
Miss Merrilee,
She will be up for sale shortly as I have a few more surprises to add to her Holiday Decorations.

http://todwellinprimitivethymes.blogspot.com/
OHhhhh... so soft. Hand dyed wool fabri designed Penny Witch.
Her little antiqued hands rest comfortably on her wool skirt... see her hand painted and sanded smooth legs and black boots.

Up to some Orange and Black favorites here and a hand sculpted face from paper mache clay.
Oh~! my favorite Halloween Art Doll yet. Tibetian wool hair, quilt cotton clothing, black diamond dust and mica flakes, a hand made trick of treat bag and her "WICKED HALLOWEEN" flag.
She stand 27 inches tall on a wooden beehive bobin. These old bobbins tend to be a bit wobbly so I took an old metal paint lid, painted it halloween-ie and attached it securely.
She comes to you as an original design and pattern, hand sewn, sculpted and signed by myself. You are getting a OOAK Art Doll from SusieDesigns Art from the Oregon Trail. She gone now and will celebrate Halloween next year.


I started with a round cloth face then sculpted her with paper mache clay. She has just a touch of purple shadow to pop with the Black and Orange. I have a bit more to do on her and then we shall see where she goes.


Just a picture of my swap gift that I sent to Starla...
This is a pumpkin man make do on a candle stick. I sculpted a paper clay head and face on him and used my FAVORITE COLORS!!

Red with Pigtails and a Piggy for sale.
George Washingto goes to the County Fair for sale.
http://www.todwellinprimitivethymes.blogspot.com/

Click this link http://www.tdiptmercantile.com/ and you will be whisked away to "To Dwell in Primitive Thymes". Some of the best primitive artisans across the country have a home here and list their wonderful crafts. Also, journey to their blogs and see what inspires them. You might even get a glimpse of a special piece that is in the process of being thought of, crafted and finished. Contests are held and before I joined I was one of the winners of a Christmas Ornie! Now they have welcomed me and my art into their group.
Be prepared .. I say... winding your way through the items for sale, blogs and links could be inspiring and addicting. One artist will lead you to their favorite sites and on and on.... But be sure to know that you will have lots of fun. You can come back often since many artists here will have items on Ebay, Etsy or also on their blog or website. Just a never ending specialty crafters market.
You will see my banner and listings in the T.D.I.P.T. Mercantile email March 15TH.


She is now a pink sparkling angel with white feather wings.
She is about 10 inches long and 7 + inches high. She is secured onto an old vintage woven wooden basket. She has a vintage rhinestone button and a pink bell around her neck. She hides an easter egg under her right hand. She also is covered with german glass glitter and mica flakes. 
Hopping along the bunny trail. This guy is hand sculpted by me. No molds for him. He has a cone hat on that has a purple feather and a vintage rhinestone button on it.
Fun little carrots and eggs he has. All items sprinkled with german glass glitter and mica flakes. He is about 10 1/2 inches tall. Very sturdy and Easter cute. 



I hear from other doll makers who have unfinished dolls and other projects still left to do. I had finished this doll for our challenge in this group but had wanted to add more to her. Her body is from a thick felted wool and then Halloween added from head to toes. She as articulating hands and arms, she can sit but not stand. I needle felted her a litttle black kitty face in black wool then metallic yarn with orange wool facial features. She has ruffles and ribbons and a jiggle bell ring and bells on her toes.
The cape I redesigned for her is lined and filled with cotton flat batting. I free stitched quilted the cape and appliqued a moon and metallic black cat jumping across the moon.
Her face was sweet to start out with. I only needle sculpted it a bit, added highlights to her eyes, cheeks and lips. The hair I made is from 100% wool yarn and eyelash yarn. I made ringlets by wrapping that combination around wooden dowels, soaked in water then baked. Long flowing lush ringlets!!
This is a primitive Halloween Doll that I have made from a thick Cotton Muslin. I have painted her face with acrylics.
The Halloween Orange and Black colors are some of my favorite.
I pie quilted her skirt and added tons of trim, metallics and a netted slip.
Her little pumpkin flowered hand bag is needle felted into a face, with black stained petals and some metallic from yarns and an old sweater.
She is about 27 inches tall, she will sit but not stand. I have her on Ebay right now under SusieDesigns.








Teagan loves just about anything but kitties that say, "Maow" are her favorite. So of coarse her table had to have kitties! Each kitty has found the top of a birdhouse to visit with thier bird friends.

The black and white kitty is my favorite and the heart says T.J. for her initials. The large orange kitty looks a bit menacing But really has a sweet face, a red bow, a tag that says "Maow" and a blue bird on his tail. He just got a bit big.
This kitties face opposite of each other on the table so she can pick which kitty to eat and visit with. On each attached sit is a large lady bug and a dragonfly or butterfly. I have to been done sooooo. It needs it coats of varnish.
I have always been an 11Th hour procrastinator
~! Lots of love Nana 
My doll is the orange and black one that I still have to finish. We learned how to make paper clay masks for our Viva La Carnivale Doll.







My first doll workshop was with Adele Sciortino,ODADA. http://www.adelesciortino.com/
The workshop was held by the Stitchin' Time Cloth Doll Club in Eugene, Oregon. We brought our cloth doll bodies made prior to class and each student bought tons of fabric and embellishments. The Stitchin' Time club brought baskets of fancy fabric to drool over and help plan our elegant dolls from. Adele had multiple stopping points for us to come up and see demonstrations of fun and new techniques. We spent 2 days on Dolls and one whole day on beading. We learned some basic beading skills and started to build on a cabochon pendant. The completed one was done by Adele Sciortino. My sister, Beverly Reinhart's is right on with her beginner pendant with the even beading. WOW!
Our workstations started out all neat and organized then went to a pure busy state. Dolls were everywhere. We made wonderful friends, laughed and cried from stories and discussions. I came home exhausted with my mind over flowing with learned skills, brewing ideas and a lonesome husband.
Bev and I traveled from Portland, Or to Eugene, Oregon to attend the class. The traveling students and teacher were hosted by the some of the students in the class. Our host family was the doll club's president, Leilani and her husband Ron. He seemed to have plenty of stuff to do while we were off to class then came home to sew on our dolls till midnight each night. Just like a bunch of teenage giggly girls. Oh and we learned that the president of this club rules not with a gavel but a loud squeaking frog!!
Our room mate, Cindy Urich, is building her dream house with plans to have specialty art seminars held there.
I can never thank Adele Sciortino and Jean Peeters the club organizer enough for this event. It was soooo much fun.
OH!! I had to come back and put my dolls away (for awhile) and cook dinner and vacuum.!




She is about 22 inches tall.
BOO! BOO! BOO! BOO! BOO!
blue striped Hoffman fabric legs. Bit by bit I started to add clothes and accessories of found and stored items.

The skirt was different shapes and sizes in my head and on the doll. It took awhile to get where I wanted. I beaded some gold and blue beads here and there. It was too boring and at the 10 th hour of cramming to get her done... I decided that sprinkles of beads was my artistic design. I used some ribbon to crazy quilt around her large lily. The wonderfully cute pink sequin bead trim came from my sister who loaned them to me to try.... oops I owe her! I lined the skirt with some wonderful green fabric that had metallic green tinsel in it. 

Do you like her wings? At first they started out to be pantaloons for her. Then I hated the idea... then I got a wild idea at the 11th hour while trying to get her done to ship her the next day. I had machine quilted them already and I had not used that Hoffman fabric yet in the challenge. I made my own bias tape with another challenge fabric and had wings. Inside them I added firm wire .
Do you like her hair. What I do to a skein of yarn would have knitters after my hide. I was going to add all sorts of beads, ribbon, extra yarns and "things" to her hair as I planned her in my head. But the final showing is just the gorgeous yarn it's self. OOOps. Lost the yarn tag to tell you what it is.
Her face next to the last thing to be done. I wanted to see her whole being before I hand painted her face. I use pins to even everything out then dot the spots, remove the pins and draw in the face. It took me a bit to get the blue green of her eyes then add a touch of gold and sealer to simmer.
http://www.iolcc.com/
I try to use only found, recycled or remodeled items. I hit the fabric store all the time for remnants. I collect "stuff" all the time. She has 100% wool felt legs, hand fringed skirt, 2 brass like bracelets as her belt. I had that great charm that is at her waist and then used petals from a Burgundy sunflower at her waist. Her hair is hand spun wool yarn that I cut to use the thick and thin parts. The wings are from coat hangers that were bent in shape and then I zig-zag stiched the delicate wing fabric on to them. There are some beads, copper wire work and .... my kitchen wind chime gave up it's bells to her. It had served it time in the window long enough.






