These are the first shots of a bride doll I am mailing in to Art Doll Quarterly.

Silk interlock over original hand modeled paper clay bust. Hand rooted (strand by strand) thread hair. Very old silk lace gown. Hand made roses with vintage silk flowers and leaves. Hand painted watercolor & archival ink face. She's 19 inches. And will either sit or stand with the aid of a custom made doll stand, included.

Here's a 10 inch 'hanging doll' ornament I completed for the Art Dolls Only November Challenge.
She's a cloth body with a silk over clay hand painted  face with Lincoln mohair for her hair and wings you can barely see in this photo.  Various silk velvets and lame` and chiffon, tulle and ribbons make up her costuming.

Happy Halloween

Here's a little all fabric witch I made for a lady who collects witches.  I'm fond of the pumpkin... some damask stash the perfect color orange.  Also her dots on her blouse were originally white dots on black.

Something told me to paint them orange.  She has lincoln sheep mohair hair and all the rest is fabric & stuffed
fabric.

Here's a little something I had fun making

Her name is Lola, She was a show cat....

She was a fun challenge on a doll site I belong to to make a kitty from a 'no instructions' pattern with the only stipulation that we not alter the pattern in any way.

I chose a little anthropomorphism to make her into a Vegas show cat... ;-D

Another Hoffman Winning Placement!

I 

I just got word that my entry this year to the Hoffman Challenge, 2012 has placed Honorable Mention!!!

Here's some DIPs

The top two are going to be a devoted pair of Goth Girl friends dressed elaborately and a lot bigger in scale than my usual dolls.  About 24 inches overall, and poseable.

The bottom two photos are the skull and start of a fabric wrap in velvet with sewn in whiskers which will be stiffened.  It is going to be an elaborate rendition of a band, Siege Cats, lead singer, Leecipher, dressed in Samurai armor.  I will give a url as it becomes available.  Right now they are on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/siegecats .  I asked them for permission to do this creation, and they are enthusiastic as I am about it.  ;-D

I finished my entry into the Hoffman Challenge 2012

I am glad I pushed this through even though I had serious reasons why not to even enter this year.
I am very happy I did and am pleased with the results.  This pair is 20 inches high, all fabric construction
with silk interlock over clay faces lightly watercolor/acrylic painted features.  The fabric, is of course, the
usual challenging fabric Hoffman features in this annual contest.   Those roses are 4 - 5 inches across and have to be somehow scaled down to doll size.  I used piping of it in the man's sleeves of his justacorps,

and slivers sewn together on the bias and then ribbon applied across it.  I am rather pleased with his stockings, too.. and their shoes.  When I am less tired and have more light I will take much better photographs, before mailing this pair off to the curator of the show.  Hope you all love them. <3

Gritty Jane put out a call for a Frida Kahlo Challenge... so I made a doll.

May was a horrible month.  So was June.  July wasn't much better.  Here it is 7 months later... Maybe things will start to flow again.  Love & Peace

I forgot to put in a quilt in progress picture

and her finished hair...

Here she is in her Ugly Fabric Challenge clothes...

We were given a yard of "Ugly Fabric" to use in a challenge, so I, of course, made a doll, which I showed all along here so far but could not show her 'done' until now.

She's 15 inches sitting, holding her very own prim baby doll, on her miniature quilt which has 256 nickle sized squares, hand quilted, too.  I truly must be nuts.

Taking shape & her hair being styled

I put her together to check pose and to set her hair after painting her face.

Dolly Bits

doll parts & a quick peek at her partially sewn and pinned together.  her wig is

not styled yet, nor her face done.  progress is being made. ;-D

After a bit of yips, the silk gauze is mainly on

At least the parts I want to show ;-D, and plus my cam's stick wasn't cooperating and I needed to rely on the internal memory of the cam.  [Sure...] But, yes..
and here's the steps up to turning the neck which does get messy using this method
but neat enough when the wig is put on and the loose fabric flaps are sewn neatly.

I put on a layer of tacky glue and spread it with a brush... a GOOD one... so it will NOT leave hairs.  Then, determining the bias of the fabric going up and down on the exact middle of the face like a diamond square of fabric, I start pressing it in with a combination of tools and clean finger... you'll note that parts of the fabric are not adhered in some of the photos -yet-.  Manipulation and the tendency of silk to suck up tight as it dries mainly takes care of this problem.  And, I'll admit, lots of practice with some fails!

You will note the silk has already tightened in the short time it took for these photos to be taken... I have no doubt now the neck is turned she will turn out fine!

Lucille wanted to know the secret to the cloth over clay face...

It's the extra dark & intense 86% cacao, baby!

Seriously, I know I'm almost done with the sanding when the little point and shoot camera 'frames' the face on a close up... lol.

You'll note the tacky glue and the silk  gauze for the overlay, Lucy... oh, and her little disembodied hand grabbing her intended hair... some lovely Lincoln mohair from some happy sheep at The Black Sheep in Ohio, USA!

whew.

Got my muse back ... and the lady who got April Fairy loved her...

and here's  Doll in progress, working title "the little girl"  based upon a very quick

sketch I did a few years back.  Hope all had a great holiday weekend, too.

After a long month...

May I present April Fairy.  She's a cloth doll only 11 inches [28 cm.] with silk gauze over clay face painted with water colours.  A knotted mohair wig Susie McMahon style... little hands, the smallest possible made of cloth turned and wired .75 inches!
and over  a yard of pale turquoise tulle and lots of old-fashioned bride or Easter
seed pearl and organza leaves and flower decorations I had in my stash... Someone's a lucky lady to get her. <3

Wanted to add dolls here I already posted on my other blog... here they are..

and without too much further ado, here's the tiny Contessa of Chocolate...

She is cloth body, silk gauze over stone clay face, mohair, removable bunny ears and wired sewn hands, pink patent leather looking pumps with various vintage fabrics in her attire.  She really wants you to eat all your chocolate at Easter.

Getting a tiny swap doll finished

It's been a struggle the last few weeks, nothing major, just a lot of family stuff to deal with.  Thank goodness
for tiny dolls to make.  This one is the little Contessa of Chocolate and she's here to remind us all that
Easter is coming and to eat ALL your chocolate then because it's the last possible time to indulge before
bikini season!  *cough*  We let her believe what she wants, right?  here she is in progress and although she's done, I haven't taken her official portrait before I send her off to some lady in Michigan.  I will be getting
a sweetie from Latvia in this first doll swap I've decided to enter.

It's also hard to take her seriously because she's wearing bunny ears on her hairband and at the time of this photo giving me quite a Pain in the Butt over her final attire!  (PS: I won that battle, as you will see)

happy valentine's day!

the art of making hands...

well. I just finished a pair of hands which are for a 13 inch doll.  They were supposed to have been
for a 12 inch scaled doll, but, well, I am just going to have to make a body to go with these hands because
I don't see how  my usual style of hands (using turned cloth so they won't ever break) can be made any smaller!
well.  Actually I do.  I just don't have the proper tools that small to make them.  It was stressful.

But! Since they 'came out'... I'm happy!

and here they are (note the scale)

the Valentine's Day Princess is done... also known as Shawn's Girl

It's a Strange Magic

I really like her.  Shawn's Girl comes alive.

and the 'head start' of three heads

and the start of the cloth overlay for Lucy's benefit... since she asked how it was done.  (I know, it still doesn't demystify it all the way! *g*)

the quilt pictures first...

okay, so I couldn't find the straightening tool in the photo editor and I didn't put the hanging sleeve on the back
of it yet, so... please use your imagination and 'straighten' it in your mind's eye.    *g*..
at least all the quilting is done!

Note the 'echo stitching' in a Sashiko style quilting and the trapunto of the hearts.  It's a pretty quilt going to a gorgeous baby... and I hope to have a Valentine's day photo of her on it!

Okay, the quilt is done!

I was pleased with how it came out.  It's my own design and has elements of Sashiko, Hawaiian Echo Stitching
and some Trapunto, and a little Welsh style for good measure. I call it "Ripples of Love".

 I cannot wait for a picture of the glorious baby using it who is going to get it on Valentine's Day.  I'm pretty sure it's not a spoiler, because her mommy isn't a follower of my blog.. so those of you who know her, please keep a secret :-D   shhhhhhhh

I have three heads started for dolls, and I am anxious to get back to making my dolls...thank goodness for
the 'head start'...

also percolating: A ball-jointed doll...

While I'm stitching in quilting rows, the creative ideas are firming up on how to make a Japanese style
ball-jointed doll.  I love the idea of a fully articulated doll made of stone clay, then somehow covered
in silk skin.  Percolating...

taking a few days to finish a quilt I started last year...

Sometimes a doll maker has to do other things, like making a quilt for the daughter of a favorite niece <3
But, I have three heads modeled and ready to put the silk skin on when I am through with the quilting.

A new year, a new blog title.

I think a lot of people didn't understand the 'manipulations' in my older blog, so I decided to change it to
Dolls By Dallas--a happier blog title.  Hopefully this change will do me good.

Here's my latest work for those who have not seen it yet: