Miss Helena March: A doll story

Once there was a girl with hair the colour of sunsets and eyes that told stories if only you knew how to read them. Her name changes with the days and the months of the year. When last I knew her she went by the name of Miss Helena March. True names have power, but a nameless girl can call herself anything she likes. Names are turned as easily as coats, a twist of the tongue, a string of meaningless syllables. A stretch of letters scrawled in a hotel ledger.

She is a liar, a story teller, a traveller of the roads between time and reality. Her key opens doors to the past and to the almost was, and nearly is. Worlds in worlds.Earth but not our Earth.  Doors and keys and twisting realities.

 Her smile is sweet but wickedness and sorrow linger in her eyes. Her fingers twitch and she is ready to open another door. She is here one minute and gone on an adventure the next.

She collects clocks, and keys and funny little objects that each reality has discarded. Junk or trash, antiques or vintage. She travels the past and only she knows the things she will treasure most. She meets people and smiles that sweet sorrowful smile. She pours another cup of tea, lights another candle and plans another adventure, dreams of opening another door and sidestepping the world that is for one that isn't quite the same. Worlds within worlds and she has the key to slip between them all.

She is a girl with a key to worlds beyond our own. A little rusty key found in a puddle reflecting a perfect twinned sun sky that never was on this Earth. She takes the name of towns and cities, days and months, places she has been and we will never go. Where monsters roam, and magic lives and things aren't quite the way they are here. Today she is Miss Helena March. Yesterday she called herself Alene. She works in coffee shops, in diners, and in book shops. Small places. Unnoticed. A collection of name tags with the names of places she has been. Cities and towns. Universes and realities.
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Miss Helena March was made for my very good friend Jaci. I finished the doll while we were away in the states. I could never quite pin down a name for Helena but I knew it had to be a city name and I was very nearly Roanoke or Alexandria, it could quite possibly be, the doll wouldn't tell me for certain, nor would she share her key with me. I left the doll unstained or grunged up and told Jaci she was free to stain her with coffee or tea if she wished a more aged look. I dare not make a mess of my parents kitchen like I do mine when I stain dolls at home.

 I have a few more dolls that I have been woefully neglectful in finding stories for but hopefully I shall attempt to fix that in the next few weeks. Like that poor steampunk Red Riding Hood that only has half a story written (the rest is in notes honest). If I can get the stories written I can list the dolls in my little etsy shop. Red really wants a new home to explore and she is pestering me to finish her tale and get her listed. Who am I to argue with dolls? Don't answer that!

Scarlett Hart aka Rowan Redd

Once upon a time there was a girl in a blue dress that went on an adventure down a rabbit hole. The girl in the blue dress slayed a dragon, killed a Queen, and nearly destroyed a kingdom. This is not her story, but it is the story of a princess who became a girl lost in Wonderland. The girl did not have a name though she sometimes called herself Rowan and sometimes Scarlett. Some say she is a blue blood but she will tell you that her blood is red the same as any. She is said to be the bastard daughter of the Queen of Hearts and an unknown lover of questionable mentality. Upon her birth she was placed in the Wonderland Asylum for Lunatics and the Criminally Insane, some say that madness burns behind her mismatched eyes worse than the blood rage that burned within the Queen herself.

The Princess Scarlett Hart was put away and forgotten by Wonderland, but she did not forget. She is beautiful, serene, a genius, a thief, a sociopath and quite utterly mad. A brilliantly broken and addled porcelain doll. Though no more mad then anyone left living in a broken Wonderland. She is obsessed with locks, and keys, and bright shiny blades. No locks can keep her out or in. She wanders the halls of the Asylum and the City humming, and singing slightly off key in a voice sweet as cyanide laced tarty tarts.

She laughed at the Queen of Heart’s fate and cried for the dragon as she bathed in the pool of tears. She wanders the forest in the day and sometimes takes tea with Hatter muttering about skinning white rabbits to make coats. A mad grin of too sharp teeth flickers across her tear streaked face while playing with her shining knives. On odd days she tells only lies, on even days she tells the truth. In Wonderland all the days are odd.

In your tour of Wonderland you may visit the Wonderland Asylum for Lunatics and the Criminally Insane for a very modest fee. You may even bribe a guard with a nice tarty tart to walk within the garden there. Whatever you do promise me you will be careful to never take tea with a flame haired fury with mismatched eyes, and bleeding hearts upon her gown. The forgotten princess of Hearts may tell you truths or sweeten your tea with honey and gentle lies or serve you sweet cakes laced with laudanum and spite. Or she may follow you home with her shiny blades as she serenades you with sugary sweet songs.

Better pictures soon but the light had already gone when I finished making Scarlett so I wrote down the Wonderland-ish story that was swirling about my head. This is the first doll I have made of the new year and the first doll I have made in two months, I think I may have found a little piece of my crafting mojo. *crosses fingers* I have more writing to do but hopefully I can start on another doll or craft project in the morning while the Boy does whatever he likes, mainly ignoring me until he wants feeding or I want to bribe him to escape the house for a few hours.

LaffyTaffy, magic and little houses

Autumn is a difficult time of year for me but the magic of crafty friends on the internet means that when I go about in a grump for weeks on and and get homesick my friends are there to help. I lamented on Facebook that I was missing of all improbable things banana flavoured LaffyTaffy. Odd I know but it is something that reminds me of being a kid, trick or treating or just going to the store with my best friend for that magical elixir of sugar and chemicals to send us into the stratosphere..or at least spend three days staying up watching movies without sleep. My friend Lisa replied to my misery and said she would happily swap with me.
If you don't know Lisa's work, and you really really should, then visit her blog lil fish studios and be prepared to be inspired. I don't know Lisa all that well but I have chatted with her on twitter and Facebook a bit and I really must say I'm in awe of her phenomenal talent. We share a love of the Little House books and I knew I had to make a badge for her with a Laura Ingalls Wilder quote on it, if I had had a broken copy of one of the books to tear apart for paper craft I probably would have made badges from that too. The doll I made and sent her was simple and made with vintage mother of pearl buttons that I think little Laura Ingalls would have loved.

Lisa's package arrived last week and I think I am still stunned by the beautiful toadstools she sent me, the picture above does it no justice as there seems to have been no decent light for days here but having the art on my desk has kept me smiling all week... well that and the pieces of LaffyTaffy I have *NOT* been sharing with anyone. Mine Mine Mine!!!

Lisa also sent me a vintage matchbox filled with vintage mother of pearl buttons that have gone to live on my desk and will one day be added to the new dolls I have in the works.

forest child doll I sent Lisa

I think Matthew must think I'm crazy for the gleeful squeeing I did when I opened the parcel, though I'm pretty sure he thought I was crazy from the moment we met, ( he still kept me though). I hope that Lisa was half as happy with what I sent her. I didn't take many photos of the parcel I sent as I forgot to (I know I'm useless) and though I wrote a story for the little Forest Child doll I sent I can't seem to find it at the moment. (no real surprise there either) Happiness in small magical things.

Home is the nicest word there is. - Laura Ingalls Wilder

little red queen

Ages ago when I posted about my moo mini cards arriving Jess of Kids' Napping? I'm Scrapping asked if I would like to do a little swap with her for some of my moo cards. I swapped with Jess before on the Nightmare Before Valentine's Day Swap I ran last Valentine's day. I may have taken a lot longer than I needed to to sort out what little treats I would send to her and what crafty things I could make for her. We emailed back and forth, mostly with me saying I haven't sent anything yet but that I was working on it.

After much grumbling with myself I finally settled on a vague Alice in Wonderland theme of things to send and started gathering together materials to make a small Red Queen doll. The yarn was the last thing I found and I think it turned out perfect for making a little Red Queen. I painted the little heart shaped mouth, eyelashes and eyebrows with acrylic paint before staining her with a mixture of tea, vanilla, and cinnamon. I must say that she is one of my favourite dolls I have recently made, though I must admit that each doll I make is a part of me and I love them all dearly. I forgot to take a picture of all the bits that I sent to Jess but if you mosey over to Jess' blog you can read her post about what I sent.

I have more red yarn left and found some white material with red hearts so I think it is safe to say I may jump back on the crafting bandwagon and sew another little Red Queen doll sometime soon.

Thank you so much for the lovely comments on my last blog post. I really appreciate everything said and am trying to have a nice calm week and get back into crafting, and blogging though I have a cold so I can feel a little bit sorry for myself. *snuffle* *cough*

Iris the dryad doll for Japan

Iris the dryad

Iris dreams big dreams as she tends the flowers in her poison garden. Hellebore, columbine, foxglove, black henbane, bluebells , mistletoe, monkshood, poppies, oleander, stinging nettles and thorny apples, nightshade, wormwood, willow and yew.

Flowers, so delicate and earthly fair. Beauty that hides bitter poison filled secrets. Iris was human once, long ago forsaken by her love in grief and anger she became a dryad and her heart became a green and wild thing. She grows flowers in her poison garden flowers to heal and flowers to kill. Each afternoon she sets a tea party in her beautiful poison garden, delicate porcelain cups and saucers and a tea pot brewing tears, curls of steam dancing on the breeze.

Will you take tea with Iris? She made it herself.

Iris is listed in my etsy shop all profit for her sale will go to the red cross Japan fund. Her listing expired awhile ago and I thought about giving her away but I think this is better. Harrison has been very interested in what has happened and is happening in Japan. So listing a few dolls and donating is something helpful we can do together. I also have some things to take up to the Red Cross Charity shop in town that will hopefully help too.

Doll for Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief

*****SOLD*****

We have been watching the news coverage of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. It is devastating and Harrison and I have decided to sell this little nameless doll and give 100% of the profits from her sale to the Red Cross Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Japan fund.

Harrison helped me to to make the doll by helping to fill her with toy filler. She has no name so is waiting for you to name her and give us a few ideas to craft a little story card for her.

if you like she can be 'aged/grunged up with a special mixture of coffee, tea, vanilla and cinnamon, the same mix I use to add colour to the story cards I make for the rest of my dolls.

the doll is listed here on etsy please have a look at her and all the other lovely crafts on etsy for Japan.

sugar and spite

sweetness and light

I finished two dolls today... and by today I mean last night and just now. Today is a relative term, I'm not entirely sure what it is relative to but anyway I finished them. One I love and one is an evil spiteful creature that hates me. This isn't a story (at least not yet), both dolls have sat unfinished on my desk since mid October. I kept picking them up and putting them down. The flowery one (who is still nameless but needs a vintage-y sort of name to go with her Cath Kidston sample fabric self) turned out great, after I swapped her eyes around 3 or 4 times, and now I think she has a personality and I love how she turned out.

spiteful...don't let the matroyska fool you

The other doll however did not want to go the way I thought she should, no matter what I did nothing worked and I was ready to scrap her all together, rip out her guts and salvage her buttons. In the end I thought it best to finish her so she wasn't in UFO* purgatory. I still think she is a spiteful cow but something of her reminds me of Hyperbole and a Half (which you should totally read because it is a fantastically awesome blog) so she is finished and I have no idea what I will do at her. She still needs a name like Veronica or Agatha or something slightly more malicious... Marigold maybe...

Not everything I touch turns to gold or silver or even tarnished copper... sometimes what I touch turns to crap, and sometimes that crap has a mind of it's own. I have no idea what I'm writing any more. I am now going to put the kettle on because its snowing out I'm cold and I have been a busy bee all day... and now I'm a grumpy bear or something.

*UFO =unfinished object

Mr. Melvin Bone

Meet Mr. Melvin Bone. He was made from a witch's spell that went astray... he was meant to be a servant of the bone but something went wrong and Melvin isn't really of much use. He is crass, disruptive, lazy, deviant, downright vile in the morning....

.... he drinks far too much coffee...

in a bookshop in Hay-on-Wye

.....and likes to read books and watch movies that scare the bejeezus out of him and keep him up all night worrying about monsters and aliens... for some reason it has never occurred to him that he is a monster himself. Halloween is the only holiday he celebrates, with chocolate and candy and horrid movies that keep him up all night....movies that he makes you stay up to watch with him.

Here is me sewing him caffe Nero in Derby

he is listed in my etsy shop here

The Owl Girl

*****SOLD*****

The Owl Girl

In day she hides behind the fragile mask of humanity, thick glasses perched on a small nose, dark hair in wild disarray. Eyes on the ground, a quick step and an arm full of books to keep others away.

When the moon rises round and fat, the night creatures sing and Athene sheds the pale mask of humanity and slips from her human skin. Shining feathers burst from pale flesh. She flies screeching into the night, free to hunt and wishing the dawn will never come.

The world turns and night spills across the sky, strings of glittering jewels, necklaces of suns and worlds scattered across unending black.

The sun crests the horizon, golden rays falling on golden eyes and black and white feathers. Athene fights again the change, the slip back into human form. Feathers fly on the wind as her wing shifts to a human arm, bones twisting, breaking.

Fat tears roll down feathery cheeks, but the pain is too much to fight for one small masked owl and she lets her night shape slip away. Bones and feathers and cries of pain and a small dark haired girl is all that remains.

She crawls to the hallow she hid her clothes, dressing quickly in the cool dawn light. Wiping tears from her cold cheeks she slips her glasses on.

500th blog post giveaway

A few posts back was my 500th blog post! I'm quite amazed that I have managed to keep up with blogging for 3 years, but to have done 500 posts.. wow... I know I'm not the most prolific blogger or crafter but blogging has become an important part of my life.

I never kept a diary, I tried, I got give several for birthdays but I never had the knack for the daily scribblings. I always carry a journal with me and write ideas, notes, and doodles but nothing like a diary. I don't vent very often on my blog because I like to think of it mostly as my happy place, that things are positive and creative here (I do have a drabble/writing blog that encompasses my darker thoughts).

I know I haven't got the largest reader base but I treasure the comments from those of you who do come to visit my blog and leave your thoughts with me. I know I have been a little obsessed with making these little monsters lately, it has made me feel so creative to make them and write funny little stories for them, so I hope you don't mind if I giveaway a little monster for my 500th blogpost giveaway, and a few others bits and bobs too.

Meet Milicent the Vampiress

I'm working on Milicent the vampiress story and will send a copy of her story to the winner. All you need to do is leave me a comment with your email address so I can contact you. The winner will be chosen by me with the help of Mr Random Number Generator next Friday the 23.

I will also choose a second winner from the last few doll posts on Friday to win one of my book page doodles and perhaps a bracelet from my jewellery stash.

Lillian and the Slightly Sinister Strawberry

Meet Lillian she is 7. She is pretty, bright as a button, has an air of melancholia about her and likes to dress like Wednesday Adams. Lillian likes to write gory dark fairy tales where the handsome prince is incinerated and eaten by the dragon. Snow White poisoned the Dwarfs to live in their home, push her stepmother in a well and unleashed a plague on the Forrest creatures. Or there's the one where the troll eats all the Billy Goats Gruff and then goes and dies of indigestion. Its all very horrid and I shouldn't ask if I were you. She also likes to write her own endings in books with a red pen, they all end rather badly, you don't even want to know what she wrote at the end of my vintage copy of the Wizard of Oz, lets just say the lion was very hungry and leave it at that.
Lillian's pet strawberry. technically it is a pincushion but don't tell Lillian that, she says that the Slightly Sinister Strawberry is real and has slightly sinister intentions towards you. It is only ever so slightly evil, so mostly you are OK, but you might find that your shoes are tied together, that the last cookie is missing from the jar, or that the battery has died on your phone or your ipod the second you step out of the door. The Slightly Sinister Strawberry goes everywhere that Lillian goes and it helps her to write her fairy tales. Apparently it also bites.

Lillian is a one of a kind bespoke doll, made from fabric, vintage buttons, vintage doily, and yarn. She is primitive in style and not made from a pattern, I was inspired by the materials at hand and the strawberry pincushion I made the day before making Lillian. Lillian comes with her Slightly Sinister Strawberry.

'Anyhow, you’ve been warned and I will not be blamed
If your Wild Strawberry cannot be tamed'. -Wild Strawberry by Shel Silverstein

Lillian and her Slightly Sinister Strawberry will be on sale in my etsy shop in a few moments.

Eleanor

****SOLD****

Meet Eleanor.. she is 8 going on 38. She aspires to be a spinster or a librarian, she loves Stoker and Poe. She wishes for all the world that she had a pair Ravens to name Edgar and Lenore.


'All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.' -Edgar Allan Poe

Eleanor is another primitive doll made with scraps of fabric, ribbon, vintage buttons and a vintage thrifted doily. I think I might be obsessed with making them, but it has cheered me up from a terrible start to the day to sit in the garden and finish sewing Eleanor. She many not be every one's cup of tea but I love Eleanor's dark little heart.

'shhhhh I'm reading!'

Cordelia

Say hello to Cordelia! She is a bit shy, loves tea and biscuits, hates slugs with a passion, and often hides herself away in books. Unfortunately she has no arms so she must rely on others to turn the pages for her. She pretends she watches documentaries about weaving, the black plague and anthropology, but really she watches TV cop shows (CSI and Criminal Minds), and shows with geeks in (The Big Bang Theory) and vampire shows too (True Blood, Buffy, Moonlight, and Angel). She likes to think she is prim and proper, but she can cuss like a sailor when she wants to.

Cordelia is my attempt at a primitive style doll, I have dabbled a few times before with primitive style art (the rustic quality appeals to me). She is made from red and white ticking, calico fabric, vintage doily, ribbon, lillilotta book tape, vintage buttons, wool, thread, poly-fil, and stained with tea and coffee. I do like how she has turned out and I'm considering opening my etsy shop to sell her but I haven't the foggiest clue what amount to list her for. Any ideas my lovely readers?