Wool Dolls at the Fiber Farm Tour!

I'm pleased to announce my participation in the Olympic Penninsula Fiber Farm Tour on September 17-18th! I will be selling wool dolls and figures at Barry and Linda Taylor's beautiful farm/business: Taylored Fibers in Quilcene. For those unacquainted with my work I'm posting photos of the kind of figures I will be offering during the tour. Please note: I can't guarantee these exact dolls will be offered for sale. Some have been sold and others are in process.

My needle felted figures are made from wool roving and dry felted with a single felting needle. All facial features are sculpted from colored wool.

Some will be poseable, like this sassy Autumn chick with red dreds:

Some will be tea cozies.... ...and some haven't told me who they want to be yet....
And Christmas is not far away! I'll be sure to have some Santas ready .... There will be seasonal characters such as shown in my December 2007 post (scroll down)! I love the Brownie and the elves... And because I'm incapable of resisting thrift store woolens so you'll find dolls like Frances (above) and Ed (below) . They're made out of felted cashmere, lambswool and hardy Harris Tweed.. The faces on these dolls are embroidered and they have detachable wings made out of vintage quilts.
There will be so much going on at Taylored Fibers (and all the other farms on the tour). Do stop by and say hello!

Spring...The Doll

I signed up for a doll swap through Vivian's wonderful blog Viv on a Whim . This was fitting as my decision to enter this swap was truly on a whim! I have never done a swap before. The theme was "Beat the Winter Blues". The doll had to be joyful and springlike. This turned out to be good for me as it forced me to think about making something joyful and happy to represent the change of seasons when my heart really wasn't into it. Just a few days after I signed up for the swap my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer and a couple days after that my dear friend Janice died of the same disease (see post below). My mind was swimming with all sorts of dark, one-breasted art dolls representing the helplessness and uncertainty of this awful disease. But I put the cancer dolls on hold for now and started needle felting this gal. I knew I wanted to do a female figure but what I didn't know was how I wanted to pose her. Originally I planned on a nude figure, perhaps representing Mother Nature, lovingly holding baby Spring (a needle felted baby wrapped up in flowered silk) but it just didn't seem right. So though I went through pains to make sure she was anatomically correct, I had to abandon that idea and cover up her lovely body with a dress. I think that was the correct decision though and I'm happy with how she turned out. I only hope my swap partner likes her. So here, holding the first pussy willow of the year, is Spring. I hope you can see plenty of signs of her wherever you are..

Holiday Needle Felting

Here are the latest needle felted dolls I recently created for a Christmas sale. These are sculpted with a barbed needle from 100% wool. The eyes and lips are also entirely made with small bits of colored wool felted into place with the needle. To the right is a tree full of holiday characters. You'll see a couple Jack Frosts, a brownie at the bottom, a playful little pixie or two and a jolly old elf in red. (Sorry pics are so small. Please click on photo to enlarge.)

Old Man Winter (below) is blowing up a storm of ice and snow. He's wired onto a wooden base. This is one of my first experiments with wrinkles and baggy eyes and I'm pleased with how he turned out.

And on the bottom left is a little dark haired angel peeking out of a felted sweater stocking. She was created for an annual gift exchange and I'm glad my good friend Mary ended up with her. I like her (the angel and especially Mary) a lot!

Cynthia's Rebirth

This needle felted doll was a gift for my sister Cynthia for her 50th birthday. Cynthia's life has recently opened up in so many wonderful ways and she's enjoying it as never before. I really wanted to create a doll for her to mark this joyous transition. I had the image in mind for a long time of her being reborn out of a flower but I couldn't figure out how to pull this off in cloth. Wool proved to be the medium and the felting needle the tool that would finally do the trick. It slightly resembles her but the charm around her neck is supposed to confirm her identity-it's a moon (and also looks like the letter C!) and the name Cynthia finds its origins in Artemis, the goddess of the moon.

There's a wire armature in the doll and the flower. The flower's stem is glued into a wooden base.

Midsummer Elf

Here's a little fellow I made around Midsummer's Eve-June 21st. He's stands about 5 inches tall and he's needle felted with a pipe cleaner armature. He sits in a nest among some found eggshells, a butterfly and some blown eggs collected from my doves.

My kids and I love to read stories all about how the fairies stay up all through that short Midsummer's night and dance and play. The kids build the fairies little houses and leave out a little something for them to eat. This year we baked tiny little cinnamon rolls which they presented to the fairies on little leaf plates. The fairies usually leave a little something for the kids in return-a pretty polished stone or a poem or a small gift. This year the fairies found a couple very old pennies somewhere out in the yard and they left them for the kids among half eaten tiny rolls. How nice of them!

Mother Nature in Wool

This is a needle felted, 100% wool doll. I think she looks wise and kind-maybe a little mischievous, too. I like her face and the way her hair trails down her neck. It's hard to see but she has the words "Sun", "Earth", "Wind" and "Rain" felted in various scenes on her body as well as flowering vines.

She was created as a travelling companion for my friend (also named Rain!) as she and her family pulled up stakes and travelled around the country, looking for a more centered and simple life.