The Willow

October 10, 2024
The Willow, a porcelain doll inspired by weeping willow trees.

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

Willow dryad ball jointed doll. Porcelain dryad bjd. Weeping willow green spirit artdoll. Weeping willow dryad ball jointed doll. Willow tree art doll.

Handmade porcelain doll, The Willow,
Available on Etsy: etsy.com/listing/1792049156


Red & White Porcelain Strawberry

October 5, 2023
Red and white porcelain doll standing in front of flowers.

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!

Porcelain doll, Strawberry, showing the red and white china painted engravings.
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

Porcelain art doll with white hair sitting. Red and white porcelain doll with china painted strawberries. Porcelain strawberry bjd with red and white tattoos. Red and white fine china artdoll. Strawberry porcelain ball jointed doll.



May Flowers

May 27, 2023
Porcelain doll, May Flowers, with black background.

In celebration of spring and all the flowers that it brings I have a new doll. Her headband and apron are adorned with stylized asters similar to the wild ones that are growing outside my back door. She can also change up her look a fair bit with an extra wig and adding or subtracting layers of clothing.

May Flowers doll standing in the garden, blue apron and flower headband on. Picture showing the tiny bjd and all her included accessories. Porcelain bjd with multiple outfit combinations. Small porcelain artdoll with white dress standing in front of pink phlox wildflowers. China doll in rustic white cotton dress and short pixie haircut.

Available on Etsy:
etsy.com/listing/1490598403



The Barn Owl

April 12, 2023
Barn owl doll in glowing golden light with her wing cape spread open.

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.


Barn owl bjd in cloak. Artdoll with Owl mask. bjd standing in the woods with wing cloak. White haired doll holding rose hips. porcelain ball jointed doll in white.
bjd with barn owl costume. art doll with barn owl cloak. Porcelain bjd with owl mask. Porcelain bjd with full outfit.

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

Porcelain bjd relaxing on a mushroom.
Handmade porcelain doll, The Barn Owl,
Available on Etsy: etsy.com/listing/1457234523


The Green Fairy

August 10, 2022
Green fairy porcelain bjd relaxing in a tree in a wildflower field.

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

Green fairy porcelain ball jointed doll holding wildflowers. Green fairy bjd sitting on a log. Green fairy doll in a silk dress with corset. Green fea porcelain doll. Porcelain green fairy bjd.

Handmade porcelain doll, The Green Fairy,
Available on Etsy: etsy.com/listing/1282741677


A simple doll

June 26, 2022
A simple porcelain bjd with a fishtail braid.

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.

Porcelain bjd sitting in a hollow log. Artdoll holding a black raspberry. Doll looking away, dark foreground and vivid green background. A simple nude ball jointed doll standing straight with a white background. Porcelain doll sitting on a log with wildflowers in the background and romantic lighting.

Handmade porcelain doll, Available on Etsy: etsy.com/listing/1243868744


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