a couple of real dolls

The following is the result of my recent swap with the Beaded Art Doll Yahoo group. We needed to make a beaded doll, small enough to fit into an Altered Altoid (mint) tin. I made one for Judy, another Canadian and she made one for me. The first doll is mine to Judy. Her name is Cattie (green/purple) and I originally thought that she might be a caterpillar. However after I beaded her for a while, I just couldn't bear to add feelers and legs, so a garden creature she became. I designed and stuffed the form and then beaded it the only way I know how. Intuitively! Cattie's box was painted on the inside with Tim Holtz, Alcohol inks and on the outside, with his Distress Inks. Her bedding, or blankets on the inside are painted cheesecloth and free motion stitch on watersoluble stabilizer (WSS). I created the leaf on the top by stitching paper to cheesecloth, between two layers of the WSS. Washed the stabilizer away, cut it into the leaf shape and then hand stitched a fine copper wire to the back, to give it some shape. I then pulled out the WSS again and free motion stitched some raffia to make a ground cover. After that I glued on a small stone and made a worm by wrapping a strip of batik fabric around a pipe cleaner. A little more hand wrapping with Perle Cotton, a couple of beads for eyes and the piece was done. I'm very happy with the results, despite the fact that Cattie was my first beaded art doll. I was sad to see her go, but was assured that she has gone to a good home. Now the second doll (blue with black hair) is the one I received from Judy. I've named her Sasha and she's really quite adorable! Calm and refined and so totally unlike me! LOL! She feels beautiful in the hand and her box is very elegant with it's beaded top and my golden initials (AMD) on the inside. Judy ran into a time crunch at the end, but has invited me to add something to the inside bottom of the tin. I may make another blanket, but this time I think that it needs to be made out of silk. Or how about a little bead weaving? I have no plans to make it right away, but promise to post again when it's done. Thank you Judy for my lovely little treasure! Now for the photos:

this bowl was missed from the last post and it's my favourite

It's one of three bowls given as a wedding shower gift. White crepe paper and wool rovings. Very experimental, but I do like the look. Please don't forget to check out the previous post as it has all the rest of the bowls that I've been making over the last little while.

not much to say just a bunch of bowls

Bowls, bowls, bowls......experiments and wedding shower gifts. What the heck am I going to do with them all? Luckily most of them stack together, so that's all I'm going to say on the subject. The last photo is the fabric paper and Korean lace paper flower decoration I made for the shower present. I used the Tim Holtz, Tattered Florals die on my Sissex, Vintage Big Kick machine.