Just because you are a chronological adult doesn't mean you should give up your toys!  Great toys spark the imagination, let you play, and increase creativity.  I think I was drawn to making art dolls as my primary medium because of my lifelong affinity for toys.  They are kind of grown up toys but they still connect me to enchantment.  

I've wanted to make plushie things for a long time, but the fear that they would not sell and my utter lack of any sewing skill were sizable barriers.  It took a complete collapse of the desire to make most of my popular things anymore to push me to try my hand.

So I bought a tutorial from Typing with Tea  And made my first ever felt thing.  Made about all the mistakes possible!

So with a little unwanted cat help from Kokopelli (he has a long way to go to be my dark craft apprentice), I made my own pattern to try.  I can happily say I know what a gusset is now!  

Made many fewer mistakes, biggest of which is the shape of the nose and placement of legs and embroidery detail, but my skills seem to be moving in the right direction!  My first pattern and my second plushie of cheap felt.  His little legs are poseable :)  

So now I am on to making another pattern for a furry thing!  

Been more than 6 months since I really made anything.  Striking a balance between being artsy and doing what you love and meeting business demands is difficult.  And I was training a new cat helper along the way!  I once heard Joyce Carol Oates speak and she talked about periods of time where she didn't write like the same way a farmer lets a field lie fallow.  Letting the ground rest for a season allows it to become a fertile place for growing.  

After FaerieCon, I didn't feel like making a single damn thing.  Caught between the pull of marketing advice, "make identifiable lines of things for brand identity" and the feeling that I really didn't particularly want to be making those very things.  I began to feel like I was working in my own little sweat shop.  And I made nothing at all.  

And so almost all of the things I used to make are retiring.  My Fairy Wing necklaces are the first on the chopping block.  The last few are at Into The Myst in Bethlehem, PA  Once they are gone, you'll be able to make your own, I am working on a tutorial for them!

Next on the chopping block are both my wing earrings and the steampunk flower earrings.  The last few of these are in my shop right now for a limited time!

I'll not be making any of my steampunk necklaces anymore either.....