Of Shoes and ...no, not ships, or sealing wax.

I am trying to renovate my life. I am realising I need to be shedding much of what I once enjoyed and loved, and moving on to new 'nakedness', as it were.

A sort of Less is More idea. These dolls I made gave me much pleasure, in their creation, and much pleasure in designing and sewing,  their clothes, and making many of their shoes, using leather and glue and trims and cork, or leather, for the soles..

I loved cleaning the greenware, firing the porcelain, painting the faces and firing the paint.

Then the construction of the bodies, if they were cloth. Many of them have plastic armature, which acts as a skeleton, so the dolls can be posed. The full porcelain dolls required some skill to 'string' and that was an art in itself...heaven forbid you shatter a limb!

I did not sculpt the dolls myself, but enjoyed choosing which artist's dolls I would make. I loved the variety, and the differing styles of dolls. I really enjoyed the wonderful friendships I made, with fellow doll enthusiasts, and the many laughs we shared in classes, and at Doll Shows.

The time and season for porcelain dolls now seems to be past, and I have sold my kiln, as I can no longer life heavy weights. 
In fact, since moving to where I live now, I have not made a doll, and I discovered the joys of quilting and that took over my life for a period of years.
I did manage to knit some dolls clothes, for my 'babies' and also a little sewing of clothes, but there are still naked dolls, and sadly, I know now I will not get around to clothing them.
For me, their season has ended.
(Incidentally, for most people the season has ended I suspect. They were a fad/craze that has run it's course, and the hundreds of dollars spent on greenware, eyes, armatures etc will never be realised in monetry ways) The pleasure, however, was priceless.

I initially began my dollmaking career at a Studio. I was quite good at constructing the bodies, and soon became 'employed' so to speak, for the students who did not care for those chores.
I loved working with electrical conduit pipes and joints to construct skeletons for the really large dolls, and the Man of the Studio and I, could often be found working out problems together, amidst tools and glues in the garage of the Studio..
The Lady of the Studio was all about painting, so my love of construction and 'working things out' became a benefit to their business.

Once I had my own kiln, I did not attend so many classes, but was on call for the construction of dolls- Christmas was rush hour, as doll makers raced to complete gifts. It was fun, and I would spend evenings with Gom, watching TV and sewing the dolls together. Better still, I got paid for my skills, so it was win win.

For a number of years, I was not ready to part with my 'family'. I loved each one, and had happy memories of the process of making them. We used to have cabinets, in our living space, filled with my happy dolls.
Then the time came that they were banished downstairs and I did not see them so often. Guests would stay in that downstairs room, and I wondered if they really liked the dolls staring at them.
Everyone has differing tastes, after all.

I still love most of the dolls, but in a practical world, I need to quit them now.
When my son became ill, he was living downstairs, with the dolls. He had intended to make his own life and move away, so we had not worried about the dolls.

Once he became ill, we decided to let him have his treasures and art surround him, and so the dolls have been banished, and I realise the time has come to part with them.

My daughter actually dislikes this doll, but I love her attitude, which I think the sculptor captured very well. I made jewellry for her, necklace and earrings, and was so happy with her suede shoes, which are not visible in this shot. She is posable, so she can assume several positions.


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I have been reading many of my old blog posts, and cannot help but think about how much my life has changed in the last few years.

I so loved my patchwork and quilting, and miss it in my life, but the paralysis of my present life, prevents it, somehow.
I know, if we could see round corners, we may not continue this journey.
People say, life is all about the journey... well my journey has become almost unbearable.

It has reached the point of "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off!!"

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On a lighter note, as I was sitting in the Doctor's Waiting Room, I suddenly noticed this huge Orangutan enter the room!
She was cunningly disguised as a Leopard!, in a huge, bright Leopard skin sort of tent. With matching handbag! "Goodness!", I thought."Quite dramatic!"
Then, entered a mother with a small boy child in tow, plus a babe in arms.
The boy child turned, and was suddenly arrested, at the sight of the Leopard! He was so startled he gasped, said OH,  and then he pointed, at the Leopardess..
The beautiful Leopardess smiled at him, and asked him his name, then she asked how old he was?
He held up five fingers, and his mother hastily said he is Two.
More children came into the waiting room. All seemed enchanted by the wonderfull Leopardess! She was so delightful to the children, and they all seemed drawn to her wonderful disguise.
I could not help but smile and admire her wonderful boldness. Her smile lit up the Waiting Room!

When I look back on the music I have posted, or listed here, I am happy that I have such a wide-ranging taste in music. Over the years it has given me so much joy and pleasure, I constantly think I want to thank all the musicians of this world.

Bob Seger, Against The Wind.

Tried to post this video, failed dismally. Am I "Losing It?" haha. or not....

It has rained, dismally, all day.
I hope tomorrow has some space for sun.

Maximum Peevery!!

Blogger seems determined to drive me insane this morning. Plus the camera wont cooperate! GRRRR! This is a pic of one of my favourite dolls, who happens to be called Meg. She was sculpted by a lady who lives/lived in Newcastle, NSW Australia. I put a skeleton in her so she could be posed, but at the moment she has 2 broken arms! Which I must mend. The photo is very blurry, but I had made my mind up I would upload it, & so the quality is very poor.

This is a pic of little Cookie, who was scuplted by another Australian sculptor called Karen Blandford- I think she has since married, & may have a different name now. I also put a skeleton in Cookie, & she can be posed. Luckily her skeleton has not broken. The pic is very bad, seems blurry, but after taking about 110 pics, couldnt get the camera to do better- or it must be me!

This is a picture taken this morning in the garden, of a Tibouchina flower, & even those turned out blurry. I love the colour of these flowers, & this little tree just grew by itself, so I didnt have the heart to kill it, I just transplanted it, to a more suitable location. It must have been determined to live, as even I didnt kill it. Haha.

I dont know why I am such a bad gardener these days. I used to have a nice garden, & could get things to grow quite well. Now I just have a brown thumb.

My Grandmother had a great fondness for her garden, & she would leave the dishes in the sink to get out into the garden before it got too hot for her. She love little Lilly of the Valley, they were her favourite flowers. Never seem to see them these days. She also had plenty of bulbs & I have always loved spring flowers. I saw a pic of some yellow primroses & was reminded of my Grandmother's garden, & how she loved primroses too.

There was a huge pink Cabbage Rose grew in the centre of the lawn, & I loved that big, full blown rose. It had the most heavenly perfume, & if I stop to think about it, I can smell it now. The flowers would be so heavy they would weigh the branches down, & the bees loved the blooms. I suppose she treated it to some of the cow dung mix she used to make. She would get my brother to collect the cow pats from the paddock, & then she would mix them with water to make a potent mix, which seemed to do wonders for the garden- vegetables as well as the flowers.

She used to have a friend who visited her once a week. The friend was a Welsh lady- how I loved to listen to her lilting accent! She would arrive on the bus in the afternoon, & stay until a later bus took her off home again. I could never understand the friendship. It was so formal. They never called each other by their first names- it was always Mrs W, & Mrs D.

My Grandmother used to make cucumber sandwiches, & fruit cake & they would usually be having afternoon tea, when I arrived home from school. If I was lucky I got to have some sandwiches or cake. And Mrs W seemed to just chat away non stop, sitting in my Grandmother's dining room. And my Grandmother would just go out to the garden, while Mrs W chatted on, & my mother always laughed about this. My Grandmother would pick her parsely or whatever for tea, & just come back inside to hear Mrs W still chatting away, & she would just murmur & carry on with getting things underway for tea.

Mrs W was a widow, who lived alone. She never stayed for tea, & I suppose there were no late buses, she would like to get home before it grew dark. She had a huge orchard, & used to boast about all the fruit she had, but she never brought so much as an apple for my Grandmother. We kids used to have a giggle about it all behind the tankstand, well out of earshot of our Grandmother.

Sometimes, when my Grandmother was on one of her garden missions for vegies or parsley, I would stay & listen to Mrs W, but I cant remember any of the things she used to talk about. I find that quite extraordinary really. I wonder if my brother can remember topics of conversation. I just remember the wonderful accent. And how she wore her hat all afternoon!

I can only remember my Grandmother going to visit Mrs W once in all that time. It was when my mother took her home in her car, & Mrs W invited us in to see her orchard. I dont think we came away with any fruit either! How funny.

Remembering that has brought a smile back to my sour old face!! haha.