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.

 

 

 

Inspiration

"She who dies with the most
Fabric, Yarn, Art Supplies, Tools, etc. wins!"

Have you heard about this competition? I'm doing really well (giggle). Stacks of collected fabrics, baskets of yarns, tools to help me with virtually any task, 10 drawers full of thread in any colour imaginable; are just what I have in my home studio (we won't discuss my painting studio). Having lived a life filled with creation has left its mark. In addition, I have often been gifted with wonderful treasures from friends and neighbours. Then there was the 3 years that I worked at a major fabric store chain as an assistant buyer and could purchase fabric for my personal use at cost prices. I know that even if I live another 60 years and am blessed with working hands, eyes and grey matter, I will not be able to use up everything. I do not need to ever go shopping for supplies again, except for specifics, such as doll skin, doll-hair, eco stuffing wool. 

Yet inspiration can be such a fickle companion. There are moments when placing a hand on a piece of fabric a fully-formed image of a creation springs to mind. Other times it is an image in a children's book, or a conversation with a friend. Sometimes though, what is really needed is to fondle materials that are not yet mine - aka a visit to a yarn or fabric store. Mostly on an errand where I need just a little bit of something specific to compliement something I am working on - inspiration has a habit of jumping on me. 

I ran such an errand this week to Romni Wools, the largest wool store that I have seen. And, there is the basement! A crowded space with stacks and stacks of discontinued and coned yarns/wools. It is a heaven for my doll making needs. What started with the need to pick up a ball of specific hair yarn ended up with quite an inspirational haul of goodies.

Now there has been knitting for the past two days, instead of stuffing body parts - hats in glorious colours. For the 35 cm dolls that will be forthcoming.

I got a half cone of the lilac chenille - it is made with viscose and wool - super soft and so pretty. It is a designer yarn from Italy to boot.

When I design my dolls, I sometimes start with the knitted hat and then build an outfit around it. For the chenille hat and the one mohair yarn in the back, I know that some will be for fairy dolls. With wings. The red and green yarns I picked up because I knew they would match some of the fabrics I have in my stash.

I am a very tactile person - I think many of us are, especially our children. When I make an Olive Sparrow Child, I make sure that each one has a wide variety of textures for a child to feel and play with. Teaching our brains to recognize how different each material feels through our fingers connects us more intimately to our world. I would also think it makes us more affectionate and compassionate human beings. We have adapted the song "Four Hugs a day" to "Ten hugs a day". (Lyrics), and include our pets in there too (except the fish, they don't seem to feel the same way.

Talking about tactility - I'd better take my hands off the keyboard now and get creating.

Have a wonderful day!

 

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.

 

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. 

Getting busy creating special little something's for the shows the Olive Sparrow will attend.

Busy Hands

A week of dying felt for crowns has resulted in this:

and hands that are not to be shown in public.

 

These hands though have also helped me do some of this (photo is just a very small sampling of all the ones I've tied off this week.

These are tiny heads for small figures on bendable wire frames - like my little knight from a few years ago. 

Today I'm back at the studio, tying off heads for larger and smaller dolls and running errands all in the name of the Olive Sparrow (boy that birdy is driving me hard these days... tweeet, tweet, tweet).

On other happy notes, our bunnies have been reunited and seem to be doing great. Eddie had his "little boy operation" and enough time has passed so that it is safe to put them back together. They are so happy (insofar as it's possible to see a bunny smiling).

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. 

On the Trails

Living in the middle of a large city with 2,500,000 people has many benefits. Living in a house with a backyard big enough to plant vegetables in this large city is even more special. Harvesting sour cherries of my own tree in the front yard is a dream come true. Going for a very short walk through what is known around here as the "dog-park" with its trees and perspective that shows no other parts of the city is a quick escape in any season. 

Missing from this is a long walk in the forest, not a park, but a real, wooded forest. To have an experience like that we gather up food, water bottles, a first aid kit, swiss army knives, cameras, extra clothes, hiking boots, sunscreen, sunglasses, hats, napkins, snacks. We empty our wallets of too much weight, remember the bug spray. Then we get into the car and drive. And drive. And drive. Usually upwards of an hour to an hour and a half. At the end of this long drive, we get to a part of the Bruce Trail. We calculate a day to go hiking. 

For the swiss-raised child in me, I find this horrific. I grew up in a small town where there was forests around, a short sunday walk entailed almost always a jaunt through the forest, along a stream, sitting down on a bench for a rest. As a snack, we took an apple along, but more often than not, we just put on our shoes and walked out the front door. We'd be back home within a couple of hours. Hiking meant taking a train into the mountains, climbing some hills. We even had a nice "hill" just up north of our town, within walking distance from our front door, with a restaurant on top, a playground and a view that was heart stopping. Still, we never took more than ourselves, and of course my dad and mom brought their money to purchase a drink and a snack up on the hill. 

If I am asked why I live in Canada when I had all the beauty of Switzerland around me, I often reflect that it is the landscape and of course my family and friends that I miss. The mountains, the Sunday afternoon walks, the hikes. Here in Toronto, I have many other things that I could not have there, so I guess the payoff is that it takes a day to go hiking. 

We try to go onto the trail as much as we possibly can. Usually between June and October we manage to go about six to seven times. It is bliss. The forest and the trail does feed my soul and I hope to feed my son's soul there too:

There is a froggy in this picture, and in the ones he took. 

 

Here are a few of my froggy images:

It's bunny time.....

 
The bunny was created without a pattern, but had been inspired by Fabiola from Fig & Me . I used a wired figure (with the large head bead replaced with a tinnie-tiney waldorf doll head. The body was wrapped with wool and skin fabric before I sewed the knitted bunny-outfit right onto the doll. I left the feet and hands wooden. The bunny also has a large fluffy tail made from a pompon:

The itzy-bitzy little bunny is needlefelted. I had made him last summer while visiting one of my closest primary school friends in Switzerland. He's about 1 1/4" long.

 

This is our little nature shelf. We had a nature table in the living room for a few years, but it got to often neglected and forgotten. Now we've got a very small shelf in the kitchen above our table where we eat our meals. It's a wonderful way to decorate for events. I won't tell you how between specific times it often holds a myriad of unrleated bits and bobs... namely lego, tape dispensers, papers, etc.... wait.. I did just tell you.. (grin)...

And now.. drum roll please... our dyed eggs for 2011!....

I dyed them using german-made colour tablets and vinegar. The eggs needed to still be hot before inserting into the dye, so I was not able to put the rubberbands on.. I tried, but after dropping a way to hot egg.. I surrendered to dip-dying.

Have a wonderful and happy Easter, a time for renewal and reawakening...