Finished her

She is done at least that is all I am going to do to. I think I can add more things to her but time is getting on and I need to pack and sort things out. Had trouble with her face. As her whole body is painted with acrylics I couldn't use my colour pencils to paint her face which is what I am used to. I had to use acrylics and doing with paint brush oh goodness it is hard I am not used to it. Thats why the face looks rather blotchy. Finally I used gel pens for her eyes and lips as I was getting nowhere with the brush. Also some of my acrylics had dried up so I was not a very happy camper. Anyways she is done and I hope she will stand the long journey in the hold. Usually I carry my dolls in my hand baggage but now they won't let us. Keeping my fingers crossed that she will survive!

Going to India

I am going to India tomorrow so have been busy with various things. While I am there I am hoping to do a doll class. I am incorporating lots of techniques and tips that I learnt from Christine Shively in this class so I am sure people will enjoy it. I am not using Christine's pattern but using my own pattern. So lots of doll basics will be taught as well. Hopefully everyone will enjoy collaging this doll and get their creativity flowing.
Hey but I still have got to finish my sample LOL! I have only got this far and only 24 hrs left to complete her as well as do the packing and sorting things out and not to mention chatting to you all before leaving. Do you think I can do all this within that time? I got to put my superwoman shoes on now. Will show you the finished doll if I can before I leave and if I can keep away from the computer LOL!

One thing I forgot to mention I have used only paper and some trims to embellish her. Who says things we hoard don't come to use. Some of it is Washi paper and some just wrapping paper. I collected these paper from my doll club where one of the Japanese lady was giving them free. At that time I didn't know why or for what I would use it. It had been lying around crushed and forgotton in a corner. Now I look at it with new eyes and see the beautiful designs and decided to use it on her.

Blog change over

Just changed my blog over to google beta blog. They say it is better. Well we shall see. If I disappear suddenly from the cyber world you can assume that I have joined another cyber soul lost in the cyber space world. I must say this though I just tried posting this. It is very quick indeed. No waiting around while it republishes.

A little something

Since hubby was away for the past 2 days I had planned to do lots and lots of things but look what I ended up making, only a tiny pin doll! I was intending to stitch up a doll for something I want to try. However, I found a packet of beads that were lying aroud for awhile so I thought I would put it in its rightful place. I opened the box and found several things that should not have been in that box. So I set about finding the right boxes for them and guess what when I opened the other boxes I found things that should not have been in those boxes!! So it went on and before I knew it, I was trying to rearrange my whole craft room LOL! Looked up at the time it was coming up to midnight. So decided I should at least finish this little pin doll as I want to send her with gift for a friend whose 50th wedding anniversary is
coming up.


So here she is out of a largely unproductive night LOL!

Wedding cards

I received this beautiful wedding invitation this weekend and thought what a lovely idea Nancy in India had of using these wedding invitations into a journal. Most of the Indian wedding invitations are very elaborate and colourful. Although this one is not very colourful I think it is a very elegant card and I will use it when I start doing a journal and I am going to start collecting them. That was a great idea Nancy, thanks for the inspiration.

Paverpol lady

Today I went for my Paverpol workshop and here is what I made.





She is still not completely dry though. I used one of my own coloured fabrics which I wanted to try and not the one that they did in the class. I think the fabric I used was a bit too flimsy for the dark background. So it takes away some of the lovely bright colour of the cloth. I have highlighted the folds with some gold which has improved it a bit. However it was an enjoyable experience. Next time of course I will try and give the doll a bit more shape. I want to make one for the garden for which I probably will use clay to give it a bit more shape. She turned out ok for a first time I guess.

Paverpol workshop

Oh I am so excited. I booked myself into a class on Paverpol. It was going for a reduced rate and it is not far from home either. I will be taking it on Sunday. Can't wait to get going.

Meeting with Dénia and Flo

What a beautiful day it was on Saturday. I met up with Dénia and Flo and just as I imagined Dénia is a lovely, sweet little girl and I know Flo you are very proud of her. Flo is a lovely person too. We almost thought we wouldn't be able to meet because they returned to the hotel from Lyme Regis very late due to heavy traffic. But we did manage to meet and I am so happy that we did. It would have been a great disappointment otherwise. It was really very nice of Flo and Phillipe to bring Dénia and Benjamine to meet. I am so happy to meet the whole family. Flo you have a lovely family and you are such a nice person just as I thought you would be. I am so fortunate to have met you and so lucky that I get to meet such nice people on the internet.
I hope Dénia liked her little gift. I wish I could have made a doll for her but as I was short of time couldn't do it. What can I say my heart if full and hope I get to meet you all again sometime.
I am putting the pictures I took. Aren't they both lovely?



This was my little gift to Dénia.

Knitting and Stitching show

Well I went and booked 2 classes in this show. They look very interesting and already most of the spaces in these 2 classes have gone so I thought if I didn't hurry I would miss it.
Here are the descriptions of the two classes that I have booked.

LOUISE MABBS PRESENTS
Flip Flap Flop Workshop @ 15.30Layers of fabric have flaps cut into them; these are then manipulated and layered on other fabrics until amazing optical effects are achieved. The class will be shown cutting, bonding and ironing techniques.


CLAIRE MARTIN PRESENTS
Mixed Media Embroidery Practical Project @ 11.45A contemporary workshop combining paper and fabric to create a mixed media collage adding threads, beads & skeleton leaves in stunning combinations which are suitable for hand or machine stitch when dry

May be my creative block where collaging is concerned will get unblocked with these classes.
I am also looking forward to meeting up with Patti and Barbara again. Patti is doing a work shop of beading ATC's and Barbara is doing face maskes for cloth dolls.

Isabelle will you be able to make it for this show this year?

Wierd

An article in London's Metro the free newspaper it is so wierd indeed!!
http://www.metro. co.uk/weird/ article.html? in_article_ id=18008&in_page_id=2

Flo et Dénia

Je vais rencontre a flo et dénia a la samedi prochaine. Je suis très heureuse. Is that correct Isabelle? Is that how it is written?
I am so looking forward to meeting up with Flo and Denia.
Isabelle opportunity doll is something like a raffle. We just buy tickets and put them against the items we want the most. And at the end of the conference they do a draw If they draw your name you win the item. When I saw the cat next to the doll i immediately thought about Voilette! So now I will be reminded of Voilette when I see the cat and when I remember Voilette naturally I shall think of you. Not that I need to see a cat to think of you but you know I will think of you whenever I go into the kitchen and see the doll.

Cal I have never done dog dolls. Trouble is I love real doggies rather than the doggie dolls so probally not make them. I wouldn't know how to embellish them tee...hee....

EDAC 2006 class dolls

This is the wall hanging I made in Fran's Sarray class. It was such an easy and fun class I enjoyed it very much. I am not a collage person but Fran's class made it all seem so easy.
Thank you Fran for a wonderful class.


This is the doll I made in Christine Shiveley's 2 day class. We first painted the the doll with light paint then applied the crackle medium then it was allowed to dry well and then we painted whatever skin colour we wanted and then gave it a coat of Mode podge. My crackles turned out rather larger than I wanted. Also I realised afterwards that I should have gone for a lighter shade of base coat more in line with the brown colour. Then the crackles wouldn't have stood out so starkly against the brown and distracted the face painting. It is hard to paint on a dark brown and on top of that the white crackles didn't help much. But now I know. Christine's class was just wonderful. She gave us so many tips and tricks and I learnt a lot in her class. The class was well paced and I never felt rushed. The doll is still not complete. I think I will change her head gear and have to give her a cuff instead of the ribbons. Also the ribbons hanging on the front will have to go. I will make something out of the same fabric as the jacket to compliment it. I have some ideas and still working at it with my thinking cap on. Hope I am over the hump of my creative low.

This doll I won in the opportunity item. It is made by Laura Lunsford and is just perfect for my kitchen.

I also took Marcia's bead encrusted bangle class. It will take a while for me to finish the bracelet but I am already loving it the way it is turning out.

You will find some of the pictures I took at EDAC in my Yahoo photo album
http://photos.yahoo.com/citrnolla

Silly me!!!

Teee.... heee... kept wondering why there were not posts of course clean forgot that I had put them on moderation. Must have some time done it unknowingly.
Linda thanks I wouldn't have checked if you hadn't reminded me LOL! My brain must have gone to sleep.

Thanks for all your posts and kudos on the Fairy. She actually has a little story to go along with it. So here it is:

Latanya is a little lonely fairy travelling far and wide over land and sea and mountains and valleys searching for a true friend.
One fine enchanted morning during her travels she meets a human. They both smile at each other and are friends forever. The fairy has a tiny amount of fairy dust which she sprinkles over the human which helps this human to fly with her over far away lands and seas. They laugh and they play and sing and listen to the streams singing their joyful tunes. As night falls she realises that the human friend has to return to her own place where there is no room for the fairy. So silently and sadly they both bid farewell to each other.
You can see her sometimes roaming in the early morning mists a lonely figure wishing those enchanting moments would come back. Sometimes she is the lonely figure sitting under the stars and staring into the distance wistfully. She doesn’t have anymore fairy magic left as she used all of it on her friend so doesn’t know where her friend lives. She doesn’t even know her friend’s name, and neither does her friend, as during those magical enchanting moments she thought that those moments would never end. Sometimes she wishes intensely that she would have her magic back to bring her little human friend back to her and then they could once again laugh and sing and play joyfully.

It is rather a silly or corny story but I am not a story writer. Just thought the Fairy looked a bit
wistful so a little story would be nice to go with her.

While I am gone...

While I am away I thought I would at last unveil my doll which I have been keeping it a secrete. I don't think anyone from EDAC will look at it now. This is the doll that I was asked to make for the table decoration. It will be auctioned off at the end of the conference. I wonder how much she will fetch. Hope she will do well. Ok I better be off to bed now. Got to get the morning plane.
Catchya all later

Time to go to New Mexico

Yes it is on top of me suddenly. I am off to New Mexico for my conference yipeee!!!
5 whole days of creative fun and meeting up with old and new friends. I really need this break. Have been feeling rather jaded and this horrible tummy bug has really got me down. Although I know I am not fully prepared I know I am going to have great fun in Christine Shively's class and look forward to learning some new and exciting stuff and return will lots of new creative ideas. So I won't be posting for a while.





Another exciting event to look forward for me is the Knitting an Stitching show in October. This event is the largest in Europe and one can look at some amazing art works by some of the best fiber artists of Europe. One also gets to do workshops and buy lots of wonderful stuff.
Again this year Barbara Willis, Patti Culea will be having their lovely booth of cloth dolls. Above all this year Ray Slater from England is organising an exhibition of cloth dolls by UK artists. Ray, Barbara and Patti have been tirelessly promoting cloth dolls in UK and we are beginning to see the results. There are some wonderful cloth doll artists emerging and cloth dolls are beginning to take a place in the art world at last in UK.


Ray is also producing a Directory of Cloth dollmakers in UK. The above sample picture is not very clear but it should be along those lines. I have been invited to exhibit a couple of dolls and these dolls will be traveling in UK. The names are not very clear in the above leaflet but they will be traveling to Harrogate as well so I won't be seeing them until after December.

The long awaited and much needed rain arrived today!! Woo hooo I don't have to carry cans to water the garden.
Do you see the grass it is almost brown but in 2 days it will be green.
Had to walk to the station to take the train to work today and I could see the ground was so hard that the water just ran in riverlets or just stagnated in the fields.

Sugar has disappeared!!!

I am so sad that the my first ever cloth doll 'Sugar' that I made has disappeared. It is the one in pink in this picture. We had a cleaning lady come in every week and I know she is the only one who could have taken her as she had free run of the house while we were away at work. For some months I have noticed food stuff disappearing but I never thought she would touch my dolls. I also notice some of our linen is missing since. We have now stopped her. I don't care about the foodstuff or the linen but I do care that she took my DOLL!

Sorting out fabrics for EDAC

Last night I sat down and started sorting out the fabrics for EDAC. Here are some that I am going to take with me. Some of the ladies have already booked them for themselves. I think my bag will be raided as soon as I land there tee.. hee...

Paintings that evoked some fond memories

Today I came across my old oil painting pad which I used to use during my school holidays. Actually I thought I had lost it but oh I was so thrilled to find it hiding amongst my other things and was very pleasantly surprised to see these two paintings which I had started but never finished in the pad.
The first one is a painting of the place where I grew up, a hill station nestling amongst the Sathpura ranges known as Pachmarhi. It brought back so many memories. I remember I wanted to paint this picture of the lake and that particular spot was my favourite spot from the road which used to skirt the lake because of the view. All the views were lovely but this one was my favourite. I think I had grand ideas of painting this picture. I thought I could paint like Constable or Turner LOL! I remember being quite disappointed when it didn't turn out the way I had pictured it so I left it unfinished.
Anyway let me give you a small tour of the painting. On the far right hand side there was a little hillock on which was my Dad's office. You can't see it as it was hidden amongst the trees. It was a lovely old Colonial type building. By the way most of the area that you see in the picture belongs to the Army. So as you move along towards the left far beyond you see a clump of trees those are supposed to be Eucalyptus trees and there was a big Banyan tree under which the Indian Army Bands used to practice. As you move along again still further to the left you see the bridge. Oh what fun we used to have as kids there. During our summer holidays my friends and I would tag along behind our brothers and come fishing here. Not that we caught anything but it was fun. Since my dad was in the army and being such a small place everyone knew everyone else so we kids were sort of tolerated by the army camp people.
The bridge that you see is a concret bridge which replaced an old wooden bridge as some of the planks had disappeared. It used to be very exciting for us as kids to cross this bridge. Now moving again towards the left you see some tents and some buildings. Well there were rows and rows of them still further left which is not in the picture. Those were the tents for the soilders. If you look closely you will see very close to the lake couple of pens. They were not used but I guess during the time of British Raj they would have been used. Those used to fasinate us but we were not allowed to go near them. That big hill straight ahead was known as Club Hill at first because there was a club at the foothills. Later on it came to be known as Pachmarhi hill. Although this hill was not the highest point but the panoramic view of the whole town was fantastic. We used to often climb it during our holidays. You see that house on the hillock on the opposite side. One of my friend used to live there. We would often walk back together from school and her dog would spot us from far and come running to meet us. It would then take the bag from my friend and take her home. A pity our house couldn't be seen from any part of the lake otherwise I would surely have painted it. It was just past my dad's office. All the mountains you see in the background are supposed to be the Sathpura ranges.

I tried to copy this horse from a card and found that I ran out of space for its tail so thats where I left it.




After all that nostalagia I come to the present. Some pictures of the flowers in my garden. Today was a lovely day and I did a bit of gardening. That's it for today.

Fairy Perch

Well this is the perch I have made for my fairy. I think I can show this to you.The flower and the leaves on the stem are ready made but the seat is made by using paverpol. I wanted the doll to sit on the stem of the flower but knew it would not be able to support the weight of the doll. So I made a seat and you know me, anything that can be done easily I do it. Not much brainwork required here. First bent a wire and wrapped it around the stem to make the base then wrapped this base with dyed linen dipped in paverpol and let it dry. This steadied the base. I then dyed some thin linen with some green colorhue which was lying around. I know colorhue is for silk fabrics but I used it for this linen to try it out. After all I thought, it was going to be covered with paverpol so what did it matter what dye I used. The colour has not faded. I purposely left it near a window where the sun comes in. I then bent thin wire into the shape of leaves and stuck this dyed thin linen onto it and cut out the leaf shapes and applied the paverpol with brush onto the leaves and made it lean onto the base. It stuck to it! Once it dried it was amazing how strong it became. I think one can even make some lovely fairy wings with this stuff. It is wonderful stuff. I am going to try out something else soon but got to finish my fairy first.