DIP (Doll In Progress) Isabella

Here's the makings of Isabella, a Doll In Progress

Her hair is vintage thread I got at a tag sale and is purported to be 40 years old... her wig is hand-knotted
strand by strand and she's going to be the female of The Lovers in an archetypal Italian play called

Commedia dell Arte.

Hoffman Challenge 2011

I got a email tonight from Julie Breidt, Curator for the show, congratulating me for my Fern's placement
of "Most Humorous" for this year's challenge.  I screamed!  What excitement... my first time entry, too!

I'm truly over the moon with joy.

Queen Of Quite A Lot

  Here's the bottle "doll" done.  She certainly has a regal air? She's about 3 inches tall.

Now on a completely different note....

The doll club online came up with a new challenge.  No grass grows under their feet!!! lol... seems a Bottle
Doll is in order. 

It just so happened I have a perfume bottle that was broken, but I didn't have the heart to throw it away, since it was so pretty and still has the essence of one of my favorite perfumes in it. 

Here's how it looks now.  Imagine what I'm going to do with it....
It's also the 'cure' for creative let-down after making Fern.

a better photo of Fern

I was just too rushed this morning to finish processing the rest of the photos on the memory stick.  I think this one shows her construction and face much better.

OK!!! Here's Fern, my Hoffman Challenge Doll, 2011

First off, this is all Liz's fault for even showing me how to do yo yos.  Then, it's Mary B's fault for telling me
about the Hoffman Challenge, a yearly event where quilters, sewers and doll makers can enter an item made
from the challenge fabric.  Here's a link: http://www.hoffmanchallenge.com/entry_rules.html 

So I purchased the cloth and set about creating Fern.  She's my own original design, no pattern used. She's

got a wooden bowl, inverted and covered in velvet upholstery fabric and batted.  Then she's seemingly balanced on a 12 sided "soccer ball" made of 12 different shades of silk taffeta or dupioni, which is also stuffed... Then she's made of the challenge fabric as  her sleeves and pantaloons.  She's wearing a hat over
her Sulky cotton thread hair, has a  cloth over clay head, a stuffed cotton body and a silk body suit.  And!
note her little gold lame` ballet slippers!!!  I hope she gets chosen to travel.  I would love that.  But the main thing is, she's made and on time!  *mwah*