Last month I created a brand new pattern for dolls with jointed legs, moveable limbs, and embroidered faces. Arachne and Persephone are the prototypes. They're sixteen inches tall (although Arachne's hair is so big it makes her a smidge taller.)

(Many more pictures available at my Flickr.)

I'm a big Persephone fan, so when I decided to do a mythology/folklore doll line she was the first person I thought of. In case anyone needs a little reminding, here's Persephone's story.

She was the daughter of Demeter, and called Kore which simply means Maiden. As such, she was the Goddess of Spring. One day, as she was out picking flowers, Hades, the God of the Underworld, abducted her, raped her, and made her Queen of the Underworld. In that role she has often been described as a cold and unhappy goddess. Demeter fought hard to get her daughter back and eventually rescued her from the Underworld, but Persephone must always return to the underworld every year.

Arachne came around because I thought that costuming her would be a fun challenge.

She was a fantastic weaver and young and stupid so she went around saying she was the best at it. And Athena heard and was furious and challenged her to a throw-down. Arachne was all like, "Bring it!" and so the thing began.

Coming soon, we have a mermaid and a faerie, and probably Athena. Other ideas for mythological/folklore dolls, bring 'em on!

As of today my commission status is open again. Eventually I'm going to set up an Etsy shop, and in the mean time anyone interested in purchasing either doll can leave a comment here or email me at hey DOT branwyn AT gmail DOT com.

(The text of the myths comes from Women in Greek Myths, a fabulous websie that frequently sucks down hours of my reading time.)

My work week lengthens--nearly doubles, in fact--every summer. (Well, at least it did last June, and it's done so this June. How many times does it have to happen before I can say "every summer?") I teach independent living skills to three autistic individuals, all of whom live in different towns and have different schedules, and as two of them are in school, everything gets turned around for me in the summer.

Anyway, the upshot is that it's quite rare for me to have two entire days off in a week, and I never needed them more than this weekend, so I'm very glad I got them. Yesterday was spent entirely lounging in bed reading Emma (which, from some oversight, I hadn't read since 8th grade, though I reread the others all annually.) I ordered take-out for lunch and dinner, and watched the Kate Beckinsdale adaptation of the novel while chatting with lizbee of Squid Stitch, before going to bed at nearly 5 in the morning. Today I woke up at 11 to a chorus of hungry animals (my roommate's three cats and a dog) and started re-reading Jane Eyre (I've been in a mood, what can I say). Now I'm a) watching the latest BBC adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, featuring OMG JANET MCTEER, one of my favorite actresses, as Mrs Dashwood, and eating a cup of strawberries and grapes from Whole Foods. Apparently, when you leave grapes in a cup with strawberries for a few days, they became 5 thousand times more delicious. Who knew? But then, I also didn't know that Pink Lady apples, diced into fresh squeezed lemon juice, were among the tastiest foods known to man. Thanks, Whole Foods.

The rest of today will be spent working on my quilt. Now, here's where I wish I had a camera, so I could show you the work in progress. I don't know if there's a name for the design I'm using--I'm not working from a pattern exactly--but the inspiration was this lovely item from Cluck Cluck Sew. Only mine is a rainbow set in white---pink, orange, yellow, blue, green, and purple 5x5 squares across the top, framed in white, deepening in hue from top to bottom. My hope is to make a light summer quilt, appropriate for fending off the chill of an air conditioner.

Lately I've felt as though I were bursting with inspiration to no purpose--full of ideas, but neither time nor energy to put them into action. This is owing partly to work, but also to a relentless perfectionism that probably borders on OCD--I can't begin a project until things are just so, my work space is tidied and ordered, the dishes are washed, the right music is playing. It's frustrating because it leads me to waste a lot of time I could use for creating things because I don't have the energy to do that AND all the leading-up things. I'm trying to be more reasonable with myself.



Not my grapes and strawberries, but pleasant to look at nonetheless.

Anyone still out there? :-)

A lot of things have happened over the past year--the most important of which was that I got a job last May, which put a (temporary) end to my dollmaking. I started up quilting shortly beforehand, and to no one's surprise, kept on with it to the point that my fabric stash is now overrun with fat quarters. Then in January I was finally able to move into an apartment of my own, and the last five months have devoted to balancing all the new elements in my life. I kept on making things, of course, and I knew that eventually I would get back to blogging about it, especially because the last few months have served to introduce to my the wide and lovely world of crafty bloggers whose blogs are like elegantly appointed parlors. Highly inspirational, all around.

So now I'm back, and very pleased about it. Those of you who have sent commissions my way over the course of the last year while I was MIA, thanks very much for remembering me. One small hurdle in this new stage of my career is that, as I no longer see my mother on a daily basis, I can't appropriate her digital camera whenever I like, so photographs will be rather slower to come. I'm working on this, however, and in the mean time, take a look at Champagne and Trumpets, my Flickr, which contains pictures of most of the quilt and doll work I've done recently.

Belladonna Dolls is now Belladonna Designs, a reflection of how my crafty pursuits have opened up over the last 13 months. doll_shop, however, will remain doll_shop. Only now, there's a little cafe at the front end where you can have tea and browse books, and chat with a friend while the Army of Cute keeps you company. :-)

Following up on Margaret of Anjoy and Ophelia, here's the next member of the Shakespeare Collection: Portia, from The Merchant of Venice, dressed as a lawyer to do battle in court with Shylock.





For sale in the usual manner. :)

Those of you who follow my doings as cesario will know that I have embarked on a Shakespeare intensive project of late, beginning with a reading of Hamlet. I decided that unity in my pursuits would not be a bad things, so I'm trying my hand at some Shakespeare dolls.

First off, we have Margaret of Anjou, from the Henry VI plays.



( Those of you who saw this in my journal, they're all the same pictures. )


Next, a slightly simpler project in the form of a 8 inch felt leggy doll: Ophelia.



( 1 )

Now, this four inch felt doll of Dumbledore was meant to be the beginning of this past year's Christmas angel lineup. But Christmas turned out a little crazier than anticipated, and I never got around to making more. So here he is in all his solitary glory.



( view of wings from back. )

And last, something I've been meaning to expand for awhile now, though other projects keep getting in the way---I started learning how to do bookbinding right before Christmas, and I've made a number of journals both as gifts and for private use. So eventually I thought, wouldn't it be fun to unite dollmaking and bookbinding and make myself a dollmaking journal? This was the result.



The doll on the front is an original character of mine from a novel I might get back to working on some day. It's all done in felt, over cardboard. I thought, if there was any interest, maybe I would try my hand at a few more designs in the same vein for the Army of Cute---anyone think they might be interested in buying a journal of this kind, if it were sufficiently attractive, of course? I could probably do them in a fannish vein as well.

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Well, there you have the latest offerings from Belladonna Studios. Ophelia and angel Dumbledore are for sale for the standard prices by type; see the FAQ for details.

Well, things have been slow here at AoC HQ, but now we're back with a full detachment.

First off, we have a large Phantom of the Opera ragdoll commissioned by theriversdream before Christmas, and which I'm afraid it took me rather a long time to finish, what with the interruption of the holidays.



He's 25 inches tall, clothed entirely in satin, except for his boots and mask, which are felt.

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Next off, we have a...rather unusual large sculpted doll. Actually, she began life as Lily Evans in a wedding dress, but no one bought her and really, that's just as well, because the more I looked at her the less satisfied I was with the job I'd done on her---I was still learning my way around the large sculpted doll pattern I'd come up with when I made her, and she looked a little irregular. So I started fiddling around with her, until one thing led to another and I realized that, deep in her dolly soul, she really wasn't a Lily at all.



She was The Ghost of Anne Boleyn.

I know that Anne Boleyn didn't have red hair, but it connects her to her daughter iconographically, and really, the head under the arm thing is the point. I've wanted to make a headless doll for ages, it just took me some time to work out the logistics of a free-standing head.

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I get the feeling that when my mother sees that one she's going to give me a very odd look, but the 16th century is my field, after all, and I read a book about the ghosts of the Tower of London at an impressionable age.

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This last isn't a doll at all, nor is it for sale, but since I'm using this journal as a general record of my craft exploits, I thought sharing pictures might be appropriate. I've been trying to learn my way around crazy quilting, and quilting in general, for awhile now. In this spirit, and for my mother's recent birthday, I embarked on two projects---a small quilt, in a more or less traditional method (pictures at my personal journal), and a journal cover that I made as an experiment in the crazy quilting process. I clearly have a great deal to learn, but for a first effort I don't think the embroidery shames me utterly.



( details )

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And last but not least, I'll take this opportunity to mention items that have been languishing in the inventory for a long freakin' time now, and which are, consequently, on sale.

Harry Potter and Severus Snape bunka dolls, down from $45 to $25 apiece.

Elizabeth Bennett, down from $95 to $75.

Young Albus Dumbledore in Muggle Suit, down from $25 to $15.

Destiny, Dream, and Despair of the Endless, down to $10 apiece.

See the FAQ for questions about ordering.

The person who commissioned this doll wanted me to make her little sister as a Hogwarts student in Slytherin robes.

( Five more. )



This one was...I don't even know. I was curious about experimenting with felt in forms unlike the usual felt dolls I make, so I started with the outline of a dress, then stuffed it, then made arms and a head and...stuff. There's a sack of rice at the bottom, so she's free-standing. Sometimes I use her as a pin-cushion---she's very effective, that way. She isn't really anyone in particular, but the reddish color of her hair and her 90's Victorian dress made me think of her as Violet Hunter from "The Copper Beeches".

( four more )

lizbee, who is in a very real way responsible for the existence of this journal and my apprenticing myself to dollmaking in the first place, recently commissioned a Romana I doll to match the Romana II I made for her just about exactly a year ago. I believe she has some special plans for this incarnation of Romana. Best not to inquire too closely.

( eight more pictures below the cut. )

Been a while since I did one this size. This is a small sculpted felt doll commissioned by crankykitten to resemble the protagonist of her novel.



( 7 more. )

I recently received a commission for two teacup dolls in the shape of a bride and groom, to top a wedding cake.

Trying to take photos of them was murder, because they didn't want to stand up together for love or money, but eventually I found a suitably sized dollstand. Here they are, posing in front of a tea cozy I just made.




A close up on the bride's face.




And the groom's face...




And the bouquet...

Those of you who have been following the progress of Xander the Doll at kerouacxander as he makes his way around the United States will have seen this already, but for the rest of you, I just had to point it out:

That right there is one of MY DOLLS in Julet Landau's slim white hands.

As a fannish dollmaker, I personally feel that my life has been made complete.

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In other news, I thought I'd point out that the FAQ's have been updated to reflect all the new doll types I've started making over the last year, along with a price guide.

As any of you who have seen the business cards know, my original four-inch felt doll of Delirium is the emblem of Belladonna Dolls, and I keep going back to her because...well, face it, she's just so freakin' adorable.
Then last night, I was struck by a whim---there really ought to be a huggably sized Delirium in the world, oughtn't there?

So I fiddled about a little bit, and I made one.



She's ten inches tall. Under the cut you'll see a picture of her beside a normal-sized felt doll for comparison

( Big Delirium )


Occasionally, for a break, I like to make simple doll forms that mostly exist to show off some of the colorful collection of cotton prints and crazy yarns I've accumulated. To that end, here's a new Wish Doll.



This wish doll is $20 USD.

This was one of the more interesting commissions I've received---three of the members of the group My Chemical Romance, who I confess I'd barely heard of prior to researching them for the dolls. The person who commissioned them requested I use the same doll form as I did for the Problem Student doll, only altered so that they had legs. The result is something like a miniature ragdoll, only made all from one piece of fabric.



The chief way I distinguished between them was by hairstyle. They all wear black, mostly, and they all have dark hair, so mimicking the hairstyles was crucial to their personalities. It was quite a challenge, but all the more fun for that. You haven't lived as a dollmaker until you've attempted to shape a pompadour out of black twine.

The person who commissioned them asked that I take pictures of the dolls while I was working on them. It's been a long time since I did a how-to post, so I thought the time was ripe for another.

( Read more... )

Recently I received a commission for a repeat performance of doll that started it all, the original ragdoll Romana from City of Death that I made for lizbee for Christmas last year. (The same person commissioned another ragdoll Five---if you're reading, don't worry, he's almost done!) At the same time I got another commission, this time for a ragdoll of the fourth Doctor, and as I happened to finish them both at the same time, I thought, why not take advantage of the photo opportunities?

I may have gone a bit overboard.



( more naughtiness this way. )


(In terms of my Make A Doll of Every Doctor project, now only got Three and Eight left to do. As it happens, I don't have any third Doctor episodes and I've never seen the Doctor Who movie. But I'll get there.)

Harry and Snape half-sized ragdolls, bunka style.

( details under the cut )
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Well, I'm one step further along in my goal of making dolls of each of the Doctors! Here is Two, in eight inch felt leg form, a thank-you gift to kindkit who hooked me up with some serious Who.

( close up )

Just as a reminder of which members of the Army of Cute remain to be deployed:



( We need homes! )

These are experimental dolls based on a pattern I discovered in a book. They're very simple, totem-like. I think of them as Wish Dolls, good luck charms basically.



( detail shots )

I got a commission for a second large sculpted doll of Luna Lovegood, and I decided to try something different with her since I had finally used up the ten yards of peach flannel I'd purchased a year ago for my dolls and had to investigate alternative kinds of "skin". (I'd been dissatisfied with the flannel for awhile because it frays very easily.) I've been basing my sculpted doll designs to some extent on the Kimono doll pattern at Runo Dollmaker for awhile now, but had always made my own adjustments to it because I didn't have access to all the same materials she uses and I was never trying to go for quite the same super polished look her dolls possess. However, since I picked up some knitted jersey material last week, I decided to try to adhere more or less faithfully to the pattern for once, with the difference that I enlarged it by twenty percent.

And this is the result.



Luna and Harry are headed for the same home so I featured them together for this shot.

( seven more. )

Those of you who have been around from the beginning of my dollmaking enterprises will recall that one of the first dolls I ever made (and the first doll I ever sold) was Lizzie Bennett, in her Netherfield ball gown. At the time I was planning to make her, I originally intended to dress her in a plainer costume more suitable to taking a walk in the country and snogging Darcy discreetly behind a tree. I changed to the fancier dress at the last minute, but I still had the material I'd originally purchased for the walking dress.

So a couple of days ago I decided to see what Lizzie would look like in my hands after I'd gained nearly a year of further dollmaking experience. The result is, I think, one of the best things I've ever made.



( seven more pictures behind the cut. )

The following dolls were all commissioned.

( Harry Potter, 8 inch felt leggy doll with owl. )

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( The Fifth Doctor, ragdoll. )

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( Teacup doll. )

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( New design. )

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These dolls are all sold already, but I'm always open for commissions if you'd like one in the style of any of these.