Yours Truly

This picture of me was taken last spring. It can be found in the current issue of Country Victorian magazine. I have to say that we moved into this house almost 4 years ago and I never did ANY redecorating. Now that the magazine with aspects of the house is out, I am redoing madly, because this very, very, frou-frou Victorian look is really not me. I have removed wallpaper and have been painting and having a blast. Some day I will show what I've done and I'll include the before and after. At least the picture shows me in my art room working on one of my dolls.

Introducing My Daughter, an Artist, Brigitte Christine

My beautiful, sweet, wonderful and very talented daughter, Brigitte, has finally returned to her artistic endeavors. Please enjoy visiting Brigitte Christine at her Etsy Store! Click on her name here or in this page's right-hand column.

New Dolls & Fancywork Items

CLICK HERE to see my latest newsletter on my new dolls, and other items.

Stump Doll & My Attic Crawl Space

Okay, she does look 150 years old, but she's new. Her attire however was made from pieces of wonderful old fabrics that we recently found in our attic crawl space! We do not go up there because the only opening which is from my art room closet up into it is small. There is crumbly old insulation up there too. But, there are boxes and boxes of stuff! And most of it is old clothing and fabrics. Periodically some young man, my grandson or the son of a friend, will go up and bring down what he can. But it is not good air to breathe up there, so we get the stuff piecemeal. Since our house was built in 1888, I feel certain that much of the fabric is indeed very old. Some of the styles of the clothes are Victorian and all hand stitched.

The stump doll was created for little girls to have some facsimile of a dolly to play with. I made the above one fairly large for you see, the beauty of a stump doll for me is that they are invariably stuffed with fabric scraps. I think a child might enjoy this one, but usually they were a trifle smaller. Waste not want not.

Ghostie Lady

There is much talk now of Halloween art, and of course I have nothing ready for the spooky time.

This Ghostie Lady of mine is pictured here to remind me to get going in production! Of course, I do not have a Ghostie Lady for this year, and doubt if I will, but I still love my lady ghosts as they float about old fashioned houses.

So as people harvest their labors of summer, and look forward to October 31st, I will be busily creating someone(s) scary and haunting to show soon.

A Day at the Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art

Friday was a fabulous day. My dear friend, Mary (Stivers), and my wonderful husband ,Gregory and I enjoyed our trip up to the Seattle area of Bellevue and had a beautiful time exploring the incredible collection of antique dolls at the Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art. The only pictures of dolls here are those for sale in the gift shop. Note how I have shown TWO pictures with that incredible wooden doll centered. I think she is marvelous.

The lovely lady pictured with the big museum scrapbook is Sigmunde Potgieter who told me that they have in it the clipped article of me as The Doll Maker for The Country Living Artist's Guild! I am so very honored to be in that scrapbook! Of course, I did mention them in the article and that is the primary reason for my being included. And of course I mentioned Rosalie Whyel's museum of dolls because this was my greatest inspiration to become a doll maker. I have to say I was delightfully stunned when Sigmunde recognized me as I walked into that darling little gift shop! And that was how the story unfolded.

Exquisite Queen Anne Woodens by Kathy Patterson

Words alone cannot describe the craftsmanship of doll (and Santa) artist, Kathy Patterson. Kathy has captured impeccably the making of Queen Anne wooden dolls. Her ability to carve is unsurpassable. I am grateful that she has offered to instruct me in the how of creating such dolls, and in attempting it, I have put my carving knife away for a while. This is an art form that has wooed me for many years. I will have to stay happy with merely sculpting out of Paper Clay this style, a little longer.

The first doll is right now on eBay for all of two more days. The last doll just sold on eBay for $2, 350.00, and worth every penny and even more so. This style of doll, if old, can command from $16,000.00 up to $160,000.00 a piece. Lucky is the buyer of any of Kathy's incredible creations.

I've highlighted her name to direct you to her blog, and again, here it is in it's wonderful and perfectly appropriate other name, Babes From the Woods.

Some of her dolls are featured in the current issue of Early American Life, which is the annual and the 24th Directory of Traditional American Crafts. Click on Directory, then on 2009, and then on Toys or Dolls.

Enjoy the works of a dear, dear friend.

Fire Board Time!

I did this Fire Board when we lived in Ohio, for my older sister who still lives there in good old Cincinnati. It is in our 1833 home in Lynchburg, Ohio for the picture in this view.

Summer time is when fire boards were properly put in front of fireplaces so as to keep out birds and other pests now that there would no longer be a need to build a fire.

Soy Sauce and Burns

Soy sauce is a wonderful medicine for burns, but the trick is to get the soy sauce onto the burn immediately. Yesterday I burned my left thumb severely when I foolishly picked up the sealing wax stick that I had just used. It was melting and hot and painful.  I ran downstairs to the fridge and immediately doused the owy with soy sauce. It was in pain nonetheless, and after soaking it in ice water and then bandaging it, I noticed later in the day that it was ALL better. My husband, Greg, learned this somewhere. It works every time.

Early American Tinware (Tole)

I love early American tinware. I even took many classes in tole painting back in the '70's and '80's. Of course, early tinware is not easy to find, and has always been rather expensive. Now that we are in the 21st century,well, face it, whoever stumbles across a reasonably priced piece of early American tinware is ever so fortunate. Perhaps this is why it's not such a bad thing that it is no longer a real popular look.

I have a very small collection of it. The first five photos here are my limited collection. My husband, Greg, wrote a wonderful article about tinware. Click here to read it.

The following pictures of early American tinware, I gleaned from the Internet:

Fraktur

The word Fraktur is both singular and plural. One does not have a dozen frakturs, one has a dozen fraktur.

Fraktur is a beautiful art form to me.

My dear and very talented husband, Gregory LeFever wrote a wonderful story about Fraktur for Early American Life magazine. Visit the article to learn all about Fraktur.

The top fraktur is from Winterthur Museum Delaware. Mind you, the pronunciation is Winter ter, don't sound out the th. I know that many of you already know this, but there are some young ones out there who've not been much exposed to this sort of thing.

The second one is a portrait of George Washington by an anonymous painter. Art historians refer to him as the "Washington-Sussel Artist" because his work was first studied by a collector of that name. It is in the Independence National Historical Park.

The third Fraktur is from artist Lana Manis of Honeysuckle Lane. Hi, Lana!

The last one is my little bird fraktur that is a copy of a c. 1790 eastern Pennsylvania, book mark in ink and watercolor. I have framed it in glass and silver solder that I aged to a dark patina.

Pink Trees Everywhere!

Spring comes early in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, where I live just outside of Portland in historic, Oregon City. One cannot look out a single window without seeing the resplendency of flora in my favorite color, pale pink. Enjoy!

Down on the Farm

I found this darling piece of farm ephemera at an estate sale in one of Portland's beautiful, older homes up in the West Hills. Some child did a wonderful job of making this little pictorial of a farm oriented scene. I keep it in my kitchen.

It is so cute the way this piece can be turned open to reveal the hens!

Have I no pride? My kerosene chimney is in need of spring cleaning as it lights up my sheep, and hens and bunnies high atop my baker's table. Above it is my favorite Edward Hicks painting of a wonderful old Pennsylvania farm scene.

Two butter molds nesting in my wooden bowl shelving unit. Time to churn that butter!

This beautiful sunshine overlooking the hills and valleys is derived from a Betty Caithness design that I painted. I painted it onto a piece of roof shingling that dates back to the 1830's from our old house in Ohio. It hangs outside on our porch by the kitchen door.

Twigs

I found this twig arbor and fence online, somewhere, and I love it. Yesterday I pruned my daughter and son-in-law's apple tree so that I might have some twigs to begin creating some of this charming, old world rusticity. I love it!

If anyone has the know how for making twig things, please share! I just love twigs!

Never mind, for I have found a book on it and successfully made a twig arbor!

Spring is in the Air

I have been doing cleanup in my gardens, for the past several days, and it is so invigorating and satisfying to watch my compost heap grow as my grounds take on that of a cleanly swept home.

Of course, the pictures here are all from Colonial Williamsburg, so don't  give me credit for these wondrous sites. Just enjoy and be inspired!