New Fairy Doll.

Last week saw me working on a new doll, Fayliin the Fairy. I decided I wanted to make her with button jointed elbows and knees as well as her hips and shoulders. It is a bit more sewing but it does give a bit more movement without adding wire armature. I also embellished her bodice and wrists with seed beads which I sewed on individually. 

She was originally going to have bare feet but it just didn't look right so I designed a pair of curly toed pixie boots instead. I also wanted to try out a technique that would make her nails look polished, I used a glaze that is for paper crafting and that gave her nails a shiny surface, It worked really well I will certainly try it again. She turned out well despite my usual worries while making her and she is now on ETSY 

Now I'm in the middle of making two mini dolls and I have some plans for a few more bigger dolls including a mermaid, woodland elf and a Gothic style doll amongst others. 

Until next time 

Vic xx

Tutorial - Sewing Jar

I thought I would write up a tutorial on how I transformed the kilner jar in the photo into one with a pincushion lid. There are a few of these tutorials on Pinterest but I found they didn't work with the Kilner Jar I was using hence this tutorial. 

You will need a screw topped Kilner jar or similar type of preserving jar, Fabric, stuffing / fibre fill, glue, cardboard, scissors. 

• Unscrew the lid and separated the inner metal lid from the ring. Draw around the inner lid on cardboard and cut it out. Next cut the fabric about 1- 2 cm bigger than the cardboard circle.

• Make small cuts around the edge of the fabric circle, glue the tabs to the cardboard and before finishing stuff with the stuffing / fibre fill. Glue shut and glue to the top of the metal inner lid, place into the screw part and screw the jars shut. Swear a lot as the lid won't go on, get a partner or a strong person to try to screw on lid and watch them swear. 

• Take apart and try the next step.

• Glue some stuffing / fibre fill to the top of the inner metal lid, cover with the fabric circle and glue to the bottom the lid. Cut a new circle of card and glue on to cover the fabric edges. 

• Insert into screw part of the lid and screw on to the jar, cheer loudly as its worked. 

I filled my jar with some sewing bits and I made a quick needle / pin case with some pieces of felt sewn together.

The jar is now sat on a shelf where my family can see it and stop stealing bits from sewing box. 

Until next time
Vic xx

Fae Inspiration

Many years ago when I was Cornish Fairies I made faerie cards and art inspired by the FAe or faerie folk. Recently I have felt more and more inspired by the Fae. Now these fae I'm inspired by are not the cute victorian or disney fairies I mean the ones from folklore and myth the ones that are not all good and have a dark side etc. 

Certain fae artists have been another inspiration, the biggest being Brian Froud. I remember when I was a child I desperately wanted to go and see the film Dark Crystal, I never got to see it, but my Mum gave me the paperback for christmas, the story was good but it was the film photos in the book I loved. Then along came Labyrinth starring Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie, this film is one of my all time favourite films, David Bowie is just brilliant as Jareth the Goblin King. The common thing of these two films apart from the brilliant Henson puppets is the concept artist for each film is Brian Froud. 

I was given the Good Faeries...Bad faeries book as a christmas gift one year and it is just full of Brian's amazing artwork. Brian's and his wife Wendy's work are just well fabulous and to me feel how the fae are like. Take a look at their website gallery as there is a selection of Brian's artwork and Wendy's dolls.

Commision Elf Doll

Making the fairy, pixie and troll Cloth Art Dolls may have influenced my interest in the Fae again or could it be the Fae influencing them, who knows but I'm enjoying it.

Until next time

Vic xx

Melkree the Troll

Aggie the Pixie

New Elves

Most of the week has been spent painting cornish pixie elves and I have really enjoyed it. The new elves are from ideas I had written down at the end of last year and one set was inspired by the fabric I used for my kindle cover. It was a beach or sea theme for all of the elves in the end. 

The first set I had actually painted the bodies last week in my favourite blue I just needed to paint a decoration and make the felt hats. The beach huts were fun to draw they were a bit fiddly to paint especially on the tiny elf. Originally they were going to have blue hats but it just didn't look right so I picked out one of the colours on the beach huts and found a matching felt. They look really cute. 

Next to be painted were a mermaid and two pirates, the pirates were lovely and quick to make and the mermaid took a little bit more time as I had to draw on her scales with a gold pen. She was going to have silver scales but one of my children had "borrowed" my silver pen and I couldn't find it. 

So my busy week is coming to an end and my weekend is going to be a relaxing one as I'll be curled up with my kindle and planning new elves and what to create next week.

Until next time

Vic xxx

Solving a fluff problem.

As planned I started a new cloth art doll on Monday and spent yesterday finishing it off by adding the clothes and hair. Now I had a bit of a problem as I do like to add the hair last as sometimes the hair can get messed up while I'm sewing on clothes or trims. So I added the bodysuit to this little pixie doll and I was worried about stray pieces of the merino wool hair or fluff getting on the clothes. 

As you can see the pixies bodysuit is white so the fluff would show even more. But I had a brilliant idea, I recently had bought some new freezer bags and they had a grip seal opening. 

Not only did it work really well it also meant I didn't accidently get any glue on the bodysuit either. I did need to wind the bag around the pixie as it slipped a bit and the seal would come undone.

All day while finishing the pixie off I wasn't sure if it was going to be a boy or a girl and it wasn't until the hair was finished that the pixies character finally came out and it was certainly a she. 

My 13 year old daughter fell in love with her when she got home from school and nearly stole her from me, but I got her back with a promise to make her a pixie. So next was a name for the pixie, dewdrop, lichen, mossy and daisy just didn't seem right but then I thought of Aggie, just perfect. 

Next week is going to be a busy week hopefully I can fit in something creative especially as I have some elf ideas still to work on. 

Until next time

Victoria xx

Soft Landings & Tiara making.

This week has been half term so I haven't spent any time creating. I would really like to get to into the shed and melt some glass but its drying out from a few leaks it had during the storms. So we started off the week with another trip to the beach this time we nipped into Bude and got snacks and had our lunch at the beach. The tide was lower this time so we decided to walk round up the cliff and over to the other side of the beach. That side of the beach has changed, a lot of big boulders have moved from one side of the beach to the other. Walking back was a bit dicey as the path was a bit muddy and my hip was feeling a bit wobbly after being on the beach. So the obvious happened yes I slipped on the path and fell on my backside hence the title of this weeks post. It did shake me up a bit but apart from a few aches and pains and a muddy pair of trouser I'm fine. 

So to the challenge on the Craft Pimp Forum I decided to make a tiara with a piece of driftwood I found on the last visit to the beach. I haven't made a tiara in years and I really enjoyed making one again. The wire I used was very fine but it did give the beads a bit of movement.

I'm really pleased how it turned out and I think the beads look like a wave breaking over the wood. My daughter spotted it when she came home from school and put it on so I just had to take a photo of it on.

So next week I think I will get the sewing machine out as I want to make some more Cloth dolls one from a pattern and maybe a few of my own.

Until next time
Victoria. xx

Stormy Weather

We have been a bit battered with the storms here on the North Cornish Coast. Luckily the only damage we had in our village was the phone line coming down in a farmers field, which meant no phone or internet for a few days. I did make me realise how much we use the internet in our lives now, even my children had to delay doing their homework as we couldn't get online to check what had been set. 

Back in January I mentioned about the weather and how stormy it has been, it has felt like a conveyer belt of storms since December, and there is more to come. Yesterday we decided it was time to take the dog out for a run on the beach. This was the first time we had been down to Duckpool since our Christmas Eve walk, and I have been interested to see the changes to it and took my camera with me. 

We had heard that all the sand has gone but that happens sometimes in the winter and usually a storm in the spring brings the sand back. 

Some of the cliff top on the largest part of the beach has slipped into the sea at some point and some of the stones have gone too but as the tide was just going out I couldn't really tell how much had gone. 

 The wind was full of salt so I had to clean the camera lens and my glasses a bit and it was getting cold so we decided to head back home. I did also try to find some small pieces of driftwood while there but there wasn't much but I did find a couple of small pieces. We have another challenge on the Craft Pimp forum using found objects and thought driftwood would be ideal for what I have in mind. 

Until next time

Victoria xx