Pam Grose Class Pt 2

OK - got sick of adding to the first post so thought I'd do a part 2.

The L'il Monster is a pattern but Pam also showed me how to do a wrapped armature and use the pattern pieces as cotton lyra skins - here is mine with the wrapped armature and beginning to put the skins over.

This is someone else's monster made with the conventional pattern stuffed around the armature and the stuffed feet

As you can see the creature can be posed in many different ways - creating the character.

Pam demonstrated an open mouth technique which was very interesting. Here you can see the basic form with the cardboard piece inserted to create the mouth. We then had to backstitch around the eyes to adhere the lycra skin to the base - this enabled us to put stuffing around the eye forms to make brow ridges, cheeks and so on.

Once the heads were put on we gessoed the whole body ready for painting. We also used Jo Sonja texture paste to add some dimensional scaly effects.

This is where it got really interesting as individual choices in posing, colour choice and layering reall has an effect on the outcome. I painted mine black.

Ann chose brown and green

Sharolyn decided on a water dragon

Stella decided on purple and green

Lorraine wanted a definitely female monster in purple and pink - don't you love the dainty pose and the long eyelashes?

Pam Grose Workshop

Well a brilliant time was had by all - three days of fun, creativity and laughter. Pam is a world class teacher and all round great person. We gathered to create a L'il Monster - Pam's newest class doll. Here is a sample of her monster . The great thing about the pattern is it can also be interpreted as a more conventional animal such as a dog or a cat - here's Pam's take on a cat.















Pam also brought some of her dolls to show - here is the Gypsy girl front and back and a close up of her face.

Pam had also made an angel and Christine and The Phantom from Phantom of the Opera (she's only just slightly obsessed as she readily admits!

Needlefelted Bears

Went to Mum and Dad's for lunch on Easter Sunday. Checked with Mum and she said "no chocolate" so I needlefelted a little Easter egg bear for her that she'd shown me in a Bear making magazine. Here he is -

I took my wool and needles with me and in about an hour whipped up this guy.

Even Martha Stewart has featured needlefelting. She had a lady who made some cute (but expensive) Easter Chickens. You can see the episode here.

Happy Birthday Chris

My baby is 14 years old. And taller than me. There I said it ok? Where is that round, fat little sausage I use to know? Turned into a muscle bound string bean.














Who'd have thought that he would have turned into this (washboard stomach and all). It only seems like yesterday (sigh). Oh well only 4 more years and then your 18 and on your own son. (Just kidding). Ooh - and he took this picture of himself (and about ten thousand others on the digital camera).

I am famous (in my own lunchtime)

Yes - who's quilt is that on the front cover? Yes it's MINE!

Feeling quite pleased with myself - I actually think that my little quilt on the front cover is HILARIOUS!

But still feeling pleased with myself!

I love new fabrics. This assortment is a new Kaye England range called Spice Market. I thought it would look good in a Log Cabin arrangement. Here it is made up into a block. The blocks are currently being put together to make a quilt. I love log cabin's mathematical possibilities since we had a beginner's class here last October. It's amazing how a simple block can result in some really dramatic patterns. Will post a pic of the pieced blocks when I get the camera back from the husband.

Fabrications

Here are some pics from the Fabrications class held at my shop recently. Lisa Walton took a bunch of ladies on a journey making fantasy fabrics using free motion embroidery and soluble stabilizer. The following class they started constructing the blocks using Lisa's fantastic hand dyed fabrics. Here are some of the results. I have pics from the Creative Beading class too but they are still on the camera (and the husband has the camera). Lisa's inspiration for the beading comes from Nancy Eha - had a good flick through the book and will be adding it to my own personal library (as well as the bookshelves for the shop).

Creative Cloth Doll Beading

Patti Culea is a very, very talented dollmaker and she has written several fantastic books on dollmaking - her latest book arrived in the shop today and I snaffled one for myself (don't you worry about that!) It's terrific - I love beading (thanks to Patti introducing me to Peyote Stitch). The most exciting thing is that Patti included my shop as a place to get resources in her book - so now I can be famous all round the world. Thanks Patti ;-). I should also mention that Patti produced this book in cahoots with Laura McCabe (an awesome beader would be something of an understatement in discribing her work) and Annie Hesse (a cloth doll maker who is also a talented beader. The work in this book is dribble inducing.

Fresh Cut Quilt

Here it is - finished and photographed. It will also be a project in Patchwork and Stitching. Cool!

Fresh Cut Quilt

Heather Bailey's Fresh Cut range arrived in the shop late last month - I made a skirt for my daughter Claire and also a simple charm square quilt from this lovely fabric. I am hoping it might be a project for Patchwork & Stitching (and will definitely be a quilt kit!) I am sure they will take a much better picture of it than I have here (which was at the quilt top stage). I stayed up till 2.30am to finish the bindings so I could deliver it to the magazine - I was tired but happy I'd got it finished. It was a bit of a marathon because I decided to stipple quilt the whole darn thing - argh! what was I thinking? It did improve my stippling though!

A skirt to twirl in

All six year olds twirl.



Claire's last twirling skirt literally fell apart (from being loved to death). She's been after a new one for a while. So this afternoon I finally whipped up one out of the new Fresh Cut range from Heather Bailey. I am quite impressed with my own skill as I am usually hopeless at a) clothes and b) ruffles - so I think it turned out quite well. Here she is cooking the bbq and having a twirl on the deck.


Gee I'm a great mother.

Flat Felting

You will remember I started a flat relief needlefelted piece some time ago based on one of Patti Culea's tome pages. I finally got my needles out (and a four needle punch) and added some more to the page. Still needs to be felted some more and them free motion embroidered over the top. But here's an update.

Doll making classes

I am happy to say that three fantastic dollmakers I know are coming to teach in the shop. First up is Pam Grose. Pam came and did a workshop last year where we did a doll on canvas - I did my mermaid. This time we are going to make either the L'il Monster or Basic Woman or Basic Man. The good thing about Pam is she's so flexible that she can teach different things to a bunch of people at the same time as she paces herself to the individual in the class. She's definitely not a 'pay attention - I'm only going to say this once' teacher.

The second class is with Ann Maullin and is Matilda the Aussie Bush Fairy. I have taken this class with Ann myself and it was a relaxing two days that's for sure. The doll is a no sew doll (no dragging your machine to class). You sew the hands and face at home and bring them with you. The class is great for learning a wrapped armature technique and is the one I used on my Ent. Ann's dolls are always so elegant - wonderful curvy bodies and long tapered fingers for delicate "ballet" like poses.

Last - but by no means least - is a class with Marilyn Halcomb. Marilyn is known as Australia's queen of soft sculpting - but she's also a wiz at Polymer Clay sculpting. She's put me on to a supplier for an airdrying polymer clay - which makes doing a class so much easier as I don't have an oven at the shop. The little character she has sculpted is "Sweet William" (named after a rather cute baby who happened to be in the shop when Marilyn dropped the doll off). I have also done a polymer clay sculpting class with Marilyn and her "sausage and balls" method is so easy (and open to some good laughs if you've got a dirty mind). I will have to post a pic of the head and hands I did in class with her.

So all good stuff happening - for those interested in signing up you can go to my website and book there.

The 4th tag

I've been very slack not posting the pic of my final tags from the tag swap - so here they are as well as a picture of them all together. They are all beautiful aren't they? The first one was made by Liz Waechter and the second one by Dale Rollerson . It was a cool swap to do. Will have to make the tome page now for them to live in.

Red Sky at night

Last week some much needed rain came to our drought stricken state. There were big storm clouds that rolled through and the sun came out - the sky went a weird yellow colour - it was amazing. Here are some pictures of the clouds and the sky as the sun set. It was so beautiful to look at - the boys even jumped in the car with the camera to go take some photos of it!

Ooo my fiery balls

Have been at the Sydney Stitches and Craft Show all week on my stall and doing a hands on workshop with my ipoddess using Colourstreams hand dyed silk thread and velvet and Artgirlz charms. I've also been doing a free talk about the Jacquard range of products. Wow - it's the first major show I've done and it's so nice to have my mum there to keep me company. Mum's cousin Diana comes in to cover for me while I am doing my talks which is sooo sweet of her! I don't think I've ever felt so tired in my life - my feet are so sore at the end of the day - as my grandma use to say - "oh my fiery balls" (meaning the balls of her feet!)

Lots of people ask, "you'll be at the August show won't you?" which I guess is sweet but when I tell them it's like childbirth and I'll need to forget the pain first they look at me as if I've spoken heresy! It's such a lot of work - I am full of admiration for those who travel all over the country doing all the shows. It's a new experience being the other side of the table that's for sure!