Never Too Old to Play with Dolls

This past July, a friend asked me to make clothespin dolls of her family for Christmas presents. My friend was 8 months pregnant at the time and getting a head start on Christmas. Her request was something like this:

Her mom and stepdad just moved into a new log home and she wanted the log home as a backdrop. Her mom with a pig and stepdad with a John Deere cap. Both wear jeans and flannel shirts.

Her husband's sister and family: The husband enjoys the Irish sport of hurling. The wife is an avid reader (her faves: Harry Potter and the Twilight Series). One daughter with a Mickey Mouse and the other with a Barney.

I got off to a great start making the cabin backdrop. Time consuming sawing each dowel rod, but it soon came together. Then I started making the dolls using Creative Paperclay instead of my usual clothespin method. I joined a Yahoo air-dry clay group several months ago and was eager to put the many ideas shared in that group to use. Creative Paperclay indeed is exceptional for sculpting detail, but I didn't like the finished painted look, so many months later did the dolls again with my old white bread and white glue dough which has a more porcelain look (heads and hands).

Then I was stumped for another few months with the family of dolls, trying to figure out how to vary their height (since I rely on the standard clothespin size) and also how to do the husband in shorts. I ended up cutting the clothespin and adding dowel legs with Apoxie Sculpt. I added Creative Paperclay to the husband's legs. I affixed all the dolls to wood bases using Apoxie Sculpt for their shoes (an air-dry clay that is very durable and holds great). I usually sculpt hair on the clothespin dolls, but with the wife and 2 girls, they had such beautiful long hair that I decided to use wigging tutorials and try my hand with mohair. Here are my final results. Still a lot to learn, but I sure had fun making them.

Other details: the pig is made of Creative Paperclay, as well as the John Deere cap, shingled roof on the cabin, and scrolls on the screen door. Mickey Mouse and Barney are made of Sculpey/Fimo.

If you'd like to learn more about air-dry clay techniques, check out the Yahoo group and the New Clay News.

Most Unusual - Most Fun

I've had many unique requests for custom ornaments over the years, as you may have noted from earlier posts. I never dreamed I'd receive a request to make an ornament of the human cell. How creative to imagine such a personal gift. What made this ornament the most fun for me to make, aside from the wide array of vibrant colors, was that the recipient is a biology teacher whose passion on teaching the human cell inspired a young lady to become a nurse. Awesome!

Monkey Business

If anyone asks me what I've been doing this week, I can literally say I've been monkeying around. That fits well with my personality. I've always had rather large ears, short brown hair and brown eyes, and extra long arms and legs. Some of my nieces called me Aunt Mary Monkey when they were growing up. I rather liked that, not so much because of how I look but more that it allowed me to be goofy enough to live up to the name.

I've been busy making 30 organ grinder monkeys, which will eventually become attached to organ grinders for a custom order. If you like beautifully illustrated books with heart-warming lessons for children, you must see Great Joy by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline. The inspiration for the organ grinder ornaments comes from this book, but my artistry doesn't begin to compare to Mr. Ibatoulline's!

Just had a thought - How cool would it be to find a little recording of organ grinder music to add to the ornament? You'll find me monkeying around on Google now . . .

Boutique to Benefit March of Dimes

This coming Saturday (October 17), I will be displaying my Dough Ditties at the Hoosier Artisan Holiday Boutique at The Mansion in Carmel, Indiana from 10 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Fine arts and crafts will be on display from 50 Hoosier artisans (who are also members of the Etsy Indiana Street Team - Incrowdteam). I'll be donating baby-related items to the raffle: an acorn baby, an oak leaf woodland angel with baby (both of salt dough), and a clothespin doll with head, hands and her baby shaped from air-dry dough.

I'm looking forward to meeting other Etsy artists and to having an opportunity to support the March of Dimes. Please stop by and say "hi" if you're in the area!

Highland Wedding Cake Topper

How neat to get a request for a wedding cake topper personalized to the bride and groom! When they met, she was a highland dancer and he a drummer. This made my day since, as you may have guessed by now, I love to make celtic ornaments, especially custom ornaments that match the individuals' tartans.

I had a challenge with this, however . In the past, I've made the bride and groom as one ornament and epoxied them to a base. Since the bride is in a dance pose (and standing on one leg), it seemed best to keep her separate from the groom. Once the ornaments were complete, it didn't look right to just stick them on the wood base, so I used an air dry sculpting putty to make a grassy knoll for them to stand on.

Imagine a wedding with bagpipes, drums and highland dancing. Not sure that was part of the wedding plans, but it's fun to imagine nonetheless.

Buchanan Tartan

This is the first time I've painted the Buchanan tartan on custom piper ornaments. I really like the bright colors and especially the yellow. Lively tartan.

Policeman Piper

Just a quick post of a custom order I did of a bagpiper with the Chicago Police Pipe & Drum Band. The quality of the photo is abysmal, but the cuffs of his socks are called "popcorn" which I made by adding tiny balls of dough. It's so much fun to add the details!