Strange Dolls

i took all my armless dolls and gave them wings.

they are kinda weird

and very strange

a little unusual

and slightly ethereal

i love strange dolls.

do you?

collection can be viewed and purchased at

Smashing Rubbish

15926 main st. duvall, wa.

current hours of operation:

thursday - saturday noon-6

sunday noon-5

(closed mother's day sunday)

Vintage Doll Clothes

vintage baby doll clothes are finally up for sale at Smashing Rubbish.

i have been hoarding some of these for years.

yes, i do have some unrelenting obsession with old dolls, vintage babies, antique miniature anything, and it requires me to buy and hoard every little bit i can secure!

i am loosening up my ways and to your benefit, you may now procure your own vintage doll, baby, miniature everything at Smashing Rubbish!

tehehehehe ....

come one, come all, form a line at the door,

vintage, handmade, hand sewn, tiny shell button havin doll clothes are here.

i knew you'd want to know,

xxx

jennette

Glam Witchy Haunted House!

The Glam Witch, in all her glory!

I had an old dollhouse down at the antique mall that had been there for months.  When I did this big reset of my space last week I decided I was done with it there and I was going to turn it into a haunted house.

Here is a photo of the house as I started to tape off the roof.  I liked the dark gray slate color the roof was so I wanted to preserve it.  Everything else I wanted black!

See.  The lite green and red simply wouldn't do for a haunted house!

I am giving you a view from every angle so you can understand how much this needed to become a haunted house!

First coat of spray paint.

Ah ha!  Haunted house base ready for embellishment!

So I found this little doll down at the antique mall and she was $5.  Her eyes are kinda wild and her hair jet black so I just thought she'd make a great little witch.  I remembered that I had that little cupcake topper jack-o-lantern bucket to hang off her arm and I found a tiny key to hang off the other arm.  She ended up with a hand charm necklace as well.  Lucky girl!

I made her the black hat out of construction paper.  I added glitter trim, a silver star and feathers coming out the top.  She is looking real witchy with her hat on! 

Once I had the silver glitter out, it was all over!  In the sense that I wanted to glitter-fy everything!  So I added glitter trim to the house to give it some bling.

I added cheesecloth behind the windows and then glued in long black feathers.  I added really small details that are hard to capture but I will try to show you.  I had some agate beads that are black birds so I glued them above some of the windows.  There is a bat hanging out in the eves, some spiders on the roof, a skull in a heart and limbs hanging in the windows!

The arm and leg charms are little Milagros from Mexico.  They come in handy as spooky elements.

There just happens to be a lamp on behind the house so it gives the windows a nice glow.

"Why you call me Crazy Eyes?!"

Here is a view of the back.  You can see how it all got painted black, wallpaper and all.  If I don't sell this house soon I am going to be tempted to furnish all the rooms!  Yes, I do have miniature vintage doll furniture.  You know I do!

Watch out!  She'll try to get ya!  She has a bucket full of glitter and she isn't afraid to use it!

So that's the haunted house I have been working on.  Upcycled, recycled, and repurposed.  Good as new!  I put a high price on the whole sh-bang for now because I wish I had the room to keep it and don't want to see it leave so fast but I will likely mark it down by next week if its still there.

Not a lot of sewing in the past few days.  Worked on some baby gift items and have a lot of sewing projects planned but it all comes down to the amount of time I have to sew in one day, people.  There just aren't enough hours!

Off to do some pasting,

xox

Jennette



Curious and Curiouser

I guess this is what you would call a curio cabinet.  It's full of my little collections.  All my records are housed below it.  And my studio record player sits on top.  Lemme see if I can find a photo:

Ah, here's one.  The boys bought me a retro looking, take along, turntable for my birthday last year and I/we listen to records all the time.  There's nothing like the crackle of the needle on the record.  I love it!  I now buy all music I love on album if they have it and if they don't I still buy CDs or use iTunes.  In most cases, when you buy an album nowadays, they give you a way to also download the whole thing anyhow.  This turntable is actually able to hook up to the computer and turn your albums into CDs potentially but I just use it to listen to awesome tunes and dance around my studio!

Above the turntable we also have a lot of our black and white photos displayed.

Here's one side of the 'curio.'

And the other.

Now for some close-ups. 

I love and have been collecting, for a really long time, all manner of devil figurines, anthropomorphic animals and people, unusual and interesting children's clay projects, birds, nuns, American pottery,

gnomes, rabbits, pixies,

pirates, faun/Pan figures, carved wood creatures,

cloth dolls, rag dolls, felt dolls, yo-yo dolls,

souvenir shell dolls, busts, tin can doll furniture unpainted,

doll heads, bodies, parts,

schnauzers, clocks, tiles, bead work, silver trays,

European pottery, mirrors, sheds/exoskeletons,

pumpkins, jack-o-lantern, paper mache,

chalkware, plasterware, compositionware,

transferware, restaurant ware, and made in the U.S.A. California art pottery.

Whew!

That's a lot of curio-usness!

This is an ever evolving, ever changing, rotating, in and out kind of collection.  I add to it.  I take away from it.  I gaze and wonder at it.

It's probably kind of obvious by now that the stranger, weirder, odder, more unusual something is, the more I love it.  I seek it out.  I watch, look, and listen for the whispers of "perfectly odd," when I am out and about in life.  I am drawn to the bizarre, uncommon, and strange.  I am completely comfortable with these "things."  And although I certainly don't need them to survive, they do make my heart sing!

What do you collect?  What are your favorite things?  What makes you extra comfortable when you are surrounded by it?

Off to keep working on my space reset at the antique mall.  Its coming along but it's a ton of work!!!  I'll be sure to post some photos when it seems more "finished."  I can't wait to be done with it so I can get more sewing projects finished!

xo

Jennette

Lovely Ladies

Yes.  A smidge creepy.  And perfect.

These came from Kathy at the M&M.  I had to have all three.  Dealer charge.  Thank you very much.

These are French and German "vanity" dolls.  Sometimes they are attached to a big wire frame "skirt."

I LOVE this ones flaming pink hair!  So unusual.

It's hard to see in these photos, but their eyes are so bright and so are their little red lips!

I adore how they all have a different pose.  Want. More. Now.

Not the best photo but this lovely lady hangs in my studio.  She is a French Boudoir fashion doll.  Her head is made of the same plastery/chalk/porcelain the others are but the rest of her body is blocks of wood linked together with metal loops.  Her hands and one foot (missing one) are carved wood.  Her costume is amazing old silk and net tulle with jewels and metallic trim.  Her eye makeup is so dramatic and daring!  Love. Love. Love.

These two bald beauties are my studio mascots, of sorts.  I found these in an amazing old antique store near Twin Falls, Idaho, out in the middle of East Ankle Scratch, and they called to me.  What's different about these is it doesn't look like any hair was ever attached.  Also, their bodies are all cloth and even have some embroidery on them, that I didn't do.  I think the bodies were made and added much later.  And, the pink bodied ones legs are attached on backwards so her feet face to the back.  Love that.  Yes, I dress these dolls.  Weird.  I know.  But I love little doll stuff so when I found the silver sequin and velvet collar, the silk pale blue cape, brooch from New Orleans, and depression era green dress, they had to be out, on display.  A girls gotta love a doll. 

I love me a doll.

I do, I do.