Designing from dolls

The other day I posted on taking design inspiration from Hollywood. Today’s topic is on taking design inspiration from dolls. For little girls, this is just a natural occurrence. We want to look just like some beautiful doll we own. When I was a child, it was common to find “dolly and me” outfits, matching outfits for a girl and her doll. American Girl has kept this tradition with a rather charming and encompassing line for girls and their AG dolls.

As an adult, I must admit that it is sometimes difficult to look at the dolls I collect without falling in love with some of their outfits. For my birthday this year, I was given a Barbie Collector’s Edition doll from the new Ireland line. She sits on a shelf that i can see from just about every point of my room. The more I look at her, the more I want to figure out how to make her dress. It would fit right in at the medieval recreation group I occasionally associate with, and would make such a statement. Either that, or I could find some Renaissance Festival to wear it to.

Regardless, I have been sitting here for a couple of days trying to find patterns that could be pieced together to make this dress. I have most of it figured out, but those draped sleeves are just not in fashion thanks to the release of the Lord of the Rings costumes.

Secret Buddy Best Practices for the Crafter

As the fall approaches, many of us are probably confronted with a secret buddy program. These programs generally vary in lengths depending on how often the participating group meets, but they all usually have a requirement that gifts cost under $10. What a boon for the crafter! So many items can be made for a couple of dollars and easily tailored to the recipient. Of course, the very next thought in the crafting mind is, “But they’ll know it’s me!”

The seasoned crafter has been through this many a time, completely fearful of making anything that might reveal who they are but wanting so much to make the dozen ideas that have already passed through their mind. Fortunately, from personal experience and shared stories, I have gathered a few ways that other crafters have gotten around this situation.

1. Teach others techniques and projects. I thought I was in trouble this summer during a Secret Buddy program. I have been making friendship bracelets for most of my life and have picked up some more complex patterns and developed some of my own. So when I sat down to make a bracelet, I was positive I would be found out. Fortunately, others saw me working and begged to be shown how to make the pattern. In the time span of a week, I had taught two people who went on to teach others. The agreement was that those I taught had to say they just picked it up from somewhere. With so many people making the pattern, attention was deflected away from me.

For another crafter, the solution came in her group’s yearly theme. They were doing various craft projects that recycled trash into things of beauty. She taught or developed the programming, and as such was able to pass on techniques she later used to make her Secret Buddy’s gifts.

2. It’s all about the packaging. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve seen this one pulled off, I wouldn’t be paying off student loans right now. A gifted crafter creates an item, and then finds the packaging for a similar, professionally sold item and puts their item in the packaging. The recipient is none the wiser.

3. Labelling is you friend. This goes along with the above suggestion and includes a gratefulness that Made in China stickers aren’t often put on with a strong adhesive. I just learned this one the other day and knew I had to include it. One clever crafter found a Made in China sticker and affixed it to her item. Again, the recipient never suspected.

4. Create an artist alias. One crafter, to prevent being caught, has taken one of the more common misreadings of her name to sign her work. Since her group is unfamiliar with this name, she still gets to create without fear of being caught.

5.Become an actress or actor. There is nothing more validating than to see the recipient proudly showing off their latest gift, simply gushing over its cleverness or its beauty. The key here is to look inquisitive and impressed by the artist’s work without letting on that you did it.

These are just a few suggestions. If you have any others, feel free to add them in the comments.

Recreating Hollywood

Once you start crafting in wearable mediums, you start looking at television shows and movies for ideas and projects. I know that as a child I tormented my mother often, wanting a Halloween costume that looked like characters from Star Wars, Star Trek, and various cartoons and television shows I was fond of.

As an adult, I’m not much better, except that I now am learning how to make all manner of things. In my pattern box, I have patterns based on the dresses in the movies Ever After and The Two Towers. I have a number of period costumes. I even have eyed jewelry pieces in various television shows that I want to create very badly because I think they’re just fabulous.

One of these may soon be a reality for me. A couple of months ago, I got to see a marathon of the show Roar. In an episode, one of the characters is wearing this beautiful necklace. I grabbed my idea book and quickly sketched it out. It took me about a month to realize I very likely couldn’t find the components to make it. However, as a friend and I were walking through the local Michael’s, she picked up sculpey for various projects. It suddenly occured to me that I could use sculpey to make the stone components of the necklace.

The plan is simple: get a stone-looking sculpey, make nickel-sized buttons from it, stick a couple of eyepins through each button, bake the buttons, and finally link them together with 1″- 1 1/2″ sections of chain. I may even experiment to see if I can make a chain that will work. Otherwise, I’ll just cut up a chain.

I’m so very, very excited!

Yet another new craft!

I’m home! After spending two months working at a Girl Scout camp in Minnesota, I’m home! I’ve even come home with a new craft medium!

I spent a goodly part of my summer teaching crafts and learning crafts. It was so much fun. (I also have some great ideas on how to conceal your identity if you’re a crafty secret buddy! I’ll be writing on that in the future.) Most of my craft-teaching time was spent teaching various friendship bracelet patterns. Most of my craft-making time was spent making lanyards and friendships bracelets, including the design I was most asked to teach and one I designed myself this summer. Most of my craft-learning time went to wire-wrapping and listening to discussions about Sculpey.

Now, I have done a little work with Sculpey in the past. It’s a rather relaxing medium. I even have designed a necklace that uses Sculpey to make the stones (that still needs to be made). This summer, however, I was truly inspired. So far, I am working on a tic-tac-toe board with pieces. To make the pieces, I am learning to make canes. My first was very simple and nearly came out perfectly. I’m so excited. I’m hoping to make the other cane this weekend!

Other Sculpey projects awaiting me are a photo holder and some coasters. Then I’ll see where I want to go from there. There is so much that you can do with it. I never imagined!

Some resources I’ve enjoyed so far:
Sculpey.com (They have some great beginner tutorials and projects.)
Making a gradient piece of clay (This technique right here is what really got me interested in actually learning how to play with polymer clay. I can see myself incorporating this into future jewelry designs.)