Last night I got quite excited as I'm nearing completion of a beaded art doll that I've been working on since December.The challenge was due by the end of December but circumstances led me to a very late start. However, I will finish it. When I first read the challenge, I sort of pictured one of the old broadway shows with huge bands and dancers crossed with sort of Betty Boop shaped legs. (this is from memory, I haven't seen a Berry Boop comic or cartoon in years, so I may have been confused - we'll see what I will come up with)
First of all I ruined the face I'd chosen and couldn't replace it with the one that was 'in my head'. Then I had the problem of how to attach legs. The picture in my head needed them to look one way but in reality, I could not achieve the shape I wanted. Still have to finish off the shoes before I attach. Hope to reveal all tomorrow and post a pic.
Now, back to work!

Needlefelting

Here is a tiny sheep I finished on 'Australia Day', using an armature for the first time. I found it quite easy to get a very firm covering over the wire but really difficult to make the wool stay on the feet. No matter what I did, it kept sliding off. Eventually I got it so that you can only see the a tiny piece of the wire if you look closely. I would have made the legs too thick if I had continued. Hope to do better next time.

One leg down, 3 to go

Can't see the detail of his face

cute curly tail
 

Finished the Jan BJP.
I stitched a Golden Wattle, national flower of Australia on an ATC sized piece of stiff felt. I used couching and backstitch, edged with brick stitch and picot. I used ultrasuede for the backing. Looking forward to February.

Back

Golden Wattle

I hope to have my BJP finished by the end of January. Here is some progress to date.

I taught a brooch class at Guild on Friday and had a lovely day. We embroidered around a cabachon and used several edgings to finish. The ladies all managed to finish their brooches apart from a couple needing to finish edges.

I've had a few problems accessing my blog since last I posted. My dashboard keeps disappearing behind a white band. I think its' somethign to do with stopping all popups. Today I got in through Facebook and everything is here.
I had a fantastic 2-day class with Jenny Campbell playing with textiles. Jenny is the most generous of tutors and supplied everything that was on our requirements list. She took us through painting, embossing on shim, making fabric with plastic bags, stamping etc as well as giving demonstrations on how use lots of embellishments. Here is a couple of my attempts, not very inspiring as I'm not very creative.

This piece is made up of plastic bags with silk flowers and strips of plastic sandwiched between layers and ironed to melt the plastic together. I'm intrigued to see what else I can do with this technique.

This piece consists of painted velvet with squares of fabric layered with a piece of shim on top. The shim was embossed and stitched with not thread to make the patterns. I need lots of practice using the darning foot.

No progress

No progress on my BJP project as yet. I'm furiously trying to finish a 'hat doll' for the BAD group. I have had family visiting for three weeks over Xmas including my 2 year old grand daughter Sienna. They go back to Western Australia on Sunday. I have a 2-day fibre arts class next week at Guild which I'm looking forward too. We're going to be using metal shim and making Tyvek beads. Hope to start my project next weekend when I can unpack my supplies and get back to work.