddish fairy tales such as Isaac Bashevis Singer's When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw ("Shrewd Todie and Lyzer the Mizer"). My version features a seamstress who is frustrated over her repeated attempts to get the rich mayor of her town to pay her for the bright green coat with brass buttons the seamstress made for him. The seamstress outwits the mayor and ends up doing quite well for herself.

This brings me to a small quandry. In earlier days, I would have happily shared my version of the story in its entirety on this blog. However, once something is posted on a blog, it's considered to be published without the author legitimately being able to claim a publishing credit. I discovered this paradox after a magazine expressed interest in my "Children's Books That Never Were" series, but didn't want anything that I had already posted on Saints and Spinners. By the time I'd heard from the magazine, I felt I'd already shared my best pieces with the 30+ people who regularly read my blog.

With all of the folktales and folksongs I perform, very little of it is actually my intellectual property. I'm starting to feel more protective of the originally pieces I create plus the public domain folktales that I've made "my own," as it were. I encourage audience members to share the stories they've heard and liked, and everything on this blog is published under a Creative Commons License. The chances that someone is going to appropriate one of my works for his or her own is slim, and the likelihood that my works would make me wildly successful is even slimmer... so why am I feeling so protective of my creative output? This is not a rhetorical question. If you have some perspectives you'd like to share, I'd like to read them in the comments or your own blog posts.

Circus lad and lady in the Waldorf style

In the past three days, I've made two circus figures for my daughter's class auction project. The little boy has moveable arms and legs, and the lady has moveable arms. I used two books for patterns and instructions:

Feltcraft: Making Dolls, Gifts and Toys, by Petra Berger
Making Flower Children, by Sybille Adolphi

My next planned figure is either harlequin-style clown, as contemporary American clowns generally are not beautiful (although this one is pleasant) or a lady on a horse. We shall see. In any case, I can't type and sew at the same time!