Saturday, March 10, 2012

Making Flowers

a flower border

apple blossoms

morning glory vine

poppies

pulled flower

Anemone although the tutorial uses gum paste, you can also use air dry clay




air dry clay carnations

Cold Porcelain Orchid:

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

I'm very fortunate to count among my friends a lady who is a consummate doll maker & costumer.

Where I struggle with dressing a mini doll using an actual clothes pattern, Dana can take a scrap of lace or a tiny piece of material and make not just the most amazing clothes but actually do it on the doll.

Not only is she the owner of MSATMiniDoll list, a Yahoo group that, although having been online for 20(?) years, continues with daily moderated discussions, but now Dana has taken on a new venue as a continuation of her talents, an online magazine called Frills and Fancy Ezine.

Here's how Dana's reasoning for doing this:

Life provides an endless opportunity of visual stimulation. The different perspectives that an artist takes in, keeps in visual memory and creates at a later date is astounding! For those of us with less then perfect memories ... tear sheets (or a simple notebook filled with photos, magazine pages, or doodles) provides a wonderful *scrapbook* of ideas.
The launch of this FRILLS AND FANCY magazine tackles this very subject. Our take this year, is providing you with TECHNIQUES rather then tons of patterns. AND ... before you start to question the logic of this ... may I point out - that there are literally HUNDREDS of doll tutorials/patterns online for free. BUT the basics, or tricks, tips or techniques IN ORDER TO GET TO THE NEXT step are somewhat lacking! We aim therefore ... to provide short techniques, tips and dollmaking tricks that are universal in most doll patterns. AND for the die hard dollmaker, YES there will be at least one full doll tutorial in each issue.


For anyone interested in costuming 1:12 dolls ...and doing it well, the site to subscribe is www.frillsandfancyezine.com.