The Reveal!

Ok my client has now seen the piece she commissioned me to make and it will arrive at her house tomorrow so I can finally show finished pics.

First let me say that there is a huge difference between a commission piece and a custom piece. 

A commission is a piece of art that has not been created before, completely one of a kind, requiring hours of research and multiple prototypes to get the design right. This took me almost 5 weeks from start to finish.

Now a custom is a change to an already designed piece. Say you wanted a pink deer ornament instead of the dark brown I'm currently making, easy to do and that piece is now a special custom to that client.

I've only made 2 commissioned pieces this year and here's one of them. My client requested a soft sculpture of her chihuahua with Day of the Dead designs and flower motif. This piece is 11.5 inched high and 12 inches long. 

Links to the work in progress posts are at the bottom of this post.

My muse, Rio.

 Side view.

 

Flower crown. 

 3/4 view.

Back design.

Full back.

My littlest chihuahua for size.

My bigger chihuahua for size.

I'll do another post soon showing the wips for this project. Thanks for looking!

UPDATE: I'm linking this post to the making of this piece. PART 1, PART 2, and PART 3 

Got Some Great News!

I received an email last night from the publisher of Art Doll Quarterly Magazine. They have accepted one of my dolls for publication! I will have a doll in their Spring 2013 issue!!!!

Major happy dance and much hugging of family members went on last night. I'm still tingling this morning! Now I can check off another goal.

I'll show photos once the issue has arrived about Feb 1st. Meanwhile here's a photo of Lita in her Halloween shirt waiting for the trick or treaters yesterday.

Wordless Wednesday

Lita with her favorite toy.

Friday's Worktable. It's A Dark and Rainy Day ...

...perfect for working on witches! I have 2 more bodies to sew but I decided to play around with some fabrics. I'll be working on faces and attaching heads over this long holiday weekend, so they'll really start to look like something soon.

 I received Omayra's doll from Patrick's 4th of July swap and she's wonderful. I'll just treasure her! I love to see close up how other people do their dolls. The dress is amazing! This photo doesn't do her justice.

Here's a quick shot of my pup Lita yesterday checking out the view on top of my felt storage.

Wordless Lita Wednesday.

Cold Mornings and New Legs

It's been in the low 40's here in the morning, nothing new for this area. But for the 2nd day in a row Lita my pup has asked for me to heat up her blanket. I do this by putting it in the dryer. She sits in front of the dryer waiting for her blanket to come out. She's a smart girl, she knows what the dryer does. Lita is a Chihuahua and they have trouble maintaining their body heat even long haired ones like mine.So when she gets cold, she's really cold. She'll lay wrapped up in the heated blanket for up to 2 hours.

Here she is yesterday and she's wrapped up just like this right now.

This is Binks and he's a weird one. He won't go under a blanket, it freaks him out. He knows where all the heat vents are or he'll lay close to the dog. I don't worry about him.

Made another set of lady legs (on the left, the gray ones are for another male rabbit). I made the feet larger and the legs more sturdy to help support the weight of her skirts. I really want all the rabbits to stand nicely. The legs stand great on their own, the true test is when I attach them to the bodies. Fingers crossed! I really wanted the other 3 rabbits finished by this weekend but that doesn't seem to be possible right now. UGH!

Wanted to Show A Finished Piece But.....

I ran into a problem with not having a long enough needle to attach the arms. Sigh! It's always something. I need to run out and get a doll making needle but the Handyman is here painting so I'm stuck home for now. 

I did tell people that I'd show what I was working on but I really wanted this piece to be finished before I debuted it. So I'm waffling back and forth on what to do.

 How about a photo of Lita to keep you occupied until tomorrow when I can show you a finished piece? Look at that face. Doesn't she make you happy?

Worktable Wednesday

The very last things to finish before the doll is complete.

Where Lita likes to hang out. She watches the world

and can turn a see me working too.

Slightly Wordy Wednesday

Those of you who follow me know I have a Chihuahua named Carmelita or Lita for short. She's large for a Chihuahua but still a small dog and this snowy weather is just too much for her! The snow is too high to walk through and the freezing cold has been keeping her inside more days than she likes. When she can get out we only make it down the street and she has to be carried home and then warmed up with a blanket from the dryer.

This winter is the worst she's known so far and she lets me know about it everyday!

Wordless Wednesday - Caught In The Act!

 Sleeping in my carry around bin. A big no no!

 Gotcha!

Thinking of running off with Minis! Bad Dog!

Lita Was A Doggie Skellie

for Halloween. She's not the kind of little dog who enjoys wearing clothes but Halloween and a coat in the winter I have to make her do. Well there is no need on Halloween except for my own personal amusement and the little kids like to see her dressed up.

 I couldn't resit this when I saw it at Target!

 My mom's trying to hold her still for a picture.

My mom in her Halloween shirt and

Lita in her costume.

Tuesday Treasure and a New Doll

My Tuesday Treasure this week is my sweet pup Carmelita. We had a lot of furry family member drama last week. One of my mom's cats had to be put to sleep. He had a series of mini strokes, was in pain and hiding from everyone. I went with my mom to the vet, it was sad.

Then a few days later my son found Lita in a low blood sugar coma. Rubbing honey on her gums popped her right back but it was super scary! She had an ear infection and I couldn't get her to eat hardly anything. Finally got her into the vet and she's o.k. and back to eating again.

Lita is a 3 year old long haired Chihuahua. She is my companion. Lita fills the void left by my children growing up and not needing me. She's my 3rd child and I adore her. She's the first and only dog I've ever had. She has very cat like qualities and is the same size as my cat Binks. (I think she thinks she is a cat- my cat thinks she is) I'm severely allergic to dogs but not to Lita. I love her with all my heart and she's my treasure.

Now for the new doll. Meet Frank's bride Estell....

I had the worst time figuring out her dress. I didn't want it to be exactly like the old movie and I wanted it to kind of match Frank's tunic but be more girly. Estell is wrapped in bandages like the bride in the old movie cause I kind of liked that idea. Now that she's dressed, Frank and Estell Stein can go out on the town. Hopefully they won't scare anyone!

New Project

As some of you know I have a chronic illness that at times puts me in bed in extreme pain and other times gives me pain that while difficult is bearable, if I can focus on something else. I usually read book after book but found myself with nothing to read so decided to start a project I had only been sort of thinking about but didn't think I'd really do.

The combination of being bored, in pain, needing to focus on something, anything, pushed me to start a new doll since I could do it while laying in bed.

Let me say that I'm not thrilled about showing pics of my bed but that's where I was and I was already taking pics of my dog anyway. So yeah the things you do when bored and confined.

She's a doll of Freida Kahlo.

Lita thinks photos are overrated.

I know I haven't posted in quite a few days so I'm here and getting back on my feet. Freida is almost complete now. She just needs some minor details then I can show her to you probably early next week. I should be back to normal by Monday.

WIP and Lazy Lita

My work table this Wednesday.

Several dolls,  a TARDIS and patterns waiting to be

cut out.

Lita in her couch nest.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Lita's afternoon nap spot. 

She asks to be lifted up and then taken down when done.

Sorry about not doing the Tuesday Treasures yesterday. Having
problems with my scanner. I'll have it all sorted out by next week.
Dug thru old photos so next Treasures post will be a walk down 
memory lane for me and possibly you too.

Lita and New Pal Bun Bun.

Lita's "Nana" gave her a bunny toy for Easter and it's become her favorite toy and goes everywhere with her. I often find them both guarding the neighborhood from the living room window.

Yesterday Lita Had A Snow Day

Lita is a small dog and snow kind of scares her. Here she is

 not stepping in it. She wears a leash in the yard cause
even though it's fenced all around, there is a hole in the
back neighbors side and there are hawks around.

She's nosy as heck so that won over the fear of snow as she 

decided to check out the doings in the neighbors yard.

I packed down a big path all around the pool for her to run in,
which she loved. Here she is after a big face plant into
the snow. I laughed so hard!

Amazingly I was able to capture the snow falling
which you can see if you look carefully.

Much more snow has fallen now so it's over her head in most
places in the yard so we will probably stay in today.

Very Late But Almost Wordless Wednesday

Lita likes to take advantage of the sun wherever she can find it. Sometimes on my desk. My very messy desk.

This is Zachary James my monster baby nephew who tore up my mother's house on Christmas. My brother and his wife will have their hands full with this one! Luckily he's a cutie. You can see me sitting in the backround with Lita peeking out from under the chair. I was protecting her and she needed protecting too!

Quick Tutuorial for My Dog's Stocking..sort of

Sitting around alone in the house last night & decided on the spur of the moment to make my dog Carmelita a Christmas stocking. Then I thought I'd share with my lovely blog readers.

First I drew a quick stocking shape on a piece of card stock to the size I wanted. As you can see here the foot part is a bit short and weird, I fixed that later when I cut the stocking out. I'm always re-adjusting as I go cause thing are never perfect the first time if ever, LOL!

Then I drew and cut out shapes for my Carmelita's face. This isn't too hard, you just break everything down into flat shapes. I have the head shape, muzzle, ear, nose and eye shapes cut and ready to go.

Here's Lita bringing me her favorite toy "squirrly". She gets a bit miffed when she's not the center of attention! I had to throw the toy for a while until I wore her out, then back to cutting shapes.

Now here are the basic shapes cut of the the colors I wanted to use. I was going to do more detail on the ears, but decided that simpler was better. Even though Lita is a long-haired chihuahua I knew I'd make myself crazy doing all her ruffles and long hairs so I didn't this time. And I think you get a better idea how to make your own dog or cats face this way too.

Lita still trying to get attention by pretending to fall asleep sitting up!

Then poking her nose into everything! She then layed on my lap and let me finish. Silly pup!

I sewed and embroidered the face details together and pinned it onto the stocking. See how I lengthened the foot of the stocking? Much more balanced this way. After the face was on I then hand sewed the stocking together with a fun red thread, added a white cuff that I embroidered Lita's name on and sewed on a loop for hanging.

If I had thought about it before hand and had more time I might have embroidered some designs on the lower part of the stocking, but I don't think Lita will mind.

Here's a close up. I added some small freckles to the muzzle since my Lita has them and tacked her ears down a bit cause Lita's are floppy most of the time.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think and also if you'd like me to do more tutorials or just show final finished projects. Thanks for taking the time to read and look at this super long post and Happy Holidays!