november moon

Edith Nettles with her smaller friend May Queenie - mixed media dolls.

We are having something of a mini early summer here! Sunshiney days and warm evenings, plants growing, flowers blooming and plenty to do. I spent a lot of time today sorting out my veg plants, dividing and replanting herbs, making the most of everything that grows in our tiny garden. This evening, Edith Nettles, the newest design to the november moon family, popped outside to see how everything’s doing. She does not care for full sun, as she has a rather pale (and papery) complexion. Edith is very impressed with how well the box plants are growing, and has told me one of her ambitions is to grow a topiary teapot.

Edith is similar to the other mixed media papier mache dolls that I design. She is quite a bit taller and her bigger size allows for quite a bit more detail. Her skirt has been knitted using my own hand dyed (with nettles, of course!) handspun yarn. A lot of careful work, but I think Edith is quite pleased with how she has turned out. She will be appearing in my november moon shop tomorrow, along with a few other new dolls.

I’ve also been working on some new mixed media designs for my other shop, and shall be listing one or two new items in there tomorrow. Busy, busy! Hope your weekend has been a sunny event. A Happy Mothers Day to all you moms in the USA and Canada - hope your day was a good one.

three pointy hat chaps…. now in my november moon shop. 

We’re having lovely sunshine here  - and it is supposed to last at least for the next few days - hurrah! Nothing like a nice sunny day to make you feel a frivolous need to play with colour and enjoy the light. I’m working on new dolls at the moment. So I shall share a few more with you, quite soon.

1. a3, 2. lemon, 3. School Days (detail), 4. do fim-de-semana grande, 5. Untitled, 6. Celebrate!, 7. old tins***, 8. Flower Power, 9. New Bear, 10. 2008.04.20 just as normal-A, 11. swim, swim!, 12. reunion, 13. beret, 14. wprogress, 15. bluepink group close, 16. DSCN7515, 17. platipus thing in progress, 18. primitive, 19. red pavement, 20. Charley Pride, 21. cores, 22. But its the Wrong size, 23. embroidered rings project, 24. (49/ 365) Paper map hearts, 25. wip nature themed embroidery

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

A selection of favourite images from my Flickr contacts…. Colour, texture and some cute details:) Thank you to the makers/artists and photographers for sharing their work.

A basket of naturally dyed wool tops. The colours are slightly deeper than they appear here. It is quite tricky to pick up the subtle tone of each colour. I’ve been experimenting with natural dyes for several years now. As you may know I really enjoy working with simple plants to dye wool. I also love to spin my own handspun yarns and use these on my dolls and other hand knitted items.

Just recently I have dyed three different batches: onion skin, nettles, chamomile. Can you guess which is which from the photo above? Of course the results can vary greatly, depending so much on quality of plant used, time of year, even water ph level.

Well…. shall I tell you which is which? Here I am holding the three wools so you might be able to see the hues compared to my skin. Hmmm wool tops are so soft and cuddly, and the chamomile one still has a faint hint of that lovely scent. From left to right then: chamomile, onion skins, nettles.

The nettles I gathered locally. They are the first early crop, and so the colour was quite subtle, a hint of greenish-yellow. The wool is actually a little greener looking than the photos here sugggest. And yes I did get stung, despite wearing gloves. I’ll gather more nettles in a month or so and compare the results, being careful to use the same quantities. More plant material the stronger the dye bath is likely to be.

The chamomile was a ‘cheat’ dye bath made using 4 organic chamomile teabags. But, hey, they work beautifully. The result is a warm, creamy yellow.

Onion skins are great for getting bright yellows. I used only one onion’s skin on 25g of wool and obtained a pretty shade. I don’t like the really deeper shades obtained by using many skins, they make the wool an orangey-brown sometimes. I put the wool and skins together in a smaller than usual pan so that I would purposely get a mottled effect.

Now to spin these. I’m going to send my friend Margie of Ressurrection Fern some nettle, I think…… That’s my favourite.

And finally, just to cheer up your weekend (I hope), my boob tube pansies….

I would like to state here that was never my boob tube! But there is life after disco for this one. I bought the sparkly, stretchy top from a vintage clothing stall for £1. It makes a great liner for this wire basket. The pansies are called ‘green goddess’. I love them - my Granny disliked pansies because they have cheeky faces but that is exactly why I do like them.

Hope you have a good weekend - as well as gardening, spending time with family, I am working on a few new dolls and other projects, so, as ever, more soon….

May Queenies - wearing handspun yarn skirts - papier mache, painted on shoes, knitted hair and fabric bodices…. The girl in the green skirt (right) has just sold as I type this - please visit my shop to see a selection of new dolls….

May dolls - a colourful and very silly line-up of delightful creatures…. pure silly fun. One thing that I am doing slightly differently from now on -  I am including with each doll a handwritten description tag. You know those tongue-in-cheek descriptions I like to write on Etsy, well you will get that written for the doll. (I know some people thought I was being serious when I wrote that a doll like playing the guitar and gargling jelly, but really the silliness starts here:)…..

more soon!

Spring dolls - a lively pair, perfectly silly… I am creating dolls that have colour and pattern at heart. Tomorrow, May 1st, is the day a new selection of dolls shall arrive in my november moon shop.

Thanks for all your recent comments. I really look forward to catching up with my blog reading very soon…. It’s so easy to get ‘behind’ with so many good blogs out there…

Also, working on new mixed media works and paintings…

A busy time right now, as I am working on new dolls for the november moon May Fayre! ha, I know that sounds rather grand…. but May 1st is the day when I shall be listing a colourful selection of new dolls in my novembermoon etsy shop.

And if you like strange work-in-progress shots - well here’s one for you! These papier mache dolls are drying and will be painted and dressed up to be May Queens, november moon style, of course.

It may be tipping down with rain outside just now (what a dismal Spring this has been, apart from a few good days, ah well), but inside it is feeling decidedly like Spring and rather lush with vegetable seedlings and flowers growing on windowsills.  Also, there’s a rather unexpected bowl of strange lawn…

Do you remember the papier mache bowl with moss garden, I made several months ago now? Well, I had made the bowl with its green knitted rim, planted it up with moss from the garden and later planted iris bulbs. Unfortunately, the irises were not for flowering, they made leaves and then gave up. However there was a tuft of lawn grass in the moss and it started to grow, started to really enjoy life, creating a cascade of green blades… We like it!

New mixed media works in my shop now. Please do take a look…. Including this pendant with ‘ric rac’ necklace!

Well, I am going to have a busy evening spinning some yarn - some of which  is going to be used on the new dolls.

I hope your week has started well - and more soon….

1. Hello Blue Bird - original fabric on wood art, 2. Etsy Landscape, 3. corner, 4. Stitched Baobab, 5. tiny hedgehog, tall tree, 6. late, 7. The Morning 60X70(Oil, canvas), 8. view of a pine, 9. tree, 10. Forest, 11. Tree print on pinstripe, 12. sketch book, 13. mujer arbol, 14. *meter tree* 70, 15. The sky in the purple tree, 16. Spring, 17. crocheted jute (i think) branch (in progress), 18. Tree, 19. toothy, 20. Árvore das Histórias | Story Tree, 21. The magic of the tree, 22. printed_page, 23. magnolia and maple, 24. Felt, applique and embroidery

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

This week’s mosaic is tree-themed…. thanks to all the artists, makers and photographers featured for sharing their work, via flickr. I love trees, yes I am a tree hugger:) It is good to see the trees ‘leafing up’, soft blossoms, the twists and turns of a tree against the sky. I’ve chosen here images from my contacts list on flickr, especially images of crafts and art that use the tree form in really inventive and inspiring ways. Click on the links for more information.

Five new dolls! These pointy hat chaps are the first five in my new spring/summer series of dolls. I have chosen to create characters that are playful, detailed, combining prints and patterns, with both traditional and experimental colours. I’ve made these dolls using a ’slightly tweaked’ template; they have a more tapered, smaller leg and feet. Many of the details you would expect to find on a november moon doll are still here though: buttons for shoes, knitted noses and of course pointy hats.

After taking a break from dollmaking it’s been fun to make these guys and I shall be making more. They will be in my novembermoon etsy shop from May 1st - that’s in a week’s time - Thursday May 1st, let’s call it my May Fair:) I’ll share more pictures of other dolls as they are completed.

Yesterday, before cutting the lawn, not my most favourite gardening job but someone has to do it (me), I picked the forget-me-nots growing in the grass. They look especially pretty in this simple studio pottery jug don’t you think? (vase found in charity shop: £1.50 a bargain).

I’ve enjoyed seeing forget-me-nots each Spring, for as long as I can remember, but I have never had them indoors before, so these just lovely - and something I have not noticed before, they do have a gently sweet scent.

I hope your week has been going well, and more soon….

Detail from: red stitch and peepholes - hand dyed fabrics, text, threads.

I’ve just completed a new stitched work, as above. This is a detail. To see the complete work you can look at my flickr photos, of course, or perhaps visit my mixed media etsy shop. This is a more complex composition, compared to previous collages and stitched works. I wanted to create a work of textures and layers. I’m not sure if I want to work in quite such a detailed, intense way, all the time. This was a good experimental piece, I feel, and I enjoyed working on it.

I’m also working on new dolls!! Yay! I’ll post some new photos tomorrow, all being well.