Last Creative Piece Done

I had to set this piece aside for a while while dealing with the passing of Binks but I did finish this piece, finally

.

I added all the final stitching details and cut out a banner for his name.

 I embroidered his name in the same golden color of his eyes.

I then tucked in the ends to have a furled look. 

I sewed the banner down and stretched the piece over thick cardboard before placing it in a shadowbox frame. 

 I'm very pleased with how this came out and would love to do more.

PART 1 can be found here.

 Here's the REAL Harley. Such a beautiful dog.

The Very Last Creative Piece of 2015.

The very last piece I'm doing this year is a present for my daughter's boyfriend. It's also a sample piece for a new custom I'll be offering in 2016.

It's a felt art piece that can be framed. I'm pretty excited about this and hope you all enjoying seeing it too.

 Here I'm working out the details.

Here is the super simple drawing I did and worked off of.

 I chose a background color and pinned the shapes down and started sewing.

 The main body is done and now I need to add the details.

 It's an applique kind of sewing process. I layer the shapes on top of each other and it gives the piece dimension.

 Looks good but it's still too flat looking. Now I'm ready to add what I call embroidery but is really just stitching that adds character and some details to the head.

 I've started the stitching. It's a little hard to see in this pic. I'll take a better one later. He needs the rest of his details and and banner with his name embroidered on, and that is really embroidery.

Stay tuned for the next post to see the finished piece. PART 2 can be found here.

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 

WIP Friday or Another Unending Project

I wanted to share a project that I've been working on for a while, or at least started a while ago. I had an idea for a soft sculpture piece and got really excited about it. Unfortunately I'm more of an instant gratification person and this was going to take a long time and I kept getting side tracked by family things. Basically I lost momentum. Sigh!

Anyhoo it was a cool project so I that if I shared it with you maybe I could get back on track again. If you follow me on twitter or Facebook you might remember I was trying to make a reindeer. Somehow it got turned into a horse. Have you ever seen a real reindeer? They are not attractive animals. So the horse just works out better. I started from the beginning with a drawing and worked my pattern up from there. I wanted the horse to look as realistic as possible but yet be able to pose it. It took a while to get the pattern just right but I'm finally happy with it.

This is where I started and made modifications from here. Some of the pieces I drew on the computer and some I drew by hand. Mostly the gussets I drew by hand since they had to be modified again and again for the best fit. Gussets are what give a 3D plush the right shape.

I scored some great wool blend felt for this project. I still scratch when using this but it's o.k. (I'm allergic to wool) and I need the thickness for this.

See the white on the horse's face? That's a gusset and it'll round out and give shape to her face. She looks a bit cow like here but when I stuffed her head she looked very nice.

She has a gusset on her back too. I plan on putting a saddle on her. Horses have big hips and butts and I need the butt area since she'll be carrying two riders.

Here she is with her legs and I just realized the front leg is on backwards! Good thing they aren't attached yet! Silly me.

Here she is with her mane attached. I need to do her tail, eyes, stomach gusset, hoofs, finished stuffing, attach the legs, sew, clothe and detail the people. Doesn't sound like much but believe me it's hours and hours of work and I'm just not feeling it.

So if anyone would like to give me a kick in the butt or even leave happy and kind comments maybe I could get motivated to finish this.

The Witch Doll is Done!

OMG Finally! I know! Whenever I make a doll I try and do something new each time, plus the clothes are always a challenge to me. Sometimes I have to set them aside until I feel confident enough to drive in and just do it. I'm such a perfectionist and hate having to re-do things. I want them to be right the first time (yeah like that ever happens!) Any hoo with no further adieu here is the first witch.

 Oddly enough she's really witch #3. She has 2 sisters that I need to finish also. Now that I've worked out all the details, I hope they will be done quickly as this witch is tired of tending the cauldron alone.

 I made her as my usual felt doll but added a spiderweb fabric overlay material to her skirt that I've been dying to use. I also found a witchy quote and printed it on fabric that I then used for her torso and the band of her hat. This was also the very fist time I used more realistic hair instead of felt.

 She's 19 inches from her feet to the point of her hat. Her arms are positionable. Her hips are jointed too so she can sit. She stands nicely with a doll stand.

 Her hair is made from Lion Brand "Homespun" yarn. You have to process it a little but it's super soft and perfect for hair. (I'm allergic to wool so can't go that route) And yes I wanted her to have choppy messy hair. After all she's a witch and that cauldron is hot you know.

I hope you like her. This was the first time I completely left my comfort zone and I'm pretty happy with her.

Things I've Been Working On Lately...

Things have been slow right now as all my holiday orders have gone out so I've finally had the time to work on some non stationery things. I thought it would be fun the share the things I've been working on.

I'm a huge lover of dolls and toys and have always wanted to learn how to make dolls, specifically art dolls for collectors not so much children's dolls. So I spent 4 days making this guy. He's a character in my favorite British sci-fi series, Dr. Who. This doll is my version of the tenth Doctor played by smoking hot David Tennent. The actor is leaving the show at the end of the year so I thought it was perfect timing (ha, time-ing, o.k. only Who fans will get that very bad joke) to make a doll just for me to remember the actor and his wonderful character. I'm beyond pleased with how he came out and will be making others soon.

The image below is who the doll is designed to be.

The other thing I've been working on is a felt embroidered winter scene. This is a xmas present for my mom. I'm almost done, a small banner with words will be added to the empty white area.

I can't take credit for this cute design I got the template at Checkout Girl and you can make one too. Melissa is an amazing felt artist and I admire her work so much. If you get a chance check out her blog and the tutorial here.

So I've been a busy gal but now it's back to stationery things, after all Valentine's Day is just around the corner!