Gifts from and for friends...

Remember when I made a doll for a trade with an amazing young (10 years old) artist? Well I was lucky enough to have her here for a visit over the Christmas holidays.



She is an absolute delight, I enjoyed her company very much while she was here. She came all the way from Texas by car with her family and hand delivered the painting she made for me.


It is my favorite Christmas present.

I have another friend, Anne, she lives in Minnesota and is talented in so many different mediums. She draws, paints, sews, quilts, knits and most recently has taken classes in felting.



Such a wonderful surprise when this beautiful felted bowl landed all wrapped up on my porch. Am I lucky or what? The dimensions - 7 inches in diameter and 4 inches tall - or is that deep?

I love the colors and the flower in the bottom is the perfect touch. I really like how it feels in my hands. I can't adequately describe how pretty it really is in person.


And the detail... look at the outer edge, I think the next time we visit we just might have a felting day planned!



Last is the doll I just finished. This for a special friend I met not long ago.


The doll form is 5 inches tall and was made by Ronda Kivett, she also made the polymer clay face. Her doll forms and faces are available for purchase on her website if you would like one of your own to bead.



There are so many thoughts that ran through my mind while beading this form, thoughts of when I met this sweet person and the time we spent together. Many nice memories woven into these beads.



I don't know if she has somewhere she can stand the doll, so I added a loop to hang it up if she so desires.



Here she is - making herself at home in my new felted bowl.

An art trade

I just finished a doll for a young friend out in Texas. I have not met her in person as yet, but she is a member of my extended family.

And I know her Uncle (my Mr.) thinks the world of her.

At only 10 years old Legacy is already an extremely talented painter. I have included just a small sampling of photos of her work throughout this post. I'm so excited about this trade!


Details on the doll... the mermaid form was made by oh sew wonderful Monica Magness and is about 6 inches tall, her face was made by very talented face artist Jen Martin.

(Click image for a larger view)
Her face is held in place by peyote stitch, I used two beautiful transparent amethyst luster leaf beads for her 'bra'. I added a 8mm light amethyst AB Swarovski crystal (margarita 3700) bead for her belly button and lots of peachy/yellow fresh water pearls for her 'scales'. Her fins on the front are decorated with size 12/0 dark turquoise beads mixed with size 15/0 metallic transparent violet AB seed beads.

On her back - I made my usual spiral on the back of her head for a nice base for 'hair'. Her 'scales' on the back are represented using vintage light turquoise sequins held in place by the same size 15/0 metallic transparent violet AB seed beads found in her fins. The bottom of her fins on the back are covered with size 15/0 teal beads.

Her 'arms' are 3 strands of beads with two ending with a drop bead and one strand ending with a purple pressed glass triangle bead. Then there is her hair... my very favorite part of beading a doll is the hair. It really isn't anything special - stitch wise, it's a basic fringe stitch. I try to incorporate all the colors used in the doll in the seeds beads used for the hair and end each fringe strand with a larger bead. In this one I added a few shell beads as well for texture, and, well because - don't all mermaids have shells in their hair?

I have not named her, I thought her new owner would like the honor of doing that.

Legacy... you just keep getting better and better! I hope you like your doll.