While She Naps

crab

I couldn't resist. I'm from Maryland originally and I love crabs. My birthday is in early August and I always picked Maryland crabs as my birthday dinner when I was growing up.

This guy was a perfect way to use up one my favorite pieces of vintage fabric - the black and red chains. I only had a tiny piece and it is all gone now. I decided to make his big claws movable by using a gusseted button joint. Pretty cool stuff. Basically the upper piece of the claw is inserted between two flaps in the lower piece and held there by a button on each side. This allows the lower claw to move freely. I figured out how to do this from this page

in one of my favorite books, Anatomy of a Doll by Susanna Oroyan.

I have had this book for years, nearly 10 I think. I bought it long before I started actually making dolls of my own and I still love to look at it. Great basic and more advanced techniques, great photos.

tree cards

I'm doing a little trunk show at a friend's house on Thursday evening.  I'm bringing lots of wintry soft toys - penguins in scarves and wool mice - but I thought I'd make a batch of tree cards to bring, too. I  don't do much Christmas crafting.  We don't celebrate Christmas and I feel a bit out of it when it comes to what people want to buy for this holiday.  But I have a lot of green fabric scraps and the triangle tree shape has a simpleness to it that I like. It felt a bit funny to drop Roxy off at our synagogue nursery school this morning only to come home and and make Christmas cards, but hey. 

I affixed the fabric to heavy weight rag paper with double sided fusible web and then added a glittery dot to the top of each tree and drew a brown trunk with pencil to their bottoms.  Then I rubbed the side of each card with the edge of a red or green stamp pad. 

There is a great podcast over at Craftypod about making handmade cards. We have no iPod (I know, I know.  We are late adopters around here), so I tend to sew up a bunch of soft toy body parts and then sit on the bed in the office where the computer is and listen to podcasts with a big bag of polyfill and stuff stuff stuff. 

three little fish

Forgive the dark photo - these little ladies have shimmery tails and tend to turn in the wind making them fairly hard to photograph.  I made these three as part of the aquarium display for my show in March.  Hopefully more fish will come in the next few months. 

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

Crafty Synergy Interview

The lovely Patricia interviewed me for her blog, Crafty Synergy, which is all about creative women and their businesses.  Read the interview here.  It was a lot of fun for me to think about the questions she posed - where do I think While She Naps will be in five years, what keeps me motivated, what inspires my creative work.  Thank you, Patricia, for the fun interview!  Check out some of the other artists who have been interviewed on Crafty Synergy, including Jill Bliss, Lisa Congdon, and Tracy Bull of Happy Owl Glassworks.

fabric giveaway

Hi everyone. Do you remember a few weeks ago when I went to that awesome church rummage sale and nearly doubled my fabric stash? Well, I spent last night and today going through ALL my fabric (this was major job) and I've created five packages of fabric to give away. Each package is different and each one has a random assortment of fabrics - everything from muslin and cotton prints to fleece and canvas. There are vintage pieces and new pieces in each package, plus some trim that I put into each box. All I ask is that you pay for shipping ($4 domestic, $8 international).

If you are interested, please leave me a comment here. The first five people who respond will get an email from me confirming that they will be receiving one of the packages and asking for your full name and address and the email address that you use with PayPal. I will then send you a PayPal request for the shipping cost. The packages will go in the mail the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Thanks everyone!

turtle - a second try

You didn't think I was going to give up, did you?

I rarely give up. I did Teach For America, after all. We don't give up easily.

A new turtle with a few corrections. And a jaunty cap.

mice

rabbit cards

I made a set of six rabbit collage cards this afternoon. I found some good inspiration here.

I really like the discipline of making something, a variation of one thing, every day. Here is another example. I think this IS possible, even with my two babies at home. Something I'm thinking about. Do you know of other people doing something similar?

turtle "Junior Deputy"

I'm afraid he looks the way I feel about him...

a bit disappointed.

doll #3

Like I said, I make things in threes.

I found some lovely little flower buttons for her shoes. I got these in a swap, but I forgot who sent them to me! If it was you, thank you.

Look - they're at the crazy plush zoo that is building up in my studio!

I submitted the final paperwork and the supplies list for the toy bear class I'm teaching at the end of January. Soon it will be time to make some demo bears, a final pattern, and some handouts. Anyone out there who has taught a soft toy/doll making class have some words of wisdom? I'm assuming things take longer than I expect and that I need lots of clear instructions. Any tips would be much appreciated, though.