Blue and pink starry Wish Doll with lavender sachet - $15.00

This poseable Wish Doll wears a blue and pink starry print dress and comes with a lavender scented sachet pillow.



I was inspired by Guatemalan Worry Dolls to make these 3 inch tall flexible wire and bead dolls. I wrap the wire body with fabric remnants or ribbon, and use more to make the dress, sash and braid. I sew seed beads to the braid and sash. Each is slightly different, with different combinatio...

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Best Cleaner Ever coupon

This is a great cleaner for inks and glues on your hands, your rubber stamps, your cutting tools - and your makeup brushes. Go to the site to see videos of it in action. It will wipe off your hands with a damp cloth.

Perhaps of more interest to doll makers, it will clean polymer clay off your pasta roller nicely, and is not drying to your skin like alcohol can be. It also takes stains and marks like ink, out of fabric. It is non-toxic, vegetable oil based, and fragrance free. It works to lift sticky residue like Tea Tree oil, only it's not so volatile and it won't hurt your skin.

Celebrate Earth Day 2012 with a coupon. 

Get $2.12 off the Best Cleaner Ever!

It’s safe for the environment  AND safe for you.

This solvent is safe for skin and has NO harmful fumes and cleans almost anything from and spray paint off your hands and permanent marker off your table, to solvent ink off stampsadhesive off scissors. It seriously works like magic (without the hocus-pocus).

 

Use coupon Code:  BestCleanerEver4EarthDay2012 

Go here!

Native American Traditional Dolls

From the Smithsonian Museum comes the Smithonian in the Classroom series of educational posters. I've just found one about Native American Dolls which features profiles of several doll artists making traditional dolls from their tribal nations. Perhaps skipping the classroom exercises, the profiles are definitely worth reading start to finish.

Here's more about one of the featured artists, Clara Begay, whose doll is pictured.

Little Miss Matched contest

Go here to Dolls Magazine to enter a drawing to win all four of Tonner's Little Miss Matched play line collection of dolls. Very poseable, many reversible outfits, cute.

Doll Project tutorials

Very excited to see that Jessica Acosta Hamilton of Doll Project is now offering a selection of beautiful tutorials in her Etsy store. Some of the more unusual lessons include Tiny Shoes and Collage Dolls, as well as a tutorial for her signature item with the following eyes - Pin Dolls. 

If you like it, Pin it. 

Kerijoy Wall Dancers and More

It's been some time since I featured Keri Joy Colestock's wall dancer dolls. In the interim her Etsy shop has exploded in a riot of color and new sculptures.

The Wall Dancers are still delightful and have that signature Kerijoy "joyful whimsy" look. But there is also an intriguing collection of found object, mixed media, figurative and surrealist sculptures. I've been Pinning like crazy.

Oh and my new motto is going to be "If you like it, PIN it!" Pinterest boards really do seem to be the simplest way to bring new eyes to all of our work. I'm constantly getting notified of repins from people I don't know - and that is awesome! Every pin becomes a link back. Every repin becomes a new strand in the enormous web of appreciation. Please Pin - Etsy makes it super easy.

Some of what I've been up to lately

Another pretty, fresh Dream Star doll made from vintage Indian printed cotton - brought over by my mother-in-law in her travels in the '60's and '70's. This time I've decorated her 8.5 inch form with an assortment of vintage and new buttons in coordinating earth tones. Some are wood, bamboo, plastic and mother of pearl. I just love old buttons. She's also embellished with many glass beads, and...

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I love discovering a new store on Etsy. L Delaney, maker of gorgeous realistic vintage style miniature doll house accessories, is having a BIG miniature raffle for the month of April. For every $20 you spend at the store, you will be entered into the raffle to win a miniature item. For every 10 entries into the raffle, L will add another prize.
Here's a page about the raffle that you can tweet and link to help spread the word.

But the miniature items are beautiful. Many are made from recycled and upcycled elements, then aged and worn. Truly wonderful additions to your doll house - or miniature stop motion movie set.

Froud classes in France

Wendy and Brian Froud will be teaching master classes in sculpting and drawing at medieval Chateau De Belcastel in Aveyron, France. There are three sessions over August as well as other activities around the historic castle and local village.

At last a chance to answer the age old question - does being somewhere amazing and beautiful make creativity blossom? Feel free to take up a collection for me to go and advance this valuable research. Sigh.