Lady in Black n' Red

I just finished this Lady in Black n' Red, which will be a gift to my sister who likes this dolor combination. She is not encrusted with beads as I really liked the color and design of the fabric so I looked for a way to leave some of showing. I like the way she came out.

I really like some of the streaked colors that women are now putting through their hair. In honoring that I tried running some red through the beaded black hair on this lady. The back actually has quite a bit of the red tips as if the color spread as it moved toward the back.

I have a bird cut and stuffed in this same fabric. I'm thinking of doing something similar with the beading, minus the hair, of course. I hope my sister likes it.

Living in the Trunk

Here are some more examples of my earlier work. These are my favorites so when not being displayed or used on my altars they stay in this vintage-like trunk that I bought at a craft store. I do switch the out from time to time as I add some and have given some away. I'm prone to parting with those that seem to belong somewhere else.

Lady in Red and Gold

This is one of my older ladies. She's done on felt with no embellishment on the back. Red is always a hard color for me to work on, but I have done it several times. My sister like red so I'm always trying to do something that she will fall in love with.

Mermaid Form

This is just the fabric form for a mermaid that I want to work on. She's been ready for several months. I've chosen some of the beads and embellishments for her. She will have more charms than most of my other projects. Now I'm trying to get some things ready for gift season so I probably won't get to her right away, but I'm betting she will be tons of fun.

Latest Green Lady

This is my latest green lady. Green isn't actually my favorite color, but I've made a lot of green dolls because it was my daughter's favorite color in the last years of her life. She's been dead for over two years now, but I still find myself making green dolls as well as that green bird. I know she isn't coming back for them, but I can't help making them just the same. I just finished this one last week.

The Beaded Birds

Sometime in the last year I joined an online beading yahoo group. It's where I figured out how to bead stuffed forms. After making Edna I took up a challenge in the group to fully bead a bird. I loved it! As you can see I've done three already and have several others stuffed and ready to go. These are machine sewn fabric, then stuffed with poly-fill. Then beaded with a curved beading needle.

Quilted Frame Doll

This is a project that I did last year just before the holidays. It was tons of fun and allowed me to use a lot of different techniques and embellishments. It also gives an additional way to display the doll form. I made one other one with satin fabric that I gave away. I have several fabrics chosen to do more of these but just haven't gotten to them yet.

Edna

This is Edna. She was my first attempt at beading on a fabric stuffed form. She is also very large over twelve inches tall and completely covered in beads. I also used a curved beading needle for the first time as well as beaded loop hair. She took a long time and tons of beads. I used quite a few #06 seed beads, most on their sides with smaller beads holding them in place. I kept running out of the larger beads so had to keep sending for more. I ran out of hair beads three times because I just couldn't seem to figure out how many that kind of beading takes! I made her for a very special family member who is bi-racial smack in the middle of a very white family. Being bi-racial is proving to be hard on her now that she's started school so I made the doll so it more resembles her features. In my eyes she's beautiful, not just the doll, but more-so my sweet darling great-niece.

Wrap Dolls

One year for my birthday, I think my 52nd or around that time I made these wrap dolls. I made enough for all my guests that year. They, (the dolls) were in a big basket and attended the party. As people were leaving I had them choose one to take home with them. The dolls carried the fun and joy from the party with them.

The Flower Ladies

These are more examples of my using flowers with beads and more refined fibers for hair. I actually buy fabric stem flowers from the craft stores then strip the flowers off them. It is very affordable and is better than using the paper ones made for scrapbooking. These dolls still don't have embellished backs. I made quite a few of these in different colors.

Spring Maiden

This was one of the first that I made using flowers. I loved the bright colors and the way the flowers with tiny beaded centers brought them to a new look.

Early Butterfly

I made this one when I was on an orange kick. I hadn't ever cared for yellows or oranges much. Too bright or something, but suddenly in my early fifty's I liked the yellows and oranges. Seems I made quite a few in those color schemes over the next few years. I think I still have this one.

Soda Fountain

Although still Goddess forms I found these beads that made me think of root beer and orange sherbet. This was also about the time that I almost always covered the front of my dolls with beads. The backs were still hand sewn on after the fronts were beaded with the backs not beaded or embellished at all.

Early Girls

With this one I discovered clay faces and added more beads to my work.

With this one I was using even more beads and started using charms. This one was made for a friend of my daughters.

In The Beginning

This is a good example of my dolls when I first started making them. I used felt for the front and back, embellished on the front, hand sewed the back to the front then used yarn and fibers for hair. I'm posting some of these beginning projects to remind me about my progression over time.