Susan's Place: Blog

6.16.2008

Yarn, buttons and stuff.

I finally got the Yoga space in my room finished!
Things I learned in this process:
a) a yoga mat on carpet is not a good idea.
b) tearing out carpet requires that you gather a lot of energy up front (I did not have that much energy)
c) you can't install a wood floor OVER carpet, even if it is going to be framed.
d) MDF is heavy and when covered with peel-n-stick faux wood strips, makes a PERFECT floor surface for yoga practice. (and the whole thing was less than $75!)

I knew estate sales were cool, but I really scored at one this weekend! In addition to the brand new Janome HF107 machine I got for $25, I got a sewing kit with a button tin inside! WOO HOO!

6.10.2008

Babies!

I have a new great-niece! Jaydan Grace was born on June 5th. I met her when she was 2 days old. She is SO SWEET! We nicknamed her Bisskit.

Her Mom woke her up so we could see her eyes.

She made a funny face for the camera. :)

Here she is with her Mom, brother and sister:

Aren't they a beautiful family?

5.10.2008

Cloth BJD

This subject keeps coming up... so here are the WIP photos of a doll I made last year as an experiment in small and in ball joints.

The technique I used comes from Judi Ward in her Bleuette in Cloth class. The joints are made using plastic grapes inside the cloth for structure. (I did not take her class, one of her students explained the concept to me and I did the best I could. I'm sure that taking the class will help immensely if I decided to do this again.)

I started with the fabric and paper clay hands. The first hand was just a glove looking type so I could test the size of the ball joint I made:

As you can see, the hand I made was swallowed by the grape end at the wrist:

The elbow joint was a much better fit:

The joints are wooden beads that fit inside the grape halves. I changed the way I made the hand, and strung the arm this way:

That works much better. Here she is with her head hiding behind the body with the arms strung through:

I made her head large on purpose:

She is only about 10" tall.
After she sat strung for about a week, I noticed that her body parts were being squished by the stringing, and she was too stiff. So I had to cover her completely in clothes to keep her at least semi-proportional. That's the problem for me with this method. (and why I said the class would teach me a lot!)

Because she is so stiff, she looks like she got caught with her hand in the cookie jar... LOL

Anyway, check out what Tea Rose is doing on her blog with felt and wood beads.

4.27.2008

Ball jointed dolls

This is a work in progress - I haven't been able to work on it in a while but I hope to get back to it this week. Pat Lillich is working on a resin BJD and she has inspired me to get this back out and work again... thanks Pat!

I'm using the tutorial from Aimi-dolls.com (translated version)

The tutorial shows how to make a doll closer to 22" ... mine is about 10".

After a big mess with the styrofoam, here are some of the parts covered in paper clay and waiting to be cut in pieces.

After they are dry, they are cut away from the styrofoam and the work on improving anatomy begins. (this is one torso and head)

I made 2 heads. The one on the left has eyes and has been sanded some.

The parts for the first doll are separated from the styrofoam and waiting more anatomy work and a LOT of sanding. These parts are laid out on the scale drawing I am working from. I made a mistake the first round with the torso - I didn't add enough clay to the back (buttock area) so I had to add some more.

When I began this project, I thought I could find the styrofoam balls needed for all the joints. Once I got to the joints in the elbows and knees, I realized I needed to come up with something small. I was not able to find a supply of Styrofoam balls that small.

Using the beads I have that are small enough, I took some polymer clay I had sitting around and made a sort of mold, pressed paper clay into them, removed them, dried them and now they are sitting waiting to be joined together, slit and sanded.

I made hands and feet but I don't like them, so I will have to start again...

4.26.2008

Oral surgery

is not fun!

But a sock full of rice heated in the microwave is your FRIEND!
(Especially when you wake up the next day and see that your cheek looks like you are smuggling a baseball... )

4.12.2008

Shortie the Troll

I actually finished another doll! (I finished Fiona a few weeks ago, but she is off having adventures... pics when she returns!)

This is my interpretation of Shortie, a pattern by Ute Vasina.

He's not completely finished, but I haven't decided what to do with his hands, and I don't have a bell for his hat (he has a wobble head!) so he will have to wait a while .