Pegasus Creations by Kelly

Abigail the Angel

2011-12-28T13:59:00.000-08:00

Sometime, way back early in the year, a friend came to me and asked 'could I make an angel?' She knew someone who loved angels and her birthday was in June. It was so early in the year that June was still months away. Well things happened, I had nowhere to set up my sewing machine and I lost my motivation and June came and went. The muse had taken a holiday. Fortunately my friend is very understanding and forgiving and Abigail was given life in time for Christmas.

Ruth

2011-04-16T04:43:00.000-07:00

The original request for Ruth, came from a lady at work who had bought a doll off me previously. As we were talking, I asked her what she wanted and she asked if I could make it bigger. I dubiously asked "how much bigger?" thinking 'I will have to draft a pattern and I am not sure that I want to.' She also requested that the new doll be dressed in dark clothes as Caroline had a white dress.

But once I got into the project, I was quite pleased to be working on something a bit different and it was actually nice to be working with something a bit bigger.I picked out some dark fabric to make the dress out of (although I did pick a light colour for the petticoat) and was really pleased with the result. The dark fabric was actually the same as the one that I had on my dress when Mum got married so I probably had a bit of emotional attachment. She is bigger than my usual children's dolls but the child is also a bit older. In fact, Ruth will actually fit clothes made for infants so any clothes in the future will be easy to source.

So I was a bit disappointed when the lady looked at the doll and said "oh, you did the dress in purple, I wanted red." (Red? Red is a dark colour?) Of course, now we have a difference of opinion as to what was actually said in the first place but it is possible that I may be making another dress for Ruth.

But regardless, I thought that Ruth, and her original dress are beautiful.

Jesse

2011-04-16T04:02:00.000-07:00

Jesse thought that there was going to be plenty of time for her to play with her new friend, Ruby, at her new home before she needed to consider what she was going to do for a job. After all, wasn't her job going to be keeping her new friend happy?

Unfortunately for Jesse, Ruby's grandmother, who had asked Jesse to come and be Ruby's new friend had seen the dedication with which Belinda had gone to work and since she and Ruby's mother had both worked at the same place, thought that it would be appropriate for Jesse to get off to a good start as well.

Oh well, plenty of time to play later.

It's All About Jemma

2011-04-16T03:32:00.000-07:00

My parents recently headed out on a caravan adventure and on a last minute clean out of stray furniture at their house, I picked up an old footstool that had been upholstered in the fabric of the lounge suite that had been around when I was a child.
Late last year I convinced Beloved B that curtains would be a nice touch in our living room. A couple of months later I got some extra curtain fabric and made some cushions to match.
Now, with some of what was left I reupholstered the footstool. I intended to have a footstool to use when I was sitting on the sofa - I quite like to sit there when I am doing some of the hand sewing, as there is space to spread out whatever I am working on and I can comfortably watch TV at the same time.

Jemma has other ideas.

Belinda

2011-02-25T00:14:00.000-08:00

This wee sweetheart seemed to take forever but she is a special request for a friend that I used to work with. Belinda is not one to sit around and do nothing. She has her own workplace uniform and is ready to go.

The Soapmaking Continues

2010-12-30T22:13:00.000-08:00

There is an old tradition that if you are making several of something, you should give the first one you make away. I don't know where this tradition comes from or what the return is but it seems to me that it is a good start to any new endeavour. Actually, I had very little trouble with this as Christmas was fast approaching and the first batch, which was lavender, was very quickly earmarked to be dispersed amongst the friends and family that I was going to be seeing. In fact, three weeks out there was a crisis moment as I realised there was not enough soap from the first batch to go around. So I made a second batch of lavender was just as quickly allocated. (The last two of the second batch went into the post today).

The funny thing about these first two lavender batches is the smell. They smell gorgeous and while I am trying to get feedback on the soap itself (how else am I going to learn) a few people are saying "I haven't used it, it smells too nice." I could offer to sell them another one, it is a rather expensive hobby to keep giving the stuff away but that seems just a little mercenary. I have been using it myself and have been very happy with it. (I used it to shave my legs and I did not need to moisturise the way I usually did.)

The batch that I made yesterday was a shaving soap, the first of which is going to B as he gets a rather nasty shaving rash and has a bit of trouble finding a shaving foam that suits. Because this is to be used for shaving, which means it needs a compact space on the vanity, I wanted to use square moulds rather than the long ones. I also used cassia and cumin essential oils for the scent which is quite distinctive (and definitely manly). I thought that I had done a pretty good job of putting the soap in the moulds but it turns out that I need a bit more practice. There was also a scary moment when it would not come out of the moulds and I had to try a couple of tricks which I found online. Well, practice makes perfect and pretty really isn't the point. Now I have to wait four weeks for it to cure before I can try it out on my primary guinea pigs.

I Wish I Was A Daybook

2010-10-09T20:19:00.000-07:00

I never really liked the word Blog. The word is small and glubbly and sounds like a Rotorua mud-pool.

However, it did not occur to me when I was naming my blogsite and doing the technical things needed to make the web address of pegasuscreations.blogspot.com be blog.pegasuscreations.co.nz so it would be more cohesive with my website address, that there was an alternative and that I should have used it. Everyone wrote blogs. I was writing a blog and that was just the way it was.

So this morning I was reading an entry from one of my favourite authors and I realised that his blogsite was called journal. I remembered my own distaste of the word blog and decided that I was going to be a blog no longer. There were several options I could use. Journal seemed a little formal and diary had connotations of teenage angst. I entered diary into an on-line thesaurus and out of the options presented to me, chose daybook. It was light, friendly, airy and meant just what I needed it to mean.

Which brings me back to the technical stuff. Some time ago, the cPanel interface which I use to manage my webpage was upgraded by my providers. In the upgrade, it actually seems that they took away my ability to reroute subdomains to another server. In a nutshell, I cannot fully rename my blog to daybook. Sure, I can change all the names and create a web address called daybook.pegasuscreations.co.nz but when you get there the address will always be www.blog.pegasuscreations.co.nz

Does it matter? Maybe not, people don't generally notice that sort of thing but I would know and I know that it matters to me.

Esther

2010-08-17T02:14:00.000-07:00

I very seldom get to see a child get her new doll. Sure, I get a buzz out of the adult picking up one of my creations, they generally know how much work has gone into them.

Occasionally I then have to convince the adult that it is okay to give the doll to a small child, that's what she was made for! But even though I am gratified and complimented, I don't really make them for the adults.

In this case, after the success of Emmaline, Nana wanted me to make a doll for my cousin for her first birthday. Again, the doll was received by her intended friend after the birthday, although this time it was not my fault. Nana was going to be seeing my cousin a few weeks after her birthday and decided to hold off until then. Which suited me perfectly as it meant that I got to be there and actually see one of my dolls meet her new friend!

And it went down very well. My cousin's face lit up and she reached towards the face on Esther with a small cooing noise. She loved her! Mum was also not above stretching out the child-Esther interaction and playing a bit more.

And to top it off, when I saw my cousin a few days later being carried my her mother, she had Esther in her arms. Of course it is possible that Esther had been popped into the child's arms for my benefit but it was still obvious that Esther is a success.

P.S. Note to self: Trousers look cute but come down easily and end up sitting around the leg join.

Josie - Now That Is True Love

2010-08-17T02:03:00.000-07:00

Via Facebook:

RB Hi Kelly! Wanted to ask your expert advice please?? Josie has had a very loved life, but now her feet are starting to show the signs of that love.. how do you think I should go about repairing them... attached a photo for you to see how well loved her feet are, the rest of her is still perfect. :)
04 August at 11:06

RB She is 4 years old, and having gone to bed with Liah every night for at least 3.5 of those years I think she's done pretty well!
04 August at 11:07

KS Oh no, poor Josie! For a quick fix, I would get a pair of baby socks and pull them on over top and then stitch them firmly down round the ankles. If you are feeling ambitious, I could send you some new feet and you could remove the old feet and replace them entirely.
04 August at 21:12

The Web Site

2010-05-30T04:11:00.000-07:00

Early this month I purchased a website editing programme to give to my father for his birthday. I thought that he might get a kick out of planning and putting together a website. Beloved B saw what I was planning on buying and asked if I would get a copy for him as well. Of course, once he got his hands on it, Beloved B wanted me to install the progamme on my computer and try it out and then give him feedback. Initially I thought that I might redo the Pegasus Creations website and I spent some time picking out a template and playing with the pages, fitting in my own work and headings.

I put together a new draft heading, edited the images as headings. I started to work on the formmail and the technical aspects of making it work and looked at the possibilities of embedding a photo album into the page. Then a funny thing happened. I looked at the page and thought "I like this but I don't think that I like it enough to replace my existing page, which I still really like."

There are other factors as well.
The new page is developed from a template and I am replacing replacing images and using predetermined colours. My existing website is one I developed from scratch. I picked the colours and layout and made it work myself.
The new page is WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editing. No technical skills are required. The existing website was built with a mixure of WYSIWYG and HTML coding. I taught myself the technical skills that I needed and if I did not know something I researched it and figured it out. Sometimes I even saw features in other websites and knowing that the feature would work well in mine, I found out how to do it and incorporated it in.

In a nutshell, the new look website is a good site but I am not going to use it. I quite simply like the old one too much and I am not getting the same sense of satisfaction putting it together. However, the programme I am using is a good one and I do have another project in mind for it. In the meantime, I have tested out the programme for Beloved B and he can now get on with his own project.

Emmaline

2010-03-27T23:46:00.000-07:00

A while back I invited my Nana and Grandad over for dinner and part of the dinner conversation involved the first birthday of a small relation in Australia. I am not at all involved with this little girl but Nana is quite fond of keeping in touch and I offered to make a doll for Nana to give as a present. Unfortunately, I have missed my deadline on this one as the little girls birthday was last week, but Emmaline will still be going to Australia, albeit a little bit late.

Knowing that Emma was destined for Australia, I wanted to give her clothes a little taste of Kiwiana, without being too overt. I had some of this Paua fabric which was perfect for what I wanted (I used the same fabric on Chloe's clothes for the same reason, although Chloe was going further afield).

Emma was not above giving me a little trouble. While I was painting the face, I was putting a little black fabric paint onto a tray so I could use it. Unfortunately the nozzle popped off, and the pressure that I was applying to squeeze out the paint forced it out in a rush. Black paint splattered over Emma's upper body and face. I was horrified! Calling Beloved B over to deal with the paint on the carpet, I rushed Emma out to the laundry and gave her her first bath. I was lucky and all the paint came out with no evidence of it ever having been there. Thank the Great Doll!

I did have a thought that maybe Emma could be named Dorothy or Rae, for my Nana but again, I wanted to be a bit more subtle. I was swinging towards Mary but it did not seem right for Emma. However, Beloved B likes to be involved and his preferred contribution is to provide a name. I dug my heels in at Gretel, Emma was not a Gretel. So then he came up with Emmaline and allowed me to settle for Emma - short for Emmaline, of course.

Welcome to the world, Emmaline.

I would like my next project to be a character doll that I have had in mind for some time, but a friend has just had a baby and I really should get started on her doll, otherwise I will start procrastinating about it. Maybe the project after that...

Caroline

2010-01-31T22:49:00.000-08:00

When Margo and Angie found their new home together, much fuss was made of them at work before they were on their way. As a result, I had a request from a different work colleague to make a doll for her. At first I was a bit wary as it was still before Christmas and the chances of me getting another doll together in time were very slim. However my colleague reassured me that the doll was not needed until after the holiday period so I had time on my hands. This evening Caroline was finished, a week before her deadline.

Caroline did not have her own name until the very last minute. I suspect that was somewhat due to the order that I put her together. Usually I attach the limbs and then add the face and it is at this stage that the creations start to develop their character and I start dispensing hugs and names. Poor Caroline had her clothes before she was finished as there was a possibility that Beloved B and I would go away in the camper and I would need to have the machine work done and keep the hand work for the evenings while we were away. We did not go away after all but this creation had a face while she was still just a body and the limbs were the last things attached.

I was swinging towards Esther but Beloved B thought that she looked more like a Caroline. He likes to feel involved, so Caroline she is.

Tomorrow, Caroline will come to work with me so she can go to her new home.

Angie and Margo

2009-11-23T22:30:00.000-08:00

A month or two ago, one of the ladies at work approached me and asked if I could make a doll for her grand-daughter for Christmas. Of course I was more than happy to and immediately set about making two little girls in the hope that after my buyer had chosen which one she wanted, the other would just sell herself with her winning personality and end up going home with someone else.

As a general rule, when I am putting together bodies, one doll is much the same as another. Once the dolls have a face and I start to consider hair and clothes, the dolls start taking on personalities and get names. I also start talking to the emerging characters and dispensing arbitrary hugs all round.

Angie started to emerge first and indeed, one evening when I finished for the night, I am sure that I heard Angie teasing Margo because Margo was still sporting a hairless head. Angie got the traditional plaits and Margo a pony-tail and fringe.

I have considered making a doll with jointed arms and legs but I find dolls with fixed limbs most huggable. Angie and Margo both have fingers and toes though, which therefore meant shoes and socks. I bought the smallest socks that I could find and was tempted to buy shoes as well but decided against the idea and made my own.

When Angie and Margo finally make it into work, my buyer looked at the girls and very quickly decided that she was going to take both of them, as another grand-daughter is on the way and would need a dolly of her own. After a night left alone at the office, where the girls climbed out of their bag and ran around on the desk when nobody was looking, the girls caused a stir among the other staff and eventually went to their new home, happy to be staying together.

The New Look Site

2009-07-03T01:06:00.000-07:00

I have to confess to being a little bit proud of myself and feeling the need to show off a little.
Another workmate asked if I would help her and her husband out with their website and I was in a bit of a lull between projects. I also wanted to trial some freeware HTML editors and I found one that I quite liked. Naturally after putting together their first-draft website with the new software, I was convinced that my site could be a lot better. So I re-did it (not quite from scratch as I was able to copy a lot of the codes/links etc. but it is a new look).
And not only that, I took a bit of time to edit this blogsite blog so the transition from my homepages to the blog page is more seamless. It isn't perfect but it is good enough for my purposes.

www.pegasuscreations.co.nz

I told Beloved B my website was finished. He declared that it wasn't. So I asked what he thought was wrong with it. Apparently nothing, I just keep finding things that I want to fix and tinker with...

My workmates site still has a lot of work but I am waiting for them to come up with pictures and text (rather than the placeholders I used). I need to have another session with Paula as well, to get her site developed a bit further. I made Kerrin a new site too, she doesn't need or want one, she just got one.

And I thought I was going to get time to get back to Speech and Drama, Multiply and my dolls! I haven't really stopped to check out the new look Multiply yet, although I have stopped in a few times and lurked a bit (again). Well, I still have hope.

The Dottees That Came To Stay

2009-06-28T03:38:00.000-07:00

These two lovely little characters have been with me for some time but it is only now that I am finally posting them here for everyone to see.

The dottee on the left is a Snow Spirit from Sarah Jones in Sweden (see her dottees here). She is so imaginative with a lovely face and detail.

On the right is a wonderful wee piece from Kathy L. Houser in Columbia, SC. I love the tail on this one, the beads are so clever.

My dottees that went out into the wide world can be found here.

The Dottees

Check It Out

2009-05-18T21:38:00.000-07:00

My sister, Kerrin, writes short stories every now and again for the amusement of those of us around her. Her lastest offering has been posted on her blog and I am giving her a shameless plug.

Check out Too Many Cats

http://sashteleute.multiply.com/

Restoration Complete

2009-05-09T20:03:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to say that this is Anne.

After the stressfull events of the last few weeks, Anne has pulled through with a smile as big as ever. Fortunately none of the fabric disintegrated when I soaked (and resoaked and then soaked again) and washed it. And there were a couple of buckets of very grey and dirty water tipped down the sink.

I rejected the coloured wool stuffing in favour of fibre fill and I replaced the homemade joints with plastic child safe joints. The funny thing is that those old joints survived a lot of love, now the child safe ones are in place Anne will be enjoying a retirement beside the sewing machine.

Where the face was embroidered on before, it is now painted, although I used the holes where the embroidery had been and the 'before' photo as a guide to reproduce the original face. I would have preferred to keep the original embroidery but the shape was lost when I pulled the stuffing out of the head, so I decided to redo it entirely. I was not quite sure what to do about the mouth, which was lopsided and very untidy, as I did not want to make it any bigger. In the end I simply painted over the lines and made them bolder, so the smile is still lopsided but a lot neater, leaving Anne with her own, well established character.

And finally, new hair and clothes completed the restoration. Beloved B observed one night "she's a fat wee thing - and naked". He thinks that my dolls look hilarious when they have no clothes on. I'm not sure whether its the shape or the joints or what. The next night it was "she's an ugly wee thing - and fat". I must be like one of those one eyed parents that can only see the good in their child because I think she is beautiful.

Kerrin thinks that she looks pretty good as well. Now about the doll she had called Janey...

Chambers of Treasures

2009-05-04T23:27:00.000-07:00

I no sooner get my own website Pegasus Creations by Kelly, finished when I commit myself to helping a friend put her own website together. Check out Chambers of Treasures at www.chamberstreasures.webs.com

I almost think that I like the look of Paula's page better than I like my own but I refuse to admit that to myself.

And tonight, as I have no commitments and it is Beloved B's turn to cook dinner, I am going to spend some time on my current doll project. There will be time to catch up on blogs later in the week.

Chloe

2009-04-05T23:09:00.000-07:00

Following an email from my cousin, I made Chloe for their little girl.

This is really the first doll that I have made that I consider to be one of mine, rather than made to a pattern, although some of the dolls that I have made previously have had my own touches and already deviate from the instructions. It's hard to define where that break is when a child's dolls is a head and body with four limbs made in proportions favoured by the designer.

Chloe, however, is not made too any specific design out of any of my books although she probably has touches of all of them.

The Dottees

2009-03-20T03:36:00.000-07:00

I have made The Dottees for a swap with The Doll Street Dreamers. They are my first swap and I am trying not to look at other peoples Dottees too much before I have put these two into the post and sent them on their way. Otherwise I will give myself (and these two wee souls) an inferiority complex and become convinced that everyone else is far more clever and creative than I am!!

Seriously though, I had fun making them and was quite pleased with the results.

Restoration

2009-03-14T03:31:00.000-07:00

This is Anne.

My Granny sent my sister and I one of these dolls each when we were children and we both thought that they were wonderful. I believe that my cousins got one of these dolls each as well because my Mum later recalled a conversation with my Aunt that went: “I don’t know what Gwen was thinking when she bought those dolls!? Toni and Jennifer hated them!” To which Mum had to reply “But Kelly and Kerrin loved theirs.”

Years later, after staying with Mum and surviving several moves while I was out in the big wide world, Anne has come home to me.

And Anne is in a sorry state. One leg has come off and she is absolutely filthy. There is even evidence of mould in the fabric, although she is totally dry now. To make matters worse, she has suffered from the well meaning ministrations of a ten year old. I actually remember trying to wash Anne with soapy water but unfortunately I found that whatever she was stuffed with was dyed and the dark colour bled through the fabric, leaving huge stains. In desperation I tried to paint over the stains with whatever I could find, which was, white shoe paint for sneakers. Poor Anne was never the same again. She also has a rather ugly smile painted on with permanent fabric paint courtesy of the same well meaning ministrations.

When I got her back I was unsure what I was going to do with her. So I stuck Anne and her stray limb into the spare wardrobe for-get-all. Today I was looking in that wardrobe and there was Anne, looking back at me, with her huge lopsided smile. So before I could give myself a chance to change my mind, I had pulled her out and engaged in a restoration project.

I have pulled all the closing seams open and removed all the stuffing. And it looks like some sort of recycled wool scraps. I think that I will save this for bears and use fibre fill to re-stuff her.

The next step is to give the pieces a good wash. I have considered the possibility that it is only the dirt holding Anne together but I am willing to take that risk. If she cleans up well, I have Anne back to sit by my sewing machine and hold my pins. If the pieces disintegrate – well in the state that she was in, she was already gone.

The restoration begins.

The Entertainer

2009-03-14T02:26:00.000-07:00

The good news is that I have finished The Entertainer. I have been working on this poor fellow for quite some time. The biggest snag with this project was that I could not find the right fabric for the costume and I substituted one which is actually quite eclectic. Of course as I am putting it all together I think of a solution that would have worked but that is another story. I wasn’t so sure of him when I first presented him to Beloved B but now he is growing on me quite a bit.

But of course I have gone from having only one doll on the go to having at least three different projects clamouring for my attention and now I am not sure where to where to start.

The Entertainer is made to Arlecchino, an original pattern by Michelle Munzone.

Dedicated Blogspot

2009-03-07T21:11:00.000-08:00

Margreth is made to an original pattern by Michelle Munzone

I first started blogging with the idea that I would be able to show any dolls and creative projects that I am working on or have completed. That original blog quickly got sidetracked and the creations soon got lost in other ramblings.

Now however, I have started this blogspot which will be dedicated to my creative projects. I have imported some of the key posts from the original blog.

Welcome to my blog.

Isobella

2009-03-07T20:35:00.000-08:00

The next project was Isobella. Isobella is one of my first forays into this type of doll. Before this I have mostly made dolls for children. I am qute pleased with her but I consider her to be a learning curve. There are somethings that I would do differently and if I made her again, I would do some tweaking on the pattern. She was originally destined for my Mum for Christmas but I think now that my Nana might like her better. I have another one in mind for Mum and I intend to make a start on her this afternoon. I do need to go out and buy a stand for Isobella but I have until Christmas now.

The other big project that I have been working on is my website. It is just a simple affair, because I wanted to make a website rather than I needed one, but there is plenty of potential to play and improve on it in the future.

Isobella is based on Holly Pena, an original pattern by Doug and Barb Keeling

22 November 2008

Christopher

2009-03-07T20:32:00.000-08:00

Christopher has been sitting in my work box for a long long time. I cut him out a while ago and then realised that I had not drawn the guidelines on the back of the pieces. Now the cutting out process is the bit that I didislike the most when I make bears so I was not impressed and just a little put off. So poor Christopher languished for quite some time until I was ready to start my next project. I have a little rule for myself, that I do not start a second project until the first one is finished (unless there is a proper hold up ie, I need to see someone to borrow a tool or take a measurement etc.) and that was when Christopher got the hurry along. I think that I may give him to my cousin who is currently at the bump stage of life.

Christopher is based on Mick, an original pattern by Rosalie Carpio

22 November 2008

In A Lull

2009-03-07T20:26:00.000-08:00

Beloved B is off work at the moment. His work closes down from Christmas Day until 7 January. I got Christmas Day and Boxing Day off and then I was back at work. I should get New Years Day off as well although I might have to go back for the second even though it is a Statutory Holiday. Although we get ‘time and a half’ and ‘a day in lieu’ for working that day, so it should be worth it.

I got home from work today to find Beloved B completely involved in protecting his medieval Turkish Kingdom from the savagery of the Mongolian Hordes. Since the hero will only emerge from his cave for his dinner I thought that I might retreat to my own study and take a bit of time to have a nice cup of tea and re-establish my online presence.

Of course the major event of the last couple of months was not Christmas. It was the wedding of my Mum to the Other B. My big project was putting the album together and it looked fantastic. Once all the photos had been brought together I had something like 250 to collate and pick through for the album. I am not a fan of the slip-in photo album variety, I like to have variety in the arrangement and size of photos in my album and that is what I did for Mum and the Other B. Following that I made up a smaller version of the album (although this one was slip-in) for my Nana for Christmas.

Every year Beloved B has made his own Christmas card and the last couple of years we have done one together. This year though, instead of a Christmas card Beloved B put together a short DVD for Christmas. I have spend the last two months with a green screen set up in our sitting room and a huge mess because I am silly enough to give Beloved B ‘project dispensation’ on messes, especially with projects that have to be done in a certain time frame. I think that he takes the Mickey. I still did a card although some of my international recipients probably won’t be receiving it until after the day in question.

We are still working on putting together the wedding video. Beloved B is a bit of a perfectionist but we bounce ideas off each other pretty well. Hopefully it will be done before he goes back to work.

We had a very low key Christmas. Last year I bought Beloved B a sundial. At the time we did look for a stand for it to go on but when we did find one the shop was shut and the weekend hours weren’t really friendly for a couple of ‘sleep-in-Saturday’ believers. So this year for Christmas I bought the stand for it to go on.

Beloved B bought me a new sewing machine. My old one is about fifty years old and while it served me well I felt that it was time to upgrade. Beloved B thought that he was pretty lucky too. I went to the Bernina shop in my lunch-break and picked out my machine. He came home from work and was presented with a brochure and the directive “this is the one I want”. The next morning we picked it up and it was already gift wrapped. All he had to do was show them the money.

I gave up on trying to sell my dolls on Trade-Me, there were very few people interested. Instead, I have taken them into a craft shop in Tauranga called the Purple Patch. For a small membership fee and a percentage of the sale, members are able to leave their crafts there to be sold in the shop. Of course I currently have one on the go, I could hardly wait to make something with my new sewing machine.

28 December 2007

Mi-Cool Bear

2009-03-07T20:14:00.000-08:00

I have finally posted the photo of the bear that I was working on last week. This is MiCool Bear, partly named for Mick, the pattern he was based on.

He actually bears (no pun intended) hardly any resemblance to the original pattern. I tend to use the pattern to get my proportions right and then do my own thing.

MiCool is a 32cm bear, made with safety joints and eyes and is absolutely lovable. He will probably hang around here for a while until I can stand to part with him. In the meantime he is not going to be adding to the growing toy museum that we are developing in the living room. Here in my study with me will be fine.

Sunday 30 September 2007

Cinderella

2009-03-07T20:12:00.000-08:00

This is Cinderella. She was a labour of love over several weeks in front of the TV. On one side poor, sad Cinderella thinks she has to stay at home and do the dishes - flip her upside down and a smiling Cinderella is ready to go to the ball.

My next project will either be another children's doll or a teddy bear pattern that I am keen to try out. Probably the doll as she is ready to go and I need to to buy the fur and joints before I can start on the bear.

Pegasus Creations by Kelly

Wednesday 22 August 2007

The Soul With No Name

2009-03-07T20:11:00.000-08:00

This is him. This is the bear that I have spent my weekend on. The photo does not do him justice really, the shadows play on all the funny areas.

I haven't decided on a name yet. I am thinking along the lines of Henry or Hervey or Herman but I have asked B's advice and he will probably come up with the perfect moniker for this Soul With No Name so I will leave it a while longer. He's only a small bear, 25cm but I enjoyed making him.

This one I will keep for me.

Sunday 15 April 2007

Prince Charming

2009-03-07T20:10:00.001-08:00

Despite going through an extended bald patch, Prince Charming is finally done with the grooming and is ready to go to the ball. B still thinks that poor Prince Charming looks too effeminate but I think that he is just jealous because PC has more hair than he has.

In any case PC will have to wait a little longer for the ball because he has not got a lady to fall in love with. My next project is a little teddy bear in a kit that B's mother gave me for Christmas. She makes a lot of teddy bears and she put the kit together herself. So I will finish the teddy over the weekend and start on a Cinderella topsy/turvy doll next week.

That will keep me busy in front of the TV!

Sunday, 15 April 2007

Oh To Be Loved!

2009-03-07T20:08:00.000-08:00

This is Maggie and Claudia.

They are both adorable, 43cm, hand made dolls and nobody wants to love them. I have been listing them on and off, on Trade Me for some time now.

It really is a puzzle as they are each lovely and one of a kind. I am quite proud of both of them. My neice has one (the first one I made) and she loves her. The two of them go to bed together every night.

I can only blame a total lack of taste in today's low cost, brand name, "a dime a dozen" market (not that we call our 10c pieces "dimes", in New Zealand but it sounds better than 10c a dozen). People don't care that some TLC should go into the making of a toy to be loved, not just marketing and the impersonal touch of a factory in Taiwan.

Not that I should be moaning. I don't make the dolls to make a profit, I only want to keep myself busy but I do want to cover my costs a little and to have them go to good homes. Almost as if they were alive...

Sunday, 25 March 2007

Too Pretty For A Boy

2009-03-07T20:07:00.000-08:00

It is a good thing that Prince Charming has his girl all lined up for him as he is quite simply too pretty to do well as one of the boys. Instead of using bold felt blocks for the eyes, this time I have decided to paint the face on in more detail. Unfortunately for poor Prince Charming on a child's doll there is not much difference between the details on a face for a boy and the details on a face for a girl, often it boils down to a set of eyelashes (although maybe I did make the mouth a little too full). However the poor lad is now has a face and only needs hair to make him complete . Which is another challenge as I have given most of my previous dolls plaits or pony-tails. This will be the first time that I have made short hair for a stuffed toy...

Sunday 18 February 2007

For The Future

2009-03-07T20:05:00.000-08:00

Monday, 12 February 2007

In The Beginning

2009-03-07T19:57:00.000-08:00

In the beginning there was a pile of fabric...

It was laid out, studied, cut and shaped by the maker...

What was left was a pile of fabric with a future. Cinderella is waiting but first she needs a Prince Charming to sweep her off her feet at the ball.

Monday 12 February 2007