Lucy Landry's Embroidery class

More pictures from AFICC 2013 -- Two of us (Julie G. and Andrea B.) took Lucy Landry's embroidery class on Friday -- Embroidered Faces from Ancient Sources.  It was an excellent class, brimming with visual inspiration.

Lucy brought many of her own dolls, and the chance to really peer at the stitches up close and see how each one was used in different situations was wonderful.

She also let us peek at her notebooks, and walked us through the design process to create figures and characters based on very old artwork.

One technique she taught us to turn old imagery into our own personal interpretation was something she called 'nearly' blind contour drawing (because it's too hard to resist looking just a little bit!).

Here you can see the drawing that Andrea made while not really looking at the inspiration mosaic.  Details like curls and pupils were definitely added after, but the main lines were all drawn contour-style.

And here are the faces in progress near the end of the class.  We all had a great time and learned a lot.

Our AFICC Hat and Heels Banquet

Pictures of the eight of us from Indianapolis (and surrounding neighborhoods and/or states) who were lucky enough to get to go to Artistic Figures in Cloth and Clay this year.  A wonderful time was had by all, and this is proof that we were really there...

Julie G. and Andrea B., all dressed up

Julie and Sandy (in her daughter's $700 doctoral cap)

Jude, Denise, and Barbara
(Denise's "hat" was improvised from the loveliest tissue de toilette)

Julie and Liz

Katie

Not Hat and Heels night, but the Indy Cloth Doll ladies at the 'learn to make a fabric bead' table

Dolls to see at AFICC

We are back, after having a wonderful time at Artistic Figures in Cloth and Clay!  Here is some of what we saw...

Indy Cloth Dollmakers club display, with dolls by
Andrea, Julie G., Liz, Martha, Katie, Barbara, Mary, Nita, and Jude

Our group seemed to have a little of everything, until we saw the Columbus, Ohio group's display.  They really did have every Thing, with awesome workmanship on a VERY wide variety of dolls!

The Guilded Lilies club display

The Doll Gatherers, of Aurora, Ohio, brought an amazing club display -- The Wedding Party.
Starting with the 'Mother of the Bride' pattern by Jill Maas, the club created an entire extended family, all dressed in their best to wish the newlyweds well.  It looked like the club must have had a LOT of fun creating this.

Doll Gatherers club display

The other big group display was the Doll Street Dreamers Wizard of Oz challenge.  Somehow, I never took a full group picture (although here's a link to Doll Street's photo), but here are some of my favorites.

Oz the Great and Powerful by Cody Goodin

Scrap the Patchwork Girl by Patti LaValley

The Tin Man (can't read the label, so if he is your doll, please let me know!)

There are lots more pictures from AFICC 2013, so stay tuned...

March 2013 - Progressive doll faces

Last month we learned about drawing faces, so this month some of the progressive dolls came in with their new faces.  Below is Julie G.'s doll, with a definite nod to Christine Shively's style.

And, here is her body so far -- you can see that the clown face coordiates very well with her harlequin stockings.

Here's another face and body combo, although Leslie decided that the first head was a little large for the body; she made a new head in a smaller scale, with features yet to come.

Our next face is not on cloth at all, but is Katie's sculpted clay head, now with painted features.  Katie has been taking Deb Wood's online sculpting class from the A for Artistic website.

And this is the lovely body that the clay head will go on.  Katie has designed an original cloth body in proportion to the head, and is creating her wardrobe from the skin out.

Please check out the beautiful lingerie, as this might be the last time it is ever seen.  Like all good foundation garments, this underwear will be appreciated only by the wearer.

Now, from the supremely realistic to the slightly more abstract form... Meet Martha's little 'Bug' doll, from Tilda's book 'Spring Ideas'.  (Tilda's new book 'Fairy Tale Wonderland' is pretty cute, too!)

Even more abstract: Leslie's new name tag pin doll, comprised of her initials L-W.

Moving back toward the traditional, cuddly doll: new member Maggie brought one of her angels, all in textured cream and pearls.

From huggable to wearable -- Jude brought a decorated sweatshirt, which she embellished with paint, felting, and jewels on top of the printed paisley pattern.

And lastly, back to cuddly, as new member Vicki brought her quilt top in progress, made from charm squares and jelly roll strips.

Believe it or not, even with all of this fabulous show and tell, we did manage to fit in Andrea's lesson on wefted yarn hair, so hopefully next month we'll see some fabulous hairdos, too.