Doll-A-Day 178:A Doll of My Own Making: 'Mama Doll'

  I'm absolutely pooped and in pain after mowing the yard. So,while I kick off my shoe to try to ease the pain in my foot, (Nothing in particular wrong with it, I just have a lot of pain.), I am going to use some already taken pictures of a doll I made for today's doll.
 First of all, thanks to Emma for helping to clean up the look of the blog. She made it a little less cluttered so hopefully it will be a bit easier to look at. She also added Adsense. If you don't want to view the ads they can be blocked, I'm told. But at this point a few cents here and there will be a help. It's a trial run, so if there are complaints I can remove them.
  And while I'm thinking of it,Magic Attic Alison is attempting to do her part to help pay for the van repair. She is for sale on Ebay right now if anyone is interested. You can recognize her because I used the same pictures (plus a few for details) that I used on the blog post! I also finally have one of my hand made dolls on Etsy again too. It's my tiny one inch tall old lady that I featured on Doll-A-Day 132. She's doing her part to help pay for having the cement poured for my Dad's veteran's plaque which came in last week. UPDATE:Both Alison and my 1 inch old lady have been sold.
  A while back, on Doll-A-Day 87,I showed you Papa doll. Today I thought I'd show you Mama doll. Both have been sold, but their memories linger on...

She has an upswept 'do.

Her little lace shawl is removable.

 You can see how small she is next to this quarter.

 

She can be seen on the slideshow on the Tamsykens web page, along with Papa and all the other dolls that I have already had to say goodbye to. (They have been sold.Sniff!)

Like Papa she has tiny sculpted thumbs and painted on shoes.

She's wearing a lace petticoat under that dress. I can't remember if I put bloomers on her or not. Probably.

Her head is wooden, and painted with acrylic paints, and sealed with a clear glaze.

She doesn't seem as expressive as Papa in these pictures, (Maybe he just has more to say.Whatever he's saying, she seems a bit shocked by it here...), but her little arms and legs are poseable too. They're felt covered wire.

Mama has red hair, and side glancing eyes. I made Papa to match her, so he has side glancing eyes too. When placed on the appropriate side they can look at each other. (Or not, if you want to have them made at each other...) Mama and two little girls in footie pajamas were sold to the same lady. She requested Papa to go with them. One of these days I'll show you the little girls.

  That's it for today. See you tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 154: A Doll of My Own Making: Pink Princess

  Well, it was kind of a last minute decision, but Emma and I went to the Barbie auction today. We got up early, (after going to bed late!), so we got very little sleep. I couldn't sleep when I went to bed, so I didn't even get the sleep I could have.Anyway, we're both exhausted. Emma did her radio show and came over for dinner. I mowed part of the yard and have to go pick Ken up from work LATE tonight. So, for the sake of quickness, I am showing you another of the dolls I made today. I'll show my auction goodies tomorrow.
  Today's doll is a pink princess that I made for the repeat customer who ended up never paying for her that I told you about before.

She's about 2 and a half inches tall.

Like most of my other dolls that I have shown you, she has a wooden head,a wire body covered in felt, sculpted felt hands, and painted on shoes.

Her face is painted with acrylics and glossed with a non yellowing glaze.(Hang in there Margarita. I haven't had a chance to check the name of that glaze yet!)

I think her hair is mohair. It's been a while since I made her. 

 That's all for today. Tomorrow we'll see what I bought at the auction today!

Doll-A-Day 120:A Doll of My Own Making: Handmade Miniature Regency Lady

  Today I'm showing you another of the dolls I made.This one is under three inches tall.

If I make another one I'd like a more floaty fabric for the dress.

 She's sort of a Regency era lady. I wanted her to be in the style of an antique peg doll.

 Kind of like this one.

 I probably shouldn't have used the flesh looking clay, but I still like how she came out.

I even made the roses on her bonnet...and her bonnet.

She is actually jointed.

Her bonnet comes off too. In  the front she has painted curls.

The curls in back are three dimensional.

She has lacy pantalettes and painted on brown shoes. Having the white under skirt a full skirt made her too bulky, so I settled on an insert.

Her tiny bonnet is made of a piece of vintage fabric that has a broad weave to look more like a straw bonnet.It fits on my pinkie, and I have small hands.

She's still available for sale, as of today.

   I seem to have what's been going around and I have a massive headache and feel lousey. It's also Ken's night off, so not spending much time here is necessary today!At the beginning of the year I had this dumb idea to post a different doll every day.I have made it to 120 days! I keep threatening to quit, because of the time and effort involved in doing this every day. Then Ken calls me a quitter! So I keep going,because I SAID I was going to do this. (Stupid me!) When I reach the end of the year I'm going back to regular blogging, and only posting when I have something specific to say or show! I'm almost a third of the way there. I'm not a quitter!!

Doll-A-Day 104:Another Doll of My Own Making :1 1/4" Lady

  Today is another doll I made. She is just about 1 and 1/4" tall.I wanted her to look like an antique china doll.

I see her as a sort of Civil War era lady. In fact, she kind of reminds me of Mary Todd Lincoln.

She's made of polymer clay, and has a hand painted face. On top of that she has been painted with a non-yellowing clear glaze.

She has jointed arms and legs. Her little arms move. She has tiny little jointed legs under that dress.

She can actually sit down except that her tiny size means she's not heavy enough to hold her dress down, so she pops back up. You could glue her dress to her bottom and make her sit.
 She has a three dimensional shape to her hair.It's not just painted on.

 She has bloomers on under her dress too.Her shoes are painted on.Her clothes aren't removeable. They are far too tiny for that!

See you tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 93: Another Doll of My Own Making: Old Man

  I was so excited today. I dropped Ken off at work, and as usual, since he works in the plaza with Goodwill I stopped in to check it out. There was a really detailed tiny basket,( which I wish I could show you.), but not much else.I almost didn't go to Salvation Army, which is just down the street. At the last minute I changed my mind, and I'm glad I did. Regular readers may remember a while back, when I did "Big Eye Week", reading my story about my Susie Slicker doll.She was stolen by my cousin when I was a kid. Ken tried to replace her for me, but the doll we bought online turned out to be a different type of doll, with a cheaper raincoat and red face.

The Sad Eyes doll I bought as a kid to replace my Susie, and the Susie Slicker, in the soft plastic raincoat,that Ken bought for me.

I got a few Susie's at an auction a while back, but the raincoat the one was wearing was a pink version of the stiff purple raincoat my Susie had.

Auction Susies. The pink raincoat is stiff and shiny like my Susie's purple one.

For April I wanted to photograph dolls in raincoats for the blog, and was a bit sorry I had already covered Susie Slicker. I was wishing I had a Susie I hadn't shown yet to use during April, (Dolls in raincoats for 'April showers bring May flowers' month.)Today I walked into Salvation Army and almost didn't notice a purple coated Susie Slicker on the shelf! She has the same stiff purple vinyl coat as my Susie, and even has her tights and one boot. She is also a nicer vinyl than most of the other Susie's I've managed to get over the years. She's so close to my Susie, after all this time. I was thrilled!  I wish I could show her to you too, but...
Our computer is still not letting me get pictures off the camera, so here's another doll I made. It's my little old man.

He's a bit short for 1/12, or dollhouse scale, but we all shrink as we get old.

He has a polymer clay head. His body and limbs have a wire armature, and his hands are sculpted felt.

Since he has a wire armature, he's poseable.

I made all his clothes, which is the hardest part of making dolls, for me.I even made the buttons on his vest...

and his little slippers.

His accessories include a pocket watch and a pair of pince nez glasses.

I made these too.I wish I could have found some smaller chain.

I think he looks a bit like Grampa Joe from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

 He'll be for sale under my Tamsykens name soon too.(Or you can contact me here at the blog if you're interested.)
I'll try to get my pictures again tomorrow.