I finally finished the knit dolls I first posted about here.
I got stuck on the hair. It took me a while to figure out something that would be durable enough with all the play. And (of course) I kept putting them down again and again and again.
I introduced them to the kids this week and my heart was bursting! They were brought into play immediately...they were nutured, loved, held, fed, rocked and given their own special beds with silk blankets.
I'm so proud to be these children's teacher.
We have always been full of birthday celebrations at Willow House at the end of the school year. For some reason, we traditionally have half of our students born in the summer months. While it would be more prudent to celebrate half birthdays for them, we seem to spend most of May fitting in all the celebrations.
For Fritz...Sweet and kind. Lover of nature and hunter and gatherer of all things outdoors, I made for him this darling little gnome doll adorned with a mushroom.
For Lily...soft and cuddly, a knit bunny was just the right gift for her. I also crocheted a little pouch so she could carry her bunny around her neck. I love that she shared with me later all the little adventures she has had with her little softie.
For Lilah...such a little princess. I made for her a little peg flower girl doll. Also with a crocheted pouch for carrying.
For Oliver...our grounded, peaceful and quiet little boy. He just needed a knit gnome doll.
For sweet William. Our boy who sees the world in letters and numbers. Always first to point out the words he cannot yet read. I made for him a little birthday prince peg doll...with a crocheted pouch. On the pouch I stitched a "W" and on the shirt a "4". How appropriate that William would show up at his celebration honoring his fourth birthday by wearing a "4" on his shirt. That boy just makes me smile.
As I became overwhelmed by all the creating my teaching partner helped out by making these sweet pocket dolls. One for Eloise (I just had to crochet her a pouch). And one for Lulu.
Sadly, not photographed (just not enough time!!) were the adorable needle-felted dragons for Amelia, Sidney and Emre.
We celebrated just one birthday at the preschool in March (which makes me very nervous as I realize we will have to squeeze the remaining ten celebrations into the last seven weeks left of school *gulp*). Our darling Ruby turned five. I needed to make her a gnome girl doll as playing with the gnomes is one of her most favorite things to do at school. If I don't make a pouch for the gift, then I usually give the doll something to hold. In Ruby's case, the bunny was the perfect thing to place in the gnome girl's arms. Quiet and gentle, sweet and considerate, yet courageous and strong willed are some of Ruby's best qualities...I will miss dearly her when she goes to Kindergarten next year.
It was easy to choose a color for the doll. Ruby loves purple, wears it almost every day.
We celebrated three birthdays at the preschool last month. I kept myself pretty busy with needle and roving. I'm a wee bit relieved the next birthday isn't until the middle of January. Here's what I made...
for Freya
for Joshua
and for Louie.
More creative spaces here.
Earlier this month I held a doll making camp at my preschool. I was so excited and had an ambitious list of twenty-two possible dolls to create. I had a great bunch of creative and fun kids and we just played all week. Here are the projects we made.
Flower dolls
dolls made out of paper shapes
simple knot dolls
bead dolls
the kids wound yarn around a book
to make these sweet yarn dolls
and we ended the week making these adorable clothespin dolls.
There are less than six weeks of preschool left before we begin our summer break and my project list just went through the roof. Mother's Day gifts and Spring Festival preparing should be enough to keep me busy but we also have fourteen (yes! 14!!) birthdays yet to celebrate. I need to get busy making. The most difficult part for me is creating something that is meaningful. I did get great ideas from some of you here (in the comments) which were helpful, but I get stumped sometimes.
Yesterday we celebrated little Miss F turning five. I have a strong connection to this quiet little girl. Such a sweet, gentle soul, a lover of nature and all things small and precious. I knew exactly what I wanted to give her so made her this Salley Mavor inspired doll. She comes with her own nature bag to keep her treasures in. I included a mini poppy pod that we pulled while playing in the garden last month. She helped to scatter the seeds from the pods and little seedlings are already appearing.
With much needed luck I hope to be back sooner rather than later with more birthday posts.
It's been a while since I've needle-felted, but when my teaching partner brought her new book, Wool Toys by Laurie Sharp to the preschool the other day I starting browsing and was inspired to have a go at it again.
There is something so satisfying about jabbing and stabbing all those little wool tufts and turning them into a sweet doll. Sharp's instructions for making a pixie are easy and straightforward and it was quite fun making this little guy.
And another one is waiting for a face. Don't know if I'll be able to stop at just two!
More creative spaces here.
Margaret of We Bloom Here hosted a swap of little angels and has connected bloggers from all over the world. You can see all the beautiful hand created angels right here.
Here is what I made for my partners (most of whom live in Australia).
It's funny how these little angels all started out to be the same, but as I individually hand-stitched each one, they seemed to take on their own personalities. I guess this is just how it is when creating a doll.
Each one is stitched from white wool and vintage trim embellishments and beads. Each is holding something unique in their hand or arms: a cluster of bells, a mother-of-pearl star, a vintage stamen bundle and an acorn bird nest with eggs.
I've already received two lovely angels and will be sure to post them once they all arrive.
(Thank you Margaret!)
We had a birthday celebration at my preschool yesterday. A brother and sister both turned five. Five. Such a magical age. It means they will be starting kindergarten next year. I wanted to make them something special, something that would maybe remind them of their days at Willow House. There were so many ideas spinning through my head and I finally decided to make each one a little doll.
Not in the photo is the mini dried poppy pod that I placed in the arm of each doll. Poppies grow all over our preschool garden and I can thank this now five-year-old girl for helping to plant them. One of her favorite things to do in the backyard is shake the seeds out of the pods once they have dried. I can't wait to see how many blooms we'll get next year and you can bet I'll be missing her when they flower.
Last summer the children's mother donated heavily to our annual garage sale fundraiser and as I was sorting through some of the items she brought I found these two blouses she no longer wore.
Pink is a favorite color of the twins. I put them aside thinking the fabric was too sweet to give up for the sale and knew immediately I was going to somehow use it for the kids. It's not too obvious as the dolls are pretty small, and the print on the floral fabric is large, but I used a piece of their mom's blouse to make the shirt of each doll. A little bit of their mama in each one.
I was overly ambitious for Puppet Camp last week. My plan was to have the children experience a wide variety of puppet making. I quickly realized after day one, that I would have to tone it down a bit. After-all, I am working with four-years-olds. For the last day I planned a pop-up cone type puppet (kind of like one of these), but again...too ambitious. The night before I thought up this simplified version and was thrilled how easily they came together.
Supplies:
I drew up a rough pattern sheet...nothing fancy...but it could easily be printed off. The large oval is the body, the circle the collar (cut it fringe like, or scalloped...depending on how you like it) and the triangle is the hat.
Fold the hat piece in half and stitch (or glue) up the side. (Here's a nice blurry version of me doing that)
Next, take a rubber band (or elastic) and wrap it securely about one inch below the pointy side of the chop-stick.
Assembly is easy after that...simply slide on the body piece, then the collar, then the head, glue on hat and you're done!
The kids were playing with them in minutes.
