Primitive Folk Art by Old World Primitives

I just opened my Etsy shop!

Old World Primitives on Etsy

It is so easy to use - I absolutely love the format.   Now I feel inspired to create more dolls to fill my shop with!

Here is my latest creation - a pair of primitive cupboard sheep.

Both sheep are made of muslin stuffed with natural fibers. The woolly sheep is covered in vintage cotton batting and the brown sheep is heavily coffee stained. Both sheep have painted black heads, vintage cotton batting tails, and stick legs. Each sheep also wears a poem printed on heavily stained, torn paper that has been attached with two pieces of twine. The brown sheep’s poem has some dried flowers tucked in as well, and he wears a piece of twine adorned with a rusty bell around his neck. Kentucky Primitives gets credit for the design for this primitive pair.

Each sheep is for sale separately now on Old World Primitives.

Happy Earth Day!

It is almost time to start my garden in the backyard again… in the meantime, I just finished a primitive garden vignette. It is a pair of grungy bunnies in a cabbage leaf garden along with carrots and turnips. Click the images to enlarge them.

The cabbage leaf is made of heavy muslin with a stuffed stem and some wire sewn between the leaves to form spines that help the leaf keep its shape. The leaf was painted in multiple shades of green, coffee dyed, and grungied up with cinnamon. The bunnies, carrots, and turnips are made of muslin stuffed with natural fibers. Each was painted, stained, sanded a few times over and dusted with cinnamon. The bunnies have sewn black eyes and noses, sticks for legs, and vintage cotton batting tails. The garden is a Kentucky Primitives design and was really fun to make! They are for sale on Old World Primitives now.

To circle back to Earth Day: I started a compost pit in the yard this year to celebrate Earth Day. Composting recycles organic household waste back into the earth, returns nutrients into the soil, and reduces the amount of organic waste going into garbage dumps and landfills. Compost also makes great garden fertilizer!

I just finished another Netty LaCroix pumpkin - I made this one more grungy than the last one. He was stained, painted, and sanded many times over and then dusted with cinnamon. I grungied up the stem as well, and added vintage buttons on top of circular patches for eyes.

This pumpkin is up for sale now on Old World Primitives.

I finished the aging process on the tin watering can for my new extreme primitive Garden Doll (a Netty LaCroix design) and added it to her as a finishing touch. I also added a loop of string behind her shoulders so that she can be displayed hanging up. She now comes with a primitive pear that I made as an accessory too. This is the finished doll with pear - she is up for sale now on Old World Primitives:

I just finished a new extreme primitive folk art doll today. She is a garden doll, just in time for spring. As soon as I age her little tin watering can I will tie it to one of her stick hands as a finishing touch.

I made her using a Netty LaCroix pattern, and I tested out my new bamboo fiber fill as stuffing. I really like the bamboo stuffing - it has a great texture and is so soft. This prim doll has a muslin head, a dress made from homespun, a cheesecloth apron with some dried grass tucked in it, string for hair, a pinch-stitched nose, painted eyes and mouth, and twigs for arms and legs.

I have so many new primitive doll patterns that I can’t wait to make. I am working on creating another Netty LaCroix pumpkin doll before moving onto some of the new prim patterns for spring that I just purchased.

I have reached a point in my life where I deeply appreciate the now-vintage Viking Husqvarna 6430 sewing machine that my grandmother left me. It still works just like new. I brought it into the local sewing machine repair shop for a tune-up once and the staff acted like I had just brought in the holy grail. Grammy, I hope that you can see me sewing now.