The Denim Project

My pile of denim strips.

I started working on my denim project, or projects as the case might be.  Some time ago, I saw a rug made out of denim strips in a magazine.  I wanted a small runner to put on the side of my bed.  It is cold stepping out of the bed onto the floor in the winter.  I thought that this might be a small rug project that I could undertake. 

Initially I had started with the idea of making a larger rug like the one I had seen in a magazine.  But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to be a lot of work.  Trying to sew a large rug is going to be heavy.  Since it was only a picture of the finished project, I really have no way of knowing how that particular rug was put together.  I am guessing that it is made in strips that are then attached to each other.  

It may be that a heavy duty industrial sewing machine is needed for this project.  I am hoping that my home sewing machine will be up to it.  My main concern is that a heavy rug would create too much drag and the fabric will not move well through the feed dogs.  My sewing machine is old, but still working well.  I expect it will work well with heavier needles used for denim projects.   Perhaps a walking foot is in order here as well.  As usual, this is one of my experiments.  I will find out what works and what does not. 

Before I could begin the rug, I had to have a lot of scrap denim.  I put out a call to friends for old denim.  I received several pairs of jeans.  I also had some of my own old jeans to add to the pile.  While it is nowhere near the amount of denim needed for the larger project, it is a good start.  I have been cutting them up for the last week.  I did not specify the color of denim, other that to say that I wanted blue denim.  I did not want to add black or other colors into the mix.  I received every shade of blue; from blues so pale that they were almost white to deepest indigo.  Most of the blues fell in the range of light stone wash to medium stone wash.  Although it might be nicer to stick to one color of denim, I am going ahead with using all colors. 

This week, I have been working on cutting the denim pants into two inch strips the length of the pants.  Some strips are longer than others due to the curves and seams in the pants.  At this point I have not decided whether to further cut the strips into a standard length or just leave them random lengths.  I am thinking random lengths would be better because I don't want all the ends of the pieces matching up.

Next step is to overcome the nay sayers.  I told the women at my sit and sew about my project and one woman told me that she had a friend who made a denim rug and said she would never do it again.  I mentally fended that one off by saying to myself that this sounds like every project I have ever undertaken.  Then my husband inquired about my denim project.  After I explained that it was a rug, he said, "If you want a rug why don't you go out and buy one?"  His logic was harder to refute.  I started thinking, "Do I really want to do this project?"  What might I do with all this denim instead?"  

Anyway, at this point, I have a grocery bag full of denim strips.  I plan to start working with those and see where it takes me.   If it is too onerous I might change up the way I made the rug.  Or if making a rug proves too difficult, the strips may end up as a bed spread, totes, or some other project.  But, I am going to give the rug a shot first.  At worst, I can always pull out a seam ripper and take it apart if I need to retrieve the strips.

Check back next week on Sunday to see what progress has been made on this project.

At Least a Start on Projects

Last week I blogged that I was just coming out of a bout of creative burnout.  I actually worked on a project.  There was a joke that pre-dates the internet that is applicable to this project.  One time a motivational speaker came in to a business class I was taking.  They handed out colorful circles with the letters TUIT printed on it.  Then the speaker said, "You now have a round Tuit.  It is time to get started on the thing you said you were going to do when you get around to it."  That is exactly what I worked on this week.  One of those projects that I said I would do when I got around to it.

This was not an art project.  It was a utilitarian project.  I have a mop for cleaning laminate and hard wood flooring.  When the mop was purchased (seemingly ages ago) it came with some reusable, washable terrycloth covers that slipped over the mop head for cleaning the floors.  I used the mop covers until they started to wear out.  When I went to purchase more mop heads, I found that the reusable,  terry cloth ones were no longer available.  All the mop covers were being made out of microfiber.  At least locally, no terry covers were to be found.  I hesitated to order them online.  Shipping and handling are so expensive that it is not worth sending the product back if it is the wrong size mop head.

I hated the microfiber mop covers.  They left streaks all over the floor.  I kept saying that I would find replacement mop heads.  In other words' "getting around to it."  Finally, with only a single mop head left I decided to try to make my own mop head covers.  It did not look like it would be that hard if you happened to have the needed materials at hand.

I hate to say it but I am a terrible pack rat.  I save little odds and ends  leftover from projects because I may need them for some future project.  I hate to throw out bits of wood, metal, beads, elastic, or thread because I never know what I will need.  I like to be thrifty.   If I have something on hand, it helps keep the costs of my art and crafts down.  It seems like I have an incredible amount of stuff stashed away in my studio.  At some point, the room is so full that I need to purge some of the stuff.  I am at that point again, but before I throw anything out I try to use up as much of it as possible. 

My sewing notions are overflowing at the moment.  I have buttons, elastics, zippers, hook bias binding, and loop tape.  I have bobbins that are half-filled with thread.  I have thread colors that were purchased for specific projects that are languishing in boxes with no purpose.  I decided that the mop head project would be an ideal way to use some of them up.  I don't care whether the thread color matches if I am using the item to wash the floor. 

I measured the mop and added a little extra so that the mop cover would come up over the back of the mop head and be held on by elastic.  One of my pet peeves with the purchased mop heads, even the terry cloth ones was that they were so tight that it was hard to pull them on.  Sometimes a cover would slip off because there was barely enough fabric to cover the base.  By adding a little extra fabric I reasoned that the cover would stay on better.  What I finally settled on was an eleven by sixteen inch (27.94 x 40.64 cm.) rectangle.  Of course that works for my mop.  Measure your mop if you plan to try this project.

A worn terry cloth towel was cut into the rectangle.  I rounded off the corners.  Then I sewed around the edge of the rectangle with a triple zig zag stitch to prevent the towel from unraveling.  After that, I added elastic around the entire edge using a straight stitch.  In case you have never worked with elastic:  you anchor the elastic to the project with a few stitches.  Then pull the elastic tight and keep it stretched as you sew it down.   When you have gone all the way round the project anchor the two ends of the elastic by overlapping them and sewing over them.  When you allow the elastic to relax, the cover curls up towards the center.  Since the elastic I had on hand was no-roll elastic, it was too rigid to fold over and sew down on the underside.  This is more of an aesthetic problem than a functional problem.  I really don't care if there is an edge showing on the underside of the elastic.  The edges are zig zaged and won't unravel.   If I had thinner elastic, I could have folded it over the fabric and sewn both edges down at once.

This was an easy project.  From cutting the fabric to finishing off the elastic only took about sixteen minutes.  I made five of them.  That should give me enough mop heads to clean a number of rooms. Because this was the first project I had worked on in quite some time, I had to clean and oil my sewing machine before I started.  Now the machine is ready for my next project.  I can't wait to get started on it.

Check back next Sunday on the start of a new project.

Crafting for 2019 - A New Beginning After Creative Burnout

Regular readers may have noted that I have pretty much been missing in action for most of the last couple of months.  I had hit the dreaded creative burnout.  I did not have an idea.  I did not have any motivation.  I did not have any time.  In short, what I needed to do was take a break.  This is the way creativity works.  You may work for weeks, months or years and all of a sudden your motivation to create vanishes.  When that happens it seems as if you have fallen into a deep pit and you cannot get out.  It feels as if you Muse or Daimon has completely deserted you.   (Daimon is ancient Greek for guiding spirit.  Spelled Daemon in Latin.)

For a while, I tried to power through thew burnout, working on a project that I had started with the best of intentions.  The project dragged on for the better part of the year.  I finally forced myself to work on it until I came to a reasonable stopping point.  When I hit that point, I walked out of the studio and did not go back in for quite some time.  Everything piled up in there as more and more items were placed in the room because I did not have time to put them away.  The worse the studio looked, the more I avoided it.

In the last couple of weeks, I managed to clean up the studio enough that I had an open space.  Eventually, an empty (more or less empty anyway) work surface appeared.  In search of something to do to motivate myself to get started, I pulled out a pattern and started envisioning what I might do with it.  At that point, we entered into a kitchen renovation.  The pattern sat there, I did not have much time to even think about it.  I have not touched it since.  Although I did manage to buy matching thread for the project when I made a Walmart run after the New Year.

Finally, last night, the first inkling of an idea started to emerge.  It is the first creative thought of any kind I have had in months.  Thoughts started running through my head as to how I would make this part or that part and what type of materials I would use.  Now I am looking forward to getting into the studio.

My thoughts also turned to another project that has been languishing in the studio.  It was started, but I lacked any enthusiasm to work on it further.  I am ready to get working on that as well.  The problem with that project is that I need forty pairs of denim jeans to complete the item.  I don't have that many yet, but I have decided to start with what I have and trust that some jeans will come my way as I go along.  I have tried to avoid purchasing the jeans at a thrift store.  Even at a few dollars a pair, that is going to run into quite a bit of money.  I am not sure that I have enough interest in the project to put that type of money into it.  I have decided to start with the jeans I have collected so far and go from there.  Either I will love the project and decide to purchase the jeans, or I might be able to collect more old jeans from friends.  Or, I suppose, I could decide that the project was a complete waste of time and give up on it if necessary.   The last thing I want to do right now is get bogged down in another uninspiring project.  At least it feels good to be starting on something.

Generally, at the first of the year I make a list of creative goals for the year.  I am not going to do that right now.  Last year I fell woefully short of my goal and that added to the stress of being in a creative burnout.  For now, I am just going to start on a project and just let myself enjoy the process without pressure.  I feel that at this point, I have to treat recovery from a creative burnout almost as if I were recovering from a physical injury.  I just need to make slow steady progress towards being creative again.  That may not make sense to someone who has never hit a creative burnout, but if you have, you will know what I mean.  Just letting myself work at my own pace is going to help me look forward to getting back into the studio regularly.  From there, the process will take over and I will be back to having more ideas flowing.

So, I will be blogging on my progress on a couple of projects in short order.  Check back next Sunday to see what progress I have made.  I will also be blogging about another project that has carried over from last year to this one. 

December Musings and Holiday Decorating

I woke up yesterday morning and discovered it was December first.  It is time to start thinking about Christmas decorations.  Some of my neighbors already have the jump on us.  Their homes are decorated inside and out already.

When the children were small, we used to put up a real tree every year.  We picked the largest tree that we could fit into the room.  The decorations on the tree were very eclectic.  Each year we would also go on a shopping trip to find a special ornament to add to the display.  We also had ornaments that the children made at school or bought at a school bazaar to hang on the tree.  They are some of my most treasured ornaments.   Over the years the collection grew, and it took hours to put up the tree and add the lights and the decorations.

Then the children grew up, became adults, moved away and started families of their own.  Then it was just my husband and myself.  For a while we put up a real tree.  One year the tree we purchased was so dry that we did not dare turn on the lights.  On New Years Day, when we took the tree down, all the needles fell off and we were left to haul out a completely bare tree.  The floor was covered with needles:  a trash bag full of needles.  It was a mess to clean up because the needles clung to the rug.

The next year we decided on an artificial tree.  None of the children would be home for Christmas, so we were somewhat depressed and did not want to make a big deal out of Christmas.  We bought a small artificial tree that would fit on top of the table.  It was like a revelation.  The tree went up in minutes rather than the time it took to saw the end off of a real tree and then work with it to make sure it was standing upright in a tree stand.  What a concept!     

Since the tree was small we had to choose which ornaments were going on the tree that year.  Some of the ornaments were too big for this small tree.  We finally settled on which ornaments would be put on the tree and which would be saved for posterity for no apparent reason.  The Christmas collectable were labeled Christmas and Current Christmas to differentiate them when we were ready to pull things out of the attic.

The first artificial tree we purchased did not have lights attached.  When that tree became worn and shabby we upgraded to another table tree.  This one had LED lighting.  Now the tree was up and decorated in just a matter of minutes.  In some ways it seemed an improvement, but I found that it did not really share much Christmas spirit.   We lost something in not having those family hours spent decorating the tree. 

I still miss the smell of a real tree.  I tried adding some fake Christmas tree smell to add some realism. That did not work out all that well.  The smell was overpowering and it did not really smell like a Christmas tree.  At least not when it was first sprayed.  Several hours later there might be a slight odor that smelled something like a Christmas tree. 

There was still something missing.  Then I started making dolls.   I started making Santa dolls because at that time hand made dolls were in vogue.  At first they were not very good.  I was trying to make soft sculpture dolls.  I had a hard time with the faces.  Fortunately they improved over time.  

 At first, I just made dolls and they just sat or stood there.  Something was missing and it took me a long time to figure out what it was.  The dolls were just dolls until they told a story.  Once I began adding embellishments and details that helped fill in the story the dolls seemed to take on extra meaning.  They finally added something to the Christmas decorations that had not been there for some time.  Now, taking out the Christmas decorations once again seems like bringing out old friends.  I look forward to bringing them out every year. 

The last Santa doll I made was a Belsnickel.  A Belsnickel is sometimes called a Grumpy Santa.  One of the legends of Santa is that he leaves naughty children coal and switches.  So, my Belsnickel is carrying a bucket of coal and some switches. 

I put this doll in a state-wide contest a few years ago and it won third prize in the hand-made doll category.  I guess they thought it was a more original take on Santa than the traditional Santa and toys.  

Perhaps some people thought it odd that I would make a Santa like this.  Santa is supposed to be the jolly, loving character.  I think the problem is that modern day concepts have overshadowed the myth of the Belsnickel.  These days children expect toys, candy, and expensive electronics for Christmas.  Coal and switches would seem like a terrible gift.  But think for a moment about the time that the Santa/Belsnickel myth originated.  Coal and switches were the materials to build a fire to keep warm.  The message of the Belsnickel is that even in the years that you were not behaving at your best, (Let's face it we have all had them.)  there was someone that cared about you enough that he (or she) wanted to make sure that you were warm and knew that someone cared about you.   That is the message of the Belsnickel.  Someone cares about you even in the years that you felt unlovable or undeserving.

During this time of the Christmas season while we are so busy buying the latest electronics or heading out to the next holiday party, make sure that you take some time to tell those you love that you care about them.  That message is much more important than picking out the latest video game.  It will be remembered long after the must have toy or game of the year is forgotten.

Cabin Trip November 2018

We made a trip to the cabin just before Thanksgiving.  The weather cooperated with us this time.  The rain and sleet did not start up there until after we left.  We were able to get up there during a pocket of fairly decent weather.  The daytime temperatures were in the forties and fifties (Fahrenheit).  At night the temperatures dipped into the low thirties, but never went below freezing the entire time we were there.

When we crossed the bridge at the bottom of the mountain, we were surprised to see that the water was roiling.  Usually this time of year the river is a sedate little stream calmly flowing over the rocks.  This time the water was rushing angrily, heavy even for the spring run off season.  When we left last time, Hurricane Michael had just come through.  The water was even higher now than after the hurricane.  Friends and Family that have been to the cabin might remember a low lying concrete bridge that spans the stream.  That bridge was fully underwater by a foot or more.  There are a number of places along the road where water is pouring off the mountain.  Usually they are dry.  This year there are waterfalls in places where I have never seen water moving at all.

There has been a lot of rain up there this year.  We noticed that here at the bottom of the mountain that some people had brought in loads of rock to help keep the banks from eroding.  For about eight years there was a drought in the area.  The drought broke last year and we started having a lot of rain.  It has rained heavily at least once on almost every trip we had taken up there this year.  All that rain is soaking into the mountains and running down into the streams and rivers.  The rivers are definitely higher than normal.

Since it is late in the year and the leaves are down, it is easier to see the huge boulders that cover the mountainside.  Many of them weigh several tons.  It makes you wonder at the forces of nature that can move these huge monoliths. Clearly, some of these boulders were part of the same rock that split apart sometime in the past.  Even more amazing is watching the same rocks over time.  In my life time I have seen some of these rocks crack and pieces fall off.  Near the top of the mountain there is an area where the side of the mountain is covered with boulders and smaller rocks.  It is clear that a huge section of granite has split and those pieces have split continually until the mountainside is covered with smaller and smaller pieces of rock.  The power of water and ice is amazing.  Nature finds a way to break down everything into smaller and smaller particles.  The streams are filled with rock and the fine grit of rock dust.  Sometimes when I have felt that I was stuck in some situation it was helpful to remind myself that if I wait long enough that even rocks will change.

We raked leaves one more time, although most of the leaves were removed during the previous trip.  It may seem counterproductive to try to rake up all the leaves in the yard when the cabin is in the middle of a forest, however it is necessary.  Leaves piling up against the house and around the yard are a potential fire hazard.  Piles of leaves, a stray spark or a bolt of lightening combined with high winds can be a disaster in the making.  It is necessary to keep a little bit of a fire break.

Leaves on the lawn would kill the grass.  The grass helps hold the soil in place, preventing erosion.  On a mountainside, everything runs down hill in one direction or another.  Water tends to run in channels where ridges meet.  Water can very quickly dig out a rut if there is not something holding the ground in place.  Each year we carefully tend the yard, fighting the forces of nature and gravity.   I sometimes wonder if we own the cabin or the cabin owns us.  We seem to toil ceaselessly in its service.

Our other big project this trip was splitting and stacking wood.  Two years ago we had a locust tree cut down that was threatening our shed.  We had the tree cutter cut the tree trunk into appropriate lengths for firewood.  The tree was almost more than we bargained for as some of the pieces of the trunk were twenty-four inches in diameter.   We have been splitting wood from this tree ever since.

My husband splits the pieces of trunk with a huge wood maul or wedges and a sledge hammer.  The maul is so heavy that I am not able to lift it over my head.  How he can manage to use these heavy tools to split wood all day long is somewhat of a mystery to me.  He is very strong.  Anyway, he splits the wood and tosses it down to the the next level of the yard.  I pick the wood up and pile several pieces at a time into the log carrier and carry it into the shed and stack it.  It is a lot of work.  They say that chopping wood warms you twice.  Once when you chop it and once when you burn it.  That is true.  Fortunately, the cool temperatures were just about ideal for chopping wood.  Although I cannot say that chopping, hauling, and stacking wood is enjoyable, it is at least tolerable when the weather is cool.

Every once in a while, when my husband was starting to split a large log, I would catch up on picking up the split wood.  I would take the opportunity to grab a few of the large branches that had come down and haul them out of the direct view of the porch.  The ground between the cabin and the stream is a lovely view from the porch as long as you keep the area picked up.  Otherwise it is a pile of lumber.  The trees, especially the birch trees, drop limbs constantly.   At least once a year the area needs to be cleared out or you are knee deep in branches.  Some of the branches are broken up to make kindling.  Other branches are cut to go into the wood stove.  Some of the branches are tossed over a ravine, the rest are taken to a burn pile.  It is a never ending process to keep the area looking civilized.  I cannot say that it is ever immaculate.  As soon as you finish cleaning the area the process begins again.

Because the weather was cool, we used the wood stove all day.  The stove is another thing up there that needs constant attention.  Our wood stove is a wood burning cook stove.  It burns wood very quickly.  I have to add wood to it about every twenty minutes to keep it from going out.  We keep a wood box in the house that holds about twenty-five pieces of wood.  It is not unusual to go through the entire wood box in a day.  It usually needs to be refilled each evening.

I am glad that we have matches and lighters to make starting the fire easier.  I think back to earlier times when people had only a flint and steel,  a bow fire starter, or had to rub a stick between two hands to light a fire.  At best, those tools are a nuisance.  At worst, getting a fire started again is a matter of survival in cold weather.  All in all, I am glad that we don't have to use a wood stove at home.  It is not bad for a few days at a time, but after a short period of time it becomes just one more chore.

The cabin is shut down for the year now.  After Thanksgiving, the main line of the water system is drained for the winter.  We actually start draining the house in October.  You never know exactly when it is going to start freezing up there.  This year we have had snow up there since our trip in October.  We don't want to be faced with having to make it up there at the spur of the moment if a sudden freeze comes.  With temperatures that go below zero, you don't want water in the pipes of an unheated cabin.

We probably won't see the cabin again until spring.  Every time we go to the cabin we hope that we will return to find everything all right.  You never know what happens there while you are away.  There are a number of people close by that check on the cabin from time to time.  If something is damaged they will get word to us.  Still, you always wonder whether everything will be all right when you come up the drive.

Update on the Star and Leaf Quilt November 2018

I thought I'd post an update on my Star and Leaf quilt today.  It seems as if I have been working on this quilt forever.  The quilt is a king size quilt.  Piecing the quilt went fairly quickly.  Quilting the quilt is another story entirely.

I found the pattern for this quilt in a quilting magazine.  I think it was actually listed as a quick quilt.  It probably was if you machine pieced it and machine quilted it.  Or as many people do these days, send the quilt out to be quilted.  I hand quilt.  That takes a lot longer.  I prefer the look of hand work to machine work.

I also feel that hand quilting gives me more bang for my buck.  Material used to be fairly inexpensive, but that is no longer the case.  The price of cotton has risen considerably over the years and that has affected the cost of fabric.  Purchasing cotton fabric for quilting is now a much more expensive proposition.  If I hand quilt, the project takes longer, thereby stretching the entertainment and engagement value I get from a quilt.  I know that this is a seems perverse to many quilters who can't wait to get onto the next project, but I enjoy spending the time on each one rather than always thinking about what's next.  The next project will come around soon enough.

The project is not quilted as the project in the magazine was.  I wanted to make my quilt unique rather than looking like something that is already out there.  I thought that I would continue the leaf motif in the quilting.  Each square that has a large leaf is quilted with small leaves all around the large leaf.  I wanted it to have a background effect of there being more leaves on the ground.  Along with the leaves, I also quilted in some spirals.  I always enjoy watching the swirling of the leaves as they spiral to the ground.  It would not have been hard to quilt the seed shape, but it had been that way in the magazine, and I wanted something different.  Unfortunately, it is very hard to see the quilting in this picture.  Perhaps if you click on it to enlarge it the quilting will be more visible.

The back of the quilt.

The stars are quilted quilted with lines to look like rays of light coming from them.  I wanted the stars to be fairly energetic.  They were not that hard to quilt, but I went through four air erase marking pens in the course of the project. I wanted the lines to be straight so I used a ruler to mark them.

The inner border has been embroidered in spiky lines that mimic the shape of the triangles in the sun.    I started out with a more elaborate pattern in this border, but marking it proved too difficult.   My pattern for the border was so small that even the fine line erasable marking pen was too tight to use.  Rather than enlarging and hand cutting the pattern (I don't have one of those die cut machines.), I decided that it was time to keep it simple and go with something I could easily mark on the border.

The outer border is the last thing that needs to be embroidered before I bind the quilt and call it finished.  I am thinking about quilting it with some sort of double helix pattern.  Other times I think about getting ambitious and making a star pattern to echo the start in the quilt.  I guess it depends on how much trouble it will be to disperse the stars evenly across the quilt. 

The holidays are rapidly approaching.  I need to start working on some gifts.  I will blog about them next Sunday.

Life Size Doll Painted and Wigged

I have been working on this life size doll nearly all year.  It is not that the project took so long to do, it is that this year I have just had little time to work on it.  I only work on the doll when time allows.  I am not the type of person who stays up all night trying to get things done.  Actually, I am pretty much ready to hit the hay once it gets dark.  I am definitely a morning person.  If I did not get something done on the doll in the morning, it did not get done at all.

From a distance she almost looks real.

When I first started the doll, I had visions of entering it into a competition.  Then the project hit a number of hard stops.  The competition deadline came and went.  One of the hard stops is that I totally lost interest in the project.  I began avoiding my studio because the project was barely started and I no longer cared about it.  Every time I would walk in there the project was in the way, making me feel guilty.  Maybe I should have just thrown the whole thing out then, but I made a rule for myself a long time ago.  The rule Part A:  no more unfinished objects (UFOs).  Part B of the rule was that I could not have more than three projects going at any one time.  The reasoning behind the three projects is that some of my projects take time to dry before going on to the next step.  By having more than one project available I could keep working even if a project was at a stopping point.

I used to start a project, get tired of it, and just stash it away out of sight.  Pretty soon I had a lot of UFOs and nothing completed to show for all my work.  So, once this project was started, it had to be completed before I could begin another project.  I already had two other projects going on.  The first was a king size quilt that I have been hand quilting.  That project is almost finished but it has taken a year.  I will never hand quilt a quilt that size again.  The other project was a quilting guild project, actually projects, as I have participated in two challenge quilts this year.  Since the other two projects were already accounted for, the doll had to be finished before I could go on to something else.

Another of the hard stops was that I hurt my shoulder early this year.  I was going to physical therapy three times a week and had exercises to do at home twice a day on the other days.  That ate up nearly all my free time.  My shoulder is still painful, though not nearly as painful as it was months ago.  Working on this project has not been very pleasurable because it hurt so much to use my arm.

The other hard stop was our schedule this year.  We are spending more time at the cabin than we did in the past.  It is not just the time spent at the cabin that was a hindrance to the project.  Getting ready to go requires grocery shopping and packing.  Returning from the cabin means lots of laundry and trying to catch up on every chore and errand that was not attended to while we were away.  So maybe a week out of each month I had a few hours to work on this project.  No wonder it took so long to finish the doll.

I learned a lot from this project.  Mainly I learned that I did not care much for working in this scale.  I am much happier working on smaller projects.  However, there were many lessons learned along the way that can be helpful in other projects.  I enjoyed the process of sculpting the head.  I like the challenge of making something take shape and form.

Once the doll was covered in papier mâché I painted her with a coat of Gesso.  Then I painted on a ballet leotard.  My intention was to costume her for Halloween, but I worked on painting her right up until the evening of Halloween.  At least she has some clothes on now.

With time running out on Halloween I had thought that I would make a quick costume out of white trash bags and position her a few feet from the door so that she had a ghostly appearance.  If there was a breeze the bags would rustle and flutter in the wind.  However, at dark on Halloween night the coat of outdoor sealer was still drying.  If I had costumed her I might have plastic permanently embedded in the sealer.  I decided that I would wait for next year to put her outside.  That was disappointing, but I would rather do it right than wreck the project. Who knows, maybe someone will want this piece to put on a parade float or something.

I purchased a Cosplay wig for her hair.  Then the Halloween costumes came on sale at Walmart and I purchased a cheaper wig thinking I would use the inexpensive wig on the doll and save the expensive wig for my own Halloween costume.  However, the Walmart wig has big chunks of hair cut off it here and there.  (My take on this is that the wig makers did not want people using cheap wigs for Cosplay.  Cosplay is big business.)  It looks like someone went mad and started hacking off hanks of hair.  Maybe that was okay for a Halloween, but it was not okay for the doll.  If you look at the first picture you can see some of the short strands sticking out on the side.  I was a bit miffed at the hacked up wig  The picture on the bag did not show that this was what the wig was going to look like.  At the moment, the wig is only tacked with a dab of hot glue so I could take some pictures.  After I add a couple more coats of exterior sealer to the doll I will glue on the better wig. 

Anyway, now that she is painted, she is ready to be costumed.  Maybe she will be the flamenco dancer I had originally envisioned holding a fan in her outstretched hand.  Or a bejeweled belly dancer stepping into a hip lift.   Maybe she is holding a glass ready to make a toast.  She could be a costumed as a winged archangel holding a flaming sword.  Or Lady MacBeth holding a dagger.  The possibilities are endless.  Now that the doll is finished, the costuming can begin.

If you are interested in seeing more pictures of the construction of the doll you can go to folkartbycaroljones.blogspot.com and scroll back through some of my earlier posts.  The doll posts are intermingled with posts from my travels this year.  Many of the photos showing the construction of the torso are on a blog post dated October 28th, 2018 if you want to see most of the construction in one place.  If you want detailed information about the process, you should read the posts on the life size doll that took place throughout the year.

I will be blogging next Sunday.  I will show the quilting progress on the king size quilt.