Dolls for Kindergarten

A while ago I was asked to make a couple of dolls for a Waldorf Kindergarten. 

I thought it would probably be a boy and a girl but after a few conversations with the teacher she asked me to make two girls.

 I was so privileged to visit the children, I'd normally come at play time and sit carding some wool, soon enough the helpers would come, many would help me but others loved touching the very soft pure white wool that I took there for them.

 It was a real pleasure for me to listen and see them play. How a woolen sheep could come alive in a second, and princesses and pirates with big sailing boats would manifest in front of me.

The best thing is that they didn't need any complicated equipment for this. Some logs, big pieces of material, a few chairs, a stick and the Ship was there!

I noticed in the class there were a couple of very pale, rosy cheeked, golden haired girls and many with long straight black hair and beautiful different shades of skin.

Here are some pictures of the Dolls and I'm glad to say that very soon the boys will get a Gnome that their KG teacher has knitted for them!

'All in a Spin' with Dunja Roberts

On Saturday, last week, I attended the Hand Spinning 'from fleece to fibre' beginners course with Dunja Roberts from All in a Spin at Pen Y Caeau Farm in Powys.

I had a fantastic day and I learned a lot!

Dunja with two other participants

A few years  ago my mum came to stay with us and wanted to learn hand spinning, my friend Gertraud lent us a wheel and told us how to use it. I was busy  doing other things and though i loved it i didn't continue until six months ago when i started to spin with a drop spindle. After Christmas, Gertraud, another friend and I decided to meet every week and do spinning together.

 I love it. 

Last Saturday with Dunja was amazing, the course is very well organized and gives a good grounding in hand spinning techniques with an excellent introduction to different kind of fleeces and how to select and care for them.

I have always related fleeces to doll making, children and good weather. 

Now I'm starting to look at them with the eyes of a spinner too.

Wishing you a good day, 

Yolanda

Making felt Mice families

A lot has been happening in the last week and all good things.

Orders coming in and beautiful comments about the blog, pity is not written here.

Yesterday I finished the week going with a few friends to the NEC in Birmingham, to a Craft Hobby and Stitch fair.

I met very interesting people, wonderful wool for my new dolls and I attended a seminar about blogging! Yes, still learning!.

 It was run by Rosie and Hannah, their blog is called The New Craft Society. 

Have a look at it, they use old crafting techniques in more modern and stylish ways.

 

The rest of the week was spent sewing my little friends, the Mice. A few families were born. Some of them will fly to Spain soon.

They keep asking me to write something about them, I think that will be my next post.

 Warmly, 

Yolanda.

The Little Match-Seller

"It was terribly cold. Snow was falling and soon it would be quite dark; for it was the last day in the year -New Year's Eve. Along the street, in that same cold and dark, went a poor little girl in bare feet..." 

by Hans Christian Andersen

Still sharing a little more about my last work.
 Beth asked me to made some puppets from the story of The Little Match-Seller. It's Lulah favorite story at the moment, she went to see it at the theater just before Christmas and the story has been told to her many times since.
I made the Little Match-Girl and the Grandmother. 

 

A Birthday Angel, a Mobile and a Box. A special Celebration

At the end of last year I was asked to make a Birthday Angel, a mobile and a box from where things could come out and it could be used for 'the birthday table'. These were for Lulah, a very special girl who was going to be seven at the end of January.

On New Year's eve, the first conversation between Beth, her mum, and I happened and our creative journey started. 

When I create I find it very important to communicate with my customers, I work closely with them. Everything I create is especially made for them.

These conversations inspire me. My hands and fingers, my needles and thread, my wool, silk, felt, everything comes together for the character to come up. It surprises and amazes me how it happens.

See the pictures

Birthday Angel

  Her hair is made of silk. 

She wears a Red ribbon as it's Lulah's colour.

 

 She has 40 pearls on her dress for Beth and a little bit of pink silk