Happy dollmaking.

Meike

I am extremely pleased with the way she’s turned out, as is my daughter Nynke. She’s usually a cars kind of girl, but she took to Stella immediately. Maybe there’s a girly girl in there somewhere after all?

But today, today I was creatively inspired. I went to Amsterdam for the first day of my dear friend Juliane’s  dollmaking course, and it was just SO much fun! This is the result of today’s hard work:

Tomorrow, we’ll be doing the body, and if all goes well, we’ll all be able to take a complete doll home with us, Fröken Skicklig style. Thanks so much Juliane, you’re the best teacher (and a very, very sweet person besides!), and it’s wonderful you’re willing to share your techniques with us!

Hugs,

Mima!

Held here by my son, who only agreed to do it after I bribed him. Ungrateful little creature.

Anyhow! Handmade by me from top to toe, and now available in my Etsy store. More pictures can be found on Flickr!

Happy birthday sweet Olivier.

In retrospect, I seem to have taken a little break from dollmaking. Not intentionally; it just happened.

Just now, as I was packing up Gwendolina, who’ll be off to her new home tomorrow, I felt a little flicker, though. A little spark. Something that said: there are many more dolls waiting to be made. Some of them are almost finished, even. Wouldn’t it be fun to… you know?

So… who knows! Now that my crafting for Saint Nicholas is done, I may pick up one of these half finished babies… Perhaps I can even get one into my shop in time for Christmas! Or would that be pushing it too far? Hm…

Anyhow. I need to answer some questions, too. Long overdue, I apologize!

Sophie: I never use the second vertical string like they do. They seem to have a different method, which I don’t completely understand either. I just use two strings: one horizontal, to make the eye line, and one vertical, to create the chin and cheeks. After stitching the two together at the ears, the horizontal one gets lowered to (almost) the neck, to create the back of the head.

Nan: I am sorry, but no, I don’t sell patterns. I usually make up my own or convert exisiting baby clothes pattern to doll size. Are you on Ravelry? I run a Waldorf Dolls group there, and we’ve managed to collect quite a few patterns. Which I still need to organize into a comprehensive list, but that’s another story.

I’ve now got TWO dolls on the way: my Felixdoll Brownie and a Lati Yellow Byurl Basic with premium face-up (sponsored partly by my darling parents, who didn’t mind me using my birthday money this way all that much… They must think me quite out of my mind, but hey, they’ve had 35 years to get used to the idea. ).  And then, there are two dolls on my wish list at the moment: the Lati Green grown-up Coco, with whom I fell in love the minute I saw her, and a Pocket Fairy. I’m not quite sure which of the PF I’m going to decide for in the end, but it’s a very close race between the Yoko and the Choco mold. And nope, I didn’t come up with those names! Now all I’ve got to do is somehow find the money… Do I hear you say Christmas?

I’ve been ordering clothes for all these sweeties like mad too. I’m afraid to look too closely at my bank account right now. My latest discovery: Boneka. A German company that has such wonderful doll clothes, it’s unbelievable!

In my defense, I’ve also started miniature knitting, so not ALL doll clothes will be bought from others… It took some practice getting used to my 1.5 mm needles, but I’m getting increasingly better at handling them! See:

Clickety-click for a bigger picture.

Yup, having fun!

I think not.

Missing from this picture: the ever elusive strawberry I made earlier and the fried egg, which just didn’t look right in a cake stand.