October 10, 2024
Hi guys! Been awhile since I posted on here. I've made a new tree themed doll. She is a weeping willow themed tree spirit, a sort of dryad if you will.
A fun note about her hair. It's made from home grown mohair, from a goat named Moe, and it was dyed using black walnuts that grow in the field with the goats. Unfortunately we don't have any actual willows out there but maybe that'll be something new to plant over the winter.
- Willow Poem —
-
It is a willow when summer is over,
a willow by the river
from which no leaf has fallen nor
bitten by the sun
turned orange or crimson.
The leaves cling and grow paler,
swing and grow paler
over the swirling waters of the river
as if loath to let go,
they are so cool, so drunk with
the swirl of the wind and of the river—
oblivious to winter,
the last to let go and fall
into the water and on the ground.
-
—William Carlos Williams
Hello everyone! Quite a while ago I made a doll inspired by blue and white china and ever since then I thought it would also be nice to make another doll inspired by red and white china. This is that doll! She took more work then the first blue and white one and if I were to make her again I'd do some things different but I'm still happy with her.
A not so fun thing about china paints is that some colors are what is known as cadmium colors. And brights Reds are often cadmium colors. These colors don't mix with non cadmium colors and will fade away to nothing in the kiln if one of the other colors touches it. As you might imagine this can make things a bit tricky. If I ever get around to doing another red and white china doll I think I'll experiment with using underglaze for a base color instead of china paint, which is technically an overglaze.
Okay, ramble over!
- Wild Strawberries —
-
The glad, glad days, and the pleasant ways -
Ho! for the fields and the wildwood!
The scents, the sights, and the dear delights -
Ho! for our care-free childhood!
Heavy the air with a fragrance rare,
Strawberries ripe in the meadow,
Luscious and red where the vines are spread
Thickly in sun and shadow.
The glad, glad days, and the pleasant ways,
Chorus of wild birds calling:
"Strawberry ripe! Ho! strawberry ripe!"
From dawn till the dew is falling.
-
—Jean Blewett
Hello again! It's been awhile but I'm still here and I've finished another doll. This one is fashioned after a barn owl. Her cloak is hand painted, beaded and embroidered, to give the impression of an owls wings. Her mask is a more literal representation of an owls face. It probably took longer than it should have to finish her mask and shoes, lots of fiddling about and reworking things, but in the end I like them.
- Vision —
-
I shall build me a house where the larkspur blooms
In a narrow glade in an alder wood,
Where the sunset shadows make violet glooms,
And a whip-poor-will calls in eerie mood.
I shall lie on a bed of river sedge,
And listen to the glassy dark,
With a guttered light on my window ledge,
While an owl stares in at me white and stark.
I shall burn my house with the rising dawn,
And leave but the ashes and smoke behind,
And again give the glade to the owl and the fawn,
When the grey wood smoke drifts away with the wind.
-
—Robert Penn Warren
Back in May I shared a small green fairy doll. This is the larger doll that was made along side that one. It feels like this one took a long time to complete and I had to remake her wings and dress but in the end I think she turned out nicely.
- Who goes amid the green wood —
-
Who goes amid the green wood
With springtide all adorning her?
Who goes amid the merry green wood
To make it merrier?
Who passes in the sunlight
By ways that know the light footfall?
Who passes in the sweet sunlight
With mien so virginal?
The ways of all the woodland
Gleam with a soft and golden fire -- -
For whom does all the sunny woodland
Carry so brave attire?
O, it is for my true love
The woods their rich apparel wear -- -
O, it is for my own true love,
That is so young and fair.
-
—James Joyce, 1907
Today I have a simple nude doll to share. I never work on one doll at a time, there are always multiple dolls in progress, since it just makes to most sense to me. Gotta fill that empty space in my kiln! So normally I try to focus on one doll I want to make with a lot of little details but then also have a few simple dolls in the background. This is one of those simpler dolls. No outfit, no name or theme, just a doll with a pretty face.
