(Inside A Black Apple)

The Birds and the Bees Sophies

Hello, hello! I'd like to present the new batch of Sophies (that will be for sale in the update tomorrow) all decked out in woodland finery...

 
I am really in love with this grey bee fabric. I snagged it in Portland on my visit! I'd love to have a bee dress...

 

This owl fabric is vintage cotton (it came from a blouse) and I barely have any left, so this girl is especially special.

Thanks for all the "Sleepy Boy" love! The more I look at them, the more I am obsessed. There is so much stuff I want to keep for myself this update!!!

Happy Monday! 

"When you're walking down the street, and you see a little ghost"...

Did anyone else think that little song was pretty much the highlight of Be Kind Rewind?  I mean, besides the Fats Waller "biopic"?

So it looks like Tuesday's update is shaping up to be a very haunted one, and here's a pretty fantastic addition to the ghost-party.
Remember when I mentioned a new "marsupial" doll?

What could be hiding in there, peeping out with those two little beady eyes?

Ah HA!

I'm about half-way through the new David Sedaris book, and I semi-accidentally bought $14.95 worth of cherries, so this weekend is shaping up to be a pretty nice one.

More painting, and some more dollies to photograph & I'll see you soon!

Owlette

I just returned from a very exceptional and marathon-length lunch with one of my favorite friends-that-I-never-see (hence the marathon element of catching up), and I also brought her this little doll I made for her:

The reason for the little owl-in-pocket is that she is newly expecting a little person.

Who could've known that my dolls are, in fact, marsupials?

More Sams...

I finished up some more Sleepy Sams, who had been sitting in various stages of faceless-ness and open-brained-ness for quite a few days. I really, really, love these guys.

I am really loving designing and making the dolls/"soft sculpture" these days...maybe it's a by-product of the hullaballoo about the little dolls and Martha and all that? Going into that experience, I would've said "I'm a painter, an illustrator....and I make dolls. Sometimes. They're not my main thing, but I do make them sometimes".
But now I don't know...I feel like they've crept up in importance to me.
Creepin' like a  rabbit.

I've been in a productive flurry of making recently, and it feels very good. Antisocial, but in the best possible way.

This is what my work table looks like when I'm working on a painting. Not glamorous, but it gets the job done. A friend once said, while looking at my work table: "Oh, Emily! There is dried paint everywhere! You should keep your work table neat and clean".
To which I say: A work table is for working.

I've got some pretty new paintings to show you, and I will as soon as I have them scanned.  And I hope the weekend was good to everyone! We've got cook-out plans tonight with some of our favorites...and if it doesn't rain, it will be a nice feather in the  weekend's cap.

Sleepy Sam(s)

Hooray again for all the swell comments and thoughtful rec's from the last post!
I slogged through all eight-hundred-and-something of them, and found the gals that the RNG chose. Blaze, Amy, Marisa, Rebecca, and Angela...all of you have emails in your inboxes from me, and I'll get your fabric packages out the door as soon as I get your addresses from you. And thank you so much to everyone else for indulging me and letting me share some of my extra fabric-stash with you.

But back to the regularly-scheduled making of things!

I've been sketching these really cute characters lately, and we have named them "The Sleepy Kids". I think it's because they look as if they've had hard lives at the ripe old age of 7 or 8, and have very sleepy eyelids. Anyway, I've been plotting to make a sleepy boy doll, and sketching about that, too. I drafted an initial pattern, and made the prototype as a birthday gift for my pal Devlin, and now I can show it to you since it's already been gifted.

Sleepy Sam, version one:

I love him (and so, I think, does Devlin and his bada** wife, Mandy). But I wanted to tweak the pattern just a bit, in the way the head attaches to the body and also the arms.

So I set back to work on the pattern, and made a second version of Sleepy Sam yesterday afternoon:

As you can see, I kept the shape of the excellent little legs exactly as they were.

They're both such dapper little chaps.

Not planning on eating cheesesteaks...

...but we are

(Above you will see the little boy doll that I made as the first "test" of the boy-version of the doll pattern. He is now the boyfriend of my favorite little Pinky).

We will return later this week!
Have a good one, my sweet applets.

Ghostie

I've been playing around with making some little sculptures recently, and I thought I would show you a  ghostlet (these have been making the rounds, both in my sketchbook and in plush form here) ...

I think he's saying "Oh my goodness! I'm so happy that these two reached Portland safe and sound."

Also, in the shop now are the newest prints from the images included in the last update..."Snow, Rose + Bear", "Creeping Corridor", etc.

Dinner guests tonight, and straightening up the studio to do.

See you soon!

Vintage Velvets Sophie Dolls

Isn't this a sweet batch? I'm getting all of the listings ready for the update, but I wanted to pop over and post a few photos of these sweet girls and their lovely silk velvet frocks.

Silk velvet is a trickster to sew with, but it was totally worth it. I want to keep all 4 of these for myself! Of course, I won't, and they'll be in the shop in just a little bit!

UPDATE: Hello my dears. That was a very crazy-fast update, as lots of the comments have said. Thank you! I hope no-one is too very down-hearted about it, because there will be more soft things in May! And who knows, maybe there will be something you like more or better? I'm already scheming up new designs and images! And there will be a new product for the shop tomorrow or Friday that I'm pretty flippin' excited about.

Thank you again, so much.

xoxo

Three Boys, a Girl, a Ghost, etc...

I was finally able to photograph all of the dolls that are completely finished. So, you guys can get a look at the "boy modification" of the regular small-dollie pattern:

Cute n' Handsome, right? Those girls have been needing some company. I think the little gingham-guy on the left is my favorite...but maybe that's just 'cause I favor the raven-haired.

Also, here is a one-of-a-kind girl doll  I've been working on. She is lucky (and cool) enough to have a pet ghost (who can be attached or detached to her arm by way of a little loop of felt on his backside):

She has "legs for days", as the saying goes. I'm really happy with the way she turned out...there might be more in the future, with a few minor tweaks here and there, but for now, she is the only one of her kind.

And here is a little "Hollywood Squares"-ish peek at the girl-dolls that will be in the update on Wednesday:

That's all for this doll-happy post! See you tomorrow with more goodness for the update.

xoxo

The Rabbits have a message for you...

As the creepers said, there will be a shop update a week from today (Wednesday) with loads of dolls and new paintings. Huzzah!

Also, here are a few more photos of the two new creeping rabbits I made over the weekend (I'm so crazy about the peppermint-striped flannel that the new red one is made from).
As always, you can click to make the image much larger.

It's a beautiful, nice day around these parts. Oh, the mildness of Spring...how quickly you give 'way to the brutal Summer. That just means I have to appreciate it while it's here!

I hope everyone is having a nice week, and Spring is treating you well.