Trying out something New.

I've been very busy as usual and I have been busy making some new dolls two of my small ones and a larger doll from a Pattern By Sharon Mitchell, which stretched my skills. Before I show you the new dolls I wanted to look back at some of my older dolls.

This was my first full sized doll I made way back in  January 2013 and I still have her stashed away for safe keeping. I made a couple of other dolls and then I made a pirate doll, which was the first one that was sold in my Etsy shop. It was also the first one where I changed the pattern to suit my vision of the doll. 

I've learnt a lot in the process of those three years even designing my own patterns for my smaller dolls and mermaids. And I'm still learning and pushing myself to improve my skills and of course my dolls. Recently I bought two patterns by Sharon Mitchell one was on hands, it has some great tips and I felt my doll hands certainly needed a little bit of an improvement. Also there was a pattern that I fell in love with as the character of the face really called to me. So I made a start on it last week and finished Prudence earlier this week. 

With this dolls the colouring was completely different and part of the shading was done before the needle sculpting which made sense. Also it only used three colours of pencil, two pigma pens and my usual white gel pen. To be honest I thought I had over done her face but by the time she was fully assembled she looked great. 

Not only did I learn a different style of colouring the face I also learnt a few new things on the body, one was how to enhance the breast and give the look of a collar bone, also the dents in a spine and needle sculpted nipples. This was good for me as I hate sewing breasts on to dolls it's fiddly and I usually end up nearly throwing the doll across the room in frustration (like the new mermaid doll). I admit I loved making Prudence though I did add legs to her as it was supposed to be stump doll and I will be trying out the new colouring style again as it does give more character. 

Nerisa is the mermaid doll, who nearly got thrown across the room, small boobs are harder and fiddly. I did eventually like them, as I used the same material as her tail and after adding ribbon it looked like a bikini top. I also made another small doll at the same time she was originally going to be a witch or a fairy but I decided she didn't need wings or a witches hat. 

I'll probably have a couple of weeks break from doll making, I do have my eye on another Sharon Mitchell pattern that will mean using cotton lycra for the first time and is full of even more character. 

But in the meantime the three dolls will be stars of my next show in the Facebook LBA Limelight Group, which starts Friday 3rd June at 13:00 GMT for 48 hours. After that they will be for sale in my ETSY Shop or on my Website .

Until next time

Vic xx

Baby Trolls and Witch Brooches

Its been a busy month here and haven't had any time to update on here. But today as I've been busy  preparing and taking photos of the new creations well it would be rude not too say hello and show you what I've been making.

Oggle and Dingle Baby Trolls

I had the pattern for these two baby Trolls for a while and I finally felt ready to try them out. As usual I had great fun though the fingers are really fiddly. 

 I had to hand sew the head together as it was a bit too tiny for the sewing machine. I used clear fishing line for the needle sculpting for the first time and I liked using it on the nose and lips..
The pattern doesn't give the trolls hair but they looked odd with no hair so I needle felted in some merino wool to give them both a shock of hair.

Also I really didn't want to make a full doll or mini doll so I decided to make some Art Doll head Brooches, which I haven't made for a very long time. Well I wondered what to make and finally decided to make some more Witch Brooches. 

Lorna, Betsy and Jules, Witch art Doll Brooches.

I used the same pattern for each head and as you can see they all turned out differently and each with an individual personality. I do enjoy making the smaller dolls but it is nice to make a large one occasionally. 

Hopefully soon I can start painting some new Cornish Pixie Elves as I've had a couple of ideas and I want to make some more bears at some point.

Until Next time

Vic xx

Betsy

Lorna

Jules

Busy Busy

Eeek where has the time gone all of a sudden, it has been a busy two weeks with both the school holidays and this weekend I've had a show on a Facebook group. Oh and there is book club at the end of the week too along with a the opticians.
But I have finally finished the last doll who has been called the Archer, she looks so much better with the new head. I also made her a bow and quiver of arrows to go with her copper dagger in her boot tops, which I made years ago when making copper jewellery.

I also made a few more Podlings which I saved especially for the Facebook show, though I did have to hid them from my Mum as I know she loves them. 

And I'm also making something else which is mini Art Bears, I found a few patterns online and bought the supplies to make this gorgeous little vintage style elephant who I've called Little Nell. 

I also found a pattern for a dragon well you know me and dragons, I had to wait a while for the supplies to arrive but on Friday I finally finished two just in time to début at my Facebook Show. 

The dragons, Podling and the Doll with be in my Etsy shop at the end of this week and Little Nell, has been sold so will be of to a new home which also means I can make another. 

Until next time.

Vic xx

Podlings and a Change.

This week I have been a lot more creative as I've started to finish of a doll though I'm not a hundred percent happy with the face so I may take the head off or give it a repaint. I made clothes and cloak which was made from black velvet and has a pretty floral grey cotton lining. There's still a bit more work to go one her but hopefully I can finish her next week after I have bought some polymer clay.

Also this week I started on a pattern I purchased a couple of weeks ago, designed by Susan Barmore. 

The pattern is great fun and is a reasonably quick make and after assembling the bodies it was face and body painting. then it was cutting and sewing felt to cover the bodies. The felt then needed to be dipped in fabric stiffener and placed back on the bodies and secured with pins while the felt dried. I then had to wait patiently for the felt and bodies to dry completely.

Luckily by the next day they were dry so I glued the felt leaf wrappers to the bodies and stuck pins in them until the glue dried. They did look funny with the pins sticking out but it wasn't long before I added some colour to the leaves with pencil and embellished them with copper wire and beads. Now I just need to take their photos and list them in my shop, hopefully I'll have time this weekend. 

This week has also seen some changes on Etsy as they have had a bit of a revamp of the shops, we as shop owners can preview the look and make any necessary changes. This has actually come at a good time as I was not  happy with my banners and branding so on Friday I spent a few hours on Canva updating my shop icon / logo to my favourite Flamingo Pixie Elf. 

Next was my banner I toyed with using the pixie elf again but then I decided and using one of my own art dolls. I think it looks better and cleaner and both the logo and banners reflect my current work. 

Until next time

Vic 

A Non Creative week and Feeling Nostalgic.

This week has been odd as I had planned to start on a few projects but I also needed a trip to Barnstaple to get some items for the projects along with some paint so we can redecorate our bedroom. I waited until Wednesday but the Storm with No Name arrived and I decided it was perhaps better stay home than go out. In the meantime I was busy doing research on a long term project, which isn't quite ready to show publicly just yet and I also amused myself with thinking about my shop and I have decided that I'm going to be making another product to sell and they should go well with the dolls and pixie elves. I have ordered a kit and it should be with me soon and I can get cracking on it, though I'm feeling impatient and want the kit immediately but I will have wait.

This week I also had a sudden pang of nostalgia as I saw on Facebook a video of the Shell House in Southbourne, Bournemouth. The front garden of a house had been transformed into a shell graden with grottos statues, when I was a child it seemed such a magical place and it was always packed in the summer with tourists. Sadly it was demolished about 15 years ago and apartments stand in its place. It got me thinking that I never took my children to places in Bournemouth that my sister and I used to go to regularly, I suppose living on top of them you tend to think oh it's only such and such well go there another time. I have to admit one place I do regret not taking them and hubby to is a place that featured a lot in my childhood. 

Hengistbury Head. 

Hengistbury Head in Bournemouth has so many memories for me from when we were little going for walks on Boxing Day or during the summer. We would often cycle from Iford to Tuckton, then on through Wick to Hengistbury Head. I used to be fascinated by the Double Dykes, when I was little a path ran through the middle and you could walk over them, now they are completely fenced off to protect them. 

Hengistbury head and Christchurch Harbour. 

The later memories are from our Sunday outings in Christchurch Harbour, where we learnt sail and row in the harbour, sometimes my parents would moor up in the reeds or pull the boats up on the harbour beaches and sit and watch the world go by, whatever the weather. My sister and I would spend hours exploring the beaches and headland. Occasionally there would be an archaeological dig up on the headland and which I always found fascinating. 

Looking at the website for Hengistbury Head it still seems the same but there have been a few changes too including a visitors centre. Maybe one day I will get to visit and explore it again.

Until next time 

Vic.xx

Cheesecake for Mothers Day.

Every so often my family gets together for a pub meal and afterwards we share cakes or a sweet at my parents house, conveniently opposite the pub. Usually I make brownies, cup cakes or a lemon drizzle loaf, but since I'm now on a low carb diet for my diabetes I can't eat them. So I've found and tried out a few different recipes from Pinterest including low carb brownies and a yummy Chocolate Heaven cake that's rich and almost like a torte and is lovely with clotted cream. I also found a great recipe for granola bars and I want to try to make my own Paleo style granola for breakfasts.
So this time for our Mothers Day get together I decided I would try out a cheesecake, there are a few different recipes I had found all using ground almonds in substitute for the biscuit base. I spotted a beautiful picture of a lime green coloured cheesecake and I had to have a look. The recipe looked simple and it was a lime cheesecake with no flour, sugar or dairy and the main ingredient is avocado, well I had to try it.
The recipe serves 12 so I halved the amounts and I hoped that the two avocados I had bought would be enough.
First was the base which is pecans, dates, cacao nibs, desiccated coconut and coconut oil, I blitzed it all up and pressed it into the tin and popped it in the fridge ready to make the filling.

Next was the messy business of peeling and chopping up the avocados, I find it easier to peel them with my hands rather than using a peeler hence the mess. 

Typically the phone rang and I had my hands covered with avocado so the lad had to answer the phone much to his disgust. 

So after chopping the avocado I added the lime zest, lime juice, coconut oil and honey to the avocado in my food processor and blitzed until it was all nice and smooth. Naturally I had to get every one to test it to see if they liked the taste. Girlie didn't like it, the lad loved it and Hubby loved it too but agreed a bit more zest and it would be better.
The filling was then poured on top of the base and after adding some Cacao flakes for decoration it went back into the fridge ready for today.

And I shall let you know later in the comments how it tasted.

Until next time
Vic xx

New Witch Doll

Yeah I finally finished the witch doll I started a couple of weeks ago, and I'm really pleased with her. She took only a day to finish which wasn't too bad especially as it has been a very busy week, which makes me wonder if its worth making a few basic doll up and then finishing them at a later date. But then I do like to work on the whole look and the character of the doll I want to create from scratch so I think I'll continue to make as and when I want to.

 So Connie the Crimson Witch ended up with the just the ruby red chiffon for her skirt. I was thinking of adding an over skirt like the previous witch dolls but nothing looked right and then I thought about the black heart net but again it didn't look right. So I added ribbon and a sparkly buckle and she ended up with a red felt witches hat, which I thought would suit her better. 

I still have another doll to finish and I need to make the body and arms but I think I need to do some research first as I want to make some extras to go with it and to be honest I think next week is elf painting. 

So hopefully next week I will be showing you some freshly painted Cornish Pixie Elves. 

Until next time

Vic xx