Making Time

oh i love topsy turvy dolls. a long dress, or clever hats hide another faces and bodies, to make an all-in-one doll.
in march i was looking around for patterns for these kinds of dolls. i did have *intentions* however, they have remained unrealized. i really like the traditional freaky-deaky little red riding hood, with grandma/wolf on the other end. the wolf head hides under grandma’s nightcap, which is turned around. how fun is that?

recently there was a crocheted topsy turvy doll shown at whip-up, and it’s telling that kathreen posted it under ‘extreme’… they are weird! yes, they actually have split personalities! on the same day, 29 may- victorian-looking topsy-turvy dolls appeared at treefall design. i just found them this evening, wow. well done! and you can even purchase this pretty pair in her shop. and only 10days earlier another was posted in flickr: an angel/devil. coincidence? i think so.

quick solution: hack ‘em together

if one can’t bear all the sewing, the HGTV site gives a method which includes: “2 soft dolls of the same size “.. which you
ghoulishly graft together like some frankenstein’s monster.

1. Cut the legs off each doll, making sure that you don’t cut open the bottom of the doll.
2. With the faces on the same side, push bottoms of body sections together, matching side seams, and with heavy-duty thread, whip-stitch securely around the “waist.” The bodies should be firm enough that they don’t bend in the middle. For extra stiffness, you may want to sew twice around.

mixed race

another strange peice of trivia saying black slaves in the US were not allowed to play with dolls which had images of black people, so they would have to turn the doll too the ‘white’ side when overseer was around. i tried to google-confirm this. - one article says many of the topsy turvy dolls were of mixed race though it’s unclear to me what the intention or meaning of this was.

“While some historians believe that the dolls were cleverly concealed toys for slave children who may not have been allowed to play with black dolls (which were illegal during apartheid), others like Jones believe that they were given to white children to serve as maids to the other dolls. Either way, they reflected the striking contrasts between the two roles and the disparities in the treatment each received.

Kimberly Wallace-Sanders, a professor with Emory University, points out that the apartheid ban on black dolls signaled the political and moral potency of the doll in its time. She asks, “Why would you ban a doll if it wasn’t so powerful?”, suggesting that the oppositional characters helped children to learn their own roles in society (Siek, 2003).”

oo… i’d love to have a look at this book. 0672521571: How to Make Upside-Down Dolls

i’m adding this to my delicious links for this category:

http://del.icio.us/heather/topsyturvy

i’m not allowed to start anything new until at least one more monkey has a face, and one little doll has hair.

but this is now up on the top of my list.

the first craftblog i ever saw was in 2002, it was mena trott’s http://sewwrong.com. i went searching for it today, and it seems it’s down. mena trott developed movabletype with her husband- and i learned about the sewwrong group blog through that (since i was using that software at the time). and from that site, i saw notmartha, and getcrafty- which i visited religiously. there didn’t seem to be alot of craft blogs… like nowadays when there really is a critical mass… and i always seems to be finding new blogs that have been around for a year or more.
but it seems like sewwrong is not hosted anymore. if you’re pining for the past, you can be glad that we have the wayback machine! so you can check out getcrafty and sewwrong.
it’s still a great resource filled with loads of good links and info.

Needlebook Swap

Originally uploaded by feather.

Note to self: Post images of swaps as soon as you receive them!! (Of course my partner blogged about the swap as soon as she got it!)

I was so pleased when Claire from one of my ‘favorite’ blogs (Needlebook) wrote and asked me for a swap. I had pretty much trawled her entire site’s archives, and I had seen things like her cool gnome needlebook (Not to mention a certain lovely doll named Hattie.)

She asked me what I wanted on the needlebook… and I couldn’t think at first, then realized I really wanted a house. I’m getting hit by homesickness like I’ve never had before. But the sad thing is, and most confusing is that I don’t know exactly where home *is*.

Part of me wonders if I will know what it does feel like when I finally get there… I know I should be making ‘home’ where ever I am… but I don’t know…

Needless to say, the image of a cute little house is quite evocative for me, and I thank Claire very very much for this!

And they are both very handy. I’m taking pins in and out of the cushion all the time (when I get the chance to sew). Also, it’s better than the one I made since it is stuffed more full. I under-stuffed my cushion and the pins keep going in too far. You can buy these lovely pin cushions in her shop. clairelmilne.etsy.com

Needlebook has already made something from one of the fabrics I sent her. Isn’t it lovely?

ok, so this was actually last week in japan. but i’m trying to catch up with a back-log of posts! i have been busily catching up with japanese homework, working, preparing materials for class in two week’s time, since until then- i’m going to kyoto, osaka and nara.

of course the main purpose of the trip is to see important historical sites, and oogle at gigantic buddhas… but secretly, i can’t wait to get some fabric-shopping in. i’m sure the selection and price will be better than out in the ‘countryside’ of oita!

lookie at this little chirimen boy i saw for children’s day.

i’m inspired by zoe’s column on whip-up where she writes about re-purposed clothing. she recently linked to this blog: fiftyRX3 which is jill dannyelle’s project to document wearing clothes everyday which are 50% sustainable (reduce, reuse, recycle). and she has such a great style. i used to NOT dress boring, but i think since i left the states, i tend to try and pass/blend in as much as possible, being a foreigner that i am.

Also interesting are these flick groups for getting ideas for being creative with recycling:

Sustainable Style
Tips for recycling and reusing

… and this one called wardrobe remix sharing photos of what you’re wearing.

i think i need more excitement in the wardrobe department. i love all the re-purposing and refashioning being shown online.

i always wanted to be one of those people who made their own clothes, made their own dishes, built their own house. i’m coming to the realization that this is not going to pan out, but i would like to reinvent some of my tired holey tops into summer tops. it’s also embarrassing to shop here in japan since i can’t seem to fit into much. really want a sewing machine now.

the duct tape dummy would be a fun thing to have around to drape and pin onto. it must be eye-opening to see yourself in a dressform double, but for dress making it would be very handy.

i just saw a cool one at super eggplant in a stylish pink duct tape, although i like the idea of the paper-tape dress form version which does not require stuffing, i like the sound of ‘easiest and cheapest of all options’.

I just wanted to give some linky love to Andrew who is starting out his portfolio website.

Andrew Livingstone is an artist who works in ceramics in Belfast, Ireland. He is completing his PhD in ceramics.

In the image above, he has projected an image onto ceramic blocks he made. The image is from the shipping cranes that loom over the skyline in Belfast. The image is made to look like the ubiquitous blue glazed plates you’d see in many homes in Northern Ireland.

Welcome to the web, Andrew!

i saw these chairs this weekend in a cafe in hita, kyushu, japan. you can see the staple marks which show where the old upholstery was removed and restyled. and then some kind of funy base put on the chair.

great to see this! i’m glad i got a closer look at it.

also saw this cute reclyed plastic giraffe. looks like it was little circles of plastic bags skewered with wire? or… i dunno how it was made actually!

congrats to the winners!

and also, kathreen (of red current) who organizes whipup.net, deserves buckets of prizes too. she puts so much work into whipup, it’s truly phenomenal. i write there and try to help out as much as i can… but i know she puts in oodles of time. i was worried when there were some people getting frustrated with a few technical glitches on the first contest… i was thinking, ‘hey guys, there is a person on the other end of the line, and she’s trying her best to make it run as smoothly as possible’, and it did go very well!

please note there is a tiny little ‘make a donation’ link on the sidebar of the whipup site. and i think it’s about time i put my money where my mouth is. please donate to whipup, and give kathreen loads of prizes for all her hard work!

details are up for the next contest: week 2: your surly side!

orangeface

Originally uploaded by keri.

i am sending someone something with a face on it. i can’t show a pic, or say to whom, or what it is, but in my note i remarked that i was finally getting used to seeing faces on pretty much everything in japan.

But i have to say this is a lovely series of pics of faces created by placing black and white stickers on different objects. Keri Smith’s list of 100 things to do (inc 95 things so far!) is so cool. I’d like to see her book too.

I love the simplicity of the stickers in funny places. See Keri’s Fun with Stickers. Isn’t this such a shy little doorknob now? It’s amazing what two eys can do.

Decole would be proud.

Need more faces in odd places?

See the FLickr Decole group
Some more smiley faces at Wee Wonderfuls.
And My Paper Crane makes everything you could ever want with a face on it.

well, actually alot of faux bois here in japan. the cement bollards and railings are cast to look like wood. but this is just one of the many ways that the surroundings are beautified in little details. and beauty means irregularity and natural forms. even the plastic in your bento box to separate items looks like leaves.

anywho, i saw this staircase (up to the Oita Art Museum) and thought of It’s (K)not Wood, the design blog I linked to the other day. and he linked to me, so that is very nice