Tiny Handmade Mermaid Dolls

Almost every year I make hand dyed ornaments for sale at the Boulder Handweavers Guild sale. These ornaments are actually tiny little cloth dolls. Each one is cut out of a tightly woven cotton cloth, sewn on my 1948 Singer 15-91 and then stuffed with polyfil. Then each one is hand dyed, painted and beaded. Depending on what the ornament is, other embellishments such as hair or wings are added. While these are quite small, each one takes quite a bit of time to make. The other day I noticed that it took 4 hours just to sew and stuff two mermaid ornaments. I don't know how long it then takes to dye, paint, bead and hair them yet, but I know it's quite a while. Here are 4 new mermaids I just finished:

Mermaid 1

Mermaid 2

Mermaid 3

Mermaid 4

Kitty Fairy and Mermaid in Shop

I recently added a kitty fairy and a mermaid to my Etsy shop. Kitty is here and the mermaid is here.

The Boulder Handweaver's Guild Sale

I've been busy as heck getting ready for the Boulder Handweaver's Guild Sale, which will be in Longmont, Colorado from this Wednesday until the following Tuesday. I even pulled some items from my Etsy store for it.
I modified the style of a few of my items and also added a few new styles. The Kitty Fairies, which were brand new to the FootHills Holiday Art Mart a few weeks ago are also being entered in the Guild Sale.


The mermaids and fairies have had a hair style change from previous years beaded hair and now have long flowing locks made of a beautiful art yarn.


And I've added a brand new design - a horse:


There will also be dragons, fish, dinos, moons, and of course cats!

The Boulder Handweaver's Guild Sale.

Foothills Art Center Holiday Art Market

I've been busy as heck getting stuff ready for two shows, one of which is the Foothills Art Center Holiday Art Market in Golden, Colorado. I put a board full of hand dyed cloth pins and quite a few ornaments there and some of my kitty pot holders.



This is the first time I've ever entered my kitty fairies in a show.

My board full of pins is quite colorful.


The show runs until December 30th.
FootHills Art Center, Golden Colorado

A Treasury of the Moon

I have always loved the moon, both in nature, folklore and art. Tweedlebee created this beautiful treasury on Etsy and included my moon ornament in it. The treasury will be up until Tuesday, November 11. Until then, you can find it here.

Bat Cats and Kitty Cats

Today, I had "help" while trying to photograph my newest bat cat ornament for my Etsy shop. Both Donny and Eric insisted in inspecting my little bat cat while I was taking its picture.
First to inspect and hog the camera was Donny, the twenty pound tabby:

Then Eric had to get a sniff in and thoroughly inspect the ornament:


This is the little bat cat that they were so curious about. You can find him in my Etsy store here.

The Cloth Doll Design Process - Part 1

I'm going to start posting a bit about actually making my pins, ornaments and dolls.

Recently, I was inspired to make some kitty fairies. I make cats, I make fairies - so it's not a very big stretch to make kitty fairies. First, I need to draw up some new patterns.


The above is a first attempt, and since I did it on a receipt for a sale, I photoshopped out the recipient's address. I tend to use whatever scrap I can find laying around to save paper.



Here, the resulting first prototypes. Ugh. Sometimes I get it right the first time, but usually I need to modify the pattern. The standing cat is too tall and skinny, and I really don't like that one leg. The other one is way too long and skinny and those back legs! How did they get bent like that? The tail is too long and blunt and the legs need to taper more.


Now I have a tubbier standing kitty that reminds me more of my 20 pound tabby and I like the overall look of the flying kitty, except the back legs are too tapered. I think I'll also make a slightly slimmer standing kitty, but keep the tubby one too.


Here's the final two kitties. I think I'll keep these. Next - the wings.

A new Kitty Ornament

I finished up another new kitty ornament/doll and put him up on Etsy. He's done in some of my favorite colors - blues and greens with just a touch of purple on the feet and tail. I wish the highly metallic bright shiny Lumiere paint showed up better in the picture. He's listed here.

Brand new Kitty Ornament

I'm getting ready to upload a brand new kitty ornament to Etsy in a little while. I just have to take another picture with a ruler to show the size. I dyed it up three days ago, painted it two days ago and beaded it yesterday. I like the dye job on this one.

Update: I've just added him to Etsy.