Friday is For Relaxing

It's Friday today and I was planning on taking the day off and relaxing a bit, since I usually work through the weekend anyway. It's a rainy day and seems like the thing to do. It's almost noon, though, and I still have to go through photos and list my rat girls on Etsy, so perhaps the sitting back and being chill is going to have to happen later. Ah well, the life of a country doll maker :)

I have 5 new rats done for the week. It actually takes a lot longer to make each one than I imagined would be the case, but I am still having fun, so it's my little labor of love. I have continued to find little furniture pieces for them, and can now switch things in and out and change it up a bit. At least the rats can relax, as they have some furniture that fits them, a room to sit in, and they haven't much to do for the day other than look pretty and sit.

I seem to have gone a little miniature crazy. Besides a few more pieces of furniture, I have gone onto Amazon (usually a big mistake) and found some books on miniatures. I almost can't resist. Everything is just so darned cute! I hope I can find others who are interested in doing little 1/12 scale things. It's really quite fun.

If you don't require umpteen million books to satisfy your curiosity, a lot of the stuff can be had for cheap. There are little furniture kits and also used furniture available out there for in the $10 range, so that as a weekend project you could paint a little chair and have something to add to your scene without feeling like you spent all your hard earned money.

Hopefully you will find a bit of charm in my rats and rabbits and other tinies and see potential for your own scenes and room settings. The stuffed things also go nicely in Blythe scenes if you aren't for the teeny tiny miniature stuff.

My plan for the weekend is to make a few dresses for the rat girls and maybe look into some things for the walls of my little room box. I haven't worked on putting together any faux paintings yet, and I think that might be fun.

I am inspired a little by the old-timey children's books with their illustrations of animals in little jackets and trousers. I want my little rat girls to be a little less countrified, and more city fancy, but the works of Beatrix Potter and Tasha Tudor certainly come to mind.

We are running into a cold snap here for the week, so staying inside seems again the thing to do. It won't be long before winter hits here, and even this morning we had a tiny dusting of snow, and still there are little flakes flitting around outside my window. Nothing sticking yet, but it won't be long.  I hope this is a good weekend for you.  Stay warm.  Stay creative and always find time to play.

Rat Style - All Dolled Up

The Fancy Girls

I have not blogged in forever.  I don't know what has gotten into me today, but I feel like blogging!  So here goes.

Aggie

I have been working for a month on little mohair animals.  Bears and rabbits mainly.  This past weekend I got the idea that rats in fancy dresses would be just the thing.

Aggie

I knew I wanted them to have skinny limbs.  Rats don't have fat arms and legs like bears.  They have wiry limbs.  So, I drew up a long pointy nosed pattern and added in some skinny legs and arms.  The legs should have boots and heels, I thought, so I gave them that as well. 

Little Debbie

I have been messing around with traditional teddy bear making stuff - cotter pins and disks.  They make the limbs move, especially the head, around and around.  The rats should have movable heads, so I gave them those.  The legs and arms, since I like to pull them in tight and because they are quite skinny, I gave button twist joints instead, and put vintage buttons on the outsides of each limb. 

Little Debbie

The rats are between 5 and 6" tall.  That is roughly dollhouse scale.  They are probably a little fatter than most dollhouse folk, but it seems like the furniture fits them pretty well. That led me, of course, to look into making my own dollhouse setting for them.  

Francine

That will have to come later, as I did order a bunch of stuff for a roombox, but it won't arrive for another week or 2.  Hopefully I will be sharing that with you soon.

Francine

So anyway, back to the rats.  I gave them fancy dresses, which all good ratty girls should have.  The contrast is lovely, in my mind.

Martha

Fancy dresses for ratty girls.  I hope to make a bunch of them and then offer dresses for them in addition to the ones they come with, so that they are more like a small doll - with changeable clothing.  I think they will need other things as well.  Perhaps hats and maybe furniture.  We shall see what I come up with, but I am a little inspired at the moment.  It brings back childhood memories or little mice dressed in finery.

Martha

I have included some photos of the girls.  Hope you are all having a lovely season of creating!

Dancing the Can-Can