Quinn Knits a Twisted Yarn

Dressing up

I had so much fun yesterday, instead of embellishing dolls with all manner of things I had the opportunity to turn on myself. A western themed party was the excuse. So I popped out to a favorite run of charity shops and picked up a frilly black blouse and gold buttoned jacket. I spent the afternoon adding fun bits of old jewelry and ribbons to the jacket. My character was a bandit / mexican / spanish / senorita with a sort of Mary Poppins thing going on with the legs and boots, but in the end my dolls were the biggest inspiration. I took some rather bad pics as I was on my own and in a bit of a rush.

 

Evolving characters

I am plotting the progress of my dolls because I think it's quite fun to see how ideas evolve and change. I start with some pretty clear ideas and usually a few sketches, but as I start to construct three dimensionally the look and feel of a character develop, sometimes not quite as I had imagined. This is fine, I then play around adding and subtracting until I get the right feeling about a piece of work. At the moment my female doll doesn't feel 'dark' enough for her strange companions, so as I sew her together I am constantly thinking about how she should proceed. Below are some pictures of her progress.

 

 

 

 

Doll progress

I've been working hard for two days and feel like progress has been made. I am tired with a chest cough that has been going on for four weeks so do tend to loose focus, I am waiting to go and collect the kids from school and not sure whether or not to sew up another pair of legs or attach a couple of hats.....so instead I will take a break and blog my work so far.

 

 

Creative Kids

The girls have been doing some lovely drawings recently. On Saturday morning they had woken me up at 6am but I had managed to drift in and out of sleep until 9am. I shuffled downstairs to a kitchen table that had completely disappeared under a frenzy of creating, paper, paint, card everywhere, my heart sank at the mess but i had to concede that the work produced was pretty good and so a reprieve was handed out. Sadie had covered a cereal box with toilet paper and then painted the whole surface gold, she had left her textured card to dry then carefully cut out and constructed this wonderful cat, no help or influence from an adult!

 

 

Sadie also panted these shapes, an amazing abstract composition. Below is her delicate water colour portrait, Sadie is 8 years.

Then there is Rosie who's bold imagination just blows me away every time, Rosie is 5 years.

 

 

I love this party in a tent!

Sewing Begins

Well at last I found time to sit down and begin sewing a new doll, It is a great feeling, I have lots of ideas for this series. A circus / side show/ interesting character theme again......but still so many ideas in this area. I drew out a couple of body patterns, this one has a nose the second head shape is flat, I am going to try some different ideas with the dolls limbs, maybe model some clay legs...or use wire. So far I have a linen body with an embroidered face, the hat and tail coat are felt, the skirt is made from strips of vintage silk. I had fun making up the little ribbon Rosette.

 

 

Drawing with Me

I have not been feeling at all well for the last couple of days, I have been coughing for three weeks, which has exhausted me (chest infection caught from the kids). So I have been resting and drawing. Adding more characters, some strange, some sinister, some benign and some that are almost sweet. I am enjoying this a lot, it has been soooooo long since I have been able to spend some time with my own work, I feel a little lost as I try to find my flow again, but ideas for textile dolls are forming, I just need to recoup a little more energy before I proceed. So here are some images of the growing drawing.

Drawing with Rosie

I was sneaking in a bit of drawing yesterday after Tommy's party, when Rosie asked for me to draw her one of the characters, leopard boy with the big hair. I drew a feint outline and Rosie produced this amazing drawing with coloured biros, I love it so much, I may ask if I can use the bird cage and swinging character in my drawing!

Tom's Birthday

So my darling boy is 11 today. This has been a crazy year but even so it feels like it has gone in a flash, I had barely absorbed the significance of double figures, and whoosh he's speed walking towards teenage years, secondary school and ultimately out from under mummy's heavily   feathered and all protective wing, I am anxious but excited as well, I love getting to know the person he is becoming, what a joy it is to talk to your growing child, to have understanding and co-operation (at least some of the time)

So I wrapped presents, baked the cake, blew up balloons, tidied up, got my camera ready, took a picture of the birthday table then completely forgot to photograph the birthday boy or party!!!

Cake was made with courgettes, rice flour and no butter, it turned out much better than I expected, and the kids loved it! Recipe in red velvet & chocolate heartache by Harry Eastwood.

Pencil on Paper

The Wolf is Slain. August 2009

Another drawing, pencil on paper. I am wondering where I am going with these, out of necessity I have been using coloured pencils, graphite pencils, A4/A3 paper and a few ink pens, these are the things the children and I have to hand, they are small, transportable and not too messy. This obviously limits what I can do, it's very 'un- art school' the drawings are small, domestic, illustrative, pedestrian even, all materials bought from WH Smiths bargain table and shared with the kids. But despite all this I kind of like them, there is something I want to keep from them. I remember drawing like this as a child/ teenager before I was taught to 'loosen up' use sweeps of charcoal, don't be confined by the conventions of paper size, create large imposing pieces of work, all good but somehow I am still drawn back to this way of working and running with it's limitations, for instance sticking to the A4/A3 paper size 'consciously naive' maybe (I've just read I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith) and love that expression. But still something to work with I think. And of course I enjoy jumping from 2D to 3D, bringing the two together is my challenge at the moment, characters emerge that are suited to soft sculpture/ doll making but how it all flows as a body of work I am not sure yet.

Any way here are some details and the beginnings of a new drawing.

New Home Images

The kitchen table above, I love my new Mexican oilcloth.

Kitchen wall with cookbooks, clock, pictures.

The kitchen with plants and lots of sunshine, above.

We have no garden but this large studio space will be shared by the children and myself, it's a great play area and hopefully I'll be able to get some work done also.

Rosie's dolls house not yet fully unpacked.