Primitive Folk Art by Old World Primitives
Handmade Primitive Dolls and Ornaments
I am busily assembling a cast of characters for Halloween this week… the last spooky spun cotton ornaments and chenille Halloween ornaments are below. The spun cotton witch kitty will have a sister tomorrow.
I have a few new dolls in progress too. I am excited to use my new antique shop finds – grungy old buttons and antique lace – in some primitive creations.
I have been all over the place since my last post… oh gosh, where to start. I’ll start with the embarrassing part first – my husband and I attempted to move for the second time within three years, and our plan flopped once again. We have been trying to move from the suburbs to an older farmhouse in the country… something that I always thought was my dream… to live in a 1700s or 1800s farmhouse decorated like one of the homes I have so often drooled over in Early American Life magazine. But our attempts to move have taught me that this may not be my ultimate dream after all. The country escapes that we found ourselves pursuing were still just a little too “more of the same,” albeit in less developed areas. We don’t have the big bucks required to completely “get away from it all,” and we just couldn’t find anything that was quite enough away.
So now we have a new plan in mind… bear with me here, as this may sound crazy… to save up enough money to REALLY move into the country… or rather, a step closer to the wilderness. We are going to save up, purchase a motor home, sell our current home, and pursue the freedom of living full time on the road, camping at remote, wild and beautiful spots along the way. This is an idea I have been toying with for 6 years now, but I never thought I would be able to make it happen. I felt too entrenched in my current way of life despite how much I wanted to give this a try. But now, if we can save enough to make this plan feasible… there is a new goal in the horizon.
So. I’ve wasted a ton of time this summer house-hunting, packing… and then un-packing (ugh!), but I’ve still managed to get some new dolls and ornaments created, and to do a bunch of gardening and pickling too.
Do you think my tomato plants are happy?? 😀
And now I invite you to meet an extreme primitive doll named Nadine, and a primitive witch make-do named Hexe:
Plus my newest ornaments in spun cotton, spun glass, and chenille:
All of the new creations above can be found in my Old World Primitives Etsy shop.
It’s unexpected sometimes where a creative journey will lead you. I think this as I look over at two unfinished dolls that are still waiting patiently to be painted and clothed. It seems that ornaments completely took over my time during the holidays… when I was originally thinking I’d be making a lot of dolls… and that I am just now thinking about getting back to my doll making again. I have taken a few baby steps getting back into it by beginning my Izannah Walker doll workshop… well, okay. I’ve cut out the pattern pieces and traced them onto my fabric. 🙂 I hope to get a bit more done this weekend, and perhaps paint and clothe one of those patient dollies sitting on my work table.
But for now, I have bunches of new ornaments to share. Chenille dog ornaments for small dog lovers with a pug, a terrier, and a little mutt in the set; two sets of chenille St. Patrick’s Day ornaments, and another new spun cotton ornament. I have yet another mostly-finished spun cotton Easter rabbit ornament that I will also be offering for sale soon. All of the ornaments below are available now in the Old World Primitives Etsy Shop.
This weekend I reluctantly packed away my Christmas tree and ornaments and all of my santas, belsnickles, lights, garlands and other Christmas decorations and bid them farewell until the next holiday season. I am always a bit sad to see all of them go. My very favorite Santa doll will be staying put all winter long because he’s just too fun to pack away so soon. But, now there is room to start bringing out some Valentine goodies.
This week I added two new sets of chenille ornaments to my Etsy shop – a new set of cat ornaments and a new set of Easter ornaments. I made each set versatile enough to be multi-seasonal too if you’re like me and like to stretch out each holiday season as long as you possibly can.
I am also excited to announce that I will be offering a new line of spun cotton ornaments in 2010. My first offering has sold already (photo below), but more will be added to the Old World Primitives Etsy Shop soon.
I still have some primitive dolls to finish up as well – they have been sitting neglected in my little studio for too long now and will be getting some more attention this week. And in just one more week, I will also be starting on another new adventure – learning to make Izannah Walker style dolls, courtesy of Dixie Redmond’s Izannah Walker Workshop. I cannot wait to get started learning how to make these beautiful antique style dolls. If you would like to join me, a link to the workshop is below. I am sure it will be both challenging and great fun!
Wishing you and yours a happy and safe holiday season! I am excited that we should have a white Christmas this year – the foot of snow that fell here last weekend hasn’t done too much melting yet.
On to my exciting news that I have to share – I am honored to have one of my chenille angel ornaments featured on the cover of the Winter 2009 issue of Celebrate 365 magazine. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my copy of the magazine to get a peek at what is inside as well. A picture of the cover is below.
I also have two new sets of two Valentine’s Day ornaments to share. Both sets are available now in my Old World Primitives Etsy shop. These little Victorian ladies are made of chenille with crepe paper skirts.
December is such a fun and festive month here… I love decorating my primitive twig tree, each year with a few more new ornaments than the last. I always keep some pine scented candles burning throughout the month to make it smell like we have a real tree. As I unwrap my winter folk art decorations and place them about the house, each one brings smiles and gets me in the Christmas spirit. Below are a few peeks at my primitive Christmas decor this year.
I have also been working on some new ornament designs for next year, beginning with Valentine’s Day. I added a new set of vintage style chenille cupid ornaments to my Old World Primitives Etsy shop today. They are ready for the season of love with their Valentine hearts and arrows.
I added a new set of kitty themed chenille ornaments to my Old World Primitives Etsy shop this past week – a set of 3 calico cats with paper Victorian scrap faces. I have some hanging from the feather tree on my mantel and looking quite festive.
This holiday season has been keeping me quite busy with wholesale orders, but I am determined to complete some new dolls that I have been working on by the end of the coming week. Below is a peek at them as works in progress, sitting behind and beneath a small sea of Christmas ornaments that I will be packing up tonight.
I hope to be showing these dolls completed very soon.
This week finds me once again busily preparing items for both The Witches Ball on October 10th in Mount Holly, NJ (can’t wait – it looks like it will be such a fun evening!) and the next Early Work Mercantile update on October 1st. The fun weekend excursions of fall have also begun – if the weather cooperates this weekend, I will be taking a trip out to beautiful Lancaster County, PA to do some shopping, get lost in a corn maze, and soak in the beautiful sights in the countryside. I am also looking forward to going to The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze again this year.
I have also managed to squeeze in two new additions to the Old World Primitives Etsy shop. First is a set of 2 vintage style Halloween ornaments made of chenille, crepe paper, and vintage witch faces printed on card stock. The set includes 2 of the wee witch pictured below.
Second is a set of 3 Victorian angel Christmas ornaments made of chenille and Victorian angel faces printed on card stock. They can be used as feather tree ornaments for Christmas or everyday, and would also make nice handmade wedding favors.
Today I am taking a short break from furiously preparing Halloween orders and show inventory to share the newest addition to the Old World Primitives Etsy shop – a new set of 3 vintage style chenille Christmas ornaments.
Each Christmas ornament is made of chenille, Victorian Santa and vintage Christmas images printed on card stock, and a mini frosted Christmas tree. They are the perfect size to use as either feather tree or Christmas tree ornaments. They also make great gifts, and come packaged in a clear cellophane bag tied with a bow.
I just added a new set of 3 vintage style chenille Halloween ornaments to the Old World Primitives Etsy shop. Each Halloween ornament is handmade of chenille and hand cut vintage Halloween images printed on card stock.
I also added this new set of Halloween ornaments to the Old World Primitives Etsy shop last week.
And now I have some garden photos to share – what a difference our new raised beds with great quality soil have made this year! We are using organic and/or heirloom seeds and seedlings, and absolutely no pesticides or chemicals. No fertilizer has been used yet, but we’ll add some of the organic compost that we are creating in our backyard Earth Machine composter soon.
My orange bell pepper plants are so happy and healthy this year! I can’t wait for them to get ripe.
Does anyone need any jalapeños?? I didn’t realize these plants were going to be so prolific – in a couple more weeks, we’ll be swimming in them!
This row of red and white onions were planted from seedlings, and they are extremely happy. I made the mistake of planting snow peas right next to them and THEN reading that snow peas don’t like to be next to onions, but they are still steadily producing nonetheless.
These are my onions planted from seed, after thinning, with my herbs behind them – dill, basil, parsley, and cilantro. I went a little too crazy with the cilantro.
Grape tomatoes – I picked and ate a few after I took this shot.
The biggest cluster of tomatoes I have ever grown – 9 and counting!
Help, help – the pickle cucumbers are coming! My husband is a pickle fanatic, so we planted 23 pickle cucumber plants this year. The canning might begin this weekend or early next week.