QUOTE

"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way-things I had no words for." ~ Georgia O'Keeffe


Friday, December 18, 2015

Snip snip rip rip

When I was in my doll making infancy I had made this doll. I thought it was time now that she disappeared as she was not anything special. So before getting rid of her I cut her hair and embellishments off to recycle. 
Now they adorn this doll. Her head is an old discarded head which went into the bone yard. The shape of her head and her face painting were not quite right. I had to redo her face painting. If you look closely you might be able to see where I have redone it. I had a bit of burlap lying around which I used for her costume. Hair and embellishments are from the old doll. So here she is my half recycled Angel :-). I will just call her Peace I think.




Tuesday, December 01, 2015

Appleberry pattern

Appleberry patten is now available in these 3 sites as an instant download

Have fun

Monday, November 30, 2015

Today

Overcast blustery London today but it felt good walking in that wind on Waterloo bridge. It was not that cold which is very unusual for this time of the year

Thursday, November 26, 2015

My New Appleberry

This is my new Appleberry. I made him while writing up the pattern he is all done now. Just tooting my horn here. He is available as an instant downloadable pattern at http://www.aforartistic.com . He will make a great Christmas doll. He will be available from Dollmakersjourney as a printed pattern also soon so keep tuned in ladies.



Monday, November 16, 2015

He is done on on his way!

Whew! I did it! He is all done and dusted. He will be available to download on Adele's website. www.aforartistic.com soon . Now I must get round to tiding up everything. Hubby has been complaining that I have taken over his study:-). Mind you it won't stay nice and tidy for long though. :-)

Saturday, November 07, 2015

Chaos reigns !

I have not been able to blog much lately because i have been trying to get over my jet lag and also I have been busy trying to write up a pattern for Appleberry. After seeing my doll in FB many ladies wanted me to write a pattern for it to buy. Now usually when I make a doll I rarely make notes as I don't sell my patterns.. I just do rough drawing and that's about it. Since so many people requested me to do a pattern for this doll I decided to finally do it. So I have had to make the doll all over again and take notes and write it all down. As you can see chaos reigns on the table at the moment and I am trying desperately to finish writing up. Hopefully I will get it done this weekend if nothing interrupts me. Shall visit blogs once all this mad rush is over.

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Competition

Barbara has posted a completion for designing your own Wellies.  Just pop into her Blog and click on the link it is rather fun and if you are lucky you will win some goodies and your design will be used on the wellies. I chose to doodle with orange, green, red, yellow and black. Can you guess what I would have doodled? 😄

Colourful beetle

Today as I was walking in the garden I heard a noise as though someone threw a packet which fell with a thud. I looked behind me and this what I saw. Great big beetle. Because of his weight he could barely fly. Our caretaker who looks after the house when we are not here picked it up for me to take a picture of him before he was released. Isn't his colours amazing. I wish he had let me take better pictures before he flew away.

Monday, October 05, 2015

Whimsical pixie

Meet Mr Appleberry the mischievous pixie. He is the keeper of apples. You will find him hiding amongst the Royal Galas, the Coxes, the Pink ladies , the Granny Smiths and amongst many others. Next time you go to the market Be quick to choose the best apples and put them in your basket or else it will be whisked away from right under your noses 


This doll was inspired from a children's story book illustration. Had great fun making him.

Friday, October 02, 2015

Apples

Well the apples are done. Do they look like apples I am not too sure of that. But for some reason the song Baubles,  bangles keeps popping into my head :0)

I have not been blogging much because I seem to have some sort of pollen or dust allergy or is it just flue don't know but have been feeling aweful for the past two weeks. Now I suddenly find that time has flown away and it is time for me to go and see mum again. However I hope to finish my whimsical doll soon. So keep checking.
Hope you all are well and enjoying the little bit of summery weather that we have been having.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Free Doll Pattern

Hello all thought I would share with you one of my patterns that I have used a lot in previous years. I also taught doll making in India using this pattern. It is a very simple pattern so if anyone wants to try it can do so. I have written some instructions for it but it is so simple that you really don't need any instructions. However if you are new to doll making you might have questions so please do not hesitate to ask them. Once made up you can dress her up whichever way you want.
The links for the pattern are below. If you are not able to download the pattern please let me know I can email it to you.
Hope you will enjoy making her.

Free doll pattern
                                                                      










Thursday, September 10, 2015

Whimsical little fella

Little whimsical fella in the making. Just wondering if I should use the first body shape or the second . I most probably will go with the first one. They look rather funny a bit like a headless chicken :-) :-)

Monday, August 31, 2015

Some doodling with pencils and fairy seat

I started this with inktense pencils and since I have no experience with them I decided to do several of them. I like the third one the best. The colours are a bit more transparent and light in that . The last one I did with Water colour pencils and water colour just to see if I could do it differently. Perhaps the last one would make a good greeting card :-)





This is a seat I made for my fairy named Harmony. Believe it or not it is made out of butternut gourd. Long time back I wanted to make a gourd doll but I could not do so because we do not get the hard skinned  gourds here in the UK and we cannot import anything like that due to restrictions. However I was determined to make one and not knowing that the hard skin gourds were the ideal gourds I thought I could dry any  gourd so off I marched to the market to purchase the beautifully shaped butternut. Brought one and put it up for drying. After a few week or so I checked and eek it had all gone soggy and aweful looking and splash it dropped from my butter fingers :-). However I persevered and let it dry. It did not dry the way I had anticipated instead it had gone all wrinkly and the outer skin was not as hard as I thought it would become. However I rather liked the shape of it even though I could not use it to make a doll. Thought it might come in use sometime in the future. So here at last has come the future. I was looking for an ideal seat for Harmony and decided to use the dried squash as a seat. The height was ideal and so was the shape. All it needed was some roots to surround it and some paint and wallah you have a fairy woodland seat.
As for the doll I ended up making one out of fabric in the shape of a butternut squash. I even gave out a free pattern in my old blog, here is the link if you want to see it and use the pattern. I don't know what size it will print out but you are welcome to enlarge it if you want.
http://moonbeamsartdolls.blogspot.co.uk/2006_03_01_archive.html



Saturday, August 15, 2015

Lost Mr. G

I searched and searched for my friend Mr G and his mate but they have not made an appearance. Looks like Mr Ssssnake got them or they got scared and ran away. A few weeks ago we were told a snake was spotted in our compound. Thank goodness I was not here or else I would have freaked :-) 
I did not think we would get snakes in such a built up area but I was wrong! It may not have been a poisonous snake but it was a snake and that is enough to give me nightmares :-)

I planted some morning glories last time when I was here and they are happily blooming now. Love the vivid purple colour. Sad though it does not bloom right through the day.

Tuesday, August 04, 2015

Doll done

So here she is at last! I was quite pleased with her wings how they turned out. Also they were so easy to make. As you know from my previous post that I dyed the stocking. I also dyed some vintage silk buttons which I had found in Paris during one of my visits. I used them on her arms. I could have used them on her cap too but I guess my brain stopped working and I ended up doing the little fruits on her cap the hard way:-). Now she needs a name. I was thinking of Blue Moon but it doesn't seem very suitable. Anybody got any suggestions?




I made the wings by first laying down Soluweb and then on top of it a thin layer of Angelina fusible fibre and then on top of that my silk fibres and then another thin layer of angelina fusible fibres and then on top a layer of Soluweb. I then machine stitched it randomly making sure the whole fabric was covered. Those who are into free motion embroidery know this technique very well in fact all textile artists know this and create wonderful art with it. You can do free motion stitches on it and create designs. I am not good at it so I just straight stitched it. Once I had stitched it several times I washed away the Soluweb.
Again for those who don't know what Soluweb is it is exactly what the name suggests. A web like material used to stabilise fine fabric while embroidering . Once you finish embroidering you can wash away the Soluweb in cold water.
I then shaped the wings with wire, applied glue on one side of the wire and lay it on the fabric. Once the glue was dry I cut around the wire shape leaving a little bit of fabric around the wire shape as you would do while cutting around a pattern leaving some seam allowance. I then put glue on the wire which was visible and folded the fabric over it making sure it stuck onto the wire. I did make a few cuts all around the fabric so that folding over was easy and you could put glue in stages on the wire. Also it did not get messy. That's it it was very easy which is what I like :-)

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Just a few things more to complete

I don't know what possessed me to make her shoes like this!. I am not enamoured by them at all. I guess I just wanted it to be finished soon so I was not thinking. Anyway there is nothing I can do now.


I hope to make some wings out of this fabric. Hopefully it will work out the way I want it to. I made the dress out of silk Dupioni which frays like mad. I collected all the silk threads that came out of the fabric and used it io make this fabric. I added a little sprinkling of angelina fibres to give it a little bit of sparkle. You cannot see it clearly in the picture. Then she will be done. However I need to make a perch for her. I have an idea but it is not going to be done before I am away for couple of weeks. There is always something sigh!

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Was away

I was away for a few days after a very hectic 21/2 weeks of having visitors at home. So here are some pictures of our leisurely stay in Madeira.
Afternoon tea to relax after walking around the whole day.


Lovely gardens to stroll

The long climb up to the mountain


And climb back down into the beautiful botanical gardens

Some quaint little traditional houses

A beautiful magical entrance to a restaurant 

View from the hotel in the night

View from the hotel at dawn

All in all a relaxing time was had.

I have been keeping an eye on my visitor and he watches me from afar off :-)

No doubt wishing I was not there and he could have a try at getting the fishes. Another lotus bloomed and this time the colour is a pale yellow with pale pink outside petals

Sorry I have not been commenting lately on blogs even though I am visiting it. My back problem has not gone yet and it seems to be troubling my wrists which goes into a spasm when I use it too much. I am told it is originating from my back. So I am trying to give it rest. So my doll rests too :). Hopefully it will get better soon and I will be able to use my hands normally. Today I feel much better so I thought I would share my photos.

Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Lovely goodies

Earlier this week I received some lovely goodies in the form of children's vintage books from Barbara. 
Sadly I just found out that Barbara is closing her shop due to health reasons but if you are interested in children's books hurry she has some lovely books on Sale which you will never get them at this price. 

So let me tell you that my books came beautifully wrapped up that it felt as though I was opening my Christmas presents.


These are the beautiful books I got with beautiful illustrations which are so inspiring.


Barbara included these delightful book marks

And she is so generous that she even included a little something special . This beautiful vintage post card is so adorable. They take me right back to my childhood days. Thank you Barbara for your generous thoughtful inclusion of this delightful postcard. I shall treasure it.

Tuesday, July 07, 2015

First ever

Yesterday morning I was so delighted to see that our water Lilly flowered for the first time. I was so excited about it :-) then I saw another bud coming up which I am sure will flower today. I was amazed at the speed at which the first one opened. I looked at it when it was just coming out of the water and then after five minutes when I looked it was completely out of the water and begining to open. After another five minutes it was almost fully open amazing!  I have to keep the netting on the pond because we get early morning visits by the Heron. He thinks he can have his breakfast in our house :)

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Snip snip snip

This is how the final embroidery looks. I did it all without a pattern as you will notice every thing is not symertrical. Went a bit crazy and did it on the top of the skirt too forgetting that a lot of it will be hidden by embellishments.

I am not too pleased with the underskirt skirt. I thought it looked awful. 
So panic stations! What shall I do change the whole thing? Use a different fabric? Oh my goodness have to dye the whole lot again! Cupboards open in a mad dash to find the right fabric!

Oh no don't have enough fabric can't find something suitable this one won't do. Do I have to order more? It will take ages to come!


So finally I went snip snip snip so now it looks a bit better but I still don't like it too much but I cannot change it now it's too late for that .

She is looking completely different to the way I wanted sigh!

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Simple embroidery

Angela suggested doing some simple embroidery on the skirt and I think what she has done is so beautiful and affective. This is what I started. Not much of a photo and I am so rusty with regards embroidery that even these simple stitches look as though a child has done it!. It must be at least 40 or more years since I picked up a needle to embroider. The last I remember doing was when I was at school where it was compulsory for us to learn a few needle work, sewing, knitting skills.  The idea is to do some simple stitching. Since I can do this sitting on the bed I quiet enjoyed it. I have to find some thread for the flowers now as I could not find the right colour in the charity shop. By the way charity  shops are a great place to shop for craft projects. You never know when you will come across something that is so right for your project.


Wednesday, June 17, 2015

More flowers


This year it has been a great year for roses here. Even this shrub I didn't know was there flowered"



There has been flowers galore and buds too. We will see how long all this lasts





Thank you for visiting and enjoy the flowers in my garden