Good Morning All. Well I have been adding dolls eyes to my Etsy Fickle Crafters page all week. I'm still not done! I created porcelain dolls for about 6 years and during that time I have collected lots of supplies from eyes to patterns to trims.... Whatever you can think of most likely. I really enjoyed making the dolls as I added that craft to my "ceramic" history. My parents opened a retail/wholesale ceramics shop after my Dad retired from the Navy and I worked there. I poured more molds than I could ever count as we supplied all of the local military bases, all of the local retail shops and individuals and held classes on site. I began pouring porcelain for my Mom who finished (china painted ) the reproduction dolls and then I designed and made the clothes. I began doing my own and was hooked. That was when I first began selling my hand crafts to the public. I designed what I called the "wiggle baby" which was a small porcelain doll with porcelain head, hands and feet and a soft body. I dressed her (as with many of my babies) in a long christening gown. The special part was the mechanisim I placed in her head and neck that made her look like she was actually wiggling. The local television station picked up on the wiggle baby "craze" and did a clip on it. If I can ever find it and transfer it off the VHS tape it's now on, I'll post it. I'll add some pics to Flickr of some of my favorite dolls that I kept. Porcelain dolls ended after the 3rd back surgery so I moved on to corn shuck dolls. Once again, that's another story for another day.
Happy crafting,
Lisa
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
My fiber travels
Yep, I do love fiber. I have uploaded a bunch of photos to Flickr from a few of my fiber crafts from the last 2 years.
Rug hooking was fun but took a long time. I started doing smaller and smaller projects and then I remembered crewel. In my guild (AlbemarleCraftsman's Guild) there was a wonderful older lady who did beautiful Crewel. I always admired her work but at that time I was into porcelain dolls. From there I went to cornshuck dolls - Oh that's another story for another day. Anyway... I did enough crewel to have a booth in the Albemarle Craftsman's Fair and did quite well that year. Cindy shared a booth with me as it was her first year with her quilling.
I began combining hand embroidery with crewel pieces and also with the rug hooking. I haven't done any rug hooking in a while but I still love embroidery as there is always a new stitch to learn.
So then it was off to needle felting - I saw it on Etsy and was hooked before I even tried it. I have done a little wet felting and last week tried nuno felting. Now that ended up wrong. I had thought about doing some cobweb felting and that's what this turned in to - kinda. My wool didn't bond completely to the fabric and I just went ahead and pulled it all off. I really do like the piece I ended up with but will try to figure out the nuno-felting again. I used an organza fabric instead of the silk piece I also purchased. I guess I'll try with the silk. Anyone have any suggestions?
I think I may stay with felting a while as there are different techniques and projects that I would like to try. Stay tuned and I'll talk about my sculpey days too!
Happy crafting,
Lisa
Rug hooking was fun but took a long time. I started doing smaller and smaller projects and then I remembered crewel. In my guild (AlbemarleCraftsman's Guild) there was a wonderful older lady who did beautiful Crewel. I always admired her work but at that time I was into porcelain dolls. From there I went to cornshuck dolls - Oh that's another story for another day. Anyway... I did enough crewel to have a booth in the Albemarle Craftsman's Fair and did quite well that year. Cindy shared a booth with me as it was her first year with her quilling.
I began combining hand embroidery with crewel pieces and also with the rug hooking. I haven't done any rug hooking in a while but I still love embroidery as there is always a new stitch to learn.
So then it was off to needle felting - I saw it on Etsy and was hooked before I even tried it. I have done a little wet felting and last week tried nuno felting. Now that ended up wrong. I had thought about doing some cobweb felting and that's what this turned in to - kinda. My wool didn't bond completely to the fabric and I just went ahead and pulled it all off. I really do like the piece I ended up with but will try to figure out the nuno-felting again. I used an organza fabric instead of the silk piece I also purchased. I guess I'll try with the silk. Anyone have any suggestions?
I think I may stay with felting a while as there are different techniques and projects that I would like to try. Stay tuned and I'll talk about my sculpey days too!
Happy crafting,
Lisa
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Wow, have we been out of service a while or what? Well, now that the day job is history, I have added the books back to our etsy page -ficklecrafters- I've combined some books to create collections of 3 - 4 books. I have several vintage books available and will (hopefully) be adding some other items soon. One glance in my craft closets and I have seen doll eyes and doll making supplies, jewelry supplies, fabric, fabric, fabric...... and much more. I even have a lot of odds and ends of when I sculpted Santas and dressed them. I'll get there eventually. Right now I'm into felting. I began with needle felting, moved on to wet felting and am now trying to figure out nuno felting. Anyway, I'm having fun and that's what it's all about. One day I might even add some finished work to our other etsy page - fiberfamily-
Time will tell......... Happy crafting
Lisa
Time will tell......... Happy crafting
Lisa
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
