The Sassy Pack Rat

Lots Going On...

2013-05-24T11:07:00.001-05:00

Not getting many dolls done. Been mainly focused on stripping wallpaper in my bathroom. We are trying to hold out till the housing market goes back up but in 3 years we are out of here regardless.

We live in a 4 bedroom house with 2 kitchens, which when my brother moves out this year and my daughter moves out too will be too large for just my mom and me. We may end up renting the house but certain projects we held off on till now need to be tackled.

Sprucing up the bathroom upstairs.
A complete re-do of my kitchen
New carpeting
New railing for the stairs
Entire inside of the house needs to be painted
Work in the backyard

Just had the house appraised again and it's worth significantly less than we paid for it and all the money we put into the house: new roof, new windows, new siding, new gutters, 2 retaining walls in the front of the house, the 4 season sun room, new tub and shower in 2 bathrooms, new sump pump, new water heater, new air conditioner, high quality laminate wood floor in the foyer and the mudroom, new front door and storm door, new kitchen door, new patio door, new privacy gates that lock, landscaping around the sun room, stepping stones into the yard from each gate, new sewer line from house to street, is now gone!

When I think of the money spent and the loss of equity I want to cry. The house has lost $105,000 in value since the last appraisal 6 years ago. Unfortunately to even try and sell we HAVE to re-do the kitchen. The grand plans we had have been scaled down a lot but doesn't matter to me since I won't really get to enjoy the kitchen, it's all done for a future buyer. Sucks but whatever.

I know this is an art blog but other things do happen in my life and on occasion I share them here.

Here's a golden haired girl I did work on this week. She needs clothes and accessories and then will be in my shop.

Finished My Sweet Zombie Girl.

2013-05-15T16:07:00.000-05:00

Cute with a dash of creepy?

In my shop now.

Worktable Wednesday.

2013-05-08T12:03:00.001-05:00

I have 3 dolls on the worktable today. The pumpkin girl needs clothes, the purple haired girl I've decided will be a fairy with embroidered wings and the green girl is a zombie.

It's going to be 80 today so I hope to enjoy some of the great weather and I hope it's lovely where you are too.

New Dolls Finished AND Listed In My Etsy Shop!

2013-05-07T12:26:00.000-05:00

April was a crappy month but May is slowly turning out better so far. I completely finished 2 new dolls! 2 more have their bodies done but need clothes.

These 2 cuties are actually listed in my esty shop right now! Will they sell? Who knows? We'll see!

After I made Ann I had to make Andy. He was designed and sewn in the last 3 days. Ann has a vintage Ann face embroidered on her apron. Both dolls have embroidered face, hair and clothing details.

Worktable Wednesday and WIPS.

2013-05-01T09:53:00.000-05:00

Oh wow two posts in the same week! Anyway here's what's on my worktable today.

I love both of these girls! I have mad love for Raggedy Anne and Pumpkin headed dolls.

I Made Some Decisions.

2013-04-30T12:08:00.001-05:00

It's been a very difficult month for me so I've decided to make my life as easy as possible. My OZ series of soft sculptures will be an on going project for the rest of the year. I don't have the energy to finish them up in say a month or 2 like I thought I could. Coming to this realization really sucks and I fought really hard against it but I need to be honest with myself and remove a lot of stress from my life.

I apologize to those of you who were waiting eagerly for the next character to be finished. It will happen eventually, just slower that I originally anticipated.

I've been working on the small doll design and will have some finished soon. The design is perfect for laying on the couch, watching movies and sewing.

A new order of felt just came in and I'm excited to work in some new colors. Don't you just love getting new supplies? It makes my brain go all into overdrive!

What's your favorite supply?

The Prototype Of A New Design Finished.

2013-04-24T13:30:00.001-05:00

See I actually do finish things! This little doll is a prototype for future small felt dolls I'll be making to sell and also there is a future PDF pattern in the works for those who would like to make their own.

I designed her in a retro big eyed doll style that I love so much. She's 12 inches tall and completely hand sewn. The design still needs some tweaking but it's almost there.

Such a sweet face!

A New WIP

2013-04-22T13:07:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the delay in blogging any new progress. I've been too sick to work on much of anything. I was working on the lion but it was just too much to deal with so I've set him aside for right now. I'll go back to him in the next couple of days, I hope.

I have slowly started a new special project. It's small and easily completed. Eventually it will be a PDF pattern for sale, but right now I'm going to make and sell a few to gauge the interest level.

Thanks for visiting!

Here Comes The Tin Man!

2013-04-12T14:09:00.003-05:00

O.k. I left off showing you a wip pic of 3 characters. I finished one but still have the other two to work on. I tried to photo document the steps mostly in case I ever had need to make one of these again for a custom order or something, and also in case anyone was interested in my process. Warning this post is photo and rambling text heavy.

Here he is at the very beginning on the right. I forgot to take a full body photo of him after he was sewn and stuffed but his body is similar to the dolls in the photo below.

I struggled with this doll because I wasn't sure if it was worth all the time and trouble and effort to do all the details I had in mind for him or really any of the others in this series. I had a crisis of felt! I thought about simplifying him to make my life easier, to get him done quicker and move on faster. I suffer from a chronic painful illness so my good work days can be few and this project was turning into an never ending one (at least that's how it felt to me). I had huge plans for a Wonderland project last year that never got off the ground so I was determined to do this one when things just started to fall apart.

While I was moaning and groaning and flinging things around my studio and pretty much depressing myself my daughter asked what was the problem. So I explained it all and she convinced me that if I simplified the dolls I'd be very unhappy with them at the end and what was wrong with details? Even if they never sell isn't my satisfaction with them the important thing? She is always amazed by what I come up with. So then we watched part of the movie so she could see the costumes and details because she has never seen the movie before and became more adamant that I had to do them properly. So per her suggestion I put all the other dolls away and am concentrating on just one at a time. Working so isolated as I do I don't really have anyone to bounce ideas and suggestions on so she was so helpful. She really saved this project.

Here's the beginning of the collar and barrel body that I'm adding over the basic body. I was stumped at what to use for rivets but have a ton of mini white buttons so I hand dyed them a blueish gray.

What I forgot to show is that the button/rivets go down his back too.

I stuffed his barrel to almost bursting.

Closed up the bottom.

Wired and sewed his hands. I HATE wiring and sewing hands. It's usually one of the last things I do.

Made a mock up/pattern of his funnel hat.

It was at this point I realized I sewed the handle on backwards and set everything aside to cool off before I took the whole thing apart (because of the way it was sewn) to position the handle correctly. AAAGGGHHH!!!

Hat pinned in place and you can now see the rivets/buttons on the sides of his head. He has some on the back of his head too.

Arms attached, bow tie in place, axe in hand, done.

It's a horrible day for photos here but I'm done. Once everyone is done I'll do a good photo-shoot of the whole cast. I'm so very pleased with how he came out that I've been carrying him around the house all day. I hope you like him too.

WIPS

2013-03-29T12:01:00.000-05:00

I'm finally back to work. My mom can now do most things for herself now. She does a lot she shouldn't do but that just the way she is...stubborn.

I had a bit of a meltdown yesterday because of a problem with one of the characters I was sewing, but I pushed through and fixed it. These will be some of the most detailed characters I've made since the Frank and Elsa doll and they will take time and since I tend to work slowly, don't expect to see these finished anytime soon. There are 7 characters in this series and of course I can't do anything the easy way so I'm still hunting for materials: striped jersey fabric - black and white or red and white, a certain kind of pink fabric, and a few other things.

I promised to keep showing my wips so here they are. I got these guys sewn and stuffed yesterday. The middle one looks like a bear right now but he won't once I'm done. He'd make a pretty cute bear though. These 3 have a ton more detail work but I think most people will know who they are now.

Thanks for popping by and taking a peek!

Where Have I Been?

2013-03-25T12:10:00.000-05:00

I haven't blogged recently and here's why. I did just start to work on dolls again when my daughter came down with the nastiest case of food poisoning on my birthday. Yep my birthday. I spent 2 and a 1/2 days holding her hair, giving her ice chips, tucking her into to bed with me and promising her she wouldn't die even though she felt like she was.

Then after all of that my chronic illness decided to jump into the party and I've been down and out for days and days. In between all of this I've been taking care of my mom. March has been a really sucky month!

I haven't felt like doing anything. I've been physically and emotionally exhausted. But finally the creative muse slowly crept back and I although I'm working slower than the usual slow that is my normal work speed, at least I'm working.

My once empty work table is full of body parts and embroidery thread.

Here's the guy I'm currently working on. Moriah will know who this is. ;0) Some of you who have been following along will know too. I really love how he's coming along!

I've been able to do a few things

2013-03-08T12:08:00.000-06:00

Now that I've settled into a routine with care for my mom, I'm finding I have bits of time to myself here and there. So I'm taking advantage of that and working on my new portfolio website and sewing up arms and legs so I don't fall too behind schedule.

I've also decided to teach my daughter to pin patterns and cut them out and stuff parts for me. I'm hoping this will help me keep moving forward.

Injury In The House

2013-02-26T14:00:00.000-06:00

So if you don't follow me on Facebook you probably don't know that my mom took a really bad fall Sunday night. She broke both her wrists, knocked her head good and has an impressive shiner. We found out today that she might need pins put in her wrists. They put her in removable splints until the swelling goes down and we'll know next week if she needs surgery.

And this is after icing and most of the swelling went down. She can't feed herself or do bathroom type things so I'm back to Nurse duty. I haven't had much sleep and I'm pretty exhausted and we are only 2 days into this whole thing.

Because of all of this unexpected trauma I have to give up hope of finishing my Santos Cage Doll. I just don't have any time and the deadline for me to finish and mail it was this weekend. I also never got my mom's birthday doll started. As much as I love my mom I'm really disappointed about that Santos Doll.

I'm doing a birthday swap with another doll maker in March and that's probably the only thing I will get done. I hope I can keep working on some of the other dolls I recently showed since I have no deadlines for them.

So if I'm not around much you now know why.

Frank and Elsa Are Back!

2013-02-22T11:21:00.000-06:00

My Topsy Turvy Frank and Elsa doll is back from ADQ. Got a big box yesterday and was pleased at how carefully she/he/it was packed.

I missed them greatly! Now do I keep them or list them for sale?

I Love Tildas!

2013-02-21T14:04:00.000-06:00

If you don't know about Tildas you should, they are sweet dolls and softies you can make yourself. Lots of people make them to sell too. They are the creation of Tone Finnanger, a Norwegian designer. She has lots of books with her patterns and shows step by step how to make these fun dolls. She also has her own fabric line and wow are those fabrics beautiful! The dolls themselves are very simple but the clothing and accessories really make them pop. They are so beautiful that I don't consider them children's dolls.

Here's the book I picked up at the craft store over the Summer. She has them for every season and a new Fairytale one too that I'm looking forward to coming out in English.

Now you must be wondering why I'm posting about this but I intend to make one of these for my mom for her birthday. She loves anything whimsical and these are perfect.

I have a Tildas board on Pinterest because I love them so and have collected images from some awesome makers. Tildas lend themselves to being sweet and simple to fashionable. Below are 2 of my favorite Tilda high end makers with links to their blogs.

http://anialkowo.blogspot.com.br/2012/05/flower-fairy.html

http://agaphcia.blogspot.com.es/2012/11/blog-post_13.html

I'm not doing anything like this, just a simple pattern from the book but oh aren't these fabulous? My mom's birthday is March 2nd so I need to get going on this probably this weekend. My birthday is in March too so I may have to me myself a Tilda too.

What's Going On Wednesday

2013-02-20T12:51:00.000-06:00

I finally got a embroidery thread storage box and moved all the wrapped bobbins in. It still looks like a mess to me cause they all get riffled through and pulled out, compared, used then shoved back in. I've given up on the idea that they will stay pretty and neat, that's just not how I roll.

I did this Sunday not today but I'm showing it today. I pulled out all my felt and re-folded it, sorted it my color and type and put it back in the drawers. Next, I actually labeled the drawers so I don't have to dig through multiple drawers looking for a color. The very bottom drawer used to hold yarn and scrap-booking stuff. I cleared that out and all the yarn is in 2 other drawers, freeing up a whole big drawer.

I did the same with these smaller drawers. All my felt sheets of odd colors, prints and embossed felt that only come in sheets fill the top and yarn fills the 2 bottom drawers. It feels good to have this organized. Not having yards of felt piled up on my worktable...priceless.

A reader of this blog asked me the other day if I had a tutorial on how I do my dolls features. I don't, but she and I talked back and forth and I kind of explained how I do what I do. After that conversation I thought maybe I'd do a tutorial. But then I thought it took a long time and a lot of hard work to figure out what I do. It's what makes my dolls special, unique and mine. So I decided not to do a step by step but just show a wip so you get the basic idea without me giving up all my secrets.

I use felt to mark out the face and facial expressions. Some are sewn on and some aren't, it all depends on the doll. Next I embroider the lips, eyes and eyebrows. This is crazy time consuming and at times dangerous for a clumsy girl like me. A face takes about 4 hours start to finish. I usually save this kind of work to do while watching Hockey (Go Blackhawks!)

These dolls always look like monsters until I do the pupil. Still need to do the eyebrows here but you get the idea of what I do. The nose is sewn on but there is stuffing inside to give it dimension.

Here are 2 other faces where I did a few things differently. Well I hope you enjoyed seeing my process. The dolls will be appearing in my etsy shop and perhaps my own website in the Spring.

I Know I Said I'd Post More...

2013-02-19T11:57:00.000-06:00

....but I keep jumping from project to project and I think that it would irritate you all no end to see me jumping around like that. But I'll try to post WIPS in case you are following along with any interest.

So here's a beginning of a project that I'll be able to show the finish of in hopefully a week and a half. ADQ - Art Doll Quarterly Magazine is having another challenge and I hope my creation will be good enough to be published. It'll be a Santos Doll with my own special twist.

Not much to see yet. Spent time last night working out the proportions. I'll be sewing the face details today. She'll have some beading on her clothes that I'm looking forward to doing. I'll continue to show WIPS and let you know more about her.

In case you don't know about Santos Cage Dolls they were originally created for use as in-home altars in 17th Century Europe. They were needed in small villages that did not have a priest. Also for when it was not possible to travel to church, such as during times of war. They were often rustic and carved from wood. The dolls emulate the image of Christ, The Virgin Mary, Patron Saints, as well as other notable figures in biblical history. They would often have wings and crowns. The doll sits a top of a platform built on a cage type construction. Not really sure what the cage was for except to add height to the figure. There was probably a long fabric skirt attached at some point.

Oh here's another wip I can show. This is one of my jumping around projects. It'll be slow going cause I have no deadline for this and I'm working hard to make them super special.

You might now be able to guess who they are. If not no worries I'll show more wips as I continue.

Well, back to sewing!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2013-02-14T12:19:00.000-06:00

Look I got you some donuts!

Wednesday Worktable

2013-02-13T11:57:00.000-06:00

I'm going to be pretty random today. More progress to show on the dolls from the previous Wednesday post.

Here's one in the works. Part of a series I'm doing. I'm not going top say what they are yet. I have a quandary though. One of the characters is usually made human like since a human played him in a movie. But in the original story he was an large animal that the other characters could ride on. I'm unsure at this point what I may do.

Binks popped into the studio for a head scratching session.

Lita is knocked out under blankets as usual.

I made a little Valentine Plush for my daughter. It's fleece with felt accents. Can I say sewing with fleece is kind of a slippery slidy nightmare?! I much prefer felt.

Well that's all right now. I'm in a holding pattern waiting for ordered supplies to arrive.

The Super Hero has a Weakness...

2013-02-07T11:10:00.001-06:00

and it's being an unwilling victim in a tug of war between a 4 year old and his 12 year old brother. Why a 12 year old was fighting over a toy that wasn't his, I don't know. Here is the result:

Poor "Z Man" has a split arm. Sigh! I knew I should have double stitched those arms. But I didn't since made him xmas eve late at night. I'll try and patch him and hope he holds. Knowing my youngest nephew I didn't think this would last more than 6 months anyway. It's just sad to see something you worked on so hard be abused. I guess that why I don't usually make things for children.

What's Going On Wednesday.

2013-02-06T13:23:00.000-06:00

Changed it up just a bit today. I have some wips and a finished piece to show. In my Art Doll Artists Group we had a Valentine's ornament swap. I just posted all the photos on the groups FB page so I can now show the one I did. We had a small but awesome group and everyone did something original and fun.

Let me say first I'm not a clay and paint person, I'd like to be but well I try and it's usually fairly successful but they are mine so I have to love them I guess.

I am not a Valentine person. I like the chocolate but nothing else really about the day. But I decided not to be grumpy about it and I did a cute little Lovebug.

I hope the recipient will like him at least a little. Maybe I'll send some chocolate to sweeten the deal. ;0)

I cleared off a section of my table to shoot the ornies on this tree. The other half of the table is now a piled up mess.

My mom won a giveaway at church for the people who attended the movie nights and since I'm really the LOTR fan she gave them to me. They are PEZ dispensers! O.k. yeah I'm a nerd.

While watching 2 really boring hockey games over the weekend I was able to wind all of this thread. Still need to get a nice case for it but it looks pretty like this too.

3 new dolls in the works. And can I tell you this tip? NEVER use the blue fabric marking pen on felt! It's supposed to wash off, it does and then reappears over and over again till you want to scream.

My Embroidery Thread Is Seriously Out of Hand.

2013-02-01T14:58:00.000-06:00

I use a lot of embroidery thread. I'm not too happy with how I store and organize it though. It's all a bit of a mess.

Back in my cross stitch days (years ago) I had a container all organized like this, actually I think I had 2.

I think I was more anal back in the day than I am now. I don't know about you but I hate (hate is such a strong word!) o.k. very much dislike winding all those freaking bobbins. It's so annoying! But oh doesn't it look pretty? Maybe the bobbin fairy will come and wind for me? I have 2 of these bins but I use them for other things instead of floss.

DMC makes these binder pages with long plastic bobbins. I bought some and didn't like them but I thought the binder idea was great. I love to organize things in binders.

Wrapping your thread round old clothes pins is cute and colorful. I've seen thread wrapped around old wooden spools too. People put them in glass jars and they are pretty and stuff, but again all that winding!

Here's how I currently keep mine. In an old holiday cookie tin. A jumbled mess. Nice huh? Can you imagine winding all of this? Maybe I should have a winding party?

In that mess I have whole and partial skeins of DMC and other brands.

Mixed in with all of that I do have some wound bobbins.

I have a little fabric basket a friend made for me that I store all my bits of smaller pieces in. Waste not want not! I really need to go through this soon. I also have a shoebox sized plastic bin that holds my overflow thread.

I'm going to take some time this weekend and take care of this mess.

Wednesday's Worktable.

2013-01-30T11:19:00.000-06:00

I've been feeling a bit blah lately. I've started projects, become unhappy with them and then tossed them into the body parts bin. So if you were hoping to see more wips of things I had been showing you will be disappointed. The wave pattern skirt is one of those projects. I started to embroider on it and just HATED it. I couldn't do what I saw in my head and became too frustrated. I'll go back to it but later after I've had time to think and calm down. The headless seated body is another of those projects.

This is my table right now. I designed a new pattern and have been making modifications to it. I think I finally have it the way I want it so I'll be making these dolls for a while. They are fairly quick to make, easily modified, have hand embroidered details and are mostly machine sewn. Hopefully you'll see them in the next few months and be able to say "Oh those are Jennifer Tobicoe's dolls". My creations have been a bit scattered design wise the last few years. Unless you know me or follow my work closely you probably wouldn't be able to see that it was all "Jennifer's work". I'll be showing more wips soon and also blogging more.

Art Doll Quarterly Has Arrived...

2013-01-23T10:17:00.001-06:00

and my doll is in it!!!!!!!!!! I joined in last year for their Topsy Turvy Doll Challenge. The magazine came last night and I was jumping for joy to see my doll published in this wonderful magazine. I didn't really exactly always "feel" like an art doll artist until I got word from the publisher that I was in. Now I know it. It's been validated.

I did Frank and his Bride Elsa for my doll. It was a challenging doll to do and one of my most favorite dolls I've created so far. I started in in July and finished it in August of 2012. Here's a link to photos I took of Frank and Elsa.

Here they are! The first line of text says, Artist Jennifer Tobicoe, that's me! LOL! I lost a lot of sleep waiting to hear if they wanted to publish my work. I'm super glad I put myself out there and grateful for the not so gentle prodding of a friend who told me to just send it in.

Lack of Motivation

2013-01-22T13:20:00.000-06:00

I'm going through a period of complete lack of any motivation. It happens now and then and I know it will end eventually, but it's tough going right now. I have 2 large projects in the works and a Valentine swap piece to make, another project to start next month, and interview to write up and lots of ideas for things. Just can't get myself going. In a weird way I kind of feel like I'm waiting for something, what that is I don't know.

I've been feeling closed in and squeezed in my studio lately. So I packed all my dolls away and moved supplies around so that things were off the floor. I moved my old sewing machine onto a shelf so I would stop banging my foot on it everyday. I also moved all of my clay and painting supplies to the shelves above my clay table (where my dolls used to hang out). I moved my new sewing machine to one side of the clay table to give me room on my regular worktable. I feel calmer now but still not motivated.

My daughter has been sick and I've been running around taking care of her. The poor thing is either in her bed or on the couch. But she has some furry friends to cuddle with.

I think I need a vacation, but since that's not going to happen I'll continue to wander around the house until my mojo comes back...hopefully soon.