Some thoughts on making doll heads...

In my opinion the most important part of a Waldorf style doll is the head. The head needs to be the perfect size for your doll. If it is too big or too small your doll will not look right. In order to achieve a successful doll you must get the proportions right! I guess being trained as a painter and taking lots of "life" drawing classes, has helped me immensely with this aspect of doll making. After all, dolls are just imitations of the human body, usually the child sized body. When you look at a painting with human figures, you'll probably find the one with the right proportions more beautiful and pleasing to the eye. I believe the same is true for dolls.

If you have ever made a Waldorf doll you probably know how much work it is to make a doll head from scratch. The ingredients and tools used are rather simple: a strong kind of thread or string, floss, cleaned carded sheep's wool, a piece of stretchy cotton tubing, scissors,doll maker's needle.

It takes me about an hour to make a good head. I admit it is not my favorite part of doll making. In fact I like to make heads only about once every couple months. I call it my head making day or fest. I will make between 8-10 heads in a session - usually spread out over two days. I find that making a number of heads at a time improves the quality. With each head I get more into the grove until they finally become effortless and perfectly even.

Here are some pictures of my latest "headfest". I had fun arranging them in different ways.

A book review of sorts/ Advice on buying a sewing machine

About a year ago my sewing machine broke. It was a cheap hand-me-down machine from a friend. I had been fighting with this cheap department store bought machine for quite a while. I was so tired of constantly running to the repair shop and paying the little bills for getting the tension adjusted and resolving other issues. You can ask my family - they still remember the days BEFORE THE BERNINA entered my life. To say the least, I was not a happy camper or seamstress...The emphasis mostly being on STRESS.

I had it with that cheap machine and was anxious to buy a new machine for my little business. So I went to library to do some research . I found this neat little book at my local library by John Giordano. I don't know too many guys who sew, but does this guy know his stuff! The book's title is:

The Sewing Machine Guide: Tips on Choosing, Buying, and Refurbishing.

I really learned so much from it. So if you are in the market for a new sewing machine you may want to read it!

After lots of research I ended up purchasing a Bernina 1008. I solemnly swear, they are not paying me to say this! This machine is just great. It is a mechanical sewing machine - not one of those fancy schmancy computerized machines. But boy, does it work well! I have worked with it for over a year now and it has NEVER let me down. It sews through all kinds of materials.

I guess the part that really killed me, was the easily accessibility of the bobbin case. The old machine was as inconvenient as it could get. Whenever the thing got jammed with lint (which happens a lot with those cheap machines) or there was a tension problem - I had to take a little screwdriver and open it up. Sooo much time wasted!



I also highly recommend Giordano's book because not only did it help me make a decision buying the right machine - it also had a great deal of information on how to care for my machine after I bought it!

One tip I found really helpful was the Giordano's recommendation to purchase a small vacuuming device! You know, like the type people use for their computer keyboards. Whenever lint collects in the bobbin case, I just take my little vacuum out and voila - all clean in seconds! It is so much better than blowing the lint into the machine - like it did before.

I hope this post of mine helps someone who needs a new sewing machine. I am also glad I listened to my husband's words. He told me to NOT buy a used machine but get a new one. I had played with the idea for buying a used model over the Internet. DH said: Why would you buy someone else's problem? When buying for your business you should buy the best NEW machine you can afford.
I am so happy I followed his advice. I am totally happy with my machine and how it has enabled to me make lots of cute doll clothes.

Happy sewing to all of you!

Ulla

I love Fall / Ich liebe den Herbst

I love fall with all it's pretty colors: the bright yellows, warm oranges and reds, shades of ocre and brown. After a long hot summer the crisp cool Octoberdays make me want to go outside and take deep breaths. Ahh! The smell of fall.

Ich liebe den Herbst mit all seinen schoenen Farben: leuchtende Gelbtoene, warme Orange und Rottoene, Ocker und Braun. Nach einem langen heissen Sommer draengen mich die frischen kalten Oktobertage nach draussen zu gehen und tief durchzuatmen. Ahh! Es riecht nacht Herbst.

The children have been asking us to make fires in the fireplace, in anticipation of cups of hot chocolate and freshly baked apples consumed in front of it. The changing season is cause for joy. Unfortunately we always end up with various sicknesses in this time of transition. It never seems to fail. Once school starts, so does a cycle of colds and illnesses. We have to remind ourselves that it is important to dress warmly and rest once in a while.

In der Vorfreude auf heisse Schokolade und Brataepfel verlangen die Kinder taeglich das wir ein Feuer im Kamin machen. Der Jahreszeitenwechsel ist Grund fuer grosse Freude. Leider fuehrt diese Uebergangszeit immer zu Krankheiten. Die Schule faengt an und gleichzeitig beginnt der Teufelskreis von Erkaeltungen und anderen Krankheiten. Wir muesse und daran erinnern uns warm anzuziehen und auch mal eine Pause einzulegen.

What can one do to boost one's immunesystem? What, besides eating lots of fruit and fresh vegetables? Do you take vitamins? Is there a tea you can recommend? Having recovered from the first "round" of sickness I would like to hear from you about natural ways to boost your immunesystem.

Was kann man tun, um das Immunsystem zu staerken? Ausserdem. dass man viel Obst und frisches Gemuese konsumiert?Nehmen Sie Vitamine? Koenne Sie einen Tee empfehlen? Nachdem wir die erste Krankheitsrunde ueberstanden haben, wuerde ich gerne ein paar Tips von Ihnen hoeren. I'll leave you with pictures of some fall treasures I made for my etsy shop celebrating the gorgeous colors of fall that I love so much. Happy Fall!

Ansonsten verbleibe ich mit Bildern von ein paar Herbstschaetzen in meinen Lieblingsfarben, die ich fuer meinen Etsyladen hergestellt habe. Froehlichen Herbst!

Bees in our Backyard: Part II / Bienen in unserem Garten: Teil 2

Thanks to Lucky Pebble, I just remembered that I never told you what became of our bee project. Remeber the bees, my husband and I received as a birthday gift in April? Well, I am proud to say that they did not abandon the hive! They decided they liked it here and worked as hard as only bees can work. Sometimes I wonder if humans could solve the global warming problem if people worked on this project as hard as bees work on their projects...

We think the bee population in our top bar hive grew from around 10,000 bees to over 50,000.

Pretty cool , eh?

Along the way we did encounter some problems. For some reason the bees did not build their combs straight down from the top bars. On some bars they built multiple "sheets" of comb at a slanted angle. You can see that in the closeup picture below. There really should just be one comb per bar. This sort of messed things up because we were not able pull the bars straight up and out. The crooked "sheets" of comb needed to be cut because they were stuck together in places. In the process we had some loss of life and honey. Very frustrating.

Why are the bees building crooked comb? Any beekeepers out there? Could it be because the hive itself is not sitting straight on the ground - but slightly angled? My husband rested the hive on a couple of benches from an old picknick table.

In the other closeup you can see some unfinished honeycomb. The cells are not closed or capped off. Apparently the bees decide when the honey is at it's best and put a lid on. We opened the hive twice over the last five months. I only have pictures from the first event.

The uncapped honey was not very sweet and as tasty as the final product. The last time we opened the hive we got a few beautiful chunks of the most delicious honey comb. We did not take a lot. We want our pets to be able to survive the winter and continue their happy life in our backyard. We got ONE precious jar we will savor down to the last drop over the next few weeks.

Plus, I got some wonderful beeswas to seal the wood buttons for my doll clothes. I love our new pets. They stung only twice. Luckily the kids and I got off scott free...

New Doll Dress Design / Neues Design fuer Puppenkleid

The childhood memories of a dear customer (remembering Holly Hobbie Dolls) inspired me to make a new dress and change up my dress design a bit. I made the sleeves and pocket of the dress of a solid matching fabric. Thanks to my secret fabric fairie -I was able to create this dress from an absolutely adorable Japanese quilt fabric. It is a cheater quilt fabric in beautiful shades of purple, pink, and green.



Die Kindheitserinnerungen (die Erinnerung an Holly Hobbie Puppen) einer lieben Kundin inspirierten mich zu kleinen Veraenderungen bei meinem Puppenkleid Design. Die Aermel und Tasche fuer das Pueppkleid sind aus einem einfarbigen Material, passend zum Stoff, genaeht. Dank meiner geheimen Stoff-fee - konnte ich dieses huebsche Kleid aus einem total suessen Japanischem Stoff kreieren. Der gefaelschte Patchworkstoff ist in den Farben lila, rosa, und gruen gehalten.


And check out the cute little boots I made to match this dress! They have a darling butterfly design needlefelted to match one of patterns from the dress. For an even more realistic look the butterfly's feeler are sticking out from the dress.

Und schau mal an welch suesse kleine Stiefel - von mir passend zum Kleid gefertigt! Sie haben ein Schmetterlingsdesign, welches durch nadelfilzen entstanden ist. Die Fuehler der Schmetterling sind aufgestickt und wirken sehr realistisch.

Wood Buttons / Holzknoepfe

One would think that adding a closure to a doll dress was a snap. Well it used to be. Then along came the CPSIA laws. New consumer protections laws mandate that all children's items containing small metal parts will have to be tested for lead come February 2010. As a small business owner I cannot afford to have expensive tests done and my items destroyed in the process. So I decided to change my product.

When I make a doll dress my customers have two options to choose from: velcro or a wood button type closure. I recommend velcro for young children who still need to work on their eye-hand coordination. Also, if kids still chew on their toys, a 1/2 inch wood button might not be the right idea for them.

If you are not a great fan of velcro, like myself, you may prefer the wood buttons. I found some really attractive wood buttons on etsy. One kind of button I discovered are called tree branch buttons. They are more rustic looking. They come with a rougher outer rim of real wood bark or smooth . Tree branch buttons are thicker than your regular sort of button. They are available at the http://www.thebuttonshop.etsy.com/

Of course, if your are the crafty type, you can attempt to make buttons yourself. I drove my husband sheer crazy when I asked him to drill holes in some tiny dried up branches I collected from the oak trees in front of our house. Can you please slice and dice them up for me? What? But the patient crafter will eventually persist. After hours of hard labor I had a handfull of sweet buttons. Now that explains hight price for such things...Sigh.

It was much easier to buy another set of pretty buttons from http://www.LessMagnets.etsy.com/

They are not as cool as the tree branch kind, but almost as handsome. After I added a natural finish to them I was really pleased with myself. It was fun to add a coat of mineral oil and a layer of all natural bees wax made by our pet bees.

You can find instructions for natural wood finishes on this cool site:

www.make-baby-stuff.com

Now what kind do you prefer?

I am kind of tired. Maybe the translation of this post will follow tomorrow...

Ich bin muede. Vielleicht kommt die Uebersetzung dieses Eintrags morgen noch...

Visiting the Rockies...Bilingual / Ein Besuch in den Rockies ...Zweisprachig!

My sister came to visit this summer. We had a great time together visiting the Rocky Mountain National Park. It is about an hour's drive to the mountains from our house. Still, we hardly ever go there. Why? I don't understand. It is so beautiful in the mountains. I took some pictures to share.

My sister complained about how I hardly speak German to the children. I have been living in the US for so long. It is hard when you don't get to speak your mother tongue every day. I find more and more words are slipping from my memory and being replaced with English only. Maybe it is time to actively fight that. I will try and write more German. How about a bilingual blog, I thought. So here it goes.

For all of you who do speak German: Enjoy. And for those who don't just skip the German parts (colored in red). =)

Meine Schwester kam zu Besuch diesen Sommer. Wir hatten viel Spass bei unserem Ausflug in den Rocky Mountain National Park. Es ist ungefaehr eine Autostunde von unserem Haus bis in die Berge. Trotzdem fahren wir selten dorthin. Warum eigentlich? Ich verstehe es nicht. Es ist so schoen in den Bergen. Ich habe ein paar Bilder gemacht, um sie hier mit Euch zu teilen.

Meine Schwester beschwerte sich, weil ich so selten deutsch mit den Kindern rede. Ich lebe schon so lange in den Vereinigten Staaten. Es ist schwierig wenn man nicht jeden Tag seine Muttersprache spricht. Ich merke, dass ich immer mehr Woerter vergesse. Nach und nach werden sie mit dem Englischen allein ersetzt. Vielleicht ist es jetzt zeit diesen Verlust aktiv zu bekaempfen. Also dachte ich mir: Wie waer's mit einem zweisprachigen Blog?

Fuer alle, die hier Deutsch sprechen: Viel Spass. Und fuer diejenigen, die kein Deutsch sprechen: "Lest einfach ueber den deutschen Text (red parts) hinweg!"