Primitive Folk Art by Old World Primitives

I just added a new doll to the Old World Primitives Etsy shop.
Meet Emma:

Emma is an extreme primitive early American style doll that I created using a Netty LaCroix design. She is made of tea-stained muslin stuffed with eco-friendly natural fibers. She has a needle sculpted nose, black pins for eyes, and her remaining features are hand drawn. Emma has patchy black hair and wears a brown calico dress and a black shawl pinned in place with a vintage button. This primitive doll measures 26″ tall from head to toe, and 16″ tall when sitting.

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Excited side note: my primitive bunnies and my primitive pumpkin are each featured in two new Etsy treasuries, for a total of 4 today! I am so excited. Three are in the Treasury West and one is my first main Treasury feature. Check them out:

• OFG Prim Treasures
• Critters at OFG
• A Gathering of finds and friends
• OFG Favorites

Two of the OFG Team girls stayed up until 3am to snag a pair of Etsy Treasuries, and this morning I discovered that my primitive sheep is featured in one of them!

I just joined an Etsy team called Old Farmhouse Gathering and I am very excited to be a part of the group. The members are very enthusiastic and welcoming! I am sure we will have a lot of fun supporting one another. Click the banner below to see what the group has to offer.

I will have a new doll to add to my Etsy shop on Sunday too.

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!

I have been quiet for awhile because I recently got back from my annual vacation to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, which was amazing and inspiring. Now I just need to get back to working on new primitive dolls again. In the meantime, I have a few pictures of highlights from my trip to share. The photos were taken by my husband and I with our new Canon 30D and new super zoom & wide angle lenses.

A frolicking bison calf (who was having a bit of a snit because Mommy wasn’t ready to wake up just yet that morning to nurse him)

A yearling grizzly bear who was marauding around the Old Faithful Inn area

Part of a bison herd slowly migrating south

The gorgeous Emerald Spring in Norris Geyser Basin

The brilliantly colored Economic Geyser in the Upper Geyser Basin

A rare treat: Grand Geyser erupting

Coyote carrying a ground squirrel

An elusive North American Pronghorn in the sagebrush

Hiking trail along the rim of the 800-foot-deep Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Mother black bear with two cubs

The nicest man let us use his 800mm+ lens to take some extreme closeups

I already can’t wait to go back again next year.

Crows in the Attic is having a 100th blog post celebration! Check out her blog and enter by Tuesday, May 6th to win the set of 3 primitive pears pictured. The winner will be announced on May 7th. I just entered!

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 am going to share a primitive rust recipe of my own creation that works well for me, and doesn’t leave a toxic concoction that is hard to dispose of afterwards. First, place your items to be rusted into a container that has a lid - I use an empty glass candle jar. Pour enough bleach into the container to cover the items you are rusting, and then put the lid on. Let it sit like this for about 24 hours. I then drain the bleach into the toilet (get a second use out of it as a disinfectant!), leaving the metal items still damp in the jar. Next cover them with cider vinegar and add in a healthy dose of salt. Cover again, and let sit overnight. Pour the used vinegar down the drain (you can also get a second use of this as a drain unclogger if it follows a dose of baking soda), leaving the damp bells/safety pins/what have you in the jar. Put the jar out in the sun to dry, uncovered, and the metal items in it will rust as they dry.

I have been tagged by Lone of ddd-favoritter - I have to write 5 things about myself and then go on to tag 5 more bloggers.
Here is my list:

1. As I child I hated baby dolls and refused to play with them.
2. When my grandmother gave me a sewing caddy that she hand-painted herself for my 13th birthday, I was horrified. It wasn’t a toy! I use it every day now, as well as her sewing machine - I think that she knew something that I didn’t.
3. My Mom and I always compete for the same items at antique stores.
4. I am trying to teach myself to speak Polish - it’s slow going, but I am determined.
5. The head of my household is a small orange female cat named Slayer whose authority none of us dare to challenge (unless we feel like taking a sound beating).

Now I am tagging the following people…

1. Tonya of Olde Country Creations
2. Debra of Pilgrims and Pioneers
3. Lana of Honeysuckle Lane
4. Doreen of Vermont Harvest Primitives
5. ? If you are reading, feel free to fill yourself in here!