Latest Project--Doll with a Recycled Head

I was heading to the garbage can with this big doll head, thinking even the Salvation Army would NOT want it. And then I had an idea. I'd read about Judi Ward covering heads like this with wool felt, to make a Lenci type doll.  I thought, "Why not cover this head with cotton knit and make another big Alabama Baby type doll.  Here are pics of steps one through four:

 I started without taking a proper "before" pic, so this is the best I could do. It looks even worse with the glue on the eyes, I know. I cut off the eyelashes before I put Elmer's glue on the eyes.

Then I coated the entire front of the head with Elmer's.

The next step is to cover the head, all around, with cotton knit fabric. I usually use an old tee shirt for this but someone had given me some new knit scraps, so this time I used that. You make sure the stretchiest direction of the fabric goes across the face, not down. I brush more glue on the underlying head, as I work my way around it. I stretch gently as I go, and have to cut darts to take up slack as I go. I try to keep the darts to a minimum, but you don't want wrinkles on your doll's head. You can see that when I finish with the face and back of head, there is a "bald spot" on the top.

Step three is to cover the top of the head with a piece of knit fabric. You must work carefully to minimize the gathers around the edge of the patch at the top of the head.  Adding more glue helps.

Here is the top of the head finished.  Alabama Babies can be identified by a round patch on the top of their heads.

Here is the covered head, drying. From the ruler, you can see that this doll will be large.

Tomorrow, when the glue has dried, I will coat the entire head with gesso. I may sand it and then add another layer of gesso, if necessary. After that, I can begin to paint the face/head. That is the part I enjoy most!! I will need to decide if he/she will have painted hair or a wig. Most Alabama Babies have painted hair, but not all of them.  Stay tuned for pictures of the progress on this doll.  

Winter Show at Six Rivers Gallery

Six Rivers Gallery


210 Sixth Street in Hoquiam

Winter Show continues to April 17

If you missed our opening, it is not too late to see our Winter Show.

Six Rivers Gallery is open Friday and Saturday 10 - 5, and Sunday 1 - 5. and by appointment 360-532-9979

Our next show will feature art on the theme Birds & Estuaries. As the shorebirds return to Grays Harbor, local artists will fill the gallery with art in tune with this seasonal event.

Did Anyone Read My Post about Journaling? ( It's in February 2011)

Just wondering if any of you are trying it. It would make my day to know that I managed to get  someone to record some of their experiences and thoughts. Hey, if you are a scrapbooker, you could even fancy it up some. Or if you are like me, and not much of a scrapper, you can have a place like Blurb.com make your journal or blog into a real live book. I'm going to do that. I thought I'd only been blogging for a year, but it turns out it's been more than two! So I guess I'll have to have them do TWO books. I think my grandgirls will like having them someday when they're older. They're 19 months and five years now--a little young to read my blogs!

Latest Sock Bunny---Or I'm Obsessed, Yet Again!

This little gal is made from a cotton baby sock;  she's wearing a sweater made from part of a felted sweater (from a thrift store, of course).  I "pink" her ears and blush her cheeks with a colored pencil.

The Too Late Snowman

The Too Late Snowman: sounds like the title to a children's book! This is a snowman I used to make from the little white net bags that vine-ripened tomatoes came in at the grocery store. But then, for some reason, THEY decided to make the bags red, instead of white,  and I could no longer use the tomato bags for my little snowmen.  I really liked those snowmen, too, because I could recycle those tomato bags and also could make use of "orphaned" socks. Teachers at the school where I taught saved those bags for me, and I always had enough for afterschool craft classes.

But then, one day, I had a brain wave, and wondered if I could make those same snowmen out of those puffy net things that some people use in the shower.  I bought one the other day from the Dollar Tree and found that one of those things had enough net to make eight snowmen--they each use about 11 inches of the net. 

That makes this project cheap enough to use for class projects; the most expensive ingredient is the stuffing, but it's not THAT expensive if you watch rummage sales, etc. And even if you have to pay full price, a three dollar bag will probably stuff five or six snowmen--maybe more . I usually use socks for the hats, but this one has the end of a sweater sleeve from a shrunk wool sweater. Shrunk sweaters go very cheap at rummage sales--no one is going to WEAR one!!! This little guy has matching scarf and mittens made from the waistband of a thrift store wool skirt.  I use such wool fabric to make some of my wool cats (see below), etc. but the waistbands are too small for that purpose, so I was happy to find  a use for them.

You might be wondering why this is a Too Late snowman. The reason is that I sat on my hands too long and it got to be mid February before I thought about teaching this project at our little gallery. No one wants to think about snow in March, even though snow sometimes happens here then (7 1/2 inches of it on March 7th one year). Snow in March ticks everyone off. Snow in April is even worse!! So this little guy will have to wait until next winter to model for a class. No problem for me; it will be here before I turn around. The trick will be to remember where he is when I need him next winter.