Groan! Ok, bad puns aside – I am ever so happy to introduce you all to Alan The Alien. Brought to you by yours truly and Mama Holmes – that is, of course, the wonderful Janine Holmes of Mojimoji Designs! Have been having a delightful time making up her great patterns lately.
Weenie little Alan himself is 5/8th inch tall standing and his spaceship is exactly one inch from tripod to antennae. Made from sewing thread and lots of patience :)
You can see more of Janine’s work on her blog:
After all the wood work I did earlier in the year, have been on a weenie crochet kick lately. Little easier on the hands and each project gets done a bit quicker – and frankly I find it relaxing to crochet :)
Anyway, made some tiny little things for show and tell. Here is a sweet one – a tasty cupcake made from a free pattern by Janine Holmes of Moji-moji Designs.
The next is a sweet little pup. He is made from a couple of patterns – head, ears, and tail are from a free pattern by Teri Crews and the rest of the body is based on the Bubblegum Bear by Stefanie Devlin.
Then, just finished today is a neato little monster fella – he is also made from a pattern by Janine Holmes.
All the gang here are delighted to see these new additions as we will be keeping them – lots of play possiblities and that is what life is about, right?
Alex was very pleased indeed to have new items that were not…. PINK! He is kinda right, we have too much pink stuff around here…
It may have been all a dream for little Alex – but no dream for us. Months in the making, this happy fellow is now finally finished and will be off to Athens Georgia soon.
He is 2.125 inches high and is carved Holly wood with painted details and elastic joints.
Am sure he is bound to get into lots of adventures as he will be with his fellow buddies, Omri and Oakley and the rest of the gang there in Athens land.
And he is bringing along with him his wee inanimate selfie!
Was delighted when my friend Victoria asked me to do a portrait doll of her daughter’s dog – little Zoey is a Chihuahua mix of some kind with very attractive black and brown markings on her coat.
Being a Chihuahua lover myself (have two of my own), this was a fun project and hope to make more such dogs in the future.
She is a tad bigger than 1.5 inches high, is carved from Holly wood, and is 6 way elastic ball jointed – very poseable indeed!
She had a nice long chat with the other tiny dogs that live here, Toby and Peetie – and they all decided it was better to just sit on the floor this time so not to cause an controversy with someone who will not be named :)
Finally done now – this little one is 1 3/8th inch high, carved from Holly wood, and painted with alkyd oil paints. Her dress is crocheted from sewing thread.
I had some fun making her little flower garland headdress and wings. The flowers on the headdress got sewn to the basic green cap and before I clipped off the extra thread, it occurred to me that it actually looked better to leave the long tails as is. Seemed more etherial that way…
And the wings are a simple application of ultra suede wrapped around the chest like a bra under the dress bib. Worked well!
So now she is ready to fly off to her new home – I hope she brings sweet dusties to all her new friends there!
Well, after beaucoup work and computer related time killers, this boy is finally finished. He will be off to his forever home in New Mexico soon – but before his departure, we had to have a little photo shoot so show off his glorious self….
For lack of better name temporarily, we are calling him “Mr. Pup” – he is 1 1/2 inches high and has eight (count ’em 8!) ball joints strung with jewelry elastic.
Carved from Holly wood, painted with alkyd oil paints, and polyurathane varnished up to silky perfection.
Was fun to paint this type of patchy pattern on his backside.
He is a very happy Beagle boy!
He found another little doggy friend here and they decided to sit for a chat before his flight to New Mexico.
I think someone felt a bit jealous, though….
Anyway, not sure what became of that little bit of dolly politics. As it turns out, Robin was just coming by to tell the hooligans some good news. Auntie Victoria has agreed (and already started to work on) a little wee home just for them. Someplace where they can make the rules and no biggy dolls will be allowed. How cool is that?!!
My dear friend Victoria is having surgery today. All of us here stand by to offer support in any way possible!
Although, I did hear Alex say something about surgery being a heck of a way to just loose some weight…
Silly boy!
Auntie Ruby was up early this morning cause she wanted to be sure little Pippa had a full tummy before she was scheduled to travel to her Mama, Sara Jo, later this afternoon.
The little lady was very good and ate all her cereal – she was quite hungry….
Ruby made sure she was burped cause no one wants to go traveling with a painful tummy!
Pippa visited one last time with Marcellus and Mini while Ruby got her travel crib all ready. I notice that Mini decided to sit out of nose bonking reach this time :)
One last kiss on the forehead and baby Pippa is now all ready to go off to the waiting arms of Sara Jo!
I have a long time good friend some of you know who never met a baby she didn’t like :) So, when I was reviewing some unfinished dolls I had stashed and came across this one who was mostly done except for hair and painting, I knew Sharon would be interested. She saw right away that this would make a great baby doll for her doll Sara Jo (see earlier posts here) and so it came to be. Today she was born and got her little playdress….. Here is the sequence for all of you who enjoy work in progress pics!
She thought that part really tickled!
Needing a little dusting off at this point.
And here she is – Pippa Jo Fairfield!
I put her down to chat with Mini Clown Bear while I made preparations for her dress….
Trying on my test dress pattern – looks pretty good…
Now out of correct color of fabric.
Now the fun part where the details get painted on. Am using water based gouache paints mixed with acrylic medium – not as gunky as regular acrylic paints but dries waterproof. Couple layers on each part and then some polyurethane matte varnish too.
While waiting for that to dry, she got some hair bows. Those are also finished off with dots of matte varnish to keep them from unravelling.
OK – then the back seam of the dress is sewn.
Now starting to put straps on the front. Will crochet the threads into a chain for each strap.
An estimate for how long the straps will be.
Now the back skirt of the dress is gathered up a bit so the waist is form fitting and the skirt is still full (so she can sit).
I hear Marilyn Monroe was sew into her clothes, too :)
OK, here one of the straps is now being attached in the back. The straps cross in the back.
Finally done with that fiddly work and the skirt looks good – nice and full in the back.
She went back to the table and looked long and hard at Mini….
Then stepped right up and honked her in the nose!!
“Giggle!!”
“Pick me up now!!!”
Baby Pippa will be on her way to her forever home in New Mexico tomorrow. She is 1 3/8th inch high carved from a combination of bass wood and birch. She is fully painted with Alkyd oil paints. Some of you may recognize that she is a sister to a doll I made some years ago named, Phoenix – yes, they were both carved at the same time but Pippa was waiting till today to be born :)
OK – for all of you following the work in progress of a rabbit named Oakley – today he was scheduled for his “e” section (“e” being for elastic). Here is the delicate procedure as it happened blow by blow….
“Wee!” he says “I am a real boy at last!”
I set him down gently so he could get his balance.
And he said – “OK, I think I got it now!”
And off he went climbing up to the table top where I had put some flowers earlier this morning…
These are too small for me to smell anything – but his wee nose could pick up the delicate fragrances!
And he declared that it was a good day to be born!
Started many years ago and then put aside, this boy is 1.5 inches high and is carved Holly wood fully painted and varnished to silky smooth. Please welcome Oakley The Magnificent – rabbit of the world and slightly magical being :)
He’ll be off on a trip to his forever home in Athens Georgia tomorrow…
And if you wish to see more of Oakley in his new life, stay tuned to Victoria’s section of this blog – where I am sure he will be appearing (in more ways than one) soon :)