Another Project: Pumpkin Cowboy

 You might have noticed by now that I make stuff occasionally. Usually I make stuff for my kids. I have made stuff to sell. This time around it was a gift for daughter Emma. 

  Emma likes a song/video about a pumpkin cowboy, conveniently called, "Pumpkin Cowboy". It's a quirky thing, with a strange star: a cowboy made from one of those ceramic shelf sitter pumpkins with a face, and pipe cleaner arms and legs. You can watch the video HERE. (Warning, it will get stuck in your head.) 

  Apparently the star of the song was auctioned off for charity, and Emma said she wished she had gotten him. Well, she didn't. And this isn't the real thing. But I can try to get close. He'll still be fun to have sitting around her house. 

  Let me say, I started this project last year. It just took a while. I started by trying to find the right shelf sitter pumpkin. They were originally sold unfinished and ready for painting and assembling. Then I suppose they were sold by the 'crafters' who made them. I think they're from the 90's. They're for sale online, and come with various expressions. Somehow I bought the wrong pumpkin...twice. When I did find the right one he was always being sold in lots of three or four pumpkins, and so was more expensive. I didn't want to pay that much, especially after buying the wrong one twice already. The right one was hardest to find, and only once in a while sold by himself. And when he did show up alone, he was always more expensive than any of the other guys. The search continued.  

  Before finding the right pumpkin I had also been searching for the other things I'd need. The first two wrong pumpkins had pipe cleaner arms and legs, with ceramic hands and feet attached. So I was able to steal the hands from one of them. The feet on both, however, were tennis shoes, and I needed cowboy boots. I couldn't find ceramic cowboy boots anywhere. I started looking at other possibilities. Ken and I were in a toy shop one day last year, when I found a Barbie accessory pack that contained a pair of cowboy boots. Other than having a different design on the sides, they were perfect: the right size, the right height, the right heels. They were metallic gold though! 

I thought it would be no problem, because there are paints that work on plastic. Well...we'll get to that.

  I had some pipe cleaners the right colour, from a kit to make pipe cleaner reindeer. (I was just going to steal the parts to make other stuff anyway. I only paid $1 for the kit at a bin store.) I had a red bandana to cut his bandana from. I got that at a bin store too. But I still needed a cowboy hat. As you might note, in the picture Pumpkin Cowboy has something of a ten gallon hat. I was having trouble finding any cowboy hats at all, let alone ten gallon ones. So when Ken popped up at a bin store with a box of tiny cowboy hats, I was flabbergasted that, after showing them to me, he said, "But we aren't going to buy them." "Oh yes we are! That's just what I need to complete Pumpkin Cowboy! And why would I not buy a bunch of tiny cowboy hats?!" They weren't ten gallon hats, but they were cowboy hats, and beggars can't be choosers. Of course, when I said it was what I needed to complete PC, I meant other than the pumpkin himself. That was the last thing I still had to get.

  I finally found someone who would sell me the one I wanted out of a lot, for a fair price. He was the right pumpkin, but there were slight differences. 

The one I bought.

The real Pumpkin Cowboy.
"Life is tough for a gourd out on the range."

  One eye was perfect, but the other eye wasn't looking quite the right direction, and the shine dot was in the wrong place. So to make it right I had to repaint both eyes so they would match. His eyelashes weren't quite right either, so I had to remove them and paint new ones. To do that, I had to scrape them off, since the whole thing had been painted and fired in a kiln. And of course, scraping off the eyelashes meant scraping off the orange paint underneath in the process. So I had to repaint that. But I couldn't just repaint that. It showed, no matter how well I matched the colour. So I had to mix up the appropriate orange paint colour and repaint the whole thing. Then I had to paint the new eyelashes. I also had to add the darker colour back into the pumpkin creases, (What do you call those?), and his mouth. Then I had to seal the whole thing with something so it wouldn't scrape off.  I used Mod Podge, which was maybe a little too shiny.

  The next problem was, I had to paint the brown hat and gold boots. I also gave the white ceramic hands a coat of paint. The hands were the easy part. The hat wasn't too bad either. I had to spray it and hand paint the hat band with acrylic paint. But those boots were a pain in the butt. The paint was supposed to work on plastic, but I guess slightly soft vinyl was a different matter. The paint just wouldn't dry! I left the boots for two days, and they were still sticky. I figured maybe I had just sprayed too many coats of paint too close together. Finally I gave in. I decided the only thing to do would be to scrape off the paint and paint them again. I debated on just using acrylic paint. In the end I scraped them bare and sprayed them lightly again with the plastic safe paint. They seemed a little less sticky than the first time, but they were taking too long to lose their stickiness. I had Emma's birthday the next day. What was I going to do? 

  Well, in the meantime, I had another problem to solve. The wrong pumpkins I bought had at least had  holes for the pipe cleaner arms and legs. The right guy had just come as a sitting head, with no holes for arms and legs even if he had wanted some. I thought I was going to drill holes in him for the arms and legs. I was afraid he would break though. I consulted our family ceramics expert, Ivy, and she confirmed what I thought: I'd have to drill with water on him, and maybe submerge him. Uh...I don't think I want to try it. In the end I decided I could just glue his legs in the hole in the very bottom of him, and glue his arms underneath the neckerchief. So here he is, waiting for his hat, hands and feet.

His neckerchief still needed trimmed too. "With a smile wide and a kerchief tied around his neck/waist..."

 I even remembered that he needed his lasso, and I had the right twine in my art stuff. 

  The morning of Emma's birthday his boots were still sticky. I painted the bottoms with acrylic paint anyway, and hoped he'd dry quickly. Finally I made an executive decision and sprayed him with matte fixative anyway. I thought maybe it would seal the sticky in. A couple of coats later, and I was proven right. So his boots were glued on, and he was boxed up for gift giving.

  Luckily, Emma liked him. He now lives on the window sill in her entryway.

The type of hands he has are actually reversed from the real one. That one has the open hand on the other side, and he holds the tail of his lariat in the  more fisted hand, like mine has on the left here.

When he's held the right way, he can even spin his lariat.

Their cat Arthur is in the background, top right.

  So that's the tale of Pumpkin Cowboy. I have several projects to work on now. Christmas isn't that far away!

Doll-A-Day 2023 #290: Futaba Fisher...man?

    Boy, it is always something! I mentioned yesterday that my camera battery died as I was taking pictures for today's post. Well, I put the battery on charge, and today I tried again. The battery charger had a green light, which means fully charged, but  my camera still won't come on! Ken had my phone because he had meetings with two electricians and a window person at the house today, so I couldn't take pictures with that. So you'll just have to settle for the few pictures I took yesterday. This guy is a Futaba.

   He's a fisherman, I think. I assume that's what the basket is for, and the stick he's holding over his shoulder.

If he were standing up he would be about 8 inches tall.

  The little sticker on the logs he's sitting on says 'Made in Japan'.

  You might have seen the post I did on a Futaba I used to have, (Before somebody on Flickr talked me out of it! It was a really nice one, and I wish I still had it.)  As I learned when researching for that post: Futaba creatures are mythical Japanese water beings, that are half human and half turtle. I think they are also called Kappa or Shibaten. 

  I just noticed that this guy is wearing a very similar shirt to my other one. Both shirts are blue and white plaid, with a brown placket. I know this one doesn't look like he's wearing a white and blue plaid shirt, but that's because he looks like he was probably previously owned by a smoker. If I could get him off those logs I might be brave enough to soak him in Stain Devils. It's worked before on dolls that were completely yellow from ancient cigarette smoke.

  That's today's doll. Sorry I couldn't give you more detailed pictures. My battery...or is it, my camera, went out as I was about to do a close up of that sticker. I'll figure something out for tomorrow's doll. At least I'll have my phone back by then. See you tomorrow.

The Doll Book of the Month Club: Flocked and Socked, The Art of Annie Montgomerie

   What happened? I thought today was the 31st of June. I did that knuckle count thing yesterday.(The first knuckle is January, the second is February, etc. The knuckles are 31 day months, and the in between bits are the short months, which are all 30 days, except for February. For those of you who want to use this method, when you get to the last knuckle, which will be July, go back to the first knuckle and carry on with August. It works. I just screwed up yesterday.) So, as (almost) usual, I'm late on the book of the month. But the good news is that I spent part of yesterday working on a new review which will be up soon. So don't be too mad at me.

  But as for now, let's look at the book of the month, (or, actually last month.). It's "Flocked and Socked, The Art of Annie Montgomerie".

  Annie is an artist who lives in Dorset, England.  

I found Annie Montgomerie's dolls on the internet. 

They are amazing anthropomorphic fantasies, beautiful combinations of vintage children's animal story books, and someone's nightmares. I love them, and am also somewhat disturbed by some of them. 

  The method of her doll making interested me. While there isn't much reading to this book, (It's all about the art.), she does mention some of her methods. (She starts by sculpting a head out of clay, and then covers it with several layers of something akin to fabric mache.) 

She makes wonderful realistic animal heads.

She never uses faux fur fabric. She makes her own fur from fabrics, and applies it to the doll bit by bit, making it lay like real fur. , 

She creates her doll bodies from old play doll bodies. Annie assures us she doesn't tear the heads off antique dolls, but '70's and 80's dolls are plentiful'. (I don't think I could tear the heads off of them either, myself!) 

 That's about all the detail we're given. She is an artist and she sells her work, so we can't expect her to give away all her secrets, now can we?

  It's a beautiful book if you like Annie's art, a scary one if you don't.

  The book was originally available as a signed copy on Annie's website. (You can find that site HERE.) It sold out there, but can still be found online. My sister and I have been following Annie and her art on Facebook, and my sister bought me this book for my birthday back in March.

  That's the book for the month. See you soon for that review, and some fun flea market finds.

Another Doll Show! Part One

   Yes, I went to another doll show. Ken actually went with me, in order to feed his bin store obsession, even though he had to go to work that evening.

  This one was the Spring equivalent of the show I went to last October. (I actually went to another show a month or so ago, but I didn't take any pictures, and I haven't gotten around to telling you about it yet.) This time I took loads of pictures for those of you whose shows haven't started up again yet. There was also a purpose to going to this show, which I will tell you about in an upcoming post. In the meantime, let's relive last week's show through the wonder of photography! I took so many pictures that this will take multiple posts.

The standing girl is so pretty. I love her face, her teeth, and her dress. 

I liked this sitting kid too.

Scary baby!

I really have a thing for coats, and this little winter set with the pants is wonderful.

Cute little red haired guy. He's a news boy. I saw another of these a couple of days later at an antique mall.

These dolls range from cute to constipated. I think you can tell which is which.

Yes, there is a game of some sort going on behind the dolls. The show was held at a sports center.

Lovely ladies. Except for me. That's my reflection, behind them.

I like the girl in the blue and stripes.

Wonderful faces on these two.

The dealers were very nice about letting me take pictures... all but one, that is. She said I couldn't take pictures because, "I don't want my dolls on Facebook!" I said, "It's not Facebook. It's a blog." I tried to explain that  'a lot of people who haven't been able to go to doll shows for a long time---and she cut me off. I told her I could put her card on the post if she wanted. She said, "I do my own posts!" Ok. Whatever. The last time I posted a doll show post someone contacted me and asked me if I could obtain for them some of the dolls I had posted pictures of. (You'll hear more about that coming soon.) I picked them up at this show, and the dealer made about $100. So whatever lady.  As it was, I only photographed one of her dolls, and I don't remember which it was. And a point here: why don't you want 'your' dolls on 'Facebook' anyway? Any advertisement may mean sales. And it's not like she made the dolls, or had any kind of copyright on them. They were old, had been seen for decades, they were in public, and loads of people were seeing them right then. If she's worried about theft, everybody knows she has them already. What do you think? Is it just me, or is that kind of behavior just weird? 

Newer Eloise on the left, old Eloise just to her right, Chatty Cathy in the back. And somehow, a singing Chatty Cathy got in there amongst the antiques. (In red, on the right.) Ok, so she's an antique now too, but not as old as the others she's next to. You can see my brunette Singing Chatty Cathy HERE, and my blonde Singing Chatty Cathy HERE. You can see my Chatty Cathy doll HERE, and Ivy's Chatty Cathy reproduction HERE.

There are some great faces here.

Aww!

Nice Baitz dolls. You can see mine HERE.

So much cuteness.

The dolls on the right are the same ones from above. I love the one in the red plaid skirt.

This 12" composition doll is so cute, and she was only $5! Guess where she lives now!

Does this little lady look familiar? She's Princess Elizabeth, who is now Queen Elizabeth II of Britain.

A red bunny girl.

That very pale kid seems to be imitating Fonzie: "Aaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy".

The reindeer was moving! Santa looked like he had a bad sunburn.

This shabby Barbie was one of the few Barbie and friends dolls there. I remember when Barbies were everywhere at doll shows. The prices have gone up, but the popularity has gone down.

Nice little Caco kid at the top.

I loved these, especially the one on the sheep...and the sheep.

Okaaaayyy. That's a bit disturbing.

This display caught my eye. I liked so many of them. 

Here's the lower shelf.

...And here are the shelves when I finished shopping them.

Love the girl in the flowered dress.

                 

Pretty Shirleys.

The red haired kid was handmade. She's a crab!

I have a soft spot for Raggedy Ann and Andy. You can see my childhood ones, and read the history of Raggedy Ann and Andy HERE,  the miniature ones I made HERE, my Andy Superflex doll HERE, and my Halloween Raggedy Ann HERE.

Lots of beautiful bisque babies and...Buckwheat? How'd he get in there?

I don't know why this is sideways. I loved the pair at the bottom. They were from Columbia I think.

My favourites are the possible Baps Jack and Jill at the top, and the lady with the flowered apron at the bottom.

No question who was my favourite here...

It's gotta be this guy. He's either a Roldan or a Klumpe.

A gaggle of Mary Englebreit dolls.

The red haired one is beautiful, and I also like the felt faced Brownie on the right.

My favourite is the girl on the right. The shaggy haired fellow on the left is a Golly doll. Ken, who is from England, grew up with Gollys on the Robertson's marmalade jars, and collected the metal badges when he was a kid. He maintains that Gollys aren't racist, because he only saw them as innocent characters on the marmalade, not as people. Uh, no Ken. But then, that is a debate for another, I'm sure very LONG and controversial post.

Love her!

This is an Old Cottage doll, like the one I posted on Easter.

And here's another Old Cottage doll. Why doesn't this dealer straighten her head up?! I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to be this way.

Shirley Temple and...Deanna Durbin?

This little guy was about 4 or 5 inches tall, and very cute. And very expensive!

The girl at the bottom middle, with the carriage!

This beautiful pair.

The Patsy or Patsy type at the right is cute, but I love the two ladies in flowered dresses.

Awww!

Shirley hanging with Betsy McCall.

I love the felt faced dolls, but that bisque kid looks like Curly Howard.

"Hey Moe!" The dog is really good too.

This baby looks like he's saying, "Who, me?"

Patty Duke paper dolls and doll, (Who looks a lot like Tammy, or a blonde Mary Poppins), with a couple of 'Nancy's from the comic strip. Usually Nancy is hanging around with 'Sluggo'. 

On the left, a couple of versions of The Flying Nun, (You can see my childhood Flying Nun HERE.),

 and the second largest display of Barbie's at the show.

Girl riding a rabbit.

Girl riding a dog.

Baby with hair nubbins.

Child who overdid her eye makeup.

Tiny Town Alice in the middle, (I want! You can see my Tiny Town doll HERE.), Betsy McCall next to her, another Tiny Town on her shoulder, and Tutti in pink and white.

  That's it for part one. Join me again soon for part two.