I played my sister's records of the soundtrack up and down and to this day I still adore the songs and the dancing in the movie. And oh man, I was desperately in love with Treat Williams back then.
I also remember haircut discussions only too well, so here you go.
Berger: Whaddaya say, Pop?
Mom: Whaddaya say, what?
Berger: Nothing, Ma, nothing. Pa?
Pop: Ya need money, get a job.
Mom: Money? You're talking about money? What do ya need money for?
Berger: Nothing, I just need it.
Mom: Who is she?
Berger: Who is who?
Mom: The girl.
Berger: What girl?
Mom: Who's the girl?
Berger: There's no girl. What are you talking about?
Mom: You can tell us everything. We understand everything.
Berger: What are you talking about? There's no girl. I need some money, that's all.
Mom: You need money. Tell us the truth!
Berger: What are you talking about, telling the truth?
Pop: Goddammit. Every time you come home, there's trouble. Why don't you clean yourself up a little bit? Why don't ya get a haircut? Get a haircut and I'll give you the money. You don't even have to pay me back.
Berger: You give me the money if I get a haircut?
Pop: Try to do something to make us happy.
Berger: You'd give me the money if I cut my hair?
Everyone is yelling at the same time.
Mom: Gimme your pants!
Berger: My pants are clean!
Mom: Gimme your pants!
Berger: Why? They're clean, for Christ's sake!
He's following his mother into the kitchen when she gives him a sign.
Mom (softly): How much you need?
Hair, USA/Germany, 1979
Welcome back to Christie's story!
This time I am going to tell you about her jewelry and her shoes.
Actually the jewelry was the easiest part to do in the whole project.
I knew I wanted to give her long necklaces, so I just had to look in my stash if I had beads in the right colors that I could use with the seed beads. As it so happens, I had green and yellow crystals. In fact I tried all-crystal necklaces first, but I didn't really love them and after getting a no on that from my personal advisor as well, I went for a combination of crystals and seed beads. That was much better, also because the necklaces sit better that way.
In my stash were also smaller crystals in green, so I made a little chain stitch bracelet with them, and just look at that big stone she's wearing on her finger!
Newer dolls often have a hole in their hand where the ring is missing, so I had to cover that up.
I felt that dangly earrings would not go well with the fringe on the headpiece, so even if I love them, I settled for simple golden studs instead which are headpins that I put in the ear holes.
Christie's makeover was almost finished, how exciting! Little did I know how long she still had to wait.
I have big feet, but I don't have as many problems to find shoes as this lady.
There aren't that many Supersize outfits and the shoes are even harder to find individually. When I missed out on the one pair I found for sale, I had to figure out something else.
My first thought was polymer clay. Maybe I could make the soles from clay and bead the top. I had some old clay and decided on a dry run. I put Christie's feet on some paper and drew the outlines, cut out the templates, pressed them onto the clay and started cutting around.
I believe in recycling and have paper scraps around for notes, my to do lists, and stuff like this. I have a tip for you. Don't use paper with a tax return form printed on it. The print will end up on the clay. Of course it will. Doh. After all this was only a dry run, though, so it didn't matter.
I lightly pressed the soles onto Christie's feet for the shape. That didn't look too bad for a first try. I put them into my toaster oven and waited when I suddenly heard a weird sound. I can't even describe what the soles had turned into. It was a burnt and gooey mass with bubbles. I have no idea if it had been the oven that hadn't been used in a while - although I did wipe all the dust off - or the old clay or both. Time and temperature had been right. Oh well.
I had to get some new clay and use the other oven.
I had been optimistic after making the new soles, things didn't quite work out the way I wanted them to. I had my soles which had kept the shape of the feet pretty well, I had the heels, now I just needed to come up with an idea for the top.
Poor Christie leaned against the wall for weeks. My next doll project, still without head then, kept her company while receiving one garment after the other. They were an odd pair and a little sad to look at.
Finally I knew it was now or never. I sat down with my clay, the soles and Christie and tried to mold a shoe onto her foot that I could get off afterwards. Don't forget that again I had a whole doll attached to that foot, too. As Christie's waist is a little loose, she moved and wriggled a lot during the process. The lady has no patience at all!
I tried and tried, and when one thing worked, the other went wrong. The thought of having to do the same for the other foot drove me to take drastic measures. I broke the soles in two and tossed them.
But now what?
I can't believe it took me that long to realize that I could knit the shoes from wire and beads. T-strap shoes with a wire crochet heel. See, sometimes I just need time to come up with something!
And here she is now, in our 20s inspired hallway where she took up residence (no way she would have fit into my doll cabinet). Every time I come out of my flat, she makes me smile standing there and smiling at me.
You have missed the first two posts? Find them here!
Part 1, The Dress
Part 2, The headpiece
Will you be back for my next doll project? It's very different from the first two, but was just as much fun (and there were no shoe problems at all!).
This week I have another quick project to share, but believe me, in regards of tackling stash it was mighty successful.
I used up all the blue and red seed beads for this, to the last bead. I think I used up all the silver tone metal beads as well although it's possible that some of these are still hiding somewhere because I dropped them once.
Can you believe that I never made a real daisy chain as a child or a teenager? I was too late for the true hippie era and no one ever taught me how to make one.
So when I checked out the daisy chain stitch for my doll project, I knew it would be perfect to use up some beads and make something sweet and girly for the daycare center.
Who knows maybe it inspires the girls to try it themselves? After all I've been told the 70s are back!
Let's jump right in, okay? Today is about Christie's head.
Vintage dolls have a neck knob which allows you to move the head sideways. There are smaller and bigger ones and cone shaped ones and whatnot.
Later dolls got neck knobs which allowed to also tilt the head, make it look up or down, this is the kind Christie has.
Out there in the net you can find much more information on the subject and also on the subject of the dreaded neck split and what's the best way to behead a doll. A little hint, it is NOT the guillotine.
Again, I am not a doll artist meaning I have the patience to do repairs of all kind, replace limbs, heads, re-paint faces or more. I try my best to avoid some procedures if possible, and one of them is taking a head off a doll if not absolutely necessary.
As a child I was cooler about that. We had outfits that were impossible to put on a doll if you didn't take her head off first. Yes, my Stacey does have a neck split, but she also has a yellow face and one finger and half a foot are missing. You can tell she was a beloved and played with toy. I'm digressing, sorry.
Have you ever seen a Barbie doll which looks like she doesn't have a neck? She probably had one of those newer neck knobs, maybe even the ones with prongs. My sister and I have seen more than one of those. If a child pulls on one of the heads on such a knob, the neck can break and the knob part comes off. If you put the head back on, it's right on the neck instead the knob. We call them "no-neck monsters" after a quote from "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof".
After all the work with the dress *looking at Ponder who is trying to clean up around his food plate* I didn't want to risk Christie to become a no-neck monster.
A hair cut was out of the question, too. I didn't have a replacement head in case anything went wrong.
And honestly, the copper streaks didn't look very 20s to me, either.
So all that I could do was to put something on her head that had the touch of the 20s, but hid all her hair.
I chose to knit a wire headpiece because knitted wire is flexible enough to shape it if needed. I used golden wire and the bright green beads to pick up the colors from the dress.
The last rows were a little difficult because I had to knit them with the headpiece already on the head, so I could decrease. Not that easy with the whole doll attached to it, I can tell you.
The wire knit "flower" with the crystal center was easier to make, but a bit fiddly to put on. I used the dark teal beads for it to have some contrast.
I had still some peacock feather leftovers. What was funny is that they arranged themselves when I pulled the flower tight. I wish all components would be that cooperative!
Last but not least I added a fringe at the bottom to match the fringe on the dress and voilà!
The last post will be about the jewelry and about big feet. Not Bigfoot, big feet! Just wait and see.
Have you missed the first post? Here it is:
Part 1, The dress
Barbie is a registered trademark of Mattel, Inc. I am not affiliated with Mattel.
Way before I even thought about making jewelry, I hung out in shops where you could buy tumbled rocks among other things (for me it was more the scarfs and incense sticks). I have to admit that I looked down on most of them because they didn't sparkle. There were some nice colors, yeah, but I didn't see their true beauty back then.
Things have changed over the years. It was at a little village fair where I got my first tumbled rock, a picture jasper. I still have that one, by the way.
This week the Jewelry Artisans Community's Oldies but Goodies Challenge was about jasper. You should have a look because there were more beautiful stones than just these ones.
1 Jewelry Art by Dawn
2 Violetmoon's Corner
3 Cat's Wire
4 The Crafty Chimp
5 MC Stoneworks
Today I also have an extra picture. I got this Owyhee Jasper cab many years ago, too. Can you see the mountains in the back, the branch at the top, the lake and the trees? This cab won't go anywhere, I'll treasure it. About time I made something with it, don't you think?
When I started making jewelry, I never thought of making theme jewelry, well, not on purpose at least. I didn't even think much about that subject before the Jewelry Artisans Community chose it for this month's blog carnival.
What is theme jewelry? That's jewelry with a theme of course.
What themes are there although it would probably be easier to ask what themes aren't there.
Seasons or holidays. Awareness, of a disease for example. Nature. Animals. Zodiac signs. Birthstones. These are just a few of the popular ones that come to mind.
Looking back myself I can tell that one or the other theme related piece sneaked into my work early on. The cats were there first. Of course they were, as wire crochet cat head pendants.
After that, however, I can't really remember any theme jewelry. My muse ran wild and it was possible that after finishing it a piece reminded me of a theme, but I didn't plan anything.
That changed when I started bead looming. Suddenly I felt I had all kinds of possibilities not only to pursue a theme once, but to make whole series.
There were animal print cuffs when I needed contributions for our local zoo raffle.
I played with classic fabric patterns like Gingham, Herringbone, Argyle, and Houndstooth.
Floors, tiles, and rugs inspired me.
I created animals like the panda, the unicorn or cats sitting in a window.
Halloween and Christmas items turned up. Art Nouveau. Bollywood. Symbols like the Eye of Horus or a pentacle.
Wow. Until now I didn't even realize how looming changed my style or should I say added to it.
You may wonder why I haven't shared any pictures yet. Well, now we are coming to two series that have become special to me.
One of them are of course the HeatherCats.
For those who really don't know them yet, they are a collaboration of my friend Heather, a New Zealand artist with a whimsical mind, and myself, Cat. Therefore the HeatherCats. Oh yes, and they are cats. Who would have thought, eh?
I transfer Heather's paintings into wearable jewelry. I love them, and I'd love to make the cats in all kinds of color combinations. Some of the designs were so perfect for color variations that I already did them, like the Shadycats for example.
There's no chance I can pick a favorite, either. Heather, another cat lady with three adorable cats called Biskit, Cookie, and Pudding who also fosters kittens, knows exactly the ways how to paint a cat and make you go squee, smile, chuckle or even laugh out loud.
This collage doesn't even show all of them and definitely not all of them yet because I want to make more. If you want to see pictures of the originals, by the way, you can find them with each listing in my shop. Of course you can also visit Heather's deviantART to see not only cats, but also her other work.
The other one is a fairly recent addiction that started with Edgar Allan Poe. I had been wanting to loom his portrait for a while, in a negative space version. Instead a sudden inspiration told me to use the whole photo, but cut down on the number of colors to see what would happen.
When I showed the pendant on my Facebook page, a friend there suggested that there had to be a Tesla pendant as well.
I was doomed, in more than one way. After following another suggestion - Audrey Hepburn - I remembered that Bela Lugosi had been on the top of my list for a long time. I had figured he would become a panel, but now he became a pendant instead. Dracula led to Frankenstein led to the Phantom of the Opera led to Nosferatu. For comic relief Laurel and Hardy sneaked their way in.
Why I was doomed in more than one way, you want to know? I got drawn into classic horror. Beside wire and beads movies are one of my obsessions and now I went back in time. Dracula, The Wolfman, The Invisible Man .... seriously, how do you make a pendant of an invisible man? I'm still chewing on that one. Phantom of the Opera. Freaks. Now that movie poster would be a very ambitious project. I put it on my list. There's so much on my list. Not just looming. What about the wire? My hooks are lonely. I gotta take a break. Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah .........................
Yup. Looks like it is almost time for the Hug Me jacket. With beads, please. Maybe I could loom one. Do you think I could? There's that pattern I really need to make first, though.
Breathe, breathe ..... calm down.
There you go. Doomed, that's me.
Here's a picture of the portrait pendants I got so far. I'm still not sure why I picked a picture of Cary Grant in which he didn't smile, but made one of his faces.
Well, I guess after all that I could say that I am making theme jewelry.
If you want to hear what the other JAC members have to say about the subject of theme jewelry, have a look at the following links. I have no doubt it will not sound as crazy as what you've just read ;-)
Jewelry Art by Dawn
Violetmoon's Corner
The Crafty Chimp
Echoes of Ela
Isn't it amazing how two people can think so differently, especially if it's one of the idle rich and his valet?
Bertie Wooster has been invited to a festivity in the English countryside. To make things more interesting there another guest has decided to take bets on the different competitions, the egg and spoon race, the mothers' sack race, and more.
Unfortunately their hostess has forbidden any kind of bets, so no one can tempt her husband ... but why?
Jeeves: The idea is an attractive one, Sir. Unfortunately, Lady Wickhammersley has come down strongly against any form of betting at Twing. Apparently, I understand, as a result of His Lordship losing the East wing in a game of shove ha'penny last week.
Wooster: Uh, this is bad news, Jeeves.
Jeeves: Indeed, Sir. It was only the strongest possible representations to the other party involved, and the passage of a considerable sum in money that saved the old place.
Wooster: No, no. I meant about the betting.
Jeeves and Wooster, UK, 1990 - 1993
A while ago I showed you my first Barbie doll project with a bead loomed outfit and promised you more.
Here I am now to tell you the story of Christie.
Think big this time.
In 1976 the only 18 inch Barbie doll was released. She had the new superstar face and wore a white and silver dress. In 1978 she came out in a bridal version and in 1979 she had super hair which could grow and be curled.
1977 was the year for Supersize Christie. Christie was an African American doll. She had long brown hair with copper streaks and wore a dusty pink and silver dress.
My Christie's story started at a fleamarket. I don't remember if she wore anything at all at the time or what I paid for her, but it can't have been much.
She was not in mint condition. Her hair was matted and had two little braids in front, her earrings and ring were missing, she had definitely been played with.
If she had something on which I threw away or if she had been naked from the start, fact is that she spent years in a drawer. I don't know if I had hoped to stumble upon an outfit or if I actually planned making something for her, but every time I went through that drawer, I felt her reproachful gaze upon me.
When my Flapper project worked out, the chance to make it up to her was there.
With the experience I had gained from "Little Flapper", I would make her into something special. As usual I was a little naive. There IS a difference between 11.5 and 18 inch, and not just in the number of the beads you need.
First I had to take Christie's measurements and design a pattern. Again I measured several times to be absolutely sure there would be no unpleasant surprises, then I started the pattern, first the outline, then the "fabric". I had looked at pictures on the net to get inspired and after several drafts in different colors I decided to use greens and gold.
This time I would have to make two pieces and join them later. The first piece went just fine. I liked the colors, a bright green (although I wanted to use a mint first that was out of stock, however) in combination with dark silver lined teal and gold lined crystal. I loomed it, I took it off, I re-wove, no problem.
Then came the second piece. I finished it and took it off the loom. There are different opinions about what exactly happened next, but the fact is that Ponder and I managed together to pull a warp thread out which of course resulted in a whole column of beads falling out. You have to imagine the feeling after working on this for a few hours, looming and measuring. I can't even describe it. My first impulse was to chuck the whole thing. There was no chance to get those beads back in and the thought of sewing it up anyway and hoping for the best was in my head for merely a few seconds. It wouldn't have worked. The only answer was to *sob* rip it up and sort the beads all over again.
By now I was a nervous wreck. It took me a while until I came back to the loom for the second try. This time I had done about half. Seriously, it was my own fault. I really should know better than to leave the room and let Ponder watch the loom if he is in a mischievous mood. I came back to warp threads ripped off the loom, and I'm not ashamed to say that I freaked out. This project was dead as a dodo. Enough. Sorry, Christie, it was not to be. I tried. At that moment I was so tired of this pattern. I couldn't do it all over again.
Some people say I'm stubborn. Often that's a weakness, but sometimes it's a good thing. After I calmed down, I came back even more determined. Again I ripped and sorted.
Third time's the charm. I finished the piece and started sewing up the sides.
This is the very first picture I took to show my best beady friends how big this doll was, in the background one of my fiercest critics.
After deciding on the exact length I sewed up the straps with accent rows of golden beads and added three rows of the same beads to the back to make sure the dress kept sitting right.
Up to that point about 15,200 beads had gone into this dress. You might have noticed that I didn't use Delicas this time, but seed beads, or there would have been even more.
For the luxurious fringe I used the golden beads and bright green dagger beads.
So this was what Christie looked like now. It was time to think about accessories and what to do about her hair, but that's the story for the next post.
Stay tuned!
P.S. Please forgive the bad pictures. Whenever I'm in the middle of a project, I tend to take pictures at the weirdest times and often in the dark which accounts for the colors not always looking the same, too. I'll make up for it with the last picture, promise!
Barbie is a registered trademark of Mattel, Inc. I am not affiliated with Mattel.
I don't know if I told you before that sometimes I make things that are being given to girls at a daycare center for their birthdays or other occasions.
Lately I have been making a bunch of tiny pendants with real gemstones with little flaws that were donated by a friend. For example there are amethysts, garnets, peridots or citrines.
Of course I also use other small glass cabs or stones.
This time it's an amethyst and a little glass drop with an AB finish on top.
Sometimes people think it's easier to use a small stone, but let me tell you that there are times when those put up a real fight against wire and hook. On some days I can't handle the challenge and give up after throwing away three or four bezels, but I always keep coming back eventually! ;-)
You can tell the size for these two compared to the Euro cent.
I just hope they will be liked!
There's no telling what the next Oldies but Goodies Challenge at the Jewelry Artisans Community will be, and there's not much more telling what the members will come up with.
Some topics are more difficult than others, but who knows, maybe it will give us new ideas and the kick to incorporate those things in our designs more.
This week was about amphibians and reptiles. I do have reptiles myself (not real ones), turtles, snakes in various forms, but no frogs. Now I'm thinking a frog cuff would be fun. What do you think?
And this is what else we got as entries ... frogs, and snakes, and turtles, oh my (to put a little variation on The Wizard of Oz ;-))!
1 MC Stoneworks
2 Jewelry Art by Dawn
3 Cat's Wire
4 Violetmoon's Corner
5 RioRita
Today's post is dedicated to all the knitters in my life. You know who you are!
Wallace and Gromit are window cleaners, but that's not all. Wallace is quite an ingenious inventor and Gromit, well, he is quite a talented dog.
One day strange things happen in their house. They expect it to be mice, but it turns out to be a sheep. Does this have to do anything with the sheep rustlers in town?
The first step is to clean up the little guy, however. In search of food he has made quite a mess of himself. Isn't it good that Wallace has just the right machine for that, "Wallace's Knit-O-Matic"?
Wallace: There. Nothing to fret over. Just a quick shampoo. We've tested this on Gromit, haven't we, lad?
Gromit nods with a slightly sceptic look on his face.
Wallace: Right! Off we go then.
Shaun the Sheep as he's being shampooed: Baa! Baa! Baa! Baa!
And then things really go wrong when the machine has a hiccup and turns into shaving mode ... it's a good thing that it can knit, too!
Wallace and Gromit - A Close Shave, UK, 1995
When I look through my supply drawers to find inspiration for the weekly challenge, I usually go through my lampwork and cabochon drawers first.
It is such a pity to hide those beauties away instead of making something with them. This tiger iron cabochon must have spent years waiting for me letting it out.
The other day I started combining double layer wire knit rings with beads, cabs, and gemstones (stay tuned for more), and I thought the tiger iron would make a wonderfully bold and modern ring.
I chose the light golden wire for contrast and feel it works great with the shimmering tiger's eye in the cab. Tiger iron is a combination of hematite, brown tiger's eye, and red or brown jasper which make for beautiful patterns.
At first I wanted to make the whole ring light golden, but then I went for even more contrast and made the band from a gunmetal wire using a very fine crochet hook which makes the band so smooth and nice to wear despite the size of the ring. This is not a ring to overlook easily!
It is available in my DaWanda shop now.
Thanks to the portrait pendants I have been making lately I started my journey into classic horror. No one knows where this journey will end, but I hope you'll be there with me.
Today we go into the woods of England. There we will find Larry, a lord's son, who has come home because his older brother had a fatal accident. He is ready to take on his duties.
One day he comes into the village's antique store to meet Gwen there, the shopkeeper's lovely daughter. He buys a cane with a wolf handle and an engraving of a five point star and a wolf. Gwen explains to him that this is the sign of the werewolf and Larry asks what that means.
Gwen: There's an old poem.
"Even a man who is pure in his heart and says his prayers by night,
May become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright."
Poor Larry, maybe you should have stayed in the USA instead of coming home to meet your fate there.
The Wolf Man, USA, 1941
I have had these Botswana agate chips around for a while, they were a gift. Up till now I didn't have an idea for them. They were not regular in size and shape, just like chips are, and they were not drilled, either.
The only thing left was to cage them in wire which is what I did with one of my rope necklaces. It's a long necklace without a clasp. As the agate was mostly pink and grey, I picked the rose gold wire for knitting the rope.
I still have my problems with asymmetry, but we did talk about comfort zones lately as you might remember, so I did go for it. Some of the chips were randomly caught in the rope along the length, but I also added two "bubbles" full of agate and one with two grey lampwork bubble beads in it.
It's funny, when I learned chain stitch in elementary school for the very first time, we had to make a shopping bag. I picked pink and grey, since then these are two colors that belong together for me (they will turn up in a future project as well, by the way).
And here it is now, this week's stash tackler.
When I saw that the topic for this oldies but goodies challenge on JAC was agate, I was really looking forward to some great pieces, and I wasn't disappointed.
Fire agate, crazy lace agate, blue lace agate, moss agate, dendritic agate, crab agate, red agate, or even Stinking Water plume agate, it was obvious there would be some fun to be had here.
The name comes from the river Achates in Sicily (now Dirillo), by the way, which was one of the places where was agate found in the olden days.
Just look at the variety in all of this jewelry!
1 Cat's Wire
2 MC Stoneworks
3 Jewelry Art by Dawn
4 The Crafty Chimp
5 RioRita
6 Violetmoon's Corner
7 Robin's Jewelry, Antiques, & Collectibles
John Robie, a former cat burglar known as "The Cat", is trying to avoid getting blamed for jewelry thefts he didn't commit.
He convinces an insurance agent to give him a list of his richest clients to catch the real thief himself. One of those clients is a very rich lady with a very pretty daughter, Frances, who is very intrigued by the handsome cat burglar.
Then there is Danielle, the daughter of a man who used to work with Robie, who is just as intrigued.
John: Say something nice to her, Danielle.
Danielle: She looks a lot older up close.
John lets out a groaning sound.
Frances: To a mere child anything over 20 might seem old.
Danielle: A child? Shall we stand in shallower water and discuss that?
P.S. To be honest, I'm intrigued as well ... I mean, Cary Grant is playing Robie, and by now you should know how much I adore him.
To Catch A Thief, USA, 1955
It's cold today, not wintery cold, but April seems to have forgotten that its time is over now. I connect warm colors with May, so that's what I went for with today's piece.
Not that it really helped, I'm still cold!
When rummaging through my stash I found brown tiger eye beads. The amount seemed just right for a bracelet. There is nothing more annoying than beads running out before a bracelet or necklace is long enough because you can't do anything about it except maybe buy new beads and that wouldn't quite go with this challenge.
It was easy to pick the right wire for this project. Warm and bright gold colored copper wire team up in this knitted bracelet. Actually the warm gold looks a lot like pure copper, but not completely, and the bright gold is more of an orange tone. Perfect for the brown of the tiger eye!
I picked antique copper tone findings to finish the bracelet off and voilà!
It is available in my DaWanda shop now.
