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!

More Spun Cotton and Chenille Ornaments

I am happy to report that nearly a month into 2011, I am sticking with my goal to be more productive this year!  Pictured below are all of the new creations that I have added to my Old World Primitives Etsy shop since my last post.  I am on a roll and I plan to keep going!

original spun cotton ornaments by Stephanie Baker

Spun Cotton Ornaments – Spring 2011

This week I am working on adding new spun cotton ornament designs for spring 2011 to the Old World Primitives Etsy shop.

spun cotton cat and dog ornaments

More to come in the days and weeks ahead.

New Christmas Ornaments

If you haven’t visited Old World Primitives on either Etsy or ArtFire lately, here is an update to show my newest creations – a set of chenille Old World Santa ornaments in shades of brown and tan, a set of spun glass Christmas ornaments, and a spun cotton cat figure on a candy box.

handmade Christmas ornaments by Old World Primitives

Chenille and Spun Cotton Halloween Ornaments

I am busily assembling a cast of characters for Halloween this week… the last spooky spun cotton ornaments and chenille Halloween ornaments are below.  The spun cotton witch kitty will have a sister tomorrow.

spun cotton black cat Halloween ornament

spun cotton skeleton Halloween ornament

Halloween chenille ornaments

I have a few new dolls in progress too.   I am excited to use my new antique shop finds – grungy old buttons and antique lace – in some primitive creations.

antique buttons and lace

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

Published in Prims Magazine

I have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of the newest Stampington & Company publication, Prims Magazine, in my mailbox for some time now – so I am very excited that it’s here! As I tore the box open and began thumbing through the pages, I found myself impressed not only with the quality of the magazine and photographs (nothing less than what you’ve come to expect from Stampington if you are already familiar with their publications), but completely wowed by the quality of the artwork inside. I feel truly humbled to be included in the premier issue amongst so many artists that I have admired for a long time now.

Pictured below is the magazine cover and a peek at the two page article that my doll Rebecca is featured in.

Prims magazine feature - The Life of Cloth and Clay

Since my last post, I have also added a bunch of new goodies to my Old World Primitives Etsy shop, including spun cotton ornaments, a set of 3 patriotic 4th of July chenille ornaments, and two primitive black Halloween cat dolls (yes… I am starting to think Halloween already!).

Old World Primitives Etsy Shop new items

Antiques, Spun Cotton and Izannah

Since our last visit here, I had the pleasure of once again attending the Antiques in Long Valley show in Long Valley, NJ where I scored my beautiful blue antique chimney cabinet last year.   This year the show was just as amazing as the last… there were so many wonderful goodies that I wished I could have brought home with me.  The booth where I bought my cabinet last year was once again filled with wonderful pieces of furniture and many Sold signs.  This year I was on more of a budget than last year, but I did manage to come home with two finds that I am really pleased with – a small and extremely primitive hand forged shovel…

primitive antique shovel

…and an antique German spun cotton ornament to add to my collection.  The technique used to make it is different than I have seen before, so studying it will also assist in my education process as I learn this old technique.

I am continuing to really enjoy where my journey into spun cotton has been taking me.  Below are my newest spun cotton creations that are still available.  I am also archiving my designs on a new spun cotton ornaments page of this blog.  Custom orders for designs you may have missed are always welcome.

spun cotton ornament

spun cotton ornament

spun cotton ornament

And finally, I have some progress on my first Izannah Walker style doll from the workshop that I am taking.  It has been hard to tear myself away from my current obsession with spun cotton to work on her, but I’ve gotten a bit completed!  I have her torso sewn and stuffed, and her head with shoulderplate stuffed and pinned onto the torso.

Izannah Walker Doll Workshop progress

After sewing the shoulderplate in place, I shall begin sculpting her face – I will share how I do with it in an upcoming blog post.

I will end for now with a big thank you to Cathy of the always-inspiring One Pink Goose for presenting me with the Sunshine Award, which is awarded to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspire others in the blog world. I am honored!

sunshine blog award