Netty's Journey ends

My first memories were of twinkling lights, laughter and little warm hands holding mine,

A voice sweetly whispered in my ear, ‘we would be together forever’!

For many years we did, her first day at school, birthday parties, trains rides to see the big city and Ferry rides to the beach, which was always a favourite especially when gelato ice-creams were handed round.

But my favourite time with her was when it was just us alone together. We would sit side by side under the old pear tree and sometimes we would read books about ghosts or sailing adventures. Other times she would confess a secret, what would make her sad and cry and what would make her happy or angry.

The seasons went by, summer days seemed endless.
Spring brought with it the promise of new flowers in the garden.
Autumn we played in leaves of red, gold brown.
Winter was never cold when with her!
But something changed, my friend was growing up!

Then one day in winter another hand took mine, a much older and colder hand, a voice said out loud, ‘you are too old for dolls now!’ I heard my friend cry out but to no avail, I was hastily taken up the stairs and tossed into a dark musty corner!

For days I waited for my friend to rescue me but she never came. I’m not sure now when I fell asleep but or for how long but it must have been a very long time.

A light entered the room and another little warm hand reached out to me through the cobwebs and the years of dust. She brushed the surface of my face, my eyes had faded I couldn’t see her, my mouth was almost gone I couldn’t speak to her.
My cheeks still had a little colour .My paint work was cracked and dirty..
My body once ivory white was now stained and rotting.
My hair once a rusty red now almost gnawed off by the rats.
My clothes turned to dust.
I can’t remember the colour of my eyes or what I had worn. Who called love a doll like me now?

I was carried down the stairs and passed onto another pair of hands who gently place me into a box.
I was a little afraid but a voice whispered, ‘don’t worry little one, we are sending you off to for repairs and when you come back you will be beautiful and we will be best friends for ever!

 story continues....dress and additional journal entries by Kailee.

 Story and journal entries continue....by Susie MacMahon...

"Gentle hands put me back in the box and my long journey continued. I don't know how long it took, but it felt like many days. I don't mind the darkness, because I have lived in the dark since I lost my eyes so long ago.
Gentle hands removed me from the box again..............a tickling sensation on my face! What WAS it?
I see a glimmer of pale light.........still the tickling continues!
I CAN SEE!
I CAN SEE!
I HAVE EYES!
After so many years in the dark, the world is bright and new again.
The sky!
The trees!
The water!
I see them all again.The tickling goes on until I have a bright new face, hair and shoes.
The gentle hand sewed me some new clothes because it is cold here - much colder...........and so, I think I have come home.

"I told her we would be together forever", said a kind and familiar voice as she handed me to small soft hands.
"Oh Mummy! I love your doll!" said a younger voice as she hugged me close.
"Well, she belongs to you now, darling. Look after her, won't you? She's very special to me".

So once again, a small voice whispered into my ear:
"We will be together FOREVER!"

My life has come full circle.

Blush

Discombobulated Black Bunny, sef portait. I made her for the Art Dolls Challenge, 'Animal totem. this was our first challenge for the year. She is a mixed media doll made from cloth and paper mache...and why do I hear you ask didn't I make her a little black crow or my Chinese zodiac, which is a wood dragon?? Because it's year of the bunny!! Check her out she is up for sale in my ETSY shop.

What else has been happening...well Little Black Crow's ears have been burning again...Samamra from Maddabling contacted me the other week wondering if I would be interested in being interviewed..yes I was and you can read about it here... you will find other wonderful articles and featured artists...I found out about a beautiful fiber artist Lizet Frijters. you can find her etsy shop here...I could look at her bags and shawls for hours!
Well I'm off to do a bit of gardening and then it's back in the studio!

 The Girl Who Had Nails For Hair, ART DOLL

 Swinging in Spring

 Kitty, Kitty

Where do I Belong

Boy what a morning...both the cat and I couldn't sleep...maybe its because I had such an early night..didn't mean too I was all ready for the last episode of Midsummer Murders! I didn't even make it half way...so anybody out there that watched can you fill me in on who the murderer was..pleeeeeze!
So being up early I was able to put the last touches on my three new paintings, photograph them and post them up to Etsy. The little art doll I've had on my to finish list for a while now and now she is complete you can see here in my etsy shop along with a little poem I wrote for her!!
Today I also sent off one of my little Annie dolls to SPAIN, can you believe it...my dolls have traveled the world and I haven't even left Australia!!
Well lots of projects to finish before this month is over...YIKES not much time is there!!

New Doll!!!!

Clair and Rebecca..

Thank you for the names Jess and Kelsey!

The Hip Sisters. This months challenge for my Art Dolls Only group was 'Side Show Circus'. I was hoping to do a clay doll but being away from my tools meant I had to change tact. So with little time to spare as the deadline approached I decided to hand sew a little Siamese twin. My partner sent over some calico and thread. Andrew if you read this but sorry one of your pillows was donated to making art....pillow stuffing for her inners. I found some rusty old nails for her lags. I also found and striped some electric cable for her hair....it was copper so I painted it black.
The stand was found too. I covered it with tissue paper, then wood burnt the stripes, glazed it with yellow and white paint. The whole stand was then coated in wax.
I don't have names for her yet...any suggestions!.....well I'm off for a walk!

Rebecka Valentine

Hello!!! It's been a bit quite here these last few weeks but I can assure you that this will not be the case in weeks to come. I have been working away on some new designs, some I started well before Xmas. I've really been enjoying getting back into painting and learning some new techniques with Suzi Blu's classes...I've enrolled in a couple more!! I'm working on some multi-media dolls and having a play with mohair!!

a sneaky peek!!

Lets see what else have I been doing???? oh I've been studying the history of dolls and teddy bears!
Found some great books at the library.

One very cool book had lots of vintage knitting patterns for dolls clothes!! Just got to get a hold of some teeny tiny needles my 2.00 are not tiny enough for some of the knitting.
Oh and of course there will be a couple of Valentine themed critters like Miss Rebecka here, that can be viewed in my ETSY SHOP!!
You may have noticed that I had a few critters on eBay? Well I sold two, not really for the price I was hoping to get but they went to a lady in the states that is a mad doll collector, so I was pleased about that. Have to get myself more acquainted with eBay as there seems to be lots of tricky bits to work out and use properly.
Oh just one more thing, fingers and toes crossed I may have another shop to sell my critters in!!

I wont spill the beans about it just yet, but I'll be mighty excited about having my work there.
That's it for today.....maybe......oh but I have to cook dinner....it will be a zucchini feast! They seem to have exploded in numbers in the garden!!

Little Vampire girl in progress

 

My little vampire for the ADO mini Vampire challenge. Still need to make her hands and hair. She was fun to make. Her body took the most time to make.

The Big 50

Guess what? Today I finished my first 5o dolls for Xmas orders. Yeah!! I'm so happy I've even managed to finish before the end of the month. But not only did I finish 50 dolls, 50 names where also given. I had to print 50 logo's, coffee stain and bake 50 tags, then tie each tag to those 50 dolls. Oh and not forgetting my 50th sale at ETSY!
Now as fun as it would be to show you all fifty dolls, I won't because then I would have to take 50 photo's of 50 dolls and that would be boring. Plus I've already started work on another 50 dolls, but not bunny's and elephants. I think I will stop making these for a bit as its starting to feel like production line and that's not what my work is about!
So I'll start posting 10 photo's a day.
Sit back and enjoy.

Charlie

Lynette

Emily

Karen

Denby

Helen

Trish

Trevor

Sue

Roy

My personal favorite is Trish, I love her little school girl look. All these dolls will be for sale locally here in Hobart. I'll be putting up some Xmas dolls soon in my Etsy shop.
Another big hi and thank you to all my followers, boy can't believe there are so many of you!!
And a special thank you to Blue Berries in the Field for another blog award! If you don't know of Monique's work go take a peek.

the smell of Xmas stock

just a little sneaky peek at my knitted and hand painted Xmas ornaments.

I's been a bit quiet her in little black crow's blogland but she has been working her crafters butt off!!.

I've a big Xmas order to fill, plus keep ahead of supplies for a couple of other online shops....AND hopefully getting some other dolls and odd assortments of things for my first craft market! oh and I think I even put my hand up to complete a few art doll challenges...YIKES what was I thinking?! A good thing that insomnia runs in the family...either that or we have vampire DNA in our blood!

But I see I'm not the only one. So many of my fellow crafters are in full swing for Xmas...its so exciting and inspiring to see what everyone's is up too.

Cart Before the Horse
The Holiday Queen
Ruby Victoria
Notions
Bird and the Fish

Peg the Pumpkin Slayer

Halloween art doll challenge

All the pieces laid out for my Halloween art doll!

Roughly sketching out the features. The doll has been stuffed and painted with a couple of coats of gesso.

The drawing on the left was the inspiration. She is a little character I drew and animated a while back.

Painting eye ball. I followed the eye ball tutorial over at ADO's blog

Blogger in draft: little arty crafty crow - Create Post

Polyclay sculpted shoes an axe and some tiny little shoes for another project.

My first ever sculpted shoes! The tutorial can be found here!!

The dress is knitted from 4ply black merino. I designed the dress based from a vintage pattern. I added a bauble edging at the bottom and just under the arms a little ribbon holes.

waiting happily for her hair

I thought this Halloween I was going to make more ghoulish dolls than last year but this cold is being rather persistent and making me very tired. I really had to push myself to get this far with just one doll!

But come to think of it it doesn't have to be halloween to make ghoulish dolls!

And then there were six that hopped, hopped into the shop!

And don't forget Little Black Cow's Etsy Shop is having a big, big Winter SALE.
The sale will last for 7 days only!!
I've also added three new designs "kittens who lost their Mittens"