vintage australiana needlecraft

Really tiny, tiny apron, detailed with some gorgeous embroidery.

A lovely exhibition of early Australian needlecraft. This is a permanent display at the Power House museum in Sydney.

vintage photo's day

My Uncle and Aunt with their 3 children and my mum in the middle with her five!
My older brother and sister are standing behind me and the pram. The little guy in the pram is my youngest brother, while the boy with the big plastic teddy bear is my other oldest brother!
That bear was not very nice to hug always cold and hard. But we all loved him a kids. He was a very bright orange yellow! The photo was taken in my parents backyard by my dad.

What ever became of this pram? I saw one like it the other day in a op shop for $79.00. I was tempted! The pram sold a few days later:(

A big thank you!!

What a pleasant surprise it was to find my miss- adventurous critters being talked about on other peoples blogs. I found them here and twice here!
Thank you Thea and Sami and thank you Much ADO About Art Dolls.
And thank you to all that left lovely comments there about my work too!!
While your visiting the two sites make sure you take a good look around. There are many links of great interest to be found!


a sneaky peek at a new little project I've been working on for a while. A little rag doll, my first!

At last my Gruby Little Lenore is complete!

Follow or join in the fun goings on at Art Dolls Only or at Deanna's blog, Blue heron Dolls.

For the last few weeks doll makers from all around the globe have been madly and creatively working on a challenge called '4 elements', Earth, Fire, Water, Air, You can pick all four or just the one. I choose Earth not only because I consider myself an earthy sort of gal, but because the of my mildly morbid fascination with horror so naturally my first thought associated with earth was death, the grave, rotting molding corpses. My mother tried her best when I was young to steer me clear of such thoughts but like Tim Burton' s 'Vincent' I too wanted to be like Vincent Price and read Edgar Allen Poe instead of 'Go Spot Go'.




Didn't think I was going to finish her tonight as so many other things came up and interfered with my train of thought. I read over and over Edgar's poems, Lenore, The Raven and Annabel Lee, watched A Nightmare Before Christmas and Pan's Labyrinthine to get back that thought process. I also remembered my online pal Severina once posted a pattern for a 17th Century Death Shroud.....and so Lenore was born!
The stand is wood but I covered it with sculpey and drew deep lines into the surface to give it a sort of drawn earth look. This and the headstone were baked in the oven to harden.
Around the base I painted a thick coat of white acrylic paint and when dried applied a crackle medium and then rubbed burnt umber into the cracks.
Lenore's arms are 4 rusty nails and her whole body and clothes have been heavily stained with coffee.
This is a photo I took while I was applying the coffee. I had to laugh as it reminded me of the scene in pans Labyrinth of the mandrake root.
Anyway to completely finish this project I also wrote a little poem....are you sitting comfortably??

Three children dug deep
in their sand pit so sweet
Until they came to a door

That door, that door that led to Lenore!

Their curiosity grew as
from the earth they withdrew

Down, down, down towards
the cold rusty arms of Lenore

one by one each child in a trance
walked slowly towards deaths last dance
with the beguiling voice of Lenore
singing 'Never more'!

Leaving Home

Six happy little critters left home today and are headed for the bright city lights of Hobart!
My first consignment for one of my favorite shops in town, Love and Clutter, Murry St, So go check them out if you happen to be passing through Hobart!!
Sales have been a little slow on Etsy and non existent at madeit, even though I get lots of looks but no sales. I've been looking forward to getting my stuff out in public and selling locally. Very pleased that Love and Clutter my first choice is going to give me a go!
Here are a couple of shots of my little six....the photo's don't do them justice you really need to check them out your self...

Mr Tartan pants

Miss Ellie

Little Miss Ellie

Mr Bunny Pants

Mr Stripes

Miss Yellow

Awards don't come by everyday!!

Thank you Abi for this beautiful award. Abi has a wonderful blog called 'An Angel at My Table' go take a peek at her wonderful art dolls!Now I know there are rules attached to this accepting this award....but weren't rules meant to be broken?
Here are some lovely and inspiring blogs for you all to visit

Emma Kelly a talented animator and illustrator

Lady Euphorias, 'Thrill or Shiver' If your in need of some not so sweet dreams travel here for a good read before bedtime!

Bird and Fish, for those that need a yarn hit there is not better place for wool and roving eye candy!
That's it for tonight, big day tomorrow, I have to finish up a few more art doll projects. Tuesday I'm off to do "Jury Duty":(

Bear with no name!

Hi, here is my 6th bear. The last in this style for a while. I've been reading so much about making bears, bear artists, vintage bears and joining bear makers groups . There is so much I didn't know before making these 6 bears, although I think I made them very well there are some tricks of the trade which I will add to my new bears. I'm also going to include with each bears a date of "birth", edition number and a personalized signed signature. Something I wish I had dome for my other critters although this could still be a possibility with my new work and even for my old work as I still have all that information in my record books. May just have to advertise on my Etsy page if anyone would like a copy to get in touch with me and I could send one out to them. See how I go.

Little Red RidingHood and Co!

Little Red with her wolf doll!

The wolf!! grrrr

Coming soon! Little Red and Co. A project that has been in my head for years!
I'm liking the needle felting although with this tiny little guy , just over an inch high, I think I will have to make a tiny little armature first.
Loved making Little Reds hood. The pattern came from another one of my vintage doll knit books. I used two patterns. The cardigan was one made for a Barbie sized doll and the hood for a 10 inch doll.

We have a winner!!

I didn't think that it would have been so quick but the very clever Angelique from 'No Life without wife' guessed right. Angelique makes lovely dolls and brooches check out her store La Petite Chouette! Angelique has another blog called 'Traveling in New Caledonia' where she lives....lovely photo's of warm days and beautiful beaches!

So check your email Angelique, get back to me and I'll post of mystery prize.

The twins from The Shining'. the scene of the two twins in the corridor always gave me the shivers!
And for those that had a guess or just dropped by thank you for taking a peek and having a go!

Last night I finished their dresses they still need to be distressed. For the background I'll be adding a bit of skirting and was thinking of writing on the wall "REDRUM" in drippy red paint...but I don't know:)

cheers!!

Guess who they are to win a mystery prize!!

The twins are nearly complete!!

I've been working on these dolls all day and I finally after about a year I feel they are so close to being finished I'm too excited and just had to show them off to the world. Still need to scuff them up a bit more, add some lace here and there and a bit of needle sculpting for their faces. I'm in two minds about adding hair maybe just a few dragglie bits. They will be in this frame behind glass when finished.

Now onto my evil little plan....see if you can guess who these twins are, where they are from and what happened to them??
The first right answer will win a mystery PRIZE. the prize will of course be something handmade by me.
Good luck but don't be disapointed if you don't win. If you want one of my creations you can always buy one from either Littleblackcrow@Etsy shop or from Littleblackcrow@ madeit!