allsorts

Turkeys Never Gobble

I thought it would be timely to share this little book I illustrated a few years back. You can really see how much my style has changed! This was when I was working half and half... I drew the line work in ink, scanned it, then using Photoshop I added color within the line, and also changed the hue of the line itself. Another bit of trivia... it was shortly after this book came out that I switched to using Jenny B Harris... my full name was too long to fit on those little board books!  So this is my way of wishing you Happy Thanksgiving!

Click the images to enlarge, so you can read the wonderful text by Joan Holub!

Hope you all have a safe and very Happy Thanksgiving!

Cheers,

Jenny

Ears to your 'elfies

Guess who's come out to play again? It's the Christmas Elfies embroidery pattern, now available in my etsy shop. And I've added some extra treats, like a candy cane and a little prezzie!

And something else is new, this time the pdf includes a black and white version along with the color one, and one in reverse in case you prefer to use an iron-on marker to transfer the pattern. I still use the window/tracing technique, but I'm tempted to try the other, it sounds like it might work pretty well. Anyone have any experience with it?

Tomorrow we have tickets to see A Midsummer's Night Dream at the new Wyly Theater, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the new venue. And the production! It's one of my all time favorites by the Bard.

Hope you have a jolly weekend!

Cheers,

Jenny

More maids have arrived from the Far East!

Deciding that I wanted to make some dolls for the Craft Hope project gave me just the kick in the pants I needed to finish set three of the Pretty Maids embroidery patterns. They're available in the shop right now!

So here they are... Qiao, from China, Padma from India, Giang from Vietnam, Lelei from Polynesia, and Keiko from Japan. Just like the first sets, they're delivered in the form of a printable PDF booklet which is sent via email. For the moment, I am only offering the patterns in sets, but maybe at some point I'll offer them individually again. We'll see. I'm still trying to sort out the whole listing thing on etsy. Confusing.

It was a challenge to limit the group to five, as there are so many incredible costumes from around the Pacific Rim. Sets one and two were both from European countries, so I might just linger in the east for the next set.. or maybe venture on to South America, or maybe Africa... I hope you're not getting sick of them, but I just can't stop!

Now its time for some doll-making... ;o)

Jenny

Pierrot and Pierrette

I spent this afternoon absorbed in searching for vintage images of Pierrot and Pierrette. 

No reason...

I just think they are cool.

And quirky.

And they give me ideas...

Cheers,

Jenny

Pretty Maids from the Pacific Rim

I'm obsessed, I know. I find it impossible to resist making more of these little ladies. There might even be enough to fill up a proper quilt now!

The third set of pretty maids embroidery patterns are from Japan, India, China, Polynesia and Vietnam. So many gorgeous styles of dress from that part of the world, it was really difficult to narrow it down to five. When will they be ready? I always think a set will take just a few days, but history has shown that it takes me a week or more, considering how much work it takes to create each single pattern book. And history has also shown that very few of you are interested in purchasing single patterns, so it makes sense to only offer full sets from now on. There are still a few individual maid patterns left in the shop, but after they are gone I won't be re-listing them.

Can you believe how much time zipped by since my last post? So bad. I'm not sure what I've been doing (besides spending way too much time researching dolls in international costumes) but I sure have been neglecting the old blog. Sorry about that. It may be seasonal, since I recall pledging to write a post a day in May around this time last year. Little chance that will happen this year, since I've got family coming to visit as well as Katy's graduation coming up later in the month. But maybe I can at least increase the post flow a teensy bit...

So...  later gators!

Cheers,

Jenny

Here comes the bride... and the groom!

The Wedding Embroidery Set is in the shop! You probably can tell, it is kind of a variation of my Pretty Maids dolls... just with arms that bend... and with guys.  ;o)

This one has so many elements, I had to put it into two pdf's. One is the general scoop, ideas for various combinations and so forth, and the other one is all of the patterns to be used for tracing.

My favorite part is the extra bits - floral garland, bells, doves, etc. They can be combined to make lots of different designs. I really hope you get as much enjoyment out of stitching up this set as I did designing it!

Now I'm off to do a quick tidy up... my dad and stepmom are arriving any minute! Yikes!

Cheers,

Jenny

On the drawing board

Ah, this lovely Spring weather and flowers abloom make me think of weddings...

So I started sketching up a new embroidery pattern.  Coming soon!

Cheers,

Jenny

Lula... the fashionable paper bunny

So, you have probably been wondered if I'd fallen off the planet. Nope, I've been playing with paper dolls!  I'm very pleased to introduce my first paper doll, Miss Lula Bunny.She was inspired by the dress-up activity on my web site, and has evolved from digital to a fabric design, to paper, to magnetic and back again to paper. I suppose you'd say I've been working on this one way or the other for years. So I am pretty excited to put this out there.

Miss Lula is four years old, four inches high, and has a very full schedule of social activities. She comes with four outfits that you can mix and match for a multitude of looks: party princess, play date, dance recital and swim time.

I used 60 lb. premium glossy photo paper, and archival inks, which gives a very colorful and vivid result. Also, I wanted to solve the issue paper dolls typically have with being floppy and not standing up properly. So I put on my engineering hat and designed a nifty card stock brace that allows her to stand up straight and not droop. Here is the complete set...

... which is now available in my etsy shop!  I really hope you like it, because I loved creating this and wouldn't mind designing a few more!

Cheers,

Jenny

My creative space

This is for Kirsty's My Creative Space Wednesday... at long last, some new photos of my studio! They are not great photos mind you, the light in here is very uncooperative in the afternoons. It blasts into the two westerly windows so I usually have to close the shutters by 3:00 or so. But, today the room is as clean and the most organized it has ever been, so I thought I should document it.

My favorite part is the Liatorp buffet from Ikea that stores my fabric and tons of other supplies, and quite stylishly. Before, I had ugly white shelving. Boy was I glad to see that go! Someday I hope to replace the Scandia pine shelving and desks, too. I can't even bring my self to show you a photo of that wall. Yuck.

Ugh, I didn't realize how bad these photos are until now.  I need a better lens for my camera, and maybe learning how to use it wouldn't hurt!

The three red frames hold fantastic papercut prints from Elsa Mora, and Ro brought me the lanterns from Singapore. Right now the floor has horrible old berber carpet on it, but that will change as soon as I figure out what I want to replace it with. The worktable is a huge old map desk. I covered the top with oilcloth and painted the base. I keep tons more stuff in Ikea boxes that fit perfectly underneath. I have three of those blue buckets that I use for trash and recycling. My felt is organized by color in the white stacking bins to the right of the worktable.

So that's it! My creative space!

Cheers,

Jenny

Friday Archives - sketching at the DMA

A few years ago I was suffering from a serious case of artists block. I was so uninspired and really struggling. What pulled me out of it was sketching at the Dallas Museum of Art, and in particular, the sketch shown above. On Thursday nights they had a loosely organized group you could join and sketch from the museum's collection.

Most nights were spent in the largest galleries full of contemporary works and large sculpture. But one evening they led us to the wing where they recreated the French Villa La Pausa where an amazing collection of masterpieces were originally displayed. In these tiny rooms were the most unbelievable works of art by the greatest masters. I chose this pen and ink sketch (shown below) by Van Gogh called Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night, plopped myself down in front of it, pulled out my pencils, and started to draw.

Something happened as I sat there, drawing the same lines, imagining Van Gogh himself sitting and sketching the same scene as I was. It was the breakthrough I needed.

I've had a bit of dwindling inspiration lately, so it was a nice boost when I found this sketch at the back of a drawer I was cleaning out. Maybe its time to grab the old sketchbook and head down to the museum again!

Cheers, again! Wow, two posts today... wonders never cease!

Jenny