The Olive Sparrow

The Olive Sparrow Child - Baby Dolly

Aa dear client requested if I could possibly make a small baby doll in a sling for her daughter's birthday. Although the deadline was very tight, timing worked out wonderful to create this little as of yet unnamed baby. 

She is about 9.5" or 25 cm tall.

Cuddling in her sling.

Wearing teeny-tiny diapers that close with little snaps. 

The sling fits a 44cm Olive Sparrow doll with the baby snuggly cuddled around mami-doll.

Fluffy baby hair.

Wearing her itty-bitty hat.

Smilling and waiting for her pickup at the studio. 

 

My client and I discussed that they baby should be somewhat unisex in appearance, so that her daughter could pretend to either have a baby-girls or a baby-boy. I think that was successful, as both my husband and my son couldn't right out say which gender the baby is. 

While working on the baby, I also started another small doll. I just picked out the colours for her clothes and hope to work on her later today - now, I'm going to let Huxley create some bean bags on the sewing machine - a first for us and we're both very excited. 

____________________________________________

Each doll is made up of the following materials.

Skin: 100% cotton (Swiss-made to Öko-Tex-Standard 100)
Stuffing 100% “green-processed” wool batt from Canada
Hair: 100% Wool, or a Mohair/Wool Blend
Clothing: 100% natural fibres (linen, cotton, silk)
Shoes: Recycled felted wool sweaters, or pure leather
Face: 100% cotton Embroidery Thread

Workmanship:
Each doll is created individually by artist Monika Aebischer, the proprietor of The Olive Sparrow. She sources and uses only the highest quality materials in her creations – swiss-made skin fabric, Canadian green processed wool stuffing,  wool/mohair for the dolls hair (often hand-dyed by her). Hair for the Olive Sparrow Children is made by crocheting a cap that is sewn to the head, allowing for replacement should it ever become necessary (although most children will object to this, as it changes their doll dramatically). For the wispy hair, a special german mohair is used and a labour-intense technique, for the loose longer hair each strand of wool is individually knotted into the crocheted cap. This is the prime technique for doll-wig creation.

Doll clothing is made from up-cycled vintage and clothing fabrics, in either pure linen, cotton or silk. Up-cycled fabric is wonderful for doll clothes, as the cloth has been washed soft, gentle and free of textile manufacturing products. Monika also felts used woolen sweaters to use for doll shoes and clothing. She knits the doll’s hats out of prime quality knitting wool. Each seam on the doll’s body is sewn twice to allow your child to fiercely love their Olive Sparrow Child. Clothing is sewn with finished seams and some are fully reversible.

 

 

 

A lot goes on inside

You might be wondering where the dolls are. I have been talking about new ones in the works, yet no pictures and no status reports on this here blog. Last week was the school March break (we spend 3 days in bed with the flu, then had some fun - pix to come), the week before I finally got the studio in order and actually did some work on the newest dolls. Here a bit of background.

Last fall, I spent a focussed time of almost 3 months working exclusively on The Olive Sparrow items. My painting practice was put on hold, so that I could focus on the dolls and doll clothes. Not completely though. In the background I spent time restructuring and renovating my studio. For those of you new to visiting here, I am also a professional painter (Monika Aebischer, and the other slightly forgotten blog). I have maintained my professional artist studio going on 18 years. It is a lovely space in downtown Toronto with a gorgeous 3rd story view into the west. My dolls on the other hand have been created in my downstairs studio here at home. I have not been able to do textile work at the painting studio for the past 6 years, because of the resin that I work with on my artwork - resin is a magnet for even the smallest fiber floating gently in the air. 

Splitting my work up between home and the rented studio has felt wrong for some time. I love my studio and like to spend time there. Last summer this all overwhelmed me and I fell into a dark hole. A hole that didn't let me see any sunshine and made me question my artwork, my dolls, my life - not fun. One day (one of many) where I sat in my studio, with hands paralized by darkness, I looked around and was struck by an idea - if I build a wall to seperate off the resin area, I can do different work again at the studio. Reinvigorated, I set myself to organizing the task - simple I thought and quick - not so... Together with the help of my amazing superintendent in the building, supplies brought there with the help of my husband and son, and most of all time and gentleness towards myself, I started the process in August 2011. The beginning of this year I worked on a painting comission, then I set 3 weeks aside to get it all done! I even painted the floor white, and the whole space is a new inspiration. (I'll show some pix in a bit). 

Two weeks ago, I brought some of my dolls in progress there and each day spent a few hours working on the babes. Here is another type of inside look that shows how I weight out the stuffing for each doll limb. I have developed a chart for each pattern so that I remember the weight for each part. I find that important, so that every time I stuff a limb, it will be the same - quality control. 

The head and wig-base for a 44cm doll, hand stuffing, inner arm, outer arm. Legs with the feet done and the inner leg and outer leg stuffing. 

Lots of weighing out to be done for each doll. (There is another babe in the background)

One foot stuffed, the beautiful eco-wool for the other foot ready. I am always amazed at how much wool will fit into a dolls to make it solidly stuffed. 

When I stuff the limbs, I create an inner core that I needlefelt very solidly, then wrap it with a loftier outer layer. It all is inserted into the limbs with help of a "funnel" as I call it. If a doll isn't stuffed very solidly, it will easily misshape over time. Especially when a child sleeps with a doll and possibly ends up laying on top of it. Hence compacting the wool as much as possible at the outset means that the wool doesn't really have any place to compact into. Also wool naturally felts together through rubbing, so why not start that process before putting lofty fiber into a limb. I tried many different ways to stuffing a doll and this process has become the one most logical for me.

Finding a rhythm in the creation of my various endeavors is a challenge, one often thwarted by life getting in the way (grrr). But I have been gifted with various ways to express myself and to create not one type of work, but many. Often when I make something "just for fun" and "just as a little gift" - one or more of the dear ones in my life comment "you could sell that". But not everything I make is meant to become a commercial enterprise. Rather on the other hand. I have decided that I am very selective of what I will offer to the world for purchase - my paintings, wet-felted and The Olive Sparrow goods. There is also teaching in my future - dolls and wet-felting, in my studio and as a traveling instructor (more to come about this).

Suzy and Baby Jo

I finally am ready to let Suzy and Baby Jo go into the world. I listed them in my Etsy store today:

To the store

Blogged about here.

On other news, I am working on a series of five new Olive Sparrow Children. They will be in the following sizes: one at 54 cm, one at 44cm, two at 35 cm and one at 31 cm. I will post details as I move along. 

January has been a recuperating and re-grouping month for me. I worked on a painting commission at the studio, finished another painting that I had to re-do, (thanks to a product that was sold to me as a professional art product, but didn't behave as such), did a lot of work on Huxley's knitted bed spread, submitted a course outline to Loyalist College for a wet-felting course I'm scheduled to teach in the summer and mostly went to bed at a reasonable time every night. The downstairs studio is all cleaned up, the pantry and the fridge have been completely cleaned out and re-organized. Now I'm working on my desk and next up will be the chest freezer downstairs. I have crochet all the doll caps for the dolls I'm working on, so from here on their becoming will be swift. I always find it amazing how at a certain point the babes almost create themselves.  

I also picked up quite a selection of wonderful fabrics and clothes to be made into doll clothes.

Today Astrid was sent of to her new family in Rochester - she was one of my favourite babes that I created before the holidays and I had her sit with me for a while before I was ready to list her on Etsy. Now I am so happy that she has been adopted and can't wait to hear how her trip was.

Okay, before it is too late, I am going downstairs to get the new babes further along their journey.  

The Olive Sparrow Child - Astrid

Astrid is a 35cm (14+") Olive Sparrow doll with bright orange-red curly hair. 

Both Pippi Longstocking and Astrid Lindgren served as my inspiration for her.

Astrid is a fun, silly girl that certainly is up to some funny business sometime, yet she also has the gentlest soul. I wouldn't put it past her to chase after robbers and pirates.

 

For the photos Astrid insisted in wearing her hair in pig tails, although she also loves wearing it loose, or done up in one pony tail.

 

The blue bias tape on the diaphanous linen blouse is faced in a light blue cotton and matches her eyes. When I was taking this picture, she was just about to turn her head to ask me if we were done with the photo shoot, because her patience with sitting still was not so great. (which is quite typical of Astrid, she has too many ideas to be realized each day).

 

One more shot she allowed, where she is wearing the blue-dotted side of her tunic out and also her silk rainbow scarf.

 

I was very quick and even snapped an image showing her sitting down.

After she had run off and played with the other Olive Sparrow children and Huxley's doll Odillon for a bit, she agreed to come back and to take her picture with the green side of her tunic facing outwards. It is being said that green is calming, and it certainly had this effect on Astrid. As it was near bed time, we spent some time sitting and she told me about all kinds of adventures she had while playing. I then asked her to change for night time and she said that she really wanted to sleep in her white linen shift, because it made her think of times long gone by when people didn't have special night clothes. 

Her striped tights and bootlets are all part of the fun. (Now I did insist that she remove the bootlets, and she obliged. 

 

Astrid also told me that she is ready to go on a trip to meet new people and to find her permanent family.

 

She is available in my Etsy-Shop.

Astrid was adopted on January 26. 2012.

 

If you think she might be right for your family, feel free to contact me with any questions you might have.

_____________________________________________

Each doll is made up of the following materials.

Skin: 100% cotton (Swiss-made to Öko-Tex-Standard 100)
Stuffing 100% “green-processed” wool batt from Canada
Hair: 100% Wool, or a Mohair/Wool Blend
Clothing: 100% natural fibres (linen, cotton, silk)
Shoes: Recycled felted wool sweaters, or pure leather
Face: 100% cotton Embroidery Thread

Workmanship:
Each doll is created individually by artist Monika Aebischer, the proprietor of The Olive Sparrow. She sources and uses only the highest quality materials in her creations – swiss-made skin fabric, Canadian green processed wool stuffing,  wool/mohair for the dolls hair (often hand-dyed by her). Hair for the Olive Sparrow Children is made by crocheting a cap that is sewn to the head, allowing for replacement should it ever become necessary (although most children will object to this, as it changes their doll dramatically). For the wispy hair, a special german mohair is used and a labour-intense technique, for the loose longer hair each strand of wool is individually knotted into the crocheted cap. This is the prime technique for doll-wig creation.

Doll clothing is made from up-cycled vintage and clothing fabrics, in either pure linen, cotton or silk. Up-cycled fabric is wonderful for doll clothes, as the cloth has been washed soft, gentle and free of textile manufacturing products. Monika also felts used woolen sweaters to use for doll shoes and clothing. She knits the doll’s hats out of prime quality knitting wool. Each seam on the doll’s body is sewn twice to allow your child to fiercely love their Olive Sparrow Child. Clothing is sewn with finished seams and some are fully reversible.

 

Wishes for you

Olive Sparrow Child - Eloise

Eloise is the name of one of my best friends' daughter. A wonderful girl about half a year older than my son. My friend is of half swiss heritage and a soul-mate for sure. The real Eloise has two older brothers and was very much a tom-boy when she was younger, now at 8 she has found her own girly-ness and she is a beautiful, funny, thoughtful girl.

My Olive Sparrow Child girl, named after her, is just as sweet and at the same time mischievous. She loves playing with the boys, wild play that gets her hair all mussed and dirt on her knees. Yet she is also quite a girly-girl, liking her hair done just so and sitting pretty.

Ah, this smile, couldn't hurt a fly (giggle) - but give it a mean chase, that's for sure.

How could she not, with such a sparkle in her eyes.

Eloise's hat is made from gorgeous wool. All nubbly and full of colour variations. 

On the days that she runs with the wild side in her, she loves wearing her kerchief on her head as a head scarf. She says that it lets her run faster and her wispy hair doesn't get into her eyes. By her description, the boys can't catch her when they play on such a kerchief-wearing day.

Eloise the demur... (giggles just barely contained...)

Thinking deeply....

Hhmmm.... what shall I do next.... hhmmmmmm....

Ah those hands... it's hard to keep them still....

Eloise is wearing her super-soft cashmere poncho, a cotton-embroidered tunic, green polka-dot pants, reclaimed wool shoes, a kerchief and a hat. Her hair is in two braids that can be opened, but are better kept as braids.

As a larger 52cm/20" doll, Eloise is best for an older child whose longer limbs can easily embrace her. Eloise is sewn from my own pattern with limbs that move freely, she is very easily sat down and she just loves to trow her arms around people for lovely hugs. The free-moving limbs also make changing her clothes a breeze.

Eloise can be purchase through my Etsy store here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/69138097/the-olive-sparrow-child-eloise-waldorf

Eloise has been adopted

_____________________________________________

Each doll is made up of the following materials.

Skin: 100% cotton (Swiss-made to Öko-Tex-Standard 100)
Stuffing 100% “green-processed” wool batt from Canada
Hair: 100% Wool, or a Mohair/Wool Blend
Clothing: 100% natural fibres (linen, cotton, silk)
Shoes: Recycled felted wool sweaters, or pure leather
Face: 100% cotton Embroidery Thread

Workmanship:
Each doll is created individually by artist Monika Aebischer, the proprietor of The Olive Sparrow. She sources and uses only the highest quality materials in her creations – swiss-made skin fabric, Canadian green processed wool stuffing,  wool/mohair for the dolls hair (often hand-dyed by her). Hair for the Olive Sparrow Children is made by crocheting a cap that is sewn to the head, allowing for replacement should it ever become necessary (although most children will object to this, as it changes their doll dramatically). For the wispy hair, a special german mohair is used and a labour-intense technique, for the loose longer hair each strand of wool is individually knotted into the crocheted cap. This is the prime technique for doll-wig creation.

Doll clothing is made from natural up-cycled vintage and clothing fabrics, in either pure linen, cotton, or silk. Up-cycled fabric is wonderful for doll clothes, as the cloth has been washed soft, gentle and free of textile manufacturing products. Monika also felts used woolen sweaters to use for doll shoes and clothing. She knits the doll’s hats out of prime quality knitting wool. Each seam on the doll’s body is sewn twice to allow your child to fiercely love their Olive Sparrow Child. Clothing is sewn with beautiful finished seams.

 

The Olive Sparrow Child - Claire

Claire - another Claire (ah, I realized after she told me her name, that she has a friend with the same name). I remember having a best friend named Monika, so there is nothing so unusual about that, is there? Have you ever had a friend with your name?

This Claire is a very, very sweet girl, she measures 35 cm/14" and is my favourite smaller size doll to make - so lovely to hold and take along everywhere.

Clair is wearing reversible linen/cotton tunic. In the above picture you can see the cotton dotted side facing forward. The tunic is great, because it can also be worn just with the linen pants.

Here you can see the linen side of the tunic.

Like most of the Olive Sparrow Dolls, Claire has an actual neck - this makes her look like an older child and gives her face more defined features

Claire tends to be very quiet and many people think that she is rather introverted. What they don't know is that she is just a still, deep water, yet this water can have some pretty stormy seasons too. She also loves to tell stories and is super, super good at keeping any secret she is told. (having had her sitting with the other Olive Sparrow Children while getting ready for the shows, Claire always knew what everyone else was thinking about, yet she would never share in the whisperings going on on the work table).

Clairs shoes have some fun integrated felt ruffles and amazingly soft laces. Her hat is knitted of alpaka and mohair wool.

Because Claire is very quiet, she held back at the shows I took her too and is still looking to find her favourite human friend. Hence she is available in my Etsy shop.   Claire has been adopted.

If you think she might be right for your family, feel free to contact me with any questions you might have.

_____________________________________________

Each doll is made up of the following materials.

Skin: 100% cotton (Swiss-made to Öko-Tex-Standard 100)
Stuffing 100% “green-processed” wool batt from Canada
Hair: 100% Wool, or a Mohair/Wool Blend
Clothing: 100% natural fibres (linen, cotton, silk)
Shoes: Recycled felted wool sweaters, or pure leather
Face: 100% cotton Embroidery Thread

Workmanship:
Each doll is created individually by artist Monika Aebischer, the proprietor of The Olive Sparrow. She sources and uses only the highest quality materials in her creations – swiss-made skin fabric, Canadian green processed wool stuffing,  wool/mohair for the dolls hair (often hand-dyed by her). Hair for the Olive Sparrow Children is made by crocheting a cap that is sewn to the head, allowing for replacement should it ever become necessary (although most children will object to this, as it changes their doll dramatically). For the wispy hair, a special german mohair is used and a labour-intense technique, for the loose longer hair each strand of wool is individually knotted into the crocheted cap. This is the prime technique for doll-wig creation.

Doll clothing is made from up-cycled vintage and clothing fabrics, in either pure linen, cotton or silk. Up-cycled fabric is wonderful for doll clothes, as the cloth has been washed soft, gentle and free of textile manufacturing products. Monika also felts used woolen sweaters to use for doll shoes and clothing. She knits the doll’s hats out of prime quality knitting wool. Each seam on the doll’s body is sewn twice to allow your child to fiercely love their Olive Sparrow Child. Clothing is sewn with French seams and some are fully reversible.

 

 

Olive Sparrow Children - Mandy, Wendolin, Sir Jamie

The quality of the following pictures is such that I considered not showing them here - they were taken at 2:30 am the night before my first show. All of us-the dolls, the camera and I didn't have all our wits about. But it would be sad to not show Wendolin, Mandy and Sir Jamie - Dolls that have found a home to date. 

First up though, a picture of all the dolls in a group shot.

From Left to Right, back row first:

Pauline 48cm, Mandy 48cm, Suzy 55cm, Eloise 50cm, Milena 45cm, Antoine 52cm, Wendolin 55cm,

Front Row: 

Pete 31cm, Astrid 35cm, Daisy 31cm, Sir Jamie 35cm, Katinka 31cm, Claire 35cm

 

First I'd like to introduce Mandy, about 48cm, wearing leggings, a tunic and embroidered shoes. She will be joining a family that already has Olive Sparrow Children.

Mandy is made from my re-designed pattern for the 48cm doll. She can sit freely without leaning against anything, she has long legs, a more trim body and feet that look great in and out of shoes.

Green-eyed little girl... She is a real sweetie.

 

Next in order of introduction we have Sir Jamie (yes, I have been listening to the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon while creating Sir Jamie - giggle). 

Sir Jamie is a boy doll, a night or a squire. He Is wearing a silk shirt that shimmers like chain-mail (Huxley was my assistant in choosing the fabric and said that the other very shiny silk works, however, this one looks like Sir Jamie has seen a few sparring sessions). His tunic is made from leather, tied with a hand-twisted rope, his shoes are leather too. Like any good squire, he wears leggings. His height is 35cm.

The cape is made from a silk kerchief and has appliqued gold emblems on it. The hat was knit in a beautiful heathered grey wool.

Underneath his hat/helmet, Sir Jamie is suave with his short cropped curly hair.

There are definitely more knight boys in my future. I'm also thinking of a knight and princess pair (possibly with crowns and kingly/queenly gowns to go along with it). 

Sir Jamie is also going to live with a wonderful family that has a selection of Olive Sparrow Children already.

 

Here we have Wendolin, or short Wendo (named after a very, very dear friend of mine)

Wendo was the first 55cm doll I made from my newly developed pattern and I had a very hard time letting her go out into the world, alas, she was sold at the first show I attended, to a new client. 

Wendo has very nice feet, another improvement to the new pattern, and she can sit on her own. 

Wendo's hair is extremely soft and a new hairstyle. I used two very closely related tones of wool to create natural highlights. 

 

This concludes the 3 dolls that have been adopted to so far. I will be listing the other dolls that are still available in my Etsy show in the next week. If there is one you see and like, feel free to send me an e-mail for more information. 

 ___________________________________________________

Each doll is made up of the following materials.

Skin: 100% cotton (Swiss-made to Öko-Tex-Standard 100)
Stuffing 100% “green-processed” wool batt from Canada
Hair: 100% Wool, or a Mohair/Wool Blend
Clothing: 100% natural fibres (linen, cotton, silk)
Shoes: Recycled felted wool sweaters, or pure leather
Face: 100% cotton Embroidery Thread

Workmanship:
Each doll is created individually by artist Monika Aebischer, the proprietor of The Olive Sparrow. She sources and uses only the highest quality materials in her creations – swiss-made skin fabric, Canadian green processed wool stuffing,  wool/mohair for the dolls hair (often hand-dyed by her). Hair for the Olive Sparrow Children is made by crocheting a cap that is sewn to the head, allowing for replacement should it ever become necessary (although most children will object to this, as it changes their doll dramatically). For the wispy hair, a special german mohair is used and a labour-intense technique, for the loose longer hair each strand of wool is individually knotted into the crocheted cap. This is the prime technique for doll-wig creation.

Doll clothing is made from up-cycled vintage and clothing fabrics, in either pure linen, cotton or silk. Up-cycled fabric is wonderful for doll clothes, as the cloth has been washed soft, gentle and free of textile manufacturing products. Monika also felts used woolen sweaters to use for doll shoes and clothing. She knits the doll’s hats out of prime quality knitting wool. Each seam on the doll’s body is sewn twice to allow your child to fiercely love their Olive Sparrow Child. Clothing is sewn with French seams and some are fully reversible.

The Olive Sparrow Child - Suzy and Baby-Jo - Available

(Suzy and Baby-Jo are available for adoption - they will be listed in Etsy in the coming days - if you are interested in her, just send me an e-mail and I can give you the details).

Suzy is my newly designed doll. She measures 55cm or about 21" tall - so she is a large doll. She sits very well on her own, and sitting is something Suzy loves to do, because she also has a baby - Baby Josephine, nicknamed Baby-Jo. 

I am headed to the Waldorf Academy to set up my booth, so I will leave you with a few quick pictures of Suzy and Baby-Jo. (There will also be 8 other Olive Sparrow Children available, as well as lovely 6" and 4" bendable nature table dolls). I have also made more clothes since the TWS show 2 weeks ago and now have an extended selection of dresses, tops, pants and hats for 35 , 44-48, and 55cm dolls available.

 

 

Starchild

A little bit of heaven for your nature table. A six inch tall, bendable Starchild, or also a winterchild. Available tonight in Guelph at the Cranberry market. For details, please see below.

Road trip reviews and show announcements

This past Saturday I had a booth at the TWS just north of Toronto. Here a couple of pictures of my booth (I was up the night before the show until 2:30 working on my goodies and then back up at 6 to finish setting up the day of the show) - the photos are not the best photographic work I have ever done (grin)...

I will show detailed pictures of the dolls after I have completed the show circut for the season.

 

Saturday evening we took the booth down at 6pm and at 7 we got on the highway to drive towards Ottawa for the Ottawa Waldorf School Winterfair. Ottawa is about 550 km's away from Toronto - a lengthy drive. We created a nest for Huxley in the backseat - a traveling bag propped up with a couple of pillows and a blanket - so that he was able to comfortably and safely sleep while my husband did all the driving. My friend Wendo lives along the highway, about an hour away from Ottawa and we got to crash at her place for one night.

On Sunday morning we rose early and drove to Stittsville to set up for the fair.

Some of the dolls in the picture are sold, the ones still available will be for sale at the Waldorf Academy in Toronto on December 3rd, along with a few other treasures that I am still working on. Including some nature table beauties.

If you are near Guelph Ontario, this coming Friday I will be at the Trillium Waldorf School at the Cranberry market between 7 - 11pm. I would love to see you. Please note, because there is another vendor there with the large dolls, I was asked to not show them there (instead there will be small bendable nature table fairies and mother earth dolls - never before shown.).

Okay, off to the studio to create to my hearts content. 

Goings-on

November will be a very busy month - there are a lot of chances to meet me to learn from me and to see and purchase Olive Sparrow Goods.

Here is a list of events:

Workshop: 

META4 Gallery

Liquid Wax on Paper & Fabric

The workshop I talked about in June was moved to: 

Sunday, November 13 and (optional) Monday, November 14, 10 am – 4 pm

There might still be some space, please contact the gallery directly.

_________________

The Art Guild of Scarborough

Hand-on Mixed Media Workshop Evening with the members of the Art Guild of Scarborough:

Working with personal Imagery - November 17th from 7:30 - 9:30

_________________

www.TorontoWaldorfSchool.com/ArtsCraftsFair

____________________

Sunday - November 20th:

 Ottawa Waldorf School

 Christmas Fair

10.00am - 3.00pm 

____________________

Friday - November 25th:

Trillium Waldorf School in Guelph, Ontario

Cranberry Market, Friday November 25th from 7pm to  11pm.

(Please note that I will not bring my Olive Sparrow Children to this event - there is another vendor there who will have waldorf inspired dolls). I will have my nature table dolls with me though (not necessarily bunnies, but similar to this.) - and all my other Olive Sparrow Goods

__________________

There are also two events planned for December - The Toronto Waldorf Academy and the London Waldorf School (I will post details in the days ahead).

So I'm better getting to working on my goodies now... I'm hoping to meet some of you at one of these events.

 

The Olive Sparrow Child - Rohnan

Summer, ah, you elusive season. We spent time driving Huxley to and from day camps - fun camp, canoe camp, farm camp, sport camp; we spent a week in Tobermory in a rented cottage - with daddy sick for 3 of the 7 days there; we hung around the home and got errands done; we visited my most lovely friend in Bracebridge; we went to the Toronto Zoo, Toronto Island, the wave pool in Richmond Hill, African Lion Safari, the Art Gallery of Ontario; we slept one night in the tent in the back yard; we touched sting rays, elephants, baby goats, wild chipmunks; we saw an owl, lots of snakes (water snakes and land snakes), frogs, wild lions, water snails, wild rabbit, marmot; we sang songs about not skating in buffalo herds; we went to the local public swimming pool; we watched cartoons; we ate ice cream from a great new ice cream spot up on the Danforth; rode in a speed boat; swam in Georgian Bay's turquoise coloured water; hiked along the Bruce Trail; collected rocks at Dyers bay; touched the flowerpots on Flowerpot Island; ate Birthday cake (mine); made a dream catcher; watched sunsets and stayed up until dark; roasted marshmallows over an open fire; and spent lots of time swinging in our hammock at home. All this wonderful activity, combined with my computer deciding that it had no more room for any new photos is the result of my absence from my beloved blog - a break I needed too. 

Today we are at the end of the first week back to school and I have spent this week in the kitchen putting by tomatoes. Three bushels have been processed, another one is awaiting my hands labour. 

Rohnan, an Olive Sparrow Child flew the nest in mid August. His pictures got misplaced and I only found the card with them the other day, so here he is:

 

Rohnan is 30 cm (11") tall and was created for a little two year old boy that is a new member of my dearest friends extended family. The little boy has blond hair and blue eyes, so does Rohnan. 

His shirt is made from a re-claimed linen blouse. I wanted a real shirt, but because the little boy is only 2, did not want to put real buttons or snaps (I do not like velcro for dolls clothing), so I sewed a fully lined shirt and sewed it stitched with embroidered buttons. 

The hat is knitted out of quivit yarn, handdyed to match the blues of his vest, which in turn was made from a felted very soft woolen sweater. 

Deciding on the colours for Rohnans' pants was not easy. I was debating between a khaki green and the bluish linen I ended up using. Huxley helped my decide, he stated that for a two-year old boy it would be wrong to have a doll that has pants that could be military pants. Even after I pointed out to him that adventurers and safari men also wear khaki, he maintained his position that it wouldn't be suitable for the little boy. My dearest friends own son also preferred the lighter pants - Rohnan seems to be very happy with them. 

Like so many little boys, Rohnan is very daring and loves his wooden truck. I asked him to please come down and stay safe, which he did promptly - with a huge smile on his face. 
 

Rohnan jumped down and was off to his next adventure.... 

________________________________________________________

Each doll is made up of the following materials.

Skin: 100% cotton (Swiss-made to Öko-Tex-Standard 100)
Stuffing 100% “green-processed” wool batt from Canada
Hair: 100% Wool, or a Mohair/Wool Blend
Clothing: 100% natural fibres (linen, cotton, silk)
Shoes: Recycled felted wool sweaters, or pure leather
Face: 100% cotton Embroidery Thread

Workmanship:
Each doll is created individually by artist Monika Aebischer, the proprietor of The Olive Sparrow. She sources and uses only the highest quality materials in her creations – swiss-made skin fabric, Canadian green processed wool stuffing,  wool/mohair for the dolls hair (often hand-dyed by her). Hair for the Olive Sparrow Children is made by crocheting a cap that is sewn to the head, allowing for replacement should it ever become necessary (although most children will object to this, as it changes their doll dramatically). For the wispy hair, a special german mohair is used and a labour-intense technique, for the loose longer hair each strand of wool is individually knotted into the crocheted cap. This is the prime technique for doll-wig creation.

Doll clothing is made from up-cycled vintage and clothing fabrics, in either pure linen, cotton or silk. Up-cycled fabric is wonderful for doll clothes, as the cloth has been washed soft, gentle and free of textile manufacturing products. Monika also felts used woolen sweaters to use for doll shoes and clothing. She knits the doll’s hats out of prime quality knitting wool. Each seam on the doll’s body is sewn twice to allow your child to fiercely love their Olive Sparrow Child. Clothing is sewn with French seams and some are fully reversible.

 

The Olive Sparrow Child - Fairy

A lovely fairy has flown away to be with her chosen fairy-mother. She arrived at the birthday of the little girl who turned seven yesterday. As some fairies can sometimes be a bit tardy and easily distracted, she only arrived at dinnertime.

 

A fairy traveling cocoon. Imagine, a fairy can't just travel through the city outside of the cocoon for everyone to see, she needs to have a place she can feel save in and also know that this will make her appearance a bigger surprise for the little girl.

 

Fairies can be shy, out little one was at first very shy when I took her into the garden to take pictures of her. 

 

But she hopped onto the chair I had set out for her and decorated with her favourite flowers -- Windflowers, also known as Wood Anemone.

The mother of the girl shared with me the little girls favourite doll from the book Flower Fairies of the Spring by Cicely Mary Barker - The Windflower Fairy. 

Our fairy turned to face me after I promised to let her read from the book that has her picture inside.

 

 

 Here is her poem, as written by Cicely Mary Barker in 1923

While human-folk slumber,

    The fairies espy

Stars withough number

    Sprinkling the sky.

 

The Winter's long sleeping,

    Like night-time, is done;

But day-stars are leaping

    To welcome the sun.

 

Star-like they sprinkle

    The wildwood with light;

Countless they twinkle--

    The Windflowers white!

 

 

("Windflower" is another name for Wood Anemone.)

I have just completed a felting workshop with the lovely Marjolein Dallinga from Bloomfelt so I wanted to create some wood anemone inspired flowers for the Fairy to take with her to the little girl.

Our fairy was soon curious and not so shy anymore, as she looked around the garden and after a while, she even loved having her picture taken.

Since the little girl would love to take the fairy along with her on outings, it was fitting that there would be a hat for the fairy to wear. Fairy hair is so easily tangled up in sunshine and sometimes the wind tries to carry strands of it away. (Birds also love to have it in their nests, as it protects the eggs and the newly hatched young ones).

  

 

The Fairy loved playing with the flowers and soon forgot that she was ever shy. 

 So we went back to the first spot and she stood there for me to take another picture.

 

I'm very much inspired by the Fairy books and I hope that there are many more that will come to life in the months and years to come. Making a Fairy doll holds special responsibility, as it is an essence that needs to be captured, more than a like-ness.  

___________________________________________________________ 

The dress of the Fairy was sewn from two layers of very fine cotton batiste. A pink one and a blue one. This way it has the almost irridenscent quality of the lilac in the picture of the book. The long wrap around her shoulder is also cotton batiste.

Curly, wavy hair was a special requisite that the little girls mom made to me me. I remember my mother many years ago knitting up some left over wool, washing and drying it and then unraveling it to create textured wool to decorate a dwarf's face with it. I love the springiness this creates in the doll's hair, yet it looks different from the boucle yarn often used for curly hair.

The Fairy is 52 cm / 20" tall 

Each doll is made up of the following materials.

Skin: 100% cotton (Swiss-made to Öko-Tex-Standard 100)
Stuffing 100% “green-processed” wool batt from Canada
Hair: 100% Wool, or a Mohair/Wool Blend
Clothing: 100% natural fibres (linen, cotton, silk)
Shoes: Recycled felted wool sweaters, or pure leather
Face: 100% cotton Embroidery Thread

Workmanship:
Each doll is created individually by artist Monika Aebischer, the proprietor of The Olive Sparrow. She sources and uses only the highest quality materials in her creations – swiss-made skin fabric, Canadian green processed wool stuffing,  wool/mohair for the dolls hair (often hand-dyed by her). Hair for the Olive Sparrow Children is made by crocheting a cap that is sewn to the head, allowing for replacement should it ever become necessary (although most children will object to this, as it changes their doll dramatically). For the wispy hair, a special german mohair is used and a labour-intense technique, for the loose longer hair each strand of wool is individually knotted into the crocheted cap. This is the prime technique for doll-wig creation.

Doll clothing is made from up-cycled vintage and clothing fabrics, in either pure linen, cotton or silk. Up-cycled fabric is wonderful for doll clothes, as the cloth has been washed soft, gentle and free of textile manufacturing products. Monika also felts used woolen sweaters to use for doll shoes and clothing. She knits the doll’s hats out of prime quality knitting wool. Each seam on the doll’s body is sewn twice to allow your child to fiercely love their Olive Sparrow Child. Clothing is sewn with French seams and some are fully reversible.

 

The Olive Sparrow Child - Molly

A lovely customer in Australia contacted me about a custom doll just after I insured my finger at the studio. I was so excited and yet so sad, because with the finger not working, most tasks in creating an Olive Sparrow Child are just impossible. Yet the finger started healing, I gently and gingerly worked on the doll over the past months. When I was able to remove the cast during the day, the finger was very stiff, but I actually think that I helped heal faster by working with it. 

About a week ago the doctor gave me the go-ahead of living cast free again, except for heavy work. Now the doll is finished and I am so excited to show her to you.

 

I asked her for her name and she said Molly. This is what I do with my Olive Sparrow Children, when they are complete, I hold them in my arms, I give them a big hug and ask for their name. Molly immediately responded.

 

We had beautiful weather yesterday afternoon, and she asked me to go into the garden to have a picnic amongst the strawberry plants. 

 

Molly loves bunnies and she wanted to have her picnic with them.

 

She tacked up Huxley's play horse and wagon to bring all the dishes and bunnies outside.

 

It was very warm yesterday (27 Celcisus), so Molly took off her shoes and smock. But she was still hot, so when she started running around the garden, she decided that just wearing her smock and bloomers was just the thing to do.

 

The smock is reversible, and the natural linen side is shown here.

Molly loves her cotton hat and thinks that it just looks so stylish that even though it is hot, she can still wear it.

 

I showed Molly the roses that have just started to bloom in the garden and she immediately wanted to see them up close. I asked her to put some of her clothes on again, as the thorns of the roses can prick her. She was happy to oblige.

 

 

The rose is called Rosemarie (my mother's name) and the sweetest, softest pink, and a heavenly scent.

 

Here Molly wanted to put on her green silk scarf to show you how warmly dressed she will travel to Australia.

 

Molly then wanted to pretend being a gardener, cultivating her own flowers. She changed her clothes again and is wearing her silk scarf as a kerchief.

We heard some birds chirpping and thought we should go see if we can find a nest. So we went to the front of the house to climb up the sour cherry tree.

 

Phew.. that was a lot of work, but we did find a nest.

That bird told us that his twin sister also had a nest with eggs, right across the street, in front of the high school in one of their young apple trees. We bide farewell to her and headed over.

 

What a magical encounter.

We were starting to feel tired and hungry.  

 

Molly sat in the high chair and had a little snack.

Which gave her a whole lot more energy and she decided that she wanted to play dress-up again, it was really hot after all.

 

Now I have to admitt, that I was getting tired, and asked her to put her travel outfit back on so that we could take some more pictures for her future family in Australia. She was happy to oblige.









Now Molly is waiting for her trip to Australia. Unfortunately, we're in the middle of a postal strike. Hopefully it will be over soon, and Molly can go on her long trip. She is such a sweet soul and so much fun, that it will be hard to let her go. 

Molly is 38cm tall (about 14.9")

Each doll is made up of the following materials.

Skin: 100% cotton (Swiss-made to Öko-Tex-Standard 100)
Stuffing 100% “green-processed” wool batt from Canada
Hair: 100% Wool, or a Mohair/Wool Blend
Clothing: 100% natural fibres (linen, cotton, silk)
Shoes: Recycled felted wool sweaters, or pure leather
Face: 100% cotton Embroidery Thread

Workmanship:
Each doll is created individually by artist Monika Aebischer, the proprietor of The Olive Sparrow. She sources and uses only the highest quality materials in her creations – swiss-made skin fabric, Canadian green processed wool stuffing,  wool/mohair for the dolls hair (often hand-dyed by her). Hair for the Olive Sparrow Children is made by crocheting a cap that is sewn to the head, allowing for replacement should it ever become necessary (although most children will object to this, as it changes their doll dramatically). For the wispy hair, a special german mohair is used and a labour-intense technique, for the loose longer hair each strand of wool is individually knotted into the crocheted cap. This is the prime technique for doll-wig creation.

Doll clothing is made from up-cycled vintage and clothing fabrics, in either pure linen, cotton or silk. Up-cycled fabric is wonderful for doll clothes, as the cloth has been washed soft, gentle and free of textile manufacturing products. Monika also felts used woolen sweaters to use for doll shoes and clothing. She knits the doll’s hats out of prime quality knitting wool. Each seam on the doll’s body is sewn twice to allow your child to fiercely love their Olive Sparrow Child. Clothing is sewn with French seams and some are fully reversible.