Showing posts with label black dolls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label black dolls. Show all posts

Monday, January 9, 2012

Progress


Old cloth being revisited......

Gathering fun photos for a miniature book for daughter #1 that I have been working on for at least 2 years. The little tiny book has pictures of family and just random things that are meaningful to my daughter and myself.

Still stitching on dolls and working on new ideas for this coming year....
<3

Thursday, January 5, 2012

words and dolls



So, I have begun this new year with keeping a journal of thoughts, words, new creative drawings of things I want to make, and poetry I find that resonates with me. My own poetry and poetry of others...


My open journal.....

Keeping a journal is not new to me as I have other smaller ones. The difference now is I want to add consistency to my journaling. Trying to do something every day.





I have been stitching away on some new little doll faces. The one in the center turned out too somber, so a new one was begun on the right. Funny how each little face "becomes" what it wishes. No matter how hard I try to control the outcome...it just becomes the face it wants to. I took apart and re-stitched the doll in the centers face 3 times and no matter what...it was somber!



I have found a new book by Alice Walker. I could not photograph it because of the glare on the cover of the book.


It is a lovely book of poetry.

I particularly enjoyed "My Teacher" 
(about Marley Mu)
and 
"Calling all Grand Mothers"


This is good:
http://alicewalkersgarden.com/2012/01/democratic-womanism-
2/




p.s. regarding goals check out this: 
http://www.gaiansoul.com/2012/01/my-non-goals-for-2012/
LOVE IT!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Un stuffed!



I know this is not pretty but this is what I worked on yesterday. You see I am trying to slowly get through all the projects that have been lying around for months. This is the arm of a doll and you see how those little fibers are coming through the fabric? I kept walking by and looking at the doll thinking she was somehow getting dusty from neglect but upon further inspection I realized it was polyester fibers coming through. I thought surely if I pull them off that will be the end of it. Nope!
I wanted natural fibers like 100% cotton or wool stuffing. At this point no such luck locally. I found some organic cotton on line. I will say I found a combination of bamboo and polyester locally and I opted to purchase that so I could finish this project. I unstuffed the doll and used the bamboo/poly fiber fill. I will say it is 85% better but, not perfect.



This is the bamboo/poly fiber fill. Notice it looks more like cotton.....

This is the nasty stuff...notice the shiny fibers! They are stiff and work their way through the fabric continuously. eeuk! 
I know this stuff is part of the plastic/oil industry. Seems to me the natural fibers are sooo easy and readily available but instead we are inundated with this stuff at the sewing stores! Just saying....

I finally stitched up a doll dress using scraps of 1930's reproduction fabric.
Just need to make her knickers and do her hair.
<3

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

roots

I have been thinking a lot about where I was brought up and what a home really
is. I have been thinking about  the things that have influenced me along the way.
My roots are from the South. I grew up in Tex-azz, if you pronounce it
the way #3 daughter does. Thank goodness my younger  children do not have my accent. They speak
with an Eastern accent although daughter #3 is a good imitator of me.

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daughter #3 and me. (She is the creative one when it comes to photo editing.)

She has a style all her own and that is another story....

My children roll in the floor with laughter because I have a hard time pronouncing certain
words and they never cease in delighting in correcting me.  Anyway, back to influences....

Living in Texas, where everything is bigger and it truly is a country unto itself...lol!
I was influenced by my grandmother and the fact that she was a cotton farmer in her younger days.
I know it was hard work and I remember her describing being out in the Texas heat and picking cotton. She spoke of her mother passing away when she was a teenager and how she had to care for her brothers and sisters and how she walked a long distance to get to school. Also, she told me how she would get up in the early hours around 4 a.m. and make homemade biscuits. It was a different world than what I live in, but somehow it holds a bit of charm and simplicity for me. 

Also, living
in a Black, Hispanic and White community gave me a love for painting and sewing black dolls.

I became really interested in little black dolls while living in California. I came across a small
town, Temecula, sounds like "Dracula",  where I found the most charming handmade black dolls and I did collect a few, but was inspired to make my own.

These are some repeat pictures, but I will be posting a new Spring post later today, so bear with me...

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antique postcard
a bit of a painting I did......

I do not claim to be a great painter but I do consider my work to be Folk Art and I like to think of it as Outsider Art because I am self taught in all that I do: Painting, embroidery, sewing, etc.






another little painting I did that was influenced by my grandmother.



Making  little dolls....


the doll with an embroidered face, minus her hair....



a wee tiny doll that I made and hand painted the face....

So, back to the word  roots and the word home.....

They mean a lot of different things to people and for me something that I treasure the idea of.

"People come home for a lot of reasons. They come home to remember. They come home because they’ve got nowhere else to go. They come home when they’re beaten. They come home when they’re proud. They come home looking for a door out into their past or a road out into their future. They come home for a lot of reasons, but they always come home to say goodbye." ----Alison Clark
                                                                                                 the movie TAKEN, by Steven Spielberg


Best of all I like the quote: "Home is where the heart is"



<3

Thursday, February 17, 2011

milagro heart


A sketch of a heart I am working on....

Milagro heart
CC License View

As with most pieces, this is a work in progress....
The gold background fabric is a beautiful sparkly fabric called
"fairy frost". It is much prettier in person. Normally, I am
not one to use anything "sparkly" but, I really loved the color
and the name seemed magical and when
I held the fabric in my hands it made me
smile...

The inspiration for this heart is the darker background fabric.
It looks like little milagro hearts.

I noticed that most of what I am stitching these days has been darker
in color. I feel it is the Winter's influence over me...
Not a depressing thing or negative in any sense.
I am just drawn to "warmer" colors.



And this is a little something that makes me smile....
I love little black dolls, and I am making this one
just because it makes me happy! 
: )


This is my Spring inspiration!

I have rented this book again from the library for gardening
inspiration. I cannot say enough good things about it.
I love Barbara's sense of humor and the way
she educates the reader with valuable, sustainable
gardening ideas.
This is a book I would like to purchase to keep on hand.