I've made a batch of beads using the very pretty pages from a couple of homewares catalogs with a rather nice matt finish paper. Here they are all set up to dry after being sealed with Royal Coat decoupage finish. The whole process really does make a very solid, rigid bead.

I know I haven't posted for a while. I've returned from a wildly successful, on many levels, trip where I delivered the Bead Head Granny to her happy new home, and sold another 8 Dream Stars and a bunch of Wish Dolls and Face Pins. This photo is people decorating masks at a funshop I facilitated. I have come home reinvigorated, but also carrying the usual noxious cold that travelling always seems to give me. So I have been slow to return to posting and working. Now I have several commissions to make: two Dream Dolls, a special Wish doll, a couple of draw string bags. Also a couple of past customers are eager for some seasonal Dream Star dolls and even some more crocheted baskets. Plus I am intending to particpate in a couple of EGADS team challenges, one of which may lead to publication in an art magazine. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, I evidently did not get accepted for the Felt Club show, so instead I am applying to the Pasadena Art Fair in early December. I hope tha...

Dream Star dolls and a couple of Dream Dolls thrown in. I have some with beading begun, some stuffed and ready to be beaded, some awaiting stuffing, and some waiting for their faces. I am planning a couple of Dream Dolls in Asian quilting fabrics, with Kabuki faces. I am really looking forward to making the witches with their little felt hats. Next week I will be attending the Live and Learn Conference , leaving home Tuesday September 2nd. Any purchases made on Etsy on that week won't be mailed until I get home Monday September 8th. I hope that's OK.

I'm working on a bunch of commissions and some seasonal dolls. Here are a whole lot of painted faces - acrylic on muslin sealed with acrylic sealer. I had fun! The faces really come to life once the shine dot is put in the eye. Lots of different ethnicities and makeups. Yes, I am planning some green faced witches for Halloween! The two faces on the left were painted by my nearly 9yo daughter as her contribution. Such personality.

This doll head is using the lampwork glass eyes I bought at the bead show made by Ralph McCaskey. This doll will be a dryad whose robe will be made of handmade and a few manufactured leaves. You will notice the ridge running over the head between the ears. I have noticed a tendency for the headdress to want to slide backwards and I am expecting that this ridge will stop that from happening. It will not be visible in the final doll. Stay tuned....

My mother-in-law sent me a box of bits and pieces of vintage fabrics including a vintage silk kimono that had been cut down. Now it has been cut apart and washed and I am looking forward to making dolls from it. The lining is a lovely flesh tone silk, which is also good.

Aren't they cute? I'm tired of losing needles when I put them down, or having to push them into my clothes or the tablecloth because my regular pretty pincushion is too big to carry around when I am sewing or beading on the go. I also seem to go through a lot of thread, especially since much of it is inherited from my mother's store and the reels are partly used. I just hate tossing so many empty reels. Here's my really fast solution. A piece of felt, a circle of colorful fabric and a small wad of polyfil. I have a feeling all my friends who sew are going to get one.