The Goldfish are swimming!

  A little over a year ago, I made up this mermaid. It has taken me till now to get her up where she belongs, in my bathroom. { I have a mermaid motif in my master bath.} What I like about her is all the little goldfish that are swimming around her. It makes her look like she is underwater, resting in a fishnet hammock with all these tiny inquisitive little fish swimming around her, in and out of the seaweed. She really looks at home up there, and I am so glad she has decided to stay.

  This is creativity at it's best. When you can take an idea and transpose it to a 3 dimensional representation of what you saw in your mind. Getting the fish to "swim" was the hardest part of this project. Those are all tiny little gold and red agate goldfish. What do you think? Are they swimming?

 

  

Tudor oh my!

  Well, this is the first and only Tudor gown for one twelfth scale I am going to get to do. I ran into some problems with this style gowns, that cannot be overcome at this time. I'll think on it, and maybe something will come to mind, but until it does.... this is it.

  A turquoise and gold gown, of the early Tudor period. She has it all, right down to her bare body. Starting with pantalets and a corset, those were planned on remaining on her {in other words... sewn on and not removable}. Then her chamise and a petticoat. The problem came with the chamise, as there is no way to gather the sleeves, and neckline and make it look right without being bulky, unless it's sewn on.{ Here is that dirty word again... sewn on.} So, I had to give in and do just that...  gather it and sew it on. The first gown I worked on the skirt turned out great, but the bodice was just not right, and the sleeves just didn't work. Don't use velveteen for these small ladies, it turns out way to bulky.

  So I moved on to this gown, of gold and turquoise brocade, and gold overdress, with turquoise lining, and center section. There are real false sleeves over the chamise, and under the full fur trimmed sleeves. And speaking of chamise, the sleeves are one and a half times the length of her arms. It was needed for the fullness and to peak thought the slits in the false sleeves. Real mink fur, for a real lady of quality trim the edge of the over-sleeves, that are turned back on the arms. That is a lot of fabric, for so small a doll. Hand beading trims the neckline, and cap. She wears a strand of seed bead pearls around her neck.

  This doll is one of my own making. Back when I was doing porcelain {pouring, firing, painting  etc.}, and I don't have many left. I have not made any new ones for a long, long time. So whenever I dress one of my own, it has to be special. This Tudor outfit meets and exceeds what the word special stands for. I couldn't have done it any better.

   So there you have it. Six layers of clothing {just like how they wore it} and it still turned out looking wonderful. I would not want to try taking this outfit off of her and putting it back on later. Way to much work. But it's pretty!

Why Miss Scarlet!

This is another doll I have put off dressing, maybe because of what she was going to be in. It's not easy to convert people size to miniature one twelfth scale. This isn't entirely a good job but then I can be too critical of my own work. I think the ruffle around the shoulders, should have been smaller. Too late to change it now, and it's not half bad. I'm going to leave it.

  I have two tudor dresses waiting and  cut out so I shall move on. The doll by the way is a Swallow  Hill doll. They are in Canada, if you need to look them up, and they offer all kinds of doll kits.

Enjoy

Deirdre

Another presentation box

For love of my oldest child

For what is.........

          and shouldn't 

For what should have been.....

          and isn't........

For what could be......

          but won't ......

My sorrow is all the more greater.

Presentation box

In the last century, this kind of box holding small things was being made and sent over from Europe. France was the biggest importer, and everyone loved the tiny things you could find in these boxes. The dolls and their clothes were just one of the kinds of things you could find. I have made my own presentation box, representing my daughter, Deborah Ann. If she was only this cute and adorable now, would I be happy! But never mind that. I choose to do this because I don't have to be like how she is toward me. I am me, and I am still her mother, I still love her, and that will never change. I also don't believe how she is today will ever change either, but thats her problem not mine. I choose not to be involved, just like I choose to still love her.

  The box is a labor of love. The tiny baby is from Aston Drake. All the clothes are my creation, except the little fuzzy blue jacket she came in. Everyone of them are removable and have snaps so she can wear them. I made her beautiful dresses to wear when she was little, so this is in keeping with some she would have worn. The little crib design is made from doing miniature wicker furniture, and creates the one side. With the mattress, it looks very much like what one would have slept in, and she does with her little blanket. I hope you enjoy my little remembrance of my daughter, as much as I did making it.

Deirdre

It's not the Avon Lady

This is a pattern by Christine Shively

Called the beast. The fairy-tale was the inspiration for this guy. I did some creative playing while I was making him up, and this is what he turned out to look like.

The final touch was the earring, cause he just had to have one to be a beast.

  I changed the style of her clothing a bit to more medieval, with a touch of three musketeers. The body is 

made of velour.

It was not easy painting over that kind of fabric.

Well, another project done, and on to the next one.

Enjoy my beast, and look up Christine on the web she has wonderful patterns for sale, and is a very nice lady to know.

Deirdre