Another Santa in Progress...

Here is another Santa I’ve been working on for the past week or so. This little guy is meant to be wired to a wreath – an experiment I’ve had in mind to try for awhile, now. I made him very flexible and lightweight so he should be easy to manipulate.

Another Embroidery Framed...

I finished another of my little embroidery pieces by stitch mounting it to heavy watercolor paper and adding a double mat and frame.

More Progress on Santa...

I finished the vest for the gardening Santa by adding a wool felt lining and buttonhole stitching the raw edges. I’m really pleased with how it all worked out. I just need to add his beard and hat - and he’ll be ready for his close-up. The photos below are not quite true to color - I used regular fluorescent lights.

I have a couple more Santas in varying degrees of doneness – but I’m seriously running out of time! That studio move took much longer than expected – boxes had to be loaded, lugged upstairs and unloaded - I’m still looking for doll-making supplies that got lost in the shuffle. Oh, but I’m having so much fun. I love this time of year!

One Less WIP...

I finally finished up my “Harvest Gourds” mixed media embroidery by adding beads and a little more detail to the leaves. And I found a wonderfully funky (but elegant) vintage wooden frame for it that can be hung on the wall or placed on a table. I purchased the gold trimmed mat in Michael’s and am very happy with the way it provides a nice breathing space between the artwork and the glass. I’m going to get more of these mats, I think, for embroidered pieces that I want to frame.

Santa Gloves Technique

I usually just needle sculpt the fingers of my Santa dolls, but wanted to try stitching individual fingers. Those narrow seams can be tricky to turn and frustratingly fragile, but I think I’ve come up with a compromise of sorts. On these hands, I only stitched the lower portion of the fingers separately; the upper parts of the fingers are just needle sculpted into the palm. I think this technique gives the illusion of long separate fingers with a lot less trouble. I’m making a gardening Santa and wanted him to appear to be wearing work gloves so I painted the hands with a coat of black gesso; then sanded them before painting with acrylic paint (which was also sanded). The hands were sculpted from a suede type knit fabric so the look and feel is ever so slightly fuzzy.

Just Clauses

After a couple years of good intentions, I’m finally getting around to updating my old web site, Just Clauses. It has had the same look since 1998! And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, I recently learned that it was carrying a security warning as a dangerous site! Yikes! My web hosting company can’t explain how that happened but they have reassured me that my site was never dangerous (never hosted a malware) – and the security flag should disappear soon. Meanwhile, I’m sure it has alienated some potential visitors – and I am truly sorry for any inconvenience it may have caused.

I’m working on this idea for a new, simplified look to my home page.

New Santa Vest in Progress...

I’ve had so much fun this year experimenting with embellished and embroidered felt that I wanted to try it out on a Santa outfit. I cut poinsettia shapes out of red, deep pink and green felt and machine-embellished them onto a vest made from plush fleece. I will be outlining all of the flowers with back stitches and adding some green beads to the centers. As you can see, the front flowers are nearly done. I love the freedom of using simple back stitches to outline shapes. Not being too fussy or precise, I think the look is kind of free-wheeling and primitive. Anyway, it is a joy to work on!

Gulli’s New Pants

I just got around to making some pants for Gulli, using a vintage Ken doll Bermuda shorts pattern with a minor adjustment to the waist. The fly front closes with a snap. The shorts (for a 12 inch doll) were almost the perfect length for slacks on Gulli (8 inches tall). I’ll make them just a smidgen longer next time. Poor Gulli is so happy to finally be out of girl clothes! Now, he needs some sort of shirt or knit top.