wich-crafting

Project Post: Custom forest faerie with birds in her hair.

2012-11-20T17:34:00.000-06:00

greetings all,
as promised i'm bringing you a post with pics this week! this was a custom piece i did for a little girl for her ninth birthday. after seeing my dolls at a festival, her mother contacted me for a custom piece.
apparently she had quite a conversation with her mom about what kind of doll she would make if she made one herself. (this custom piece was a surprise) here is the list her mom sent via email (posted with permission, of course):

The creature would rescue creatures who had been bullied

She would have the power to change the seasons and the weather so that if someone was being mean to another, she would cause it to snow on the bad person so they couldn't move.

The creature would be a girl with brown skin, dark brown eyes, black curly hair down to her hips and the hair would be able to be used as a nest for injured birds

She would wear leggings in the summer and then over them she would wear a furry skirt in the winter

She would have different colors of shirts (red, green, brown)

She would have soft faerie shoes and her feet might be hooved

She would have wings to fly throughout the forest where she would live

this was so much fun to make! i tried to incorporate as many of her ideas as possible, but i did have to compromise a little for simplicity's sake (she has shoes, but no hooves, and only one shirt- although it's removable so she could add her own if she wanted to)

here is a pic of her back, with wings attached and you can see the back of her simple shirt.

here is her wristlet before it was sewn on. i embroidered little symbols that i thought would be good to represent her powers to control the weather: lightning bolt, raindrop, sun, snowflake, and tornado

and in these three photos you see the final placement of the symbols

here you can see her shoes and leggings. both of which were completely sewn on. sorry for the funky depth of field in this shot. i know it makes the shoes harder to see :/

i made some tiny birds out of felt and attached bobby pins to them so they could roost in her hair.

as well as in a pocket in her wrap around skirt.

it's a little hard to see in these photos (black hair and fur is really hard to photograph well!) but she has little nest shaped buns on top of her head to help those injured birds.

so here she is with her leggings

and now with her skirt.

i can't tell you how much fun it was to help a little girl's idea come to life. the rich imagination kids have is so astonishing. i'll be back next week with tales of cooking for nine and holiday craziness, in the meantime i wish my american readers a happy thanksgiving. safe travels, good company, and good eats to all,

thanks so much for taking your time to read today!

-sarah

it can't be mid november already?!?!

2012-11-13T13:25:00.001-06:00

greetings all!
well, i'm back. had a blast pulling out an old costume for halloween, yet somehow managed to miss taking pictures! d'oh! i'll have to don the outfit here soon and force my hubby to photograph me.... oh, what he does for me :D
let's see here, i'm in the middle of a bunch of projects now (what else is new?) but it also just occurred to me just how little time i have until the winter holiday season! eep! this really snuck up on me this year, i mean next week is thanksgiving! i usually try to do a mostly handmade holiday, but we will see how far i get this year.
i've started yet another jack skellington hat for myself this year. this will be jack number three in twice as many years. i somehow lost my first one. it just disappeared. i have no idea where i left it. none at all. the second one somehow got mixed up in all the stuff we sent off to goodwill this summer during some minor purging. *sob* well, i hope he went to a good home. i wore the heck out of those hats! the previous two i crocheted. this one is no exception, but i'm going to try and line it in fleece. winters get cold up here in minnesota!
i'm also starting a fourth doctor scarf, and i'm knitting it! this is quite the feat for me (14 feet to be exact ;) i'm not a very accomplished knitter. i can knit, and purl, and increase and decrease on the sides, but that's about it. i'm also very s-l-o-w so we shall see how long this project takes. i'm doing the season 15 version, all in vanna's choice, the pattern and colors can be found here for those interested.
also, i wanted to say that i'm truly amazed at all the positive response to my weeping angel barbie tutorial, and would like to welcome all of the new readers.

well, that may be all i have for now. i promise to get a post with some pics in here soon!
happy crafting!
-sarah

update and halloween

2012-10-30T19:41:00.001-05:00

well, here i am, emerging from another long silence. working two jobs and trying to find time to make things and juggle the rest of life left me no time for blogging! i've now turned those two jobs into one job, and i hope to give more time to this medium. i hope to bring more posts, and some that aren't just project posts. also i want to say thank you to the amazing phenomenon that is pinterest. i've been seeing a lot of new faces that have come here because of my weeping angel barbie tutorial. welcome! and thanks for stopping by!

it's now my absolute favorite time of year, autumn, and halloween! i love every part of now, but, as one might guess, making and putting together costumes is my favorite. the nice thing about being obsessive about costuming for oneself is the backlog of costumes that i've acquired over the years. this year, for the first time in over a decade, i'll be working on halloween. we are encouraged to dress up, and it is sure to be a lot of fun! i didn't have the time this year to make something new, so i went through my backlog to find something comfortable enough to work in. i'm resurrecting an old faerie costume i made about ten years ago. i'll post pics later if i remember to get a shot tomorrow, but it's pretty cool if i do say so myself. it's a skirt and top made entirely of giant fabric oak leaves. how giant? i have long sleeves, each made of one leaf a piece. topped with an acorn hat made out of felt. i ended up making each of the leaves individually, then sewing them together the best way i could see in order to make the outfit as if the faerie just found a bunch of leaves and made her outfit out of them. looking back, i see the seeds of the ideas i brought to my first faerie dolls, and have applied to many of them ever since. it's funny how you don't realize at the time that this is something linked, but everything you've done before informs what you do now, whether overtly or not.

well, i think this is all for tonight,
happy haunting!
-sarah

SALE!!!

2012-03-22T19:53:00.002-05:00

just a quickie to let you readers know that i've got three faerie dolls on mt etsy site here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/fayeven for $15 off their regular price. it's spring cleaning for my shop and i need to make room for new product!

tanks for looking and have a fantastic day!
-sarah

who loo

2012-03-08T14:45:00.002-06:00

it all started with a dalek.

some years ago i crocheted a dalek and then decided it needed to be a toilet paper holder.... i got the pattern from this lovely site PDF here

here you can see the inside where i reinforced it with plastic canvas and felt.

we used it for a while, but it seemed so out of place in our otherwise normal and fairly organic bathroom. it was done in greens and browns, with a matchstick window shade and twiggy baskets and a leafy print shower curtain complete with leaf hooks. the poor dalek looked so incongruous there. when it came time to renovate the room i knew what my inspiration piece would be for the new decor.

we did a lot of work in this room before the decorating as there were lots of repairs to do. we put in a new subfloor, new linoleum, new shower surround, new sink, new cabinets,new mirror, new toilet roll holder, new towel holders..... about the only things we kept to the original were the tub, the toilet and the window. you see, due to some old water damage, we had to take down the tile. all of the tile. the room was tiled on all four walls up about 4 feet in a sickly pinkish beige that i never, ever could stomach. these tiles also included built in towel racks and TP roll holder.

because the walls were so damaged from removing the tile we opted for wainscoting instead of paint. and yes there were many references to this monty python sketch when we put it up.

here you can see the cool tub detail. our house was built in 1947 and the tub is original. i liked these lines a lot and tried to echo them in the fixtures we found. also, note the blood red chenille rugs. when thinking about remodeling my husband and i were playing bio shock 2, a game with a vintage sci fi look. i used a color scheme that felt this way to me, it also goes with the older house as well as the whoniverse.

i picked this light fixture because it reminded me of a vintage rocket ship.

and for the last bit of boring non-whoniverse related stuff, the sink. just a little pedestal we found with some similar lines. of course i needed the classic retro porcelain taps.

and now onto the fun stuff!
this is the cutting of her grandfather that Jabe Ceth Ceth Jafe from the forest of cheem gifts to the doctor and rose in the dr. who episode the end of the world. pictured in the lower left hand corner of this still. i made this from a twig i cut and re glued together, some faux leaves, and a peat pot that i sealed with mod podge to protect it from moisture.

i couldn't find a whoniverse themed shower curtain.... and while searching i fell in love with this little beauty from thinkgeek.com.

i realized then that in order to be consistent i needed to pull from the scariest parts of the whoniverse, especially including pieces from dr. who's darker, deadlier, more grown up cousin, torchwood.

which brings me to this.

the bottle from the torchwood episode from out of the rain. i still really need to track down an old film canister to place behind this to complete the effect. i couldn't find the proper shaped container and am not quite happy with the finished product so i may actually redo this at some point. this was a glass vinegar bottle i painted. the raised detail is polymer clay painted the same as the bottle. in real life this actually looks much more metallic. i used a metallic paint after all. also at some point i need to get my hands on an old metal film canister to place behind it.

a gas mask from the doctor who episodes the empty child and the doctor dances. no i didn't make this. it's something we've had in our costume bin for years. my husband picked it up at a military surplus store when he was still in high school. in digging it out of storage for use here i realized, not for the first time, that we probably aren't your average couple. it's not many times when you can hear yourself calling, in a cheerful voice, "hon, have you seen the gas mask?"

the weeping angel, originally from the doctor who episode blink that i posted about here.

and here's how i've 'trapped' her with mirrors....

in that last photo you can see the TARDIS quilt covering the window. here it is during the day. the windows only have one layer of fabric and no batting so the sun comes through just like the lights in the 'real' TARDIS.

some detail shots here. i used cording to outline the recesses in the wood and bias tape for the separation line between the doors. also, to add more dimensionality, i omitted the batting in the recessed rectangles, although it's hard to see here.

quilting details added to mimic wood grain.

the lettering is just some iron ons i found at the craft store.

and this is all i have so far. i have a couple more project ideas in the wings, like jack's wrist strap and possibly something really creepy... my husband half-jokingly suggested a face of bo toilet seat cover. there's something so wrong and so right about that idea i just might have to do it. if and when that happens you bet i'll post about it!

as always, thank you so much for looking! hope you have a great day,

-sarah

sun and moon masks: yule 2011

2012-01-27T20:08:00.001-06:00

this yule i made some masks for a winter solstice ritual celebrating the return of the sun. i'm still a novice at mask making, but i felt much more confident with the process this time. i'm definitely pleased with the results and impressed that these seemed to fit well even though i made them without measuring or molding the faces of the people that wore them. that is the benefit of using model magic i think. it remains slightly flexible even after it's cured.

here's the sun god mask ready to dry. i sculpted these both out of crayola model magic, just like the henry killinger mask. again, it's hard to get a smooth surface (as is obvious here. it looks like the sun god has some severe acne scars ;) i didn't care too much this time because i knew i was going to add glitter and several coats of varnish.

the masks were built on top of some styrofoam wig stands i picked up at a thrift store for cheap. i covered them with aluminum foil to prevent the clay from sticking to the foam.

here's both of them drying in my studio. i used the leftover black model magic from the killinger mask on the moon goddess. that's why she looks weird here. yes, model magic comes in a bunch of colors.

here they are after priming and the base color was added. you can see the surfaces are still rough, but it will get better.

unfortunately i didn't take any in-process shots of building the rest of the god mask, but here he is. the mask is coated in a couple different types of glitter. i used mod podge to glue it on. there's finer gold around his eyes and mouth, coarser for the rest of the face. to create the rays i cut apart a bunch of super glittery "christmas floral" stems in varying colors i found at the craft store. he's almost a sun green man in that way. the rays are all hot glued on. (i love my high temp hot glue gun!)

here's the moon goddess after her glitter treatment.

she is a half mask because she needed to vocalize during the ritual. the asymmetry was supposed to be indicative of a crescent moon. i'm not sure how successful that was, but i think she's still pretty.

and here she is with her flora attached (yep. these are supposed to be "christmas floral" pieces as well) i loved these pieces because they reminded me of ice as well as silvery moon things.

after the look was completed i proceeded to cover the masks in several layers of mod podge and spray varnish. these puppies DO NOT spread glitter everywhere, thank you very much!

here are two pics of me wearing the completed masks. i wanted to show off how the eyes look through them since the photos of the people in the ritual don't show that. i was going to cover the eye holes with black see through fabric, but decided against it. i really like seeing the eyes.

and here are the photos of the goddess and god in full costume. she's covered in silver body paint. it's subtle, but it worked really nicely.

he put this costume together himself. just fantastic! and holy safety pins batman!

thanks so much for looking!

Huldra 2

2012-01-24T18:21:00.002-06:00

happy new year readers!

ok, that might be a little late. i realize that it's almost february, but i've finally worked out the kinks in my system of uploading photos and i can now blog in comfort on my wonderful laptop and not on the big computer that lives in the frozen minnesota basement!

today i wanted to share with you a doll i made this december. it was inspired by a doll i created just over a year before. you can find that post here. you see, there was a small girl taking a class in which the previous huldra was featured, and she decided that she wanted a huldra for christmas. her mother, luckily, was able to contact me in time to make this happen! it's such a delight to be able to fulfill the wishes of a child.

it's always fascinating to me just how unique these dolls end up being. yes, i change the colors a bit, change the outfit and such, but they always seem like such specific individuals before i've chosen much but the skin color. right away i knew that this one would be traditional as well, but in an entirely different way than the previous huldra.

.

so i made her a bunad, a scandinavian folk costume.

here you can see her tail as well as her removable apron.

i also added a little jingle in her step. thinking of reindeer and red and that part of the world.

and here she is both with and without her apron. i kept a similar hairstyle to the previous huldra, and of course, she needed the cowbell. it is a part of her heritage after all. :)

here's a little close up portrait. note that i'm using different eyes now. i think these are a wee bit more endearing than the 'pie-eyes' i used previously.

thank you so much for looking! i've got some exciting projects to post about, so i'll be back soon.

take care and have a great day!

-sarah

craftster best of 2011

2012-01-23T15:15:00.000-06:00

HOLY CRAP.... i should perhaps be concerned that these creepy little things will take over the world now, but i'm just really honored to be on this list.... check out the awesomeness that is the Craftster Best of 2011!

I'm a Craftster Best of 2011 Winner!

building Dr. Killinger part 4: the finale... putting him all together

2011-10-31T11:33:00.003-05:00

greetings! i'm sorry i didn't get to posting this last week.... i wanted to show the final costume all put together and we just didn't get pics taken until saturday. the bonus is that you will get two posts this week!
let's see, we have a mask, a murder bag, gloves and shoes.... just how many props does one costume need? a lot apparently ;) dr. killinger *is* a doctor after all so he needs a stethoscope.

i picked this up at a local surplus store. it's an actual working stethoscope! but it was black. i painted the tubing with silver fabric paint. fabric paint so it will remain flexible and not chip off.... works like a dream!

next came the handcuffs (he keeps his magic murder bag handcuffed to his wrist.... one can't let those wondrous secrets get out ;)

these were just cheap metal costume cuffs i found. even though they were already silver colored i felt i needed to help them fit in with the other painted items so i added a touch of the fabric paint

next up, the umbrella.... because no evil mary poppins figure is complete without one!

i started with this. it was the closest i could find.... black fabric with a crooked handle, but it still needed some painting.

i added red fabric paint to the outlines of the umbrella.... following the contours like the illustration lines in the cartoon.

i also painted the handle and shaft.... and coated this in hard coat mod podge to protect it. (have i mentioned lately how much i love that stuff??)

the red edges make for a really cool effect when the umbrella is closed

next up, the coat!
he's really wearing a black 3/4 sleeve chef's coat. you can find them made for women, but i wanted to save some $$ and make it myself, but i couldn't find a chef's coat pattern in a women's cut and since i already was spending a lot of time and work on this i didn't want to have to drape a coat so i decided to modify a pattern... this is the closest thing i could find:

it worked really well. there were several options built into the pattern. once i figured out which version i would make i still needed to mod it a bit. my modifications were to add 3 inches to the with of the front panels (so the buttons were farther apart), use only the collar base to make the mandarin collar, lost the belt and belt loops, and take a smaller seam allowance for the with of the coat so it was a little more roomy without being too shapeless (the sleeves and shoulder seams stayed the same)

again, to up the cartooniness i followed the contour lines of the coat with some silvery grey bias tape (i couldn't find piping in the right shade ;)

the buttons were the cover your own kind that i just glued together and painted with the metallic fabric paint for that slightly unreal look. you can also see how i got out of making buttonholes for this..... i despise sewing buttonholes, but love buttons!

here you can see the effect of the buttons, 'piping' and stethoscope together.....

i cut the killinger logo out of some red faux leather i had and sewed it on the coat (the same stuff i painted and used on the murder bag)

and the coat is lined in red satin ;)

and one might wonder what i wore under the coat?

just a black t-shirt with the same logo process as the jacket because i knew i'd get warm if i was inside with a lot of people. this worked out quite nicely.

also, on my legs were just a pair of black leggings i gave the same treatment as the gloves (red fabric paint contour lines)
and here he is in all his glory:

one note. i wore this for two parties... the first one i just powdered my hair. it looked really great except it was really messy... i had powder everywhere! not the greatest choice when you're costume is black :/ we took these photos on the next day before the second party... i found some spray color, but it really didn't work well at all...... i may just invest in a grey wig :(

thanks so much for looking! i'll be back later this week with Dr. Rusty Venture!
have a safe and happy halloween!
-sarah

building Dr. Killinger part 3: magic murder bag and sundry

2011-10-18T16:09:00.006-05:00

greetings! i'm back with another edition of "building dr. killinger.

this time around i'm focusing on the magic murder bag.
here it is in the cartoon:

but first of all i wanted to show you the finished mask. to cover the eye sockets and still be able to see (in the cartoon they are a soft yellow... like they glow) i used a very sheer white fabric from my stash that i colored with a yellow marker (because if i used paint it would clog the holes and reduce visibility and dye won't really take on this polyester- besides, it's such a small piece why dye?)

and here is the final mask after varnishing and gluing the fabric in the eye sockets..

and here's an action shot.... i didn't realize just how creepy it would turn out after i covered the eyeholes.... it looks like i don't have eyes!

ok, as promised the magic murder bag.... this one didn't require much after i tracked down the right bag. that took some doing as i wasn't about to pay for a *real* vintage leather doctor bag especially since i'd have to paint it :/ so i found this amazing vintage bag on etsy for under $30 including shipping!

as you can see there's not a whole lot i'd have to do...

here is the final bag. i blackened the stitching, painted near the zipper to elude to the metal clasps in the original, and added the killinger logo. because i really can't use a stencil to save my life i cut the logo out of some pleather i painted to match the rest of the bag (and all the accessories)

here you can see the 'clasp' better

and i leave you with a glimpse of what we will see next time.... it's almost done!!!!!

thanks so much for looking!
happy haunting,
-sarah

building Dr. Killinger part 2: mask and gloves

2011-10-11T16:56:00.004-05:00

greetings!

i've been busily working on this killinger build and i have to say it's coming along nicely. i'm still awaiting the arrival of what will be my magic murder bag, and i haven't decided on an umbrella yet, but other than that i believe i've got all my components, i just need to assemble everything. i've been working on many elements of this at the same time, i don't have as many completed fully as i'd like, but but i can show you a few today.

first of all, i have to share this. the simplicity and silliness of this packaging:

yep. that's it. there's nothing else on the outside of this box, except the price tag from the surplus store i bought it from. i just found it amazing :) yep. it's a real stethoscope. no, there aren't photos of it here because i haven't painted it yet.

well, i've finished the gloves. these are just a pair of opera length costume gloves painted with fabric paint.
both sides shown here.

and the action shots (please ignore the chaos i call a studio- i'm in the middle of a project so it's a disaster area!)

in all of the costumes i'd seen, the people had chosen to make his gloves and leg coverings either all black or red... in the cartoon they appear like this. perhaps the gloves are meant to be black with red shine lines, or perhaps the other way around..... i'd contemplated finding a black satin that had a red sheen when put to light, but i wanted to go very cartooney with this costume. taking it to a weird level of surrealism since i'm obviously not a cartoon... you'll see this more pronounced when i post about the coat.

and now we have the mask. i used a piece i'd made several years ago as a form. yes, this was made from a cast of my face.

i covered it in foil

then i formed the mask over it so it fits my face exactly. i used crayola model magic for this purpose as i'd seen it recommended for this specific use before. i'd never used it before and i'm not sure if i like it.... i found it very hard to work with. hard to get anything smooth as you can see from the pictures, but i will admit it is extremely paintable and lightweight and even slightly flexible after drying which is really ideal for mask making.

as you can see, it's really still terribly rough despite my best efforts....

after a couple days of drying i pulled it off of the form and found the inside still wet and starting to crack.

here is the inside dried and the cracks up close. i filled the deepest of them with hot glue as i figured it would be flexible and strong... i ended up putting several coats of paint and modge podge on this piece just to smooth out the surface

here is a pic of the outside after the final color coat. i'll have pics of the final stages next time.

stay tuned for the next installment!
thanks so much for looking,
-sarah

Cute Kratos

2011-10-03T15:52:00.003-05:00

Greetings all,
this one will be a quickie. here's a project i put together a while ago, but haven't gotten around to posting until now. my husband had given me the book creepy cute crochet ( http://www.amazon.com/Creepy-Cute-Crochet-Christen-Haden/dp/1594742324/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317675588&sr=8-1 ) a while before and i thought he needed a cute kratos. if you aren't familiar with the character, kratos is the star (an anti- hero if you will) of the video game series god of war (we are both pretty big fans).
for those not familiar, here's what he looks like:

....and here's my cute version (yes, he's sitting on pandora's box from the "ultimate edition" of god of war III ... i told you we were fans ;)

i used the basic head, body and arms from the book and designed everything else myself. he's crocheted out of a light grey yarn (vanna's choice) his implements are all made of felt except for the "chain" on his belt and around his wrists which is embroidery floss. his eyes are black plastic doll eyes

note the stitched on abs here ;)

and a final pic of him with his not-so-cute alter ego

thanks for looking!

i'll be back next week with more killinger escipades ;)

-sarah

And so it begins.... building Dr. Killinger part 1: slippers

2011-10-03T12:29:00.007-05:00

greeting folks! yes, i've been quiet for a while, but i'm BACK! and it's my favorite time of year- time for halloween costume making! this year i'm going as a female dr. killinger from the adult swim cartoon "the venture brothers." i'm super excited for this and i started with my absoloute favorite part. the piece that made me want to do this costume in the first place: the slippers...

i mean really, who doesn't want a pair of skully slippers?

so, to start. i decided to make these completely from scratch... 'cause that's just how i roll ;)
i started by cutting out a shape in the outline of my foot in foam

you'll see that i have two different kinds here. the white is two layers of 1/4 inch craft foam (foamies) and the green is 1/2 inch high density foam.

next i cut two layers of polar fleece a bit larger than the outline for each shoe

then i cut more polar fleece, even larger than the first pieces, for the tops. again, two pieces per slipper. a note here, when making these in the future i will cut longer pieces for the tops so that they cover more of the top of the foot when completed.... these turned out a little short and a little harder to walk in than clogs.

next, i sewed up the bottoms, leaving a generous opening at the toe to slip the foam into

then i sewed the top pieces together (the one flat, straight seam- and please use a stretchy stitch here like a zig zag. you'll need it when you turn it), folded them around and pinned the tops to the bottoms:

another note here: if you do this using two kinds of foam make sure that what will eventually be your sole is actually on top, inside the shoe instead of on the bottom as the toes will get turned.

before i was done pinning i stuffed the tops with polyfil

now sew these up along your pinning line (i had to hand baste, then machine sewed it because my pins were getting in the way... it gets a little tight in there) and turn the toes. here you will be thankful you used a stretchy material as well as a stretchy stitch on the straight seam.

and now the really fun part begins: the needle sculpting! i can't really explain how i do this, it's just something i've taught myself over the years.... but you'll see why i used polar fleece here instead of something more traditional like terrycloth. i needed the stretch.
the completed needle sculpting:

then i cut shapes out of felt for the eyes and nose and used black embroidery floss to outline the teeth. in these next photos the eyes and nose aren't glued down yet (the dots are pins) but this is almost exactly what the final product looks like.

i've since glued down the eyes and glued red faux leather nonslip soles on the bottoms s they are now completed!

what will my next entry be about? the jacket? the mask? the magic murder bag?
stay tuned to find out!

happy hauntings,
-sarah

just a tidbit

2011-04-06T16:05:00.004-05:00

i just wanted to share with y'all the lovely little write up geekysweetheart of geekcrafts.com did on my weeping angel barbie (and while you're at it, please check out the rest of the site. so many geeky crafts, so little time!):

http://geekcrafts.com/weeping-angel-statue-with-tutorial/

i'm wondering if, as i type this, there are hordes of angels being created....... **shudders** ...WHAT HAVE I DONE??? :D

Don't Blink!

2011-03-31T11:41:00.008-05:00

UPDATE: i want to thank everyone visiting here lately! i also would like to make one thing clear: the weeping angel is a copyrighted character and i mean no infringement on the BBC or the creators of dr. who. i hope people do enjoy this tutorial, and make a few for themselves and family and friends. but *please* do not make these to sell. thank you!

greetings readers,
i admit it. i'm a geek. and a proud one at that. i'm also a longtime doctor who fan. i grew up watching the 4th doctor (tom baker) and was never very satisfied with the ones that came after, until the series was revamped in 2005. i've successfully indoctrinated my husband into the whoniverse (we are also huge torchwood fans) and decided to decorate our bathroom with the scariest themes of the whoniverse. the bathroom is a work in progress, but i'll get to posting more about it later, i promise. it occurred to me that one of the most obvious monsters for me to make in particular was a weeping angel barbie. for those not in the know, weeping angels are creatures that appear to be statues of angels with their hands over their eyes (hence the name), but whenever someone (or something) is not looking at them they can move-fast. even blinking can allow them to get you. so here's the "why," now i'll show you the "how."

i cut a wing shape out of craft foam and added details with hot glue.

i discovered that even jointed armed barbies' arms are not in a proper position to cover their eyes so i had to cut and reattach the arms at the elbow. more hot glue.... a high temp gun makes all the difference here. her arms aren't going anywhere.

i also took the time to glue all of her joints so they are solid and attach her to a base- yes, with wooden skewers.

i realize that i'm missing a picture here, but i attached the wings next using high temp hot glue again.

a simple gauze dress was added. the gauze allows for the proper folding and drape (once paint and glue are added) to be indicative of the romanesque statues the weeping angels disguise themselves as. also in the picture below you can see peeking out from behind one of her wings my rendition of the bottle of tears from the torchwood episode "from out of the rain"

then came the problem of her hair. despite barbie's fashion sense, styling her hair any more than ponytail or down is next to impossible. in order to create the carved waves seen in statuary i needed to rely on my trusty glue gun again.

i next used craft glue to settle her dress more, and prepare the piece for priming.

and somehow i didn't get a pic of the piece primed, but just imagine the entire piece white ;) the primer i used is a regular brush on house paint primer (like Kills) you could use a spray one i suppose, but i liked how i could really saturate the dress and make it a solid piece this way.

instead of trying to fake the stone texture myself i decided to use a textured spraypaint. i am quite pleased with the results! i used a "sand" texture instead of the "stone" texture as the flake was much more to scale for the size of the doll.

and here she is in her proper place. i am quite pleased with how well she fits with the small shelf i had lying around. ....and do not worry for me who fans, i am placing a mirror directly opposite her so she will be trapped ;)

thanks for looking!
-sarah

MOOSE!

2011-02-17T10:16:00.008-06:00

greetings all,

i wanted to share with you a project i finished recently that was so much fun to make! i was commissioned to make a moose costume for a local event. the only guidelines were "the goofier the better" and it was requested that he have chest hair ;)

well, i tell you, i was super excited, but i had *no idea* where to start for the head portion. i have lots of experience under my belt both in costuming and plush creatures, but i'd never made a mascot type head before..... so i went to the internet! i found the most *amazing* site by an incredibly talented young woman that totally saved my day. she has a bazillion detailed tutorials and her pieces are just spectacular. check her out at www.matrices.net despite fabulous tutorials this was still a learning process for me so there was still some trial and error. sure, there's stuff i would do differently next time, but all in all i'm pretty proud of the results.

apologies for the "messy studio" pics.... this is how i work ;)

here he is in his first phase.... so far he's made up of 1/2" foam and hot glue (i used *so much* hot glue on this project.... you would not believe!) the red strip on his cheek is plastic canvas, used to stabilize the piece yet still be flexible.

next were the antlers. i cut the shape out of more plastic canvas and covered one side with 1/2" foam. then on the canvas side i glued wooden skewers, cut to size, and added more canvas to stabilize the middle, then i covered this side with 1/4" foam.

here he is with more canvas to carry the weight of the antlers as well as to make them easier to attach.
antlers attached, and more foam added to give his face more dimension and personality. i love these pics on my mannequin, Stone, they are just so absurd!

i'm nearly finished foaming here.... he just needed a sneer...

yep. there he is. ;)

now onto "furring." instead of faux fur i used a stretch panne velvet as i was never satisfied with the furs available. the teeth and gums you see here are made from more foam. the colored craft foam kind this time.

and here is where i started covering the antlers. they are covered in flannel.

and now he has ears and nostrils, both covered in felt.

and at this point i decided he needed a bottom jaw as i decided he needed a tongue... (part of what i mean when i said i'd do some things differently next time)

mouth lined with more felt and he has eyes now.... these are made from plastic bowls... yes you read that right! this is the part i would really change next time. i didn't use the proper bowls as i was in a time crunch and after running a few places i got the best i could find at the time. i wish i'd found something bigger so i could have a smoother curve instead of the ridge he has, but you live and you learn.

here's his tail. it's designed to be threaded through a belt in the back (that's what my hand is going through)

and this is my third and final attempt at a moose hand.... sometimes i just don't understand why some parts are so hard. this was supposed to be the easy bit, but i was over complicating it. they ended up being just simple gloves out of the stretchy panne and felt. for some reaason i didn't get a final finished picture, but the only difference was that i hand sewed the felt onto the panne at the overlap, making them more like one piece, subtle, but effective i think.

and two shots of my "helpers".... one looking sooooo comfy i didn't have the heart to move her, the other exuding his macho nature by using a pincushion as a pillow! weirdos! (and don't worry, the glue gun was cold ;)

i realize now that i didn't get a pic of the dickie i made to put under the lumberjack shirt.... it was really simple, made mostly of the panne, accentuated with a black faux fur i found for chest hair.

here he is in all his glory:

thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day!
-sarah

Testing

2011-01-19T09:39:00.001-06:00

Greetings folks! I'm just testing a new way to blog (so hopefully my posts won't be so few and far between ;)
I'm posting this from my phone! Technology is truly amazing sometimes. If this works, I'll be back with a post of some substance ;)
Hope you have a great day!
-Sarah

frost fae

2010-12-29T10:27:00.000-06:00

greetings all! i hope each and every one of you had a wonderful holiday. today i'd like to share a piece i created for my mother in law for christmas this year. meet the frost fae!

i'd been sort of dreaming about a wintry, frosty faerie for a while and thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to create her. i started first with her hair. it's a blend of 4 yarns, with a sprinkling of iridescent embroidery floss and ribbon

next up i made the coat... you see, i wanted a faerie in a parka, but then i thought with all of the hair and the bulk of the coat the addition of wings would be too much so i compromised.

the main part of the coat is a sweatshirt fleece with the fuzzy inside turned out and trimmed in faux fur. the wings are felt (made 100% from recycled plastic bottles!) and they are stitched with metallic/iridescent embroidery floss that is very difficult to photograph... it's much more sparkly in real life!

some stitching on the front

her big fluffy boots of recycled felt and faux fur

a detail of her hat and the bead i used to top it

a closeup of her button and pearl necklace:

and a whole body shot, showing off her necklace and belt and shorts

and a more modest shot.... i was originally going to have the coat fastened closed, but it turns out that she couldn't sit that way so she's an immodest little elemental ;)

thank you for looking,
hope you have a wonderful new year!
-sarah

Huldra

2010-12-15T10:11:00.000-06:00

greetings readers! i am so excited to finally be able to post about this next piece. it was commissioned as a gift some months ago and has been gifted so i can post her!

What is a Huldra? Huldre are Scandinavian fair-folk, usually described as beautiful women until their cow's tails are revealed.... this little lady is obviously embracing much more of her cow's nature and isn't afraid of being found out. she's amongst friends here.
more information about huldre can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huldra

that infamous tail:

her hooves.

i chose her hair color and style because i fell in love with the look highland cattle have: http://www.birchimages.co.uk/galleryimages/Highland%20cattle%20Scotland%202.JPG

this huldra is still connected to her roots and is wearing a bronze-age style string skirt as seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egtved_Girl

so, what's with the two sticks? this was a commissioned gift for a very special and very talented woman i am honored to know. she is a volva (staff-carrier) and uses her stav (staff) to create music... more info here: http://karitauring.com/about.html

i got to use my new rotary tool to craft the stav and tine from sticks given by the maple tree in my backyard. i'm absolutely in love with the tools now and have no idea how i existed without it before!

and here she is, ready to dance and play!

thank you so much for looking!

new couple of critters!

2010-11-04T17:09:00.000-05:00

greetings readers!
i'm back again to bring you photos of my newest creations. i know i promised a post weeks and weeks ago, but sadly life had gotten in the way of art and therefore prevented this. fear not, i'm here and can show you two more fair folk.
this first one is a dryad. you can see her wings are sort of leaf like, and her skin has the look of treebark.

this next one i call "moose childe" ...it all started when i bought the yarn that would be his/her (i'm not sure- are you? both male and female moose are antlered....) hair. my husband saw it and immediately said that whoever i made with it needed moose antlers. i decided to take on that challenge, and this little one is the result.

i'm so very proud of these feet! they are kind of a pain to put together, but well worth the effect i think ;) the pattern will definitely come in handy- i see a whole range of antlered/horned and hoofed fair folk in the future :)

thanks for looking!
-sarah

asking for feedback

2010-09-13T10:37:00.000-05:00

greetings readers,
i will post later either today or tomorrow with the current critters i've been working on, but i wanted to send out some feelers. i'm having a somewhat difficult time grasping a market for my barbie goddess figures. i know there's a niche for them somewhere, but i feel it's being elusive.... people seem to love the images, but perhaps prints of the sculptures isn't the best medium for this. maybe i'm too caught between the reverent and the irreverent here? yes, theses are goddess images, but they are also barbie dolls, and i don't want to have people forget that.... do you think i should play up the kitch factor a bit? la santa muerte coffee mugs? set of goddess fridge magnets? kali pot holders? i'm open to suggestions...
thank you so much!
-sarah

fairies wear boots

2010-08-26T17:23:00.000-05:00

"Fairies wear boots and now you gotta believe me
Yeah I saw it, I saw it
I tell you no lie"
-Black Sabbath

well, i don't know about others, but this faerie sure does!

look who i found in my backyard today! she was just sitting there at the foot of a tree. she looked so sad sitting there, i stopped to say hi and invited her into the house for some milk and honey, i told her she could meet a new friend.... she agreed, albeit reluctantly....

you see, i've been terrible with my housecleaning lately.... so much so that i discovered another resident of the house.....

a cobweb elf!

the two of them seemed to get along swimmingly, here they are waiting for me to come out of the kitchen:

after our snack they decided to run rampant around the house, causing trouble like only the fair folk can! the animals went crazy! sadly, the dog scared them so much with her barking that they swiftly ran out!

i still see both of them on occasion, and remember to leave out milk, honey and yarn scraps.... for some reason faeries seem to love yarn scraps..... at least those that hang around my crafty household ;)

the details:

the cobweb elf's dress is made of chiffon that i've burned with a lighter to get a cobwebby appearance. it is also hand beaded with glass seed beads to simulate a "dew on a spiderweb" feel.

her wristlets are made of faux leather (as are her eyes) and stitched with embroidery floss.

in these two photos of her wristlet you can also see her spider web knee tattoo

she has spiders in her hair, but she doesn't mind... they just keep it tied up nicely! i made these little guys out of polymer clay.

here are two shots of the faerie's wings. as you can see they are slightly two different colors on the fronts and backs (much like some butterflies and moths) they are filled with polyfil and needle sculpted. wings you can still hug :D

part of her knitted "sweater" (i wanted it to look like she just found a piece of knitted fabric and fashioned a top out of it)

and her skirt of leaves!

and a close up of one of the boots. the boots are made of flannel and lined with felt. they have leather laces. you can also slightly see her needle sculpted knee in this pic.

a close up of the stitching on her wristlet. these wristlets are made of the same felt used to line her boots

these two little ladies will be posted on my etsy site soon!

thanks for looking!
-sarah

making faeries, making faeries :D

2010-08-17T15:49:00.000-05:00

meet the "rebigulated" faerie i made a couple of years ago. as you can see she used to be very small: she's wearing an acorn cup hat, she apparently found a small knitted piece to make her top out of, and she sewed her skirt herself, complete with a button (see second picture)

i decided to pull out this pattern and tweak it a bit. i plan on making several of these, perhaps not all "rebigulated" but i still like that idea....

this third picture is two blanks i created from the same pattern..... including my changes....

here is one with (untrimmed) hair, ears, and needle sculpted fingers (i'm actually not sure if i like the needle sculpted hands with the simple face.... we shall see)

and here you can see her needle sculpted knees :)

and here's a pic of the original..... yes, that's her bottom, and no, even after i added this extra bit, she still can't sit on her own.... this is where i made my most significant changes to this pattern.

this is the new design.... there is also a small pouch of sand in the bottom... these new ones sit very well on their own, especially on the edge of bookshelves..... here's to hoping that this is enough to balance them out after the addition of wings.....

thanks for reading and i hope to have a finished faerie to show you next time!
-sarah

she emerges!!

2010-08-11T14:37:00.001-05:00

yes readers, it really has been a while! what have i been up to? well, life's taken a funny turn and i needed some time to deal with that...... but lately i've been working hard at trying to launch something new and special! i'm teaching myself some marketing skills and we'll see where it goes from there!
but that's not the fun stuff: i've been making custom bellydance clothing, reveling in my inner geekdom while designing and decorating my "whoniverse" themed bathroom (and oh yes, there will be a barbie for that bathroom- process pictures and story and all, promise ;), dusting off a few of my old patterns, and generally crafting up a storm!
more fun to come!
-sarah

Arachne

2010-04-06T12:04:00.000-05:00

Arachne

*gasp!* two posts in 2 days!?
so let's start with the last, first.... i am aware that this is definitely not your traditional portrayal of arachne... she came bourne of some frustrations i was dealing with and the urge to dismember barbies and just make a spider! part of the frustration was the tedium in dealing with the lilith/inanna barbie (which i will get to... no worries there :) -there were just so many things going wrong with that one!
this piece is more about all the spider goddesses out there in general and i wasn't even going to call her arachne, although that's what was in my mind the whole time.... i know the word just means "spider" in greek so perhaps that's why it persisted. so i did research on arachne and other spider figures.... and that's how i stumbled upon dore's beautiful illustration shown at the top of the page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachne (along with a concise version of her myth)...and i realized that we'd created her in a similar manner so i simply had to keep the name (despite the theological liberties i took ;)
talking of liberties, i kept asking myself "would arachne crochet?" but i began obsessing over yarn balls that could be worlds that could also be the bulbous spider abdomen... about weaving the world or the universe... these are actually common themes in my older work, it was wonderful to get back to them again after many years.... :)
about the process: creating the figure herself was a series of hits and misses. i'm not sure it's clear from this photograph, but her body is *very* complicated. i started with *just* a modern style barbie body facing breasts up(they are the ones that have bellybuttons and don't twist at the waist) fully dismembered (yes, even her head) i then glued (lots and lots of hotglue!!!!) 3 pairs of legs (including the originals, they are in the back as they have larger feet... it's amazing to me just how much i've learned about the differences in barbie bodies... that's a whole post right there, though) i then reattached the original arms but "backwards" so the hands would be facing the right way. she now needed a face.... for a while i just had a face literally cut out of a barbie head glued directly onto the neck. now, that was incredibly creepy, and i liked that part but it just didn't go with the series. ...and i kept thinking about that dore piece, and the streaming hair.... so i swapped the face for a smaller than barbie doll head (because spiders have small heads) and, for added weirdness and barbie authenticity, glued the actual barbie face onto the smaller head. because it wasn't creepy enough, i then added tiny doll arms for mandibles. (the small heads and arms were also used in constructing kali, the first piece). then she was painted to resemble a weaving spider, as i thought that was appropriate. ..and once again she sat... while i worked on other projects, avoiding trying to figure out her environment....
then i finally decided to give in to my desires and have her crocheting.... so she crochets the universe out of the world on her back...