My Dolls On Etsy

I've listed 3 Dorries in my Etsy shop: TINYHAUS
They were in the Lost at Sea show at Gallery Hanahou in NY.  I designed and made them.  They're made of linen with wefted yak hair and poly fill.  Hope you guys like them :)

Dorries Lost At Sea - OH MY!

Finally all done and shipped!  I'm so proud of them.  These 3 gals will be going to NY for Lost At Sea at Gallery Hahahou.  Info at the bottom of the post.


Name: Meranda
Age: 386
Species: Mermaid
Current Obsession: Going to concert, music, punk/goth fashion and having FUN!


Linen doll w/ poly stuffing, acrylic painted face and wefted mohair scalp.  Accessories include: Mermaid tail, shell brassier, pearl & carnelian necklace... also black T-shirt, silver stretch pants, black lace skirt, B&W striped boots and bead necklace. (8 piece outfit)


Name: Octavia
Age: 13
Species: Octopus
Current Obsession: Eating Kelp, being Vegan, collecting T-shirts and TOTORO!


Linen doll w/ poly stuffing, acrylic painted face and wefted mohair scalp. Accessories include: 6 T-shirts, brown pleated skirt with blue lace detail, B&W acorn print scarf and skull barrette. (9 piece outfit)


Tentacles close up. There's a pipe cleaner in every tentacle... you can mold them as you please.


Name: Elouise
Age: 8
Species: Human
Current Obsession: Collecting shells and meeting new friends.


Linen doll w/ poly stuffing, acrylic painted face and wefted mohair scalp. Accessories include: Linen dress with B&W ribbon detail, B&W striped bloomers, Red socks, black felt mary-janes, red hair bow, Starfish necklace and bag of shells. (7 piece outfit)

LOST AT SEA
Daring Fiber Artists Delve Into The Deep
May 6 - June 11
GALLERY HANAHOU
611 Broadway, Suite 730, NYC / galleryhanahou.com

Opening reception: Thursday, May 6, 7-9 pm RSVP info@galleryhanahou.com
The gallery will have these on sale on their website.  I will update this post as soon as they do.

From Sketch To Prototype

A little peek behind the curtains at the making of a plush doll.  I will be sending few dolls to Gallery Hanahou in May.  It's for their Lost At Sea show, curated by Kirsten Rask of Schmancy.

The creation process usually starts with design sketches or doodles.  From there I make a full-sized drawing to get a sense of the proportions. I found the easiest way to make my pattern is to cut directly from the full-sized drawing, adding a 1/4" to 1/2" seam allowance. This is where I make most of my adjustments and corrections, trimming and redrafting each piece/panel to achieve the desired form. The shaping and fitting phase is probably the most frustrating part, I had to walk away and eat a cup of pudding a few times...


This is one of the mock-ups along side the original sketch.  This mock-up is made from the 5th or 6th head shape and 2nd body shape I've tried.  I use muslin or thrift store bed sheets as the base fabric for the mock-ups, no sense in wasting good/expensive yardage. 
**however different fabrics behave differently.  Sometimes adjustments in the pattern is needed to accommodate for the final fabric.


Full-sized drawing on tissue, I also like using drafting velum for this purpose.


The finalized pattern and prototype. There are minor adjustments I'll make from here, but all-in-all the dolls will look like this when I'm done.


Testing how photogenic she is... as well as playability. :)
I think we'll call her Wabi-chan.  Since she's a prototype, she's quite imperfect... I thought Wabi (Wabi-Sabi) would be fitting.