Nesting dolls 2

previous posting about nesting dolls here

Now I own two old nesting dolls. The first one was in too good shape for me to be able to sand it down and repaint it. The other is not.

But - as time has passed since the last time, and I haven't decided yet anything, here's a bit more inspiration on how to repaint nesting dolls (or maatuskas as we call them in Finland)

Emuse's Japanese inspired dolls

These are by Ingela Arrhenius

 Irina Troitskaya's arctic series... I love ALL her sets. 

I somehow like the simple white decor... like with these, by Abbey Hendrickson

There is something I like with these "nesting birdies" by Christo de los Rabitos

It's from his Deviant Art account that is inactivated. :-(

The following three are by "The Colorful World" at Etsy.com. I love them :-)

Or these monsters, from Matryoshka Madness. Simple and nice :-D 

I don't think I'll make something like that anyway.

But - the original Russian nesting dolls have some charm... They are kind of personal and have nice colors.

Somehow reminds me of Inner Content's dolls...

If this is not illegal, it should be

Somebody takes imprints of existing items and sells them on Etsy... I mean... it's one of the easiest things in the world to take an imprint of an object, and use it to copy the object, but that girl looks rather modern. That means, the person who made it is probably still alive, or at least there hasn't been 70 years from his/her death. Or at least the company who bought the design still owns the copyright. You can't just take an imprint of anything that happens to fancy you and sell that as a mold, to encourage and enable others to steal copyright.
Or - obviously you can.
Which means, that if I make a cameo of polymer clay or resin or something similar, sell it and this person gets her hands on it, I can find my unique, original artwork copied by every dick, tom and harry, and in a couple of years there's no saying who did what first, and my original will be counted among the "dime a dozen" crap.

Another thing I was really disappointed today with, was the different Etsy teams... as anyone and their dog can start a team, anyone (and their dog) starts a team, and then uses the fancy names. I checked out a couple.

There was a group about people who collect, buy and sell foxes, and only one of the members had an item with a fox to sell, and that was also the only item with a fox in the combined favorites of the team members. Really disappointing.

There was a team about people who either were big girls wanting fashionable, beautiful clothes, or selling fashionable beautiful clothes to big girls, or supporting anti-sizism in clothes selling at Etsy. The same thing there. Might be that the members were big girls, or supporting big girls, but not one was selling clothes to big girls, or favorited such items. *sigh*

Nevertheless, the biggest disappointment was a group that had named itself after the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. My reaction was: "Oh, steampunk! Or something other, extraordinary, handmade... This must be good!"
It was not. I find selling "vintage" from 80's VERY ordinary. Anyone can have a second hand store. Now... making something new with the vintage finds, that would have been extraordinary. Selling new-made things made with old patterns older than me, that would be interesting. Inventing new techniques, creating unusual combinations, exciting artefacts, weird, odd, interesting... that's what I was expecting from a league of extraordinary Etsy sellers.

I have to say that I wish I had the nerve. I named my shop "cabinet of curiosities and fair of vanities", shivering of the imputence and the pretentiousness of it, and I intend to live up to the name. That's why I haven't been selling anything there. Nothing seems worthy the name - curiosity and vanity...

I am really upset now...

I was looking around at Etsy, as usual. Looking at all the wonderful things people make and sell, wished I was rich, rich, rich... and healthy, healthy, healthy...

There are so many women out there doing amazing things IN SPITE of not being all o.k.
Why not I?

I am mourning the lost chances and opportunities, the lost time... where did the last 20 years of my life go? What have I done since 1993?

I read a blog written by young woman, who was planning her 22nd birthday. She thought the theme might be 20's, and then presented idea pictures, fashion illustrations and photographs from 1915 to 1935. I suppose 20's are there in the middle... 

I have a new blog. An Illustrator's Inspiration. No-one seems to be interested.

Some of my dolls

Easter bunnies made of polymer clay and cloth, lace and satin ribbon
Together with Doris, the other of my fake Staffordshire spaniel pair,
and a cute little pottery badger, not made by me, and our Chanukkiah.

 Yehuda Ha-Makabi, Jude Maccabean, for my Jewish husband and Chanukkah :-)
But we like him so much, he may stay all year around :-D
Together with an easter bunny I crocheted, little mermaid from Denmark, my beautiful cow pot (not made by me) and a blackbird :-)

Knitted and embroidered

 

Winter's Spirit, polymer clay, yarn, knitted, sewn, glued... 

and because I only have an automated camera and it's white, the photos aren't good.

500 handmade dolls

Disclaimer: I don't own the copyright to any of these pictures, and I don't own any of these dolls. In most cases the copyright is the respective dollmaker's.

I'm disappointed with this one too. I expected to see dolls from more than 400 artists, but there's only less than 200 artists in the book.
I do think the doll artists chosen are worthy, but... Dan Fletcher, for example, makes incredible dolls, but do you really need three almost identical groups of dolls to show his work?

Really?

There were several similar choises. That she chose to showcase her own work I can understand, but for example artists like Delia Seigenthaler, Lesley Anne Green and Reina Mia Brill had several dolls in the books, and, I'm sorry to say this, all their dolls look alike. You have seen one, you have seen all. (At least all that were depicted in the book). To think you could have seen something new and different instead! There are several artists, who, even though I have no doubt they are very good dollmakers, and create something new and interesting; only produce their own kind of work, and if you have seen one drunken idiot Japanese doll, you have seen enough.

I really wish she had set a limit of three dolls per artist, preferably less. (For example, Dan Fletcher would have been fairly presented with only two dolls. One drunken idiot doll and one non-drunken doll.)

I missed:

Julie Arkell

Julien Martinez

Natalia Lopusova Tomskaya

Katya Manshavina

Jill Willich

Elizabeth Ruffings - sure, she might be too "ordinary", or something, and her dolls are beautiful, but I love them and I think she has given calico dolls a real push up.

Or Marina Bychkova... I ADORE her dolls! And the clothes, details, accessories... she makes them all, and they are works of beauty and art...

Christine Alvarado

Silvia Baukloh

Jon Beinart - oh, I think his dolls are absolutely horrible, but they sure are new, original and innovative.

Katie Boyette

Mimi Kirchner

Jo James

Debbee Thibault

Dorote Zaukaite Villela

 Alexandra Koukinova

Kate Church

Ima Naroditskaya

Forest Rogers

I mean... I understand that one cannot just pick dolls and put in a book, but I doubt these artists would have refused to be featured in "500 handmade dolls". After all, most of them have agreed to have their work published in magazines and blogs.

One reason to refuse/ignore these artists, so that we had a chance to see several copies of the same doll by several artists instead, could have been that most of them are not Americans, but I didn't notice that the book was only about American dollmakers. But... what about those who ARE American?

I really cannot understand why so many great dolls were left out of the book, and that makes the book a disappointment to me. 

waffle weave and huck towels

How to crochet waffle weave
1) the Swedish way of making pot holders and a nice waffle weave scarf
2) a little different waffle stitch video tutorial

3) waffle weave technique or the "Siberian Stitch"

Waffle weave is great as base for "Swedish Weave" or "huck weave" embroidery. It's even called "Waffle Weave" in Finnish and Swedish.

It's called "oitinho" in Portuguese, and it's very popular in Brazil.
Here's a tutorial and some patterns in Portuguese.
In Spanish it's called "Punto Yugoslavo", and it's just as popular in Spanish speaking countries :-D

Now if one only could get some time to do something...

Lots of posts today...

This time, macramé.

Crocheted and knotted items are fashionable now, but the fashion bloggers couldn't tell the difference of one technique from the other. *sigh*
(Yeah, really awesome, but not macramé.  "Read on to learn the difference..." the Emilio Pucci dress  is not crocheted. It's knitted. So is the Julien MacDonald dress in the last picture. "Spring trend we are loving" is macramé, macramé (not crochet, even though Jameela, who ever she is, wears the dress nicely); macramé, I suppose; not sure about Lanvin's wedges, but they don't look macramé to me; Beauclerk shopper is definitely crochet; the only piece of the swimmingsuit that could fit the trend looks like a Battenburg lace applique; macramé, crochet...)

Some guy decided to make a chair of macramé, and now everyone is praising him and saying how he single-handedly rescues the technique. *sigh*

"The rope made of an aramide braid and carbon centre is knotted into the shape of a chair. The slack texture is then impregnated with epoxy and hung in a frame to harden."

"Moreover he (Marcel Wanders) rescues the traditionally pure, practical and constructive macramé technique from stuffy image that it has had since the sixties by linking it up with the latest technology".

Well... it's a nice chair.  And...? I don't see people knotting away.
Now, the macramé owl trend might be what saves macramé. I suppose macramé is supposed to be hippie.
(Want to make your own owl?  I, II, here are several among other things, III)

This is part of the "stuffy" image of macramé... I kind of like it. It's inspiring :-)

and someone was posting about how they found these objects from flea market or so, and were so happy... and some part of me understands.  They are really well made.

I really like this top...

Uniqua Studio's wonderful macramé clothes

I really want that dress...

birdsofohio: macramé

I like Olga's Macramé pages. On "Patterns" page she tells how to make several knots, on "Projects" page are the patterns.

Now, then there's micro macramé...

Jean Wertman's zebra necklace. Jean was 80 when she did this...

micro macramé earrings. Here's how to make your own.

very simple and pretty bracelet

And I have to agree with knotgypsy, that Isha Elafi makes the most amazing macramé jewelry...

Then at last, Knotty notions - do something knotty every day :-)