Mermaids and Japanese Owlies, Oh My!

The Mermaid Dotee Group on Flickr had another swap.  The person I create for this time, Zeldaloo, creates art dolls.  That is a lot of pressure for me.  Her art dolls are awesome, too.  I had to step it up a bit.  I had just received some fabric from Starlitnest via Etsy.  It is part of Heather Ross’ Mendocino collection.  

 

She is a bit smaller than my usual Dotees and I hand sketched her shape over and over to get it right.  Since she was smaller stuffing that body and especially the tail was hard!  I like the shades of brown with the pop of turquoise.  I had also made a larger face for her about a week ago then when I was ready to affix it realized it was not going to work.  I took some of the day Saturday to make another using my sculpey clay, paints, inks and the sculpey glaze.  I worked on the beading as all that was drying. 

 

I always struggle with the hair on my Dotees.  I started out taking pieces of yarn soaking it in stiffy and then twirling it around a pencil to make her some ringlets of curls.  I was going to make her a head of ringlets, but it was not working out.  Come up with plan B! 

As I was thumbing trough my yarn stash I found some brown wool yard that was a bit more natural and not as heavily spun.  I made some loops of it and then sewed it onto brown bias tape to make a wig.  I then sewed in the 4 ringlets that survived and mixed them in with the brown.  I really like how it came out loose and wavy like she just came up from a swim. 

I am really pleased how she came out in the end, but man the process was like a mystery novel filled with twists and turns.  Thankfully, I am very good at “winging it” when plans go awry.  I hope Alisa likes her.  Can’t wait to hear what she says!

And while I am on the subject of the Mermaid Flickr group, my partner for the last swap,  Jenny The Artist the group admin, asked me if I would make her some small domino charms.  She asked me to let her know what I would like in return and I spied her Japanese owls.  She was nice enough to make 4 of them for me. 

Aren’t they cute!  I really like them and they are a bit larger than a ping pong ball.  Thanks, Jenny, for an awesome swap.  If you are interested in 1:1 swapping let me know.  I never say no.  Sometimes you have to wait a bit, but I am always game for a swap!

Do you swap?