May I Present Mrs Chalumeau...

Finally Mrs Chalumeau takes a bow …She is a Pearly Queen …
695 buttons on the doll and 10 on the journal.(I think – could be more). I would like to thank Paula from Antiques and Collectables here in Hamilton, Newcastle and Raku Buttons ETSY seller for supplying me with about 500 of the vintage mother of pearl buttons, and the rest I had in my stash. I think they look great on my pearly queen, but I am truly tired of sewing on buttons. It made me think however, how many buttons must be on the elaborate clothes of the real pearly Kings and Queens! I drew my inspiration from the lovely lady pictured here, and the following description from Wikipedia. ... A Pearly King ( feminine form Pearly Queen) is a person dressed in a traditional Cockney costume covered in mother-of-pearl buttons. These costumes were treasured heirlooms, hand made and sometimes representing much of a family's wealth. ....

This doll is all cloth – a little different from most of my other dolls which generally have clay heads. Her face is needle sculpted – a skill which I have yet to master – and I usually try to avoid, but I was quite happy with this outcome. Mrs C is not beauty queen material. It is an interpretation of Mrs Chalumeau, a Heather Cooper pattern. – I straightened her legs, posed her arms so she is lifting her skirt to step out on the footpath as well as holding her hat on. I also adapted the suggested clothing of course. Her shoes are leather, with polymer clay heels. She stands well, as I have a metal tube inside her left leg, and the stand is a textured clay covered piece of timber, with a dowel, which is inserted into the tube. I find that this method of attaching a doll to a stand is very stable. I tried to replicate the roughness of a well-worn English footpath /alleyway by texturing the clay with a “brick” print and other designs in sections to create the “patched’ look.

This is the first “big” doll I’ve made for awhile so I was happy to finish well in time for the Craft and Quilt Fair. And I was fairly happy with the result. This doll was quite a challenge, but it was wonderful to declare her finished, take photos and deliver her to Craft and Quilt fair for the Hello Dollies Goes Crazy exhibition.

PS There were 18 other Mrs Chalmeau and one Mr Chalumeau dolls entered in the challenge ... I will feature those photos in the Hello Dollies blog tomorrow, after the judging. http://www.agbhellodollies.blogspot.com/

Christmas Countdown 15 : Christmas Tree #11 - Disposable

Plastic cups https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/christmas-stem-ideas-kids/ Advent Blog : Day 11 - Disposable We are all so much more conscious about ridding our landfills and oceans of plastic waste. For Christmas, here is a way to use up some of those disposable items which seem to multiply at holiday parties and celebrations, or perhaps you have just been saving them up for a creative use.... Who would have thought coffee pods would make such stylish Christmas trees ? ... Add caption If you don't have one of those machines, then perhaps you have coffee on the run - Starbucks or Nescafe ? from https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/369858188126737920/ Nescafe cups https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/72761350208620530/ The disposable cups don' t have to be brand names to work well as materials for Christmas trees. Taking an engineering approach to plastic cup trees seems to be the answer for a more ornate result. from https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin

Countdown to Christmas 20 - Fruitcake song!

There are many songs about fruit cakes - not all of them referring to the Christmas cake we know and love.It is really surprising to learn via Google that there are 89 listed songs with references to Christmas cake or fruit cake - not all of them complimentary. Probably one of the most famous folk songs about Christmas cake is Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake (a favourite sung by The Irish Rovers). This first recorded comical Christmas song was written by C Frank Horn in 1883 in Pennsylania, as a variation of an Irish folk song, 'Miss Mulligan's Christmas Cake' . The chorus might give you the hint that Miss Fogarty's cake was not for the faint hearted or those who suffered from a weak stomach. Chorus : There were plums and prunes and cherries, There were citrons and raisins and cinnamon, too There was nutmeg, cloves and berries And a crust that was nailed on with glue There were caraway seeds in abundance Such that work up

Fish and Sticks : Art Dolls

This week I've been working on fish and sticks .... The sticks are the message stick art dolls which were very popular, attracting some attention and a few orders at the Wise Women exhibition. Each of the message stick dolls are from the Wise Women series, each with her own personality and message of wisdom, handwritten on a handmade timber tag. I gather the sticks during my walks around my neighbourhood and the tags are made from special bits of timber, some collected by me or my husband or from off cuts gifted to us from another doll making friend whose husband makes bagpipes. These dolls start off very simply with a wrap around a stick, in the general shape of a body. 'Naked" message stick dolls - strips of wadding wrapped around found sticks. Then I usually wrap other layers of fabric, wool, and/or fibres, over which I do some simple embroidery. I sculpt or mould small face masks for these dolls. I really like using "sari ribbon" as wrapping str

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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