Welcome to my blog, featuring various pieces from my collection of Oz books, artwork and memorabilia!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Scraps...

Here she is - after a week of evenings spent figuring, sewing and experimenting, I finished my Patchwork Girl. She is approximately 20" tall, and has a lot of personality - she can be demure and well behaved, or wild and stick her tongue out, in typical Scraps fashion. She has her button eyes (pearl rather than silver), pearl teeth, and golden ears; I didn't quite get to golden fingernails. She can even stand on her own two feet - occasionally!

My aim was to come up with something that would look appropriately old. Years ago, I used to explore making puppets and marionettes and this wasn't much different.

It was an interesting project - After being inspired by a handful of vintage patchwork squares, I quickly learned that my quilt squares were extremely delicate and fragile - patches would disintegrate if not handled carefully. This didn't bother me too much, aside from the difficulties of working with the fabric. My goal was to end up with something that looked like it might have been around for seventy some years, so a few perished patches fit right in. However, if anyone were attempting this for an actual doll, I strongly recommend using new fabric!

4 comments:

Jay said...

She looks great, Bill! Maybe you can work on a Scarecrow for her friend?

Josh said...

She looks fantastic! Excellent craftsmanship, you really captured her spirit...and I love that she looks like she has been "well loved" by children for decades. Bravo!

Bill Campbell said...

Thanks - I obviously had fun working on the project. I'm mostly amazed that I actually got it done, and pretty quickly too! I'll have to see if I get inspired to make a Scarecrow companion....it could happen.

Anonymous said...

What a delightful and whimsical creation. Where is the Power of Life when you need it?

Thanks for sharing, Bill.