Neon Fairies with Hair I Wish I Had

In 2007, when Lucia was 4.5 years old, she received her Little One named Snowdrop from the Little One Meadow. The Little Ones were not dolls, the kindergarteners informed their parents.

I enjoyed hearing stories about what the Little Ones did in Lucia's Waldorf kindergarten, as well as their antics in the Little One Meadow. The first time Snowdrop needed a hair and dress refurbishment, I told Lucia's teacher with a straight face that Snowdrop had traveled to the Little One Meadow to meet up with Dahlia, the Little One's resident hair-stylist and makeover artist. Once Snowdrop came back with black hair, not brown, because that was the only wool roving I had Dahlia used walnut-juice as a temporary hair-rinse.

Dahlia never had access to these hair colors:


I recently put these Neon Fairies (or angels, if you like) in the shop, and gave their hair hues names inspired by those found on nail-polishes and hair dyes. From left to right, they are: Over-the-Brink Pink, Luna Moth Lime, Anime Blue, and Manic Mauve.

There's part of me that wanted to dye my hair bright blue or purple, but never wanted to do what it would take to get those vivid colors. Now, I content myself with giving the dolls the hair that I admire.

Two Playscapes, Limitless Play

Sunshine has finally come briefly came to Seattle! I'm celebrating with two colorful playscapes:




Strawberry Hill Playscape by Alkelda with flowering shrubs by The Enchanted Cupboard



Picnic Playscape by Alkelda with trees and flowering shrubs by The Enchanted Cupboard

Crafty Thursday: The Jewel Tones Doll Series

A friend of mine grew up with three other friends who called themselves "The Gemstones" and took on different monikers based upon various precious and semi-precious stones. These friends have stayed in touch and periodically have reunions. They inspired me to create this doll series called the Jewel Tones (not to be confused with the Bay Area or St. Louis performance groups):


The Jewel Tones: Garnet, Carnelian, Lapis Lazuli, Peridot, Amethyst

In other crafty news, I'm doing a link trade with fellow NaturalKids Team member Germandolls, which is why there's a photo of her dolls in my sidebar with a link to the shop. Germandolls blogs here, where she writes about her Waldorf-inspired dolls, shares recipes, and reflects upon life experiences.

Last, I made my best treasury yet: Gnomes vs. Aliens, inspired by Zombies vs. Unicorns (which I have not yet read).

My Life in Felts and Flowers

Greetings! Tomorrow is the last day of Lucia's school, and I am incredulous. There are times when I just want to catch her and hold her. Other times, I've cheerfully scooted her out the door so I could get some work done.

In May, we attended The Magic Flute as a family, and I was inspired to create Papageno and Papagena dolls for the shop:



I decided I wanted a series of dolls at lower price points, too, so I created six flower-box babies. You can see them here, attended by Strawberry Girl:


In case you're wondering, Strawberry Girl is singing The Garden Song to them.

Any requests for what to make next?

Speaking of gardens, I am trying to put my weeds and stones in order. In among the proliferation of dandelions, however, a new plant showed up. I decided to let it be, and today, found that it was a pinkish-purple foxglove.

I'm pleased that the trillium have doubled. Here are two toad trillium:

Blue Valentine Doll

I finally ordered a copy of the out-of-print Blue Valentine, by Gwen Schultz. What I remember of the story is that the main character's favorite color is blue, and she makes a blue valentine for her teacher. The main character's classmates deride her for this unconventionality (of course), and much of the narrative involves worry over whether or not the teacher will be pleased. The storyline seems slight, but there must have been some emotional current with which I connected.

February 12, 2012 update: Here is the synopsis of the book.

Here is the doll inspired by the book:




Blue Heart Queen Doll (background trees by The Enchanted Cupboard)

Molecules and Microbes in Felt

I've been long overdue in featuring another artisan's work. I enjoy the science-themed Flickr photo uploads from Sasha of What. No Mints? My favorites are the amoeba and paramecium pieces made of Eco-felt:


"Microbes in Love"

When my daughter saw these, she wondered if Sasha would make red and white blood cell magnets. (That was when she was fixated on blood cells. Currently, she is fixated on God, Crayola crayons, and stories of Anansi the Spider.)

I also like the molecules:


Dopamine Heart Ornament for pleasure


Serotonin sun ornament for happiness

I wish for you plenty of serotonin and dopamine to come your way!

Candy Cane Fairies

It's not yet Crafty Thursday, but I just completed two candy cane fairies and felt compelled to share them:



The snowy evergreen trees were made by Beccijo of The Enchanted Cupboard. Beccijo also sent me a host of other beautiful hand-painted creations to give as gifts. I made for her two playscapes: autumn and spring.

Crafty Thursday: Dress in progress

Promo for the week:
Handmade Spark recently posted a nice Holiday Gift Guide featuring the Natural Kids Team. Unlike Bede and Lucia, I'm not a bowling fan, but even I was drawn to the Mushroom Bowling set by MuddyFeet.

[/End Promo]

Currently, I have a number of custom orders in the works, plus I am working on a simple version of Dorothy Gale's blue and white gingham dress from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I was in a hurry when I bought the pattern for the custume, and did not realize that this pattern had the pinafore sewed to the white shirt with a zipper up the back. If Dorothy Gale had been a real person, her shirt would be separate from the pinafore and there would be no zipper. The book was written in 1900, after all. My genius niece/master seamstress says someday she will send me a tutorial on how to make a buttonhole insert for patterns that require zippers.

In the meantime, I'm making do with what I have, which is a modification of the same dress Lucia's had for years, only with a square neck. I'll post a photo when I'm done. Lucia plans to wear this dress with silver-toned shoes as depicted in the book. To represent Toto, Lucia will carry Bede's favorite stuffed animal from childhood, a blue and white dog named "Princess." Princess was named after Princess Leia.

Crafty Thursday: Autumn Themed Dolls

For this week's Crafty Thursday post, I am pleased to present four autumn-themed dolls photographed with autumn trees by The Enchanted Cupboard and wooden flames by Mamakopp:



The four dolls in the photo are a Lantern Walker for Martinmas(shop link will added after the doll is listed), Salamander King fire elemental, Night Queen, and Guitar Player. Here are pictures of the backs of the capes for the Night Queen and Salamander King:


Night Queen's bat


Salamander King's creatures

As I wrote in my shop listing, the legend of the fire-resistant salamander may be inspired by the species that hibernate on logs. When people threw logs on a fire, the salamanders woke up and fled the flames.

Crafty Thursday: Two Little Witches

I recently made two witch dolls inspired by the books I enjoyed as a child. An Amazon recommended book-list helped me remember that one of my favorite books was Little Witch, by Anna Elizabeth Bennett. Other books I really liked were The Resident Witch and The Witch Who Saved Halloween, both by Marian T. Place, The Wednesday Witch, by Ruth Chew, and The Witch Family, by Eleanor Estes. I was also fond of The Witch Next Door, by Norman Bridwell, and am sad that this book is out of print while Bridwell's large rouge canine continues to thrive.



Blue Witch Doll
Purple and Black Witch Doll
Trees and fly agaric mushrooms: The Enchanted Cupboard

Waldorf-inspired Nativity Set

Here is my first Nativity set of 2010:


Listed on Alkelda: Dolls for Storytelling

This is only my second year of sewing dolls for the shop, and I am not used to thinking of the winter holiday season this far in advance. I'm posting the first set here to help it be more easily found in internet searches.

Crafty Thursday: In praise of green

Earlier in the week, I provided a collection of favorite green items from my fellow NaturalKids Team members which was posted on the Natural-Kids blog.

Beneath the Rowan Tree added my Weeping Willow Princess to a collection of green favorites for their Waldorf Friday feature, which you can see here. Today, I listed a Luna Moth Fairy Queen:





I've never seen a luna moth in person. They are supposed to be quite common, but because adults only live for a week and come out in the evening, they can be hard to spot. My introduction to the luna moth came from chapter five of Then There Were Five, by Elizabeth Enright:

Floating out of the dark, knocking against the overhang, came something so beautiful, so fairylike that Oliver hardly dared to breathe. The thing was a moth, but like no other moth that he had seen. Its wings were as wide as his two hands opened out, as frail as a pair of of petals, and colored a pale, pale green: a moonlit silvery green.

"Gee," whispered Oliver. He sat there staring. "A luna! I never thought I'd see a real luna."

Luna moths are significant in the books The Woman in the Wall, by Patrice Kindl, and Luna, by Julie Anne Peters.

Dolls with Wings

Here's what I've been working on lately in terms of sewing:

Butterfly Fairies:


Rainbow Butterfly Fairies:


Butterfly fairies can be found in my shop.

Black Butterfly Fairy Queen:

This one is listed here.

Blue Frost Angel (sold):


I hope things are well with you. We've had our proverbial ups and downs this summer, but I am grateful for this life.

Felt Board Tutorial

Kristy of Textiles4you has a tutorial on how to make a travel felt story board. She's quite crafty and is passionate about upcycling.

Crafty Thursday: Spectrum

One of the most challenging things about my doll-making business is taking accurate photos. Photos have improved since I invested in a photo light tent last autumn (the two homemade version I tried didn't work). Still, there are some felt shades that simply don't show up accurately and require Photoshop skills I do not have. When I presented to the NaturalKids Team my challenge regarding a recent doll I made, Daria of LaLa! Shoes revealed that she had extensive Photoshop skills and offered to help. She said that the human eye can register more color shades than a camera, and that it's even harder to reproduce those colors in prints. Daria is working on a tutorial for me so that I can learn to do the work myself, but in the meantime, she changed my lavender doll from this:


The doll is dressed in a pleasing shade of mauve; however the felt itself is not actually this color.

To this:

This orchid color is the true shade of the felt.

It is an odd construct that one has to edit a photo to make it an honest representation. Photography is both art and science.

Snow Child tutorial on NaturalKids blog

I'm glad to be able to present for Crafty Thursday a tutorial on the NaturalKids blog about how to make a wood and felt snow child. The pattern and tutorial comes courtesy of Beth Curtin of Acorn Pies and the Etsy shop Primroses.

Do you know how labor intensive tutorials are? I tried to do one last year when I made a felt lion for that year's class auction progress, and quickly lost steam. I realized that if I ever got a tutorial together, I would need to start with a simple project. Anyway, tutorials like the one linked give me a renewed appreciation for the process of teaching.

Crafty Thursday: Heralds of Spring

I just realized that it's Crafty Thursday! For the most part, I've been working on small dolls for the class auction project, but I recently completed two larger dolls for a custom order, and was able to list some dolls in the shop as part of my Heralds of Spring 2010 Collection. The Spring equinox doesn't officially begin until March 20, but I am ready to be done with winter. Bulb flowers are peeping through the soil, the forsythia has bumps on its branches, and the flowering white currant bush has survived another year. (Unfortunately, the flowering red currant bush died in the heat wave last summer despite my hope that it had simply fainted.) I am bringing forth my spring collection in anticipation of the end of chills.

The Pussy Willow and Forsythia dolls have already sold, but as of today, the Daffodil is still in the shop, pictured with a thimble for size comparison:


Daffodil Doll With Basket

If you go to the listing, you'll see that the daffodil comes out of its ball of felt "dirt."

Here is the Forsythia Doll with Blossom Child:


And here is the Pussy Willow:



What are your favorite early spring flowers?

Shepherdesses and Valentines

It's not "Crafty Thursday" anymore, but I was sick with strep throat all yesterday and missed out on most of the day. I'm recovering! So, here's my post:

I'll admit that I didn't have anything particular planned to feature for Valentine's Day (over a month away, too), but when the team leader of NaturalKids announced a "Valentine's Day challenge" it occured to me that I could make little shepherdesses with hearts on their capes. The heart theme would be in keeping with Valentine's Day, but the shepherdesses themselves could have more versatile for storytelling and display. Here is a photo of the first four shepherdesses I made:



This is my favorite photo of the shepherdesses:


Speaking of Valentine's Day, does anyone else recall the book The Blue Valentine (as opposed to the album by Tom Waits)? I believe it's the one by Gwen Schultz. When I did some internet digging, I found author Laurel Snyder's post about it, wondering if anyone else recalled its existence. It looks as if the library system where I can't place holds has a copy, and that it is indeed the book I remember.

Santa Lucia Song and a Crafty Playmat Site

My daughter has been out of school for a good part of the past two weeks. She's had a nasty cold that's dragged on. She's finally on the recovery end, but now I've got the cold lodged in my throat and limbs. I need quiet space in order to think, and that is why I have not had much of a chance to blog or comment. However, I did record a simple version of the "Santa Lucia" song yesterday so that people could have it in time to celebrate on December 13 (I could hear the "fogginess" in my throat even then): Santa Lucia (Saint Lucy) Song. Here are two different Santa Lucia dolls I've made:





Since today is "Crafty Thursday", take a look at the needlefelted playscapes of Sage Dream Design. In addition to finished playscapes with swings, mushroom dwellings and the like, the website offers kits for people to make their own magical forests and meadows. I don't do much needlefelting, but I've been looking at a lot of playmats and nature table scenes for inspiration. My daughter's class auction project this year is going to be composed of four playmats (for four seasons) with figures and accessories. I wanted a project that could be large and impressive in terms of display but be easily packaged away when not in use. Projects from previous years like the circus and puppet-stage required household space that a lot of people simply do not have.

Blue Fairy and Candle Maiden

Much of my stitching time has been focused upon custom orders, but I did have a chance to post the Blue Fairy in the shop last week:



Yesterday, I posted the Candle Maiden for Hanukkah:



In addition to everything else, I've promised to make three different doll sets for the school auction in March 2010. I'm going to have to pace myself. I used to work well under stress, but now I work best when I can get things done ahead of time. I love the feeling of having thwarted the Procrastination Imp.