Off with her head!!!!

I'm not the Queen of Hearts or a Tudor monarch but I did have to chop the head off a stump doll I started making last week. She was going reasonably well and the grey faux silk with the white organza looked beautiful. 

So I had got her all dressed, arms and head sewn on then it was time to needle felt the hair on which was merino wool and angelina fibres. I was just adding the last piece and then snap my needle had snapped in the head. I tried desperately to get the needle out but it was gone and her head was stuffed very tightly so it wouldn't even squeeze out. I just didn't know what to do. I did have a lightbulb moment, I just needed to take her head off and make a new one which I did.  I still have the old head and took a photo of Selene holding it, and that needle is still in there it just won't come out.. 

Selene wasn't the only cloth art doll I made last week, I wanted to make a witch doll for myself. With this one I wanted to try out a new technique for the face which involves painting the whole of the face and head.  It went reasonably well I just need to get a brush pen as my fineliner didn't like the surface. Again I used the faux grey silk but with black organza this time, the hair colour was a problem I just couldn't decide, black was too harsh & grey too bland but I found some lovely magenta / plum wool. I feel she turned out really well. 

My next Cloth doll projects will be a woodland fairy and then a couple of Santa's, but in the meantime here are some more photos of Selene and Cerridwen the Witch.

See you next time

Victoria x

Butterflies, Bugs and Ducks

Yesterday my son came in telling me he saw a really pretty and maybe a rare butterfly on the flowers near our pond. We went to have a look and it was a really pretty Copper butterfly unfortunately we didn't have time to get our cameras as we were off out to lunch but I promised him we would be able to take photos when we got back.  

So a little while later and with the butterfly book to hand we stood and waited with our cameras at the ready. 

There were lots of insects on the fleabane flowers including my favorite Bumble bees. I also managed to get a lovely picture of a Hoverfly, they really fascinate me how they hover and flit about so it was nice to see one at rest. 

  

Unfortunately all the Copper Butterflies decided to disappear but that didn't matter as we had a lovely treat of about 5 or 6 Silver Studded Blue's flitting around. We had to wait patiently for them to settle on the flowers. I managed to get some really good close up photo's and then a Copper came back but my battery had died, so we decided to come back out again later. 

By the time our the battery had charged it was early evening and the butterflies had gone it was just the bumble bees and insects busy on the flowers. My son was trying to take a photo of a bumble bee but he got a bit close and she decided to crawl on the camera lens. So with no pretty butterflies and the wind swaying the flowers to much I decided to try and get a photo of our ducklings and ducks. This was tricky as they really hate you getting close but I managed to get a nice photo of the ducklings 

  

The adult ducks really weren't very sure and our dog wanted to play with them so I just had to take a quick pic. Hopefully we can get some photos of the other butterflies that have visited our garden this summer, maybe the ducks if they stay still long enough and hopefully our quails and chickens as well. 

See you next time.

Victoria x