Beverly the One-Eyed Girl

I decided to make today a work day and finished my doll and got it listed on Etsy. https://www.etsy.com/listing/105269058/beverly-prim-style-folk-art-doll-ooak I named her Beverly because that's where I got the parts for most of her.  The blue velvet neck trim is vintage from Goodwill. It takes a  long time to sew a doll by hand, and not much less by machine, because the only part you can do by machine is sewing around the body parts. So even at $40. I'm not sure I'm making a profit. That's the way it goes with arts and crafts. Lots of love but not much money.

Back view.

Beverly with her one good eye.

Me holding her when she's all done.

Beverly shows off her hip hop moves.

Getting ready for "So You Think You Can Dance"

Atlatl and Antler

An atlatl is a spear thrower used by primitive people all over the world. It's currently enjoying a revival amongst archers, paleo afficiandos and history buffs.

Today I had my first try at sawing antler. I decided my atlatl was too short, so I was gifted a piece of antler to make it longer. I thought I was going to have to saw a bit off each end, but after one cut if felt good in my hand so I'm just going to go with it. I can always cut it down more later if it's too bulky.

San Marcos Area Art Potluck

Arrowheads knapped by Chris of Paleoarts

Last Saturday we drove down to San Marcos, CA to visit an open house held by my friend's art co-op.  In their group they have some potters, glassblowers, woodworkers and a flute maker. Chris makes primitive style tools like stone axes, arrowheads, atlatls, spears, and bone needles.  Him and his girlfriend Carrie did atlatl demos throughout the afternoon, and let people give it a try. Then we all had an amazing potluck. Then there was a fantastic raffle and a silent auction.

See the photos below.

Chris shows guests how to use an atlatl and dart

Bone needles made by Chris

Two glassblowers work on a project.

Teen tries out throwing pottery on a wheel.

Boomerangs and Atlats made by Chris from Paleoarts

Four New Paintings

I'm supposed to be working on my Nanowrimo novel, so of course all I want to do is paint. I've done four paintings in two days to try out my new watercolor crayons. I like the little girl in the snow the best. It's called 'Snow Day'. Next time I'll tape the paper down to a board first so it won't curl as much. These were all painted with a combination of watercolor crayons, watercolor pencils and white acrylic paint. They dry quickly. They are in a folk art or naive style. Ironically, once you've learned to paint in art classes, it's harder to go back and paint in a primitive style and throw proportions to the wind.

Retro Style Embroidery

This morning I swung by Joann's and I'll be darned if they didn't have that weaving book I looked for for 2 hours last time I went. I wasn't even looking for it and there it was. And I didn't have my 40% off coupon on me. I could have screamed! But I explained it to the cashier and she gave me the discount. I felt so happy about that I went in and bought another book too. The other one is on retro embroidery. Granted I can't use any of the transfers in the book because of copyright issues, it does give me a record of that 'style' as a stepping off point for my own design work. And I will tell you why I do it. I want to make an owl embroidery in the 70's style for my Hooters shop, so I went to google and typed in retro owl. I saw the same owl transfer on numerous projects, some for sale, some not. Not only is that copyright infringement in most cases (unless they got the design from Dover or something), but do you really want yours looking like everyone else's that used that transfer? Sometimes the transfer faced left and sometimes right but it was the same owl on the same branch with the same leaves. With so much resource material, there is no reason not to just draw your own, transfer it to the fabric and go from there. If you don't think you can draw, grab the nearest kid under 8 and ask them to draw you an owl or two. Kids have a great eye for line art and are not so hung up on each drawing being perfect. While you are at it, ask them to draw you a robot, a horse, or a mermaid. Anyway, the embroidery book I got covers the 30's through the 70's. This will be fun.

Rughooking: Ready, Set...no wait...

I've gathered most of the supplies to at least get a start on teaching myself rughooking. I have Monk's cloth, a hook I got on Etsy, some wool suit jackets from a thrift store to cut up, a rotary cutter, a cutting board and 2 books of instructions.

Now if I could only decide what I want to put on the rug. This is worse than blank canvas syndrome, because with paint, I can easily paint over it. I have about 100 ways I could go with this: Pets, archery, nature, flowers, birds, landscapes, seascapes? What design is worthy of hours and hours of my time?

Have you ever made a rug? What did you put on it?