Before rushing out to buy supplies for your fabric art projects, consider a these important points. Many fabric artists (including me) prefer 100% cotton for most projects. The benefits are clear: Cottons are durable. They don’t “pill” or develop small little fiber balls on the surface.Cottons tear on a straight line. This saves tedious cutting….
Category: Fabric Art & Figures
Art made with fabric and other media. Quilts, wall hangings, wearables, household decor, and wild art dolls. Tutorials and examples.
Faerie Grandmother Pindoll
My faerie grandmother pindoll is still among my favorites. That’s partly because the doll’s face belongs to my paternal grandmother. I wanted to create a happy pindoll to remind me of what I liked best about that grandmother. She’d lived to age 80, but that wasn’t long enough. (click image to see full sized) This…
History of Paper Dolls – Part Two
Note: This is the second part of a two-part article tracing the history of paper dolls. See The History of Paper Dolls, part one to read the first part. 20th century paper dolls – A brief history In the 20th century, other magazines followed this trend, including Ladies’ Home Journal (Sheila Young’s “Lettie Lane”), Pictorial…
History of Paper Dolls – Part One
Today’s paper dolls evolved from the development of paper, ceremonial and performance figures, and dressmakers’ fashion dolls. General history Paper was invented in China around 105 C.E. by Ts’ai-Lin, a courtier from Lei-yang. Although the word ‘paper’ is derived from ‘papyrus’, this early paper was not a papyrus product. With paper’s development in nearby China,…
More Dangerous Women
For another art doll exchange (a swap), I decided to modify my earlier “dangerous women” cloth doll design. I rarely work from a pattern anyway, so any time I decide to repeat a design, it’s not likely to turn out the same as the original. The photo above is one of a series of six…
Artfest Doll
Many years ago, I taught at Artfest. It was a golden era, and – for the first few years – I had a wonderful time. At one Artfest, organizer Teesha Moore gave us simple cloth dolls. I think her grandmother had assembled them. When I received mine, I promptly embellished her. Here’s the result. (I…
Dangerous Women Reaching for the Stars
Dangerous women, reaching for the stars… they were some of my earliest pindolls from one basic concept. I made them in 1998 and 1999. My concept was this: Work with a simple, triangular design. Create dolls that could be pinned to a curtain, or — for courageous people — worn on a lapel. These are…