Another Day Another Doll

Say hello to Hans and Eli. Hans (left) was made during one of my first doll classes. This was a wonderful class with Monica Shedden at "In the Spirit" which was a weekend mostly doll making event that only lasted two years. I think Hans was made in 2004 although my backward counting may be off. We had two years of "In the Spirit", one year with no local event and then last year ArtFest for the Soul began which has gloriously morphed into Art Is...

Hans is a storyteller. The original pattern had elfin ears which just didn't fit with the image I had in mind. His cloak is made of what I've heard called confetti fabric. It's a piece of muslin with oodles of scraps free-motion stitched on top. No muslin shows through. I used metallic threads. multi-colored threads. and lots and lots of cut up small pieces of fabric. A really fun technique. I've used it many times since. Hans came out great and he is proudly displayed in my living room. He is one of two dolls I made that weekend, the other being my Inner Godess that I made in ellen legare's class. My Godess actually took me over a year. I kept changing my image of her and she went through several iterations. I can't find a good picture of her
but I'll take one and post it another time. I just love the way she finally emerged.

My friend mary's daughter Samantha had a birthday coming up and Mary asked me if I could make her an elf or something. I took the Storyteller pattern, reduced it to 1/3 size, modified his nose, included the elfin ears and created Eli (left). His mushroom is a big, firmly stuffed "yoyo" with a stump. I made his boots from a Mimi pattern I embarassingly can't remember the name of. I love the curled toes. Samantha was tickled and came across the street to personally thank me.