Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

To state the obvious, Christmas is closer than you think! Each day, the diary and the "to do" list must be consulted to make sure we don't miss a Christmas party, a Rotary event, a grandchild's school presentation or concert,  a family gathering and all the "jobs" which  need to be done before Christmas. However, this last week, I have been making dolls. I would love to show you the photo of the art doll I finished during the week  for the Doll Holiday Ball Swap, but I would like my swap partner, Deirdra  to see it before I post it here.  I have also made dolls to be donated to a local charity, Centacare. Each Year, Hello Dollies members make and donate dolls to Centacare to be given as gifts at Christmas. I made a few sock dolls, and little hand stitched felt dolls tucked into a sock ( photo above). The other sock is inside the toe, so the gift is a little doll and a pair of new socks! The original pattern for the felt dolls,  Pocket Petunias   by Simone G

Recently I have been working on quite a few dolls for various swaps and blog challenges, but especially the samples for the Creative Retreat 2011   where I will be offering a workshop "It's A Wrap" - wrapped armatures made from discarded and found objects. Candy Flossie ( pictured above) is the result of wrapping a polystyrene ball and timber armature with a sample piece of wet felting , some fabric, recycled paper ribbon from a present, adding a polymer clay face, and swirly beads, toothpicks and some bright pink paint. This doll started from a bargain box reject snowman like this one below. I didn't like them at all and had no intention of "fixing" them , but somehow gave into the temptation and bought two.  Honestly, who could resist this for $1? I am unapologetic about the alterations to the first one -  off went the hat, scarf, buttons and shoes and voila- snowman to fairy floss girl!  Candy Flossie is now ready for the Blog Party at Papillon Bleu'

 Today was the first of the summer "crafternoon teas" I am hosting on Sunday afternoons.  Crafternoon teas are Sunday afternoons spent with wonderfully spirited people, who enjoy being creative, learning new techniques or brushing up on previously learnt skills and  love sharing a scrumptious afternoon tea. Today was felting fun when we used plastic resist templates to create dimensional seamless pieces. I demonstrated the way I made the series of nature bowls. You can see them here . Above is one of  my most recent blue bowls, one of a pair. The first one has already found a home during a DUST craft swap ( Down Under Street Team - Etsy) Here are some of the pieces that the felting crafternoon tea participants made this afternoon - a felt "forest" bowl, a needle book cover, a glasses pouch and a very 'organic" sculptured bowl.    While we enjoyed felting and its results, somehow we "forced" ourselves to enjoy the afternoon tea.  The nex

  Last month, I signed up to the Holiday Doll Ball Swap hosted by Zan Asha of Vagabond Creations. http://vagabondcreations.blogspot.com/ What a wonderful surprise this week, well before the deadline, I received the wonderful Miss Wu, created by a well known artist and art doll maker, Deirdra Doan. Many doll makers worldwide will already be familiar with Deirdra’s work which has been featured often in Art Doll Quarterly , and you can see more of her amazing art on her blog  http://deirdradoan.blogspot.com/ and in her Etsy shop. http://www.etsy.com/shop/deirdradoan   Here is Deridra’s description of this beautiful doll: Miss Wu.(I tried to make her look like Wilma...)is all excited and patiently waiting for the "Christmas Ball/ Sock Hop" to begin. She thought her berry crown, candy cane, and snowman necklace would look so to chic and bring lots of beaux to fill her dance card. She also wore her icicle leggings.to finish off her ball attire. Since it is very hot on Christmas

I am determined this year to be better prepared for Christmas. I decided to give cards as gifts for a few people this year, so this meant having them made and sent, ready for them to use as Christmas greeting cards. This last week was devoted to card making. I went crazy and spent almost every spare moment making cards. I was also very happy that I used only paper and card which I already had. Some are in traditional colours and others are just using leftover bits and pieces. Having sworn that I would not take up yet another creative interest, I started some life drawing classes last month - only of course, to help me improve my doll making. Tonight will be the fourth week of a six week course and I am really enjoying it. Ann, my teacher is great and  has classes for beginners and the more experienced. Look on  Facebook the drawing room . These are some of my drawings from last week's lessons. And, I almost forgot - Happy Halloween to blog friends particularly in the northern