Worktable Wednesday.

I have 3 dolls on the worktable today. The pumpkin girl needs clothes, the purple haired girl I've decided will be a fairy with embroidered wings and the green girl is a zombie.

It's going to be 80 today so I hope to enjoy some of the great weather and I hope it's lovely where you are too.

WIPS

I'm finally back to work. My mom can now do most things for herself now. She does a lot she shouldn't do but that just the way she is...stubborn.

I had a bit of a meltdown yesterday because of a problem with one of the characters I was sewing, but I pushed through and fixed it. These will be some of the most detailed characters I've made since the Frank and Elsa doll and they will take time and since I tend to work slowly, don't expect to see these finished anytime soon. There are 7 characters in this series and of course I can't do anything the easy way so I'm still hunting for materials: striped jersey fabric - black and white or red and white, a certain kind of pink fabric, and a few other things.

I promised to keep showing my wips so here they are. I got these guys sewn and stuffed yesterday. The middle one looks like a bear right now but he won't once I'm done. He'd make a pretty cute bear though. These 3 have a ton more detail work but I think most people will know who they are now.

Thanks for popping by and taking a peek!

Wednesday's Worktable.

I've been feeling a bit blah lately. I've started projects, become unhappy with them and then tossed them into the body parts bin. So if you were hoping to see more wips of things I had been showing you will be disappointed. The wave pattern skirt is one of those projects. I started to embroider on it and just HATED it. I couldn't do what I saw in my head and became too frustrated. I'll go back to it but later after I've had time to think and calm down. The headless seated body is another of those projects.

This is my table right now. I designed a new pattern and have been making modifications to it. I think I finally have it the way I want it so I'll be making these dolls for a while. They are fairly quick to make, easily modified, have hand embroidered details and are mostly machine sewn. Hopefully you'll see them in the next few months and be able to say "Oh those are Jennifer Tobicoe's dolls". My creations have been a bit scattered design wise the last few years. Unless you know me or follow my work closely you probably wouldn't be able to see that it was all "Jennifer's work". I'll be showing more wips soon and also blogging more.

Wednesday's Worktable

Trying to remember to blog more and since I am working on something I can share here we go!

A headless and hand less WIP. I'm not going to tell you what she is until she's futher along. I have a ton of beading to do on this one plus she will have furniture too. She may not actually be done by the end of the month. I have no deadline set for her so she's done when she's done. Sorry for her naked bottom I took this before I made her bloomers. The colors and detail are better in this photo, so hey we all have bottoms that are naked sometimes...right?

Here's a shot with her bloomers. You can see my messy worktable. I have only about the space you see to work in since my new sewing machine shares this table and the right side is covered in patterns, felt and fabric. Unfortunately I don't have a dedicated sewing table and I have to sew standing up slightly hunched over. No complaints, I'm just happy to have this awesome machine. I'm gaining a lot on confidence on it which makes me feel good. And feeling good is awesome!

Underneath and behind the doll above you may see some sketches. Those are for the other doll I'm making this month. It's another doll that I can share and I'll show more once I get started.

These are the yummy colors of felt That I'll be using on the 2nd doll. I'm super excited about this project and can't wait to share when I can.

What's on your worktable this week?

I've Been Published!

I finally achieved one of my long term goals of being published. I'm very happy and excited about that. It's given my confidence a big boost. My Native American Doll is in this issue of Soft Dolls and Animals.

I sent another doll I just finished, that a very lovely artist friend told me was my best work yet, to ADQ (Art Doll Quarterly). 

I have a lot of projects going on right now too, here are a couple of WIPs.

 

A Vintage Halloween Piece.

 A Little Pumpkin Ragdoll.

Other projects are just bits and pieces and aren't worth showing yet and some are still in my mind.

Worktable Monday

Lots of things are going on in Sassy Pack Rat Studios. Still doing penguins, made a bunch of bodies for some dolls and working on my vintage circus piece. I brought a new "flesh" color. Not sure how I'm liking it yet. My work isn't too realistic anyway so it should fit right in with it's peachy self.

Oh dismembered body parts!!!!!!

This will be a crazy week. My mom is having surgery tomorrow. She's getting another new knee. I tease her and say she's going to become Jamie Sommers (The Bionic Woman) and run very fast in slow motion through the woods. (Only people of a certain age will get this reference). I'll be offline all day tomorrow and if you'd be so kind to wish my mom well with her surgery, I'd appreciate it.

The weekend she comes home from the hospital is my nephew's weekend with my brother. It'll be craziness around here! I only hope I survive it.

Be back soon with hopefully more to show!

New Website for Art Doll Artists

 My good friend Moriah and I have been working hard for the last few weeks to get a new site up and running. It's called Art Doll Artists.com. We've had a Facebook group by this name since 2010 and Moriah wanted to turn this group into a full fledged Website where we could accommodate our ever growing membership. And also to create a place where members can host and participate in free classes and tutorials, run paid workshops, buy, sell & trade doll making supplies, or just discuss their day with like minded friends.

Artists can also participate in Challenges, ornament and doll swaps, and The Great Art Doll Collaborative (a round robin of doll making) if they choose, but it isn't a requirement of membership.

In addition to the original Facebook group of 363 members we have an Art Doll Artists (ADA) Facebook Community page that will be highlighting what going on at the Website. We have also created a blog that has Monthly and Weekly featured members, artist studio tours, spotlight on doll making supplies and tutorials, plus so much more!

Art Doll Artists is a free to join site. The only requirement being that you make art dolls, you don't even have to sell them, just enjoy making them. 

I hope if you like making art dolls, you'll drop by and check the site out.

http://www.artdollartists.com/index.html
http://artdollartists.com/blog/ 
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Art-Doll-Artists-ADA/119793191482447

Mermaids Done

Well finally the mermaids are done. My back is still a bit twingy but better. Before my back issues I was creating full force but now have slacked off to almost nothing. I had to really push to get the mermaids done. They are completely different than I originally imagined them. I think I like them but mostly am relieved that they are done.

Just quick shots in my studio. Each is similar but different. I usually sew on all the details before stuffing the piece but since these were originally prototypes I had to do the details after.

 Each has a seahorse that has been beaded on the large part of the tail.

All the felt details have been beaded also. I'm loving czech glass beads right now. You can't see the details well but they really are much nicer in person.

They can be posed many different ways.

My favorite is the blue one. I think she's the prettier one. Once I get better photos these two will be available in my shop. Well I'm off to push myself to work on the witches that have been standing around waiting for me.

Only A Little Going On In The Studio Right Now.

Not much is happening in the studio lately. It's been a rough couple of weeks. I did cut out a new design that I'm not entirely sure will work yet and also cut out more elves or fairies. I just haven't been inspired much to work on them.

I did finally add a torso to the paper clay doll head I previously made. Fairly happy with how it turned out. Then I did the arms and legs which I think are a disaster but at this point I just want to finish the darn thing! She was supposed to have super long legs that have a knee joint but this morning I realized I forgot to put holes in the knees before they dried so I had to scrap that idea.

 My perfectionism went wacko overtime on this silly thing and I just hated her! It took me a while to calm down and realize that it's o.k. that she's not perfect and what I imagined she'd be. I think once she's painted and dressed I'll be o.k. with her. I haven't sculpted since high school and I wasn't great then so it's o.k. that I'm not great now. I'm always way too hard on myself! I admire greatly the pretty clay doll makers but perhaps that's just not what I was meant to be. I know this is my first try but pretty doesn't feel right. Maybe in clay I can be an odd or weird doll maker. That title certainly feels much more comfortable to me, so I plan to explore that side and see what happens. My secret side enjoys with great abandon zombies, creepy & crawlies and crazy freaks. I also admire certain odd doll makers too.

So along those lines I've started a new head that I like very much and am excited to see where it goes. Oh and I plan to have lots to add to my etsy shop by the end of the month. "Plan" being the operative word here. ;0)

Worktable Saturday

Lots to keep me busy!

Another Try At This Is What I'm Working On...

After I put up the other post I realized from people's comments that I did the "uniform" wrong. Never work from memory, at least never work from my memory, it's faulty! So I spent last night while watching a movie and "The End of Time -Part One"(Dr. Who) redoing the design AFTER I googled the correct images! I'm such a dork!

Anyhoo these are probably a lot more recognizable now. Some details like insignias and legs, hands, heads with faces etc need to be put on but maybe now you can see where I'm going. If not you'll have to wait to see the finished project. They will definitely be "engaging"(hint). I will be offering these for sale but haven't decided what venue or pricing yet.