Spooky Halloween Tree Primitive Doll

Meet my newest original design – a spooky primitive tree doll for Halloween or every day! When I was a little girl, my Mom would put up paper Halloween decorations in the kitchen of our 1771 farmhouse every year. One of them featured a creepy old house with a spooky tree behind it and trick-or-treaters approaching the door. I was so scared of that tree! Memories of that old decoration inspired me to create this doll.

primitive Halloween tree doll

This Halloween tree can be displayed standing propped up as a shelf sitter or as part of a primitive display, or hanging on a wall or door.

primitive Halloween tree

Primitive Halloween Folk Art

Time got away from me this busy holiday season, and I never got a chance to post all of my newest designs for fall and Halloween before it was time to start working on orders for them.  So now that I have already started working on Christmas versions of the two primitive dolls below, I figured I should finally post their Halloween versions first.

primitive cat doll in a witch hat

This is a reclining primitive Halloween cat doll, dressed in a black witch hat and a black cheesecloth scarf.  Look for her in a Santa hat in my Etsy shop later this week.

handmade spooky Halloween moon man in a witch hat

And this is primitive Halloween moon wall decoration wearing a black witch hat. I envisioned him as a Halloween man in the moon, but some think he looks like an old crone, which I can see too. S/he will also be in my Etsy shop wearing a Santa hat later this week.

handmade spooky Halloween moon man

Primitive Cat Dolls

I have been working on a new series of primitive cat dolls this spring.  Here is the herd, so far.

primitive cat doll

primitive cat doll

primitive cat doll

I am having a lot of fun with these cat dolls, so there will be more to come throughout the year – including Halloween cats and Christmas cats.

Celebrate365 Magazine Spring 2011 Issue

I received the Spring 2011 issue of Celebrate365 magazine in the mail this week, and am very pleased to share that two of my spun cotton ornament designs are sharing spots on both the front and back covers along with such talented artists as Debbee Thibault, Lori Rudolph, Nicole Sayre, Sharon Andrews, Vergie Lightfoot and too many more to list! Take a peek at all of the talent that Connie packed onto the covers of this issue below.

Celebrate365 magazine Spring 2011 issue covers

My Victorian Girl spun cotton ornament is in the center right of the front cover, and my spun cotton bunny ornament is in the center right of the back cover (the bunny has a brother available in the Old World Primitives Etsy shop now – along with many other new designs, pictured below).

spun cotton ornaments and primitive wolf doll

Roderick Cattingham Selects His Buttons

Roderick Cattingham is almost ready to meet his public – he just has to select the perfect antique shirt buttons to match his pants first.

primitive folk art cat doll

Mr. Cattingham decides to enlist the help of Frederick Bunworth, who is known for his impeccable taste.  Mr. Bunworth helped pick out an outfit for Horatio Hopkins too, and Horatio has since hopped off to his new home.

primitive cat doll

Roderick will be all dressed and ready to present himself in the Old World Primitives Etsy shop tomorrow.  Two new spun cotton Easter bunny ornaments are looking forward to his arrival.

spun cotton Easter bunny ornament

spun cotton Easter bunny ornament

Of Primitive Rabbits and Springy Things

Meet Frederick Bunworth.

Frederick Bunworth, a handmade primitive folk art rabbit doll

Frederick is my newest design, a primitive folk art rabbit doll. He has a cloth body and a paper + chipboard head and neck. Frederick is demurely awaiting spring.

Frederick Bunworth, a handmade primitive folk art rabbit doll


Frederick Bunworth, a handmade primitive folk art rabbit doll

Frederick has joined the gaggle of spun cotton and chenille ornaments in my Old World Primitives Etsy shop.

spun cotton ornaments on a peg rack

More new designs are in the works this week!

Prudence, a New Primitive Doll

Prudence is the newest primitive doll in the Old World Primitives Etsy shop this week.  She is a one-of-a-kind doll that I fully hand painted and dressed in a 19th century style dress that I made with tan calico fabric and antique lace trim. Her body is made of stuffed muslin, and her head is sculpted from Paperclay.

primitive doll

primitive folk art cloth and clay doll

I thought you might also enjoy a peek at what she looked like as a work in progress.

primitive doll work in progress

Time Flies When You’re Going Bonkers

I have been all over the place since my last post… oh gosh, where to start. I’ll start with the embarrassing part first – my husband and I attempted to move for the second time within three years, and our plan flopped once again. We have been trying to move from the suburbs to an older farmhouse in the country… something that I always thought was my dream… to live in a 1700s or 1800s farmhouse decorated like one of the homes I have so often drooled over in Early American Life magazine. But our attempts to move have taught me that this may not be my ultimate dream after all. The country escapes that we found ourselves pursuing were still just a little too “more of the same,” albeit in less developed areas. We don’t have the big bucks required to completely “get away from it all,” and we just couldn’t find anything that was quite enough away.

So now we have a new plan in mind… bear with me here, as this may sound crazy… to save up enough money to REALLY move into the country… or rather, a step closer to the wilderness. We are going to save up, purchase a motor home, sell our current home, and pursue the freedom of living full time on the road, camping at remote, wild and beautiful spots along the way. This is an idea I have been toying with for 6 years now, but I never thought I would be able to make it happen. I felt too entrenched in my current way of life despite how much I wanted to give this a try. But now, if we can save enough to make this plan feasible… there is a new goal in the horizon.

So. I’ve wasted a ton of time this summer house-hunting, packing… and then un-packing (ugh!), but I’ve still managed to get some new dolls and ornaments created, and to do a bunch of gardening and pickling too.

garden

Do you think my tomato plants are happy?? 😀

tomato plants

And now I invite you to meet an extreme primitive doll named Nadine, and a primitive witch make-do named Hexe:

extreme primitive doll

primitive folk art witch make-do

Plus my newest ornaments in spun cotton, spun glass, and chenille:

spun cotton ornament

spun glass ornament

chenille Halloween ornaments

All of the new creations above can be found in my Old World Primitives Etsy shop.

Welcoming Summer

The unofficial start of summer is here, so I have decided that I must get out of my gardens and back to the creating table.  There are many dolls and ornaments in progress that are calling for my attention!  Here is a look at the spun cotton ornaments that I have added to Old World Primitives Etsy shop since my last blog post… yes, I am already preparing for Halloween!

spun cotton ornament

spun cotton ornament

spun cotton ornament

spun cotton ornament

And this is Laura, my latest primitive cloth doll with a sculpted Paperclay face – she is traveling at the moment, preparing for her feature in a future issue of Prims magazine.  🙂

primitive doll

I have been working ever so slowly on my Izannah Walker doll class, which thankfully has stayed open long enough for slow pokes like me.   This is where I am at with my doll now – her sculpting is done, and I am ready to apply her stockinette next.  I think that perhaps I have been hesitating with moving onto that step for so long now because I’m a bit nervous about messing her up!

izannah walker doll