Wolfmanor Wisdom and Whimsies

Making Needle Felted Dogs

2009-07-06T08:11:00.001-07:00

The Valley Doll club made needle felted dogs at our meeting on Sunday. I made a pink one to go with my pink haired Dolfie...she still needs her face painted...I am behind on that...but hey...now she has a dog...what's more important?

The pics are a little dark but I think you can get the idea.

The other dogs are vintage chenille.

Pink cuteness!

Puppy love!!

Doll Retreat With Adele Sciortino

2009-07-06T07:37:00.000-07:00

These pics are from the January Retreat with Sisters of the Cloth...I am just getting around to unloading pics from an old camera card!

The Retreat was Viva La Carnival. We used a Carnival theme for the whole retreat...which was out in Temecula as usual.

I made name tags for the retreat using purchased Mardi Gras beads with blank white medallions. I then scanned some mask fabric and used photoshop to print the names. I cut them out and glued them on the medallions.

This is the mask fabric.

Here are some of the almost finished dolls!

This is my Cat!

Trip to Turkey

2009-05-29T11:46:00.001-07:00

I just got back from a 10 day trip to Turkey. It was such an awesome trip...I took over 500 photos...here are just few of them to share!

Shopping at the Grand Bazaar!

Buy, buy, buy!!!

Mom

Wedding clothes

Bread

Vendor

The Hagia Sophia

The Blue Mosque

Me & Mom

Ephesus!!

Capadoccia

The Rock Churches

Frescos

Tea while shopping in Ankara

Spices for sale

Me buying shoes for dolls!

Wendy Froud Class- Last day

2009-03-09T07:50:00.000-07:00

Today was painting and costuming...take a look at the finished dolls!

Here is the fairy Toby made.

Wendy, Toby & me with my creation.

This is the creature that Wendy made in class!

The final doll at home.

Wendy Froud Class - Day 2

2009-03-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

Once we finished our heads, the next step was hands and feet!

Wendy demos placing "bones" in the armature.

Next is wrapping and sewing up the body.

Now he is ready for painting and costuming!

Wendy Froud Sculpting Class

2009-03-06T20:48:00.001-08:00

I am taking a 3 day class with Wendy Froud and her son Toby. Today was the first day of class and we started with a guided meditation to try to find our fairy guide and then we began sculpting. Here are two progress photos of the doll so far:

Here is the beginning of the face...we used fimo clay.

Below is the final face..ready to bake...

And the winner is....

2009-02-24T15:44:00.000-08:00

One of the fun things about my job as a Production Exec is getting to brag about my team! This weekend we won the Visual Effects Society award for Best Pre-Rendered Visuals in a Video Game (World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King).

Pictured: Phillip Hillenbrand (Producer) & Me

Below is Jeff Chamberlain (Director) & Phillip

The group shot at the VES awards.

Happy 17th Wedding Anniversary!

2008-12-05T16:36:00.001-08:00

Nov 16th!

Wrath of the Lich King

2008-11-14T15:45:00.001-08:00

I work for the Cinematics Dept of Blizzard Entertainment and our newest game release for World of Warcraft came out this week. About 160 of us were at Fry's Electronics in Anaheim autographing for the fans of the game who stood in line for hours and hours to be the first to buy it. Here are some fun photos!

Here is the link to the Cinematic!

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/intro.xml

Marv found this interesting display at the Fry's near our house...a friend of mine calls it "Tink Warcarft"! LOL!!! I worked on both of these so its sort of fun to see them both together!

Tinker Bell is out on DVD!

2008-11-02T17:21:00.000-08:00

Hi: Here is a plug for the newest movie I worked on! I was the Associate Producer on this movie and it is a really cute film! Variety even liked it...and that's saying something! LOL. Check it out at a store near you!

Class with Barbara Willis

2008-08-11T21:04:00.001-07:00

I have been delinquent in posting these pics from my class with Barbara in June. This was her "perfume" class...what a blast!

This is the class doll that Barbara did.
Here is Barb helping us with our faces.
Here is my face (Barb helped fix it! LOL)
Here is my finished face...it now has the cloth over the clay and the colored pencil and marker touches.

Here is my base body and a shot of the face. You can see the black and cream coat is now in place. I haven't finshed her yet..its on my to do list!

TGIF Newsletter for Friday 7/25/08

2008-07-27T23:16:00.000-07:00

Hi: My regular Friday newsletter usually goes out via the yahoo group...but yahoo had a problem and the group is not sending out any messages...they are working on it but its been over a week and its not fixed yet. So...here is the latest info for you!

I am home from Comic Con...the annual trek to San Diego for a weekend of too many people jammed into a giant convention center! But I wouldn't miss it...tons of fun!! There is enough visual inspiration for dolls and all kinds of art to keep any artist busy for months! Due to that trip I did not list anything new on the site this week. However I don't think last week's newsletter actually made it out...so here is that info:

Newest Items:

SHERRY GOSHON: I have Sherry's Watercolor Faces CD ready for you all. This is an updating of an older workbook Sherry had self published 2 years ago. This new and updated version is in pdf format and has been completely edited by Kate Erbach. And since it is in pdf there are tons of color photos now. If you have been wanting to learn how to color your doll faces using watercolor pencils..this is the CD for you.
http://clothdollpatterns.com/id72.htm

MARILYN JENSEN: Marilyn's Springtime Design line has a 16" doll pattern in it that I had not carried before. As Marilyn and I were discussing how her Dawn and Penny patterns sell so well...she suggested I bring this pattern in for you all to try. Its got a real "dolly" look to it and she is so cute! Check her out here:
http://clothdollpatterns.com/id72.htm

Reorders in stock:

Dirty Crow Inn/ Two Dancing Crows: The 1892 pattern and MJ and her Sewing Machine are back in stock! MJ is one of my favorite patterns...I love her old fashioned singer style sewing machine!
http://clothdollpatterns.com/patterns2/id79.htm

Karlene Atkins: The Holly pattern and the truffle face stamp are back in stock!http://clothdollpatterns.com/Patterns1/id60.htm

Soft In The Head: All the mice and crows are back in-stock..including Night School and Trinket! Are you getting ready for Halloween already???http://clothdollpatterns.com/patterns6/id48.htm

Patti Culea: Radical Rachel is back in stock!http://clothdollpatterns.com/patterns2/id36.htm

Jaque Uetz: Annies...lots of them...all of her older Annie patterns are now in stock again! I put them all on their own page so they are easier to find..I love these dolls!http://clothdollpatterns.com/patterns6/id57.htm

Pin Doll Booklet: The pin doll booklet published by my doll club is now back in stock...you will find it at the very bottom of the new items section. Back orders are shipping this weekend.http://clothdollpatterns.com/id72.htm

The New Items section was updated last week and I moved a lot of patterns out of it, into their respective homes. I try to do this regularly but had not kept it up since we started getting so many new patterns. Whenever I do this I always get a lot of questions about where a pattern went...if you know you saw it there and now I've moved it...just email me and I can help you find it!

Have a great weekend.
Thanks for shopping with me!
-Noel Wolfman
http://www.clothdollpatterns.com

Life is hard...make something soft...like a sewing machine!

Doll Club Face Book Project Tutorial

2008-06-29T21:17:00.001-07:00

If you belong to a doll club, here is a great project for your group. You can use it as a fund raiser or gift...even if its a gift to yourself!

In my club we have a tradition that the outgoing President makes a little gift for each member of the club. I just retired as President and this was my gift project.

This is a "face book" its meant as a practice book for drawing faces or to practice coloring faces for cloth dolls. This tutorial will show you how I made them...though there are probably many ways to do it and I am sure you can improve on this!

I started by making the covers. I used blue poly felt cut to 4" x 11".

Next I took our Doll Club Logo (Created by elinor peace baily!) and used the computer to size it and add the words "Face Book" below the logo. I then printed 4 logos per page using my ink jet printer and the special print-on-fabric pack that is available at JoAnns.

I then cut out the logos using a square template . I also made yoyos and inserted them into the corner, under the logo fabric before I stitched the logos to the cover. After they were sewn I added a button trim on top the yoyo.

Next I cut "pages" out of face fabric. I used woven cotton but you could use knit as well. I used pinking shears for the edges. The pages are the same size as the cover..4 x 11 but the pinking makes them small enough to fit inside. Once you get them all cut out....time for the next step:

I used face stamps to give us a starting place when practicing. The stamps are only on the first two pages...after that its up to the doll maker to create her own faces!

I used a stamp by Karlene Atkins because I liked the clear backing...you can see through the stamp to get perfect positioning. I also got a perfect impression every time! Wow!

You can also get stamps from Barbara Willis, Barb Keeling and Patti Culea!

I used versamagic chalk ink in the "gingerbread" color to approximate a brown pigma pen.

Once you have your pages completed you center them inside the cover and sew down the middle to bind them. I then pressed them (using a pressing cloth so as not to melt the felt).

Here they are...all finished ready to hand out at the club meeting! I hope you have fun making your own Face Book!

Valley Doll Club Tea & Fringe Challenge

2008-06-17T18:59:00.001-07:00

The Valley of the Dolls club had our annual tea...tons of food! We also had a challenge to use some fun fringe one of our members found...people got very creative with it!

Flowers!

2008-04-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

My garden here at Wolfmanor is at its best in Spring so I snapped a few pics this morning!

Roses and roses and more roses!

Azalas in the shade

The hill side facing down...you can see the potting shed in the back ground

The Birds of Paradise and the succulents are doing great!

Glendale California Quilt Show Doll Exhibit

2008-04-04T08:21:00.000-07:00

Here are pics from the quilt show. Both doll clubs I belong to in the Los Angeles area exhibited. Betty Zarate was in charge of the show and did a fabulous job!

Chinatown

2008-03-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

We spent a great day in Chinatown today...in downtown LA. We started with Dim Sum at 10am and then went across town to the FIDM Academy Nominated Films costume exhibit...wow..as usual! Then back to Chinatown for shopping and more food...yum! I got some more of the little lanterns like the one in the photos of my chinese themed doll in the previous post. They are so cute and only $1.50...plus they actually light up..love it!

Here are photos of me & hubby...we got a new camera so we had to try it out.

Year of the Dragon

2008-03-10T21:57:00.001-07:00

Well...its taken months but here is my newest doll. She is from a class my doll club took with Arley Berryhill called Lady Peacock. The class was in October of 2007 (on my Birthday, in fact)but I just didn't have all the right accessories I wanted for her. My mom was going to China on business so I gave her a mission...find me 30 doll sized red tassels!! She did!!! I found the Chinese Lantern here in LA in China Town..it really lights up! The Dragon on her shoulders is made of rope and I found it at a Harvest Festival. I had to get her ready as she is headed to the Glendale Quilt show soon!!

Elle Dee Bunny!

2008-03-09T20:49:00.001-07:00

The Easter Decorations Are Up!

2008-03-09T14:48:00.000-07:00

The Egg Tree

The Bride Dolls!

Vintage Needle Case

2008-02-16T17:37:00.000-08:00

Hi: I found this wonderful little girl needle case at an antique shop down in Temecula, California when my doll club was having our Doll retreat there. Some of my fellow doll makers asked me to scan it so they could make one...I thought you all might like it too!

It is posted in the free pattern section on my site:

http://www.clothdollpatterns.com/id75.htm

Making Valentines

2008-02-10T07:52:00.000-08:00

I am no expert but I do love my new Baby Lock Embellisher!!

Here is how I made these...
For some of them I used yarn. I carefully laid out my shape and needle felted the yarn into the felt square by slowly following the yarn to mke a heart shape.

Once the outline of the heart was finished I filled it in with more yarn. I them "sandwiched" a piece of batting between two felt squares and blanket stitched the edges in a colored thread to match the heart!

I also cut out heart or butterfly shapes from fabric. You can use preprinted fabric that has hearts or butterflies on it or just cut the hearts out of any fabric like making construction paper hearts when we were kids! I slowley punched the heart onto the felt backing. I tacked it in a few places first so it would keep its shape.

Have fun!!

Doll Retreat

2008-02-02T13:06:00.001-08:00

Every year my doll club goes to Temecula for 3 days of doll making and good times! This year Leslie Molen was our teacher.

My doll is the blue one.

Hubby's Book

2008-01-11T22:05:00.000-08:00

I am very excited for my hubby. His book: HOMELAND, THE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL, has just won the National Jewish Council Book Award in the category of Children and Young Adult Literature. Homeland details 3,500 years of Jewish history, from the time of Abraham to the year 2007. It has won a number of other prestegious awards as well. It is beautifully illustrated by Mario Ruiz. You can find it at Amazon!!

http://www.amazon.com/Homeland-Illustrated-History-State-Israel/dp/0977150704/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200118343&sr=1-2

New Embellisher Machine

2008-01-06T22:29:00.000-08:00

I got the Baby Lock embellisher machine for Christmas and spent a little time this evening playing with it. I made a little pin cushion...I used the machine to needle felt the yarn heart onto solid black felt and added a button for fun.