The Olive Sparrow Child – Rohnan

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Summer, ah, you elusive season. We spent time driving Huxley to and from day camps – fun camp, canoe camp, farm camp, sport camp; we spent a week in Tobermory in a rented cottage – with daddy sick for 3 of the 7 days there; we hung around the home and got errands done; we visited my most lovely friend in Bracebridge; we went to the Toronto Zoo, Toronto Island, the wave pool in Richmond Hill, African Lion Safari, the Art Gallery of Ontario; we slept one night in the tent in the back yard; we touched sting rays, elephants, baby goats, wild chipmunks; we saw an owl, lots of snakes (water snakes and land snakes), frogs, wild lions, water snails, wild rabbit, marmot; we sang songs about not skating in buffalo herds; we went to the local public swimming pool; we watched cartoons; we ate ice cream from a great new ice cream spot up on the Danforth; rode in a speed boat; swam in Georgian Bay's turquoise coloured water; hiked along the Bruce Trail; collected rocks at Dyers bay; touched the flowerpots on Flowerpot Island; ate Birthday cake (mine); made a dream catcher; watched sunsets and stayed up until dark; roasted marshmallows over an open fire; and spent lots of time swinging in our hammock at home. All this wonderful activity, combined with my computer deciding that it had no more room for any new photos is the result of my absence from my beloved blog – a break I needed too. 

Today we are at the end of the first week back to school and I have spent this week in the kitchen putting by tomatoes. Three bushels have been processed, another one is awaiting my hands labour. 

Rohnan, an Olive Sparrow Child flew the nest in mid August. His pictures got misplaced and I only found the card with them the other day, so here he is:

Rohan-portrait-hat-2 

Rohnan is 30 cm (11") tall and was created for a little two year old boy that is a new member of my dearest friends extended family. The little boy has blond hair and blue eyes, so does Rohnan. 

Rohan-portrait-hat-2

His shirt is made from a re-claimed linen blouse. I wanted a real shirt, but because the little boy is only 2, did not want to put real buttons or snaps (I do not like velcro for dolls clothing), so I sewed a fully lined shirt and sewed it stitched with embroidered buttons. 

Rohan-portrait-hat-2

The hat is knitted out of quivit yarn, handdyed to match the blues of his vest, which in turn was made from a felted very soft woolen sweater. 

Rohan-portrait-hat-2

Deciding on the colours for Rohnans' pants was not easy. I was debating between a khaki green and the bluish linen I ended up using. Huxley helped my decide, he stated that for a two-year old boy it would be wrong to have a doll that has pants that could be military pants. Even after I pointed out to him that adventurers and safari men also wear khaki, he maintained his position that it wouldn't be suitable for the little boy. My dearest friends own son also preferred the lighter pants – Rohnan seems to be very happy with them. 

Rohan-portrait-hat-2

Like so many little boys, Rohnan is very daring and loves his wooden truck. I asked him to please come down and stay safe, which he did promptly – with a huge smile on his face. 
Rohan-portrait-hat-2 

Rohnan jumped down and was off to his next adventure…. 

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Each doll is made up of the following materials.

Skin: 100% cotton (Swiss-made to Öko-Tex-Standard 100)
Stuffing 100% “green-processed” wool batt from Canada
Hair: 100% Wool, or a Mohair/Wool Blend
Clothing: 100% natural fibres (linen, cotton, silk)
Shoes: Recycled felted wool sweaters, or pure leather
Face: 100% cotton Embroidery Thread

Workmanship:
Each doll is created individually by artist Monika Aebischer, the proprietor of The Olive Sparrow. She sources and uses only the highest quality materials in her creations – swiss-made skin fabric, Canadian green processed wool stuffing,  wool/mohair for the dolls hair (often hand-dyed by her). Hair for the Olive Sparrow Children is made by crocheting a cap that is sewn to the head, allowing for replacement should it ever become necessary (although most children will object to this, as it changes their doll dramatically). For the wispy hair, a special german mohair is used and a labour-intense technique, for the loose longer hair each strand of wool is individually knotted into the crocheted cap. This is the prime technique for doll-wig creation.

Doll clothing is made from up-cycled vintage and clothing fabrics, in either pure linen, cotton or silk. Up-cycled fabric is wonderful for doll clothes, as the cloth has been washed soft, gentle and free of textile manufacturing products. Monika also felts used woolen sweaters to use for doll shoes and clothing. She knits the doll’s hats out of prime quality knitting wool. Each seam on the doll’s body is sewn twice to allow your child to fiercely love their Olive Sparrow Child. Clothing is sewn with French seams and some are fully reversible.

 

The Olive Sparrow Child – Fairy

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A lovely fairy has flown away to be with her chosen fairy-mother. She arrived at the birthday of the little girl who turned seven yesterday. As some fairies can sometimes be a bit tardy and easily distracted, she only arrived at dinnertime.

Fairy-1-face 

A fairy traveling cocoon. Imagine, a fairy can't just travel through the city outside of the cocoon for everyone to see, she needs to have a place she can feel save in and also know that this will make her appearance a bigger surprise for the little girl.

Fairy-1-face 

Fairies can be shy, out little one was at first very shy when I took her into the garden to take pictures of her. 

Fairy-1-face 

But she hopped onto the chair I had set out for her and decorated with her favourite flowers — Windflowers, also known as Wood Anemone.

The mother of the girl shared with me the little girls favourite doll from the book Flower Fairies of the Spring by Cicely Mary Barker – The Windflower Fairy. 

Fairy-1-face

Our fairy turned to face me after I promised to let her read from the book that has her picture inside.

Fairy-1-face 

Fairy-1-face 

 Here is her poem, as written by Cicely Mary Barker in 1923

While human-folk slumber,

    The fairies espy

Stars withough number

    Sprinkling the sky.

 

The Winter's long sleeping,

    Like night-time, is done;

But day-stars are leaping

    To welcome the sun.

 

Star-like they sprinkle

    The wildwood with light;

Countless they twinkle–

    The Windflowers white!

 

 Fairy-1-face

("Windflower" is another name for Wood Anemone.)

I have just completed a felting workshop with the lovely Marjolein Dallinga from Bloomfelt so I wanted to create some wood anemone inspired flowers for the Fairy to take with her to the little girl.

Fairy-1-face

Our fairy was soon curious and not so shy anymore, as she looked around the garden and after a while, she even loved having her picture taken.

Fairy-1-face

Since the little girl would love to take the fairy along with her on outings, it was fitting that there would be a hat for the fairy to wear. Fairy hair is so easily tangled up in sunshine and sometimes the wind tries to carry strands of it away. (Birds also love to have it in their nests, as it protects the eggs and the newly hatched young ones).

 Fairy-1-face 

Fairy-1-face 

Fairy-1-face

The Fairy loved playing with the flowers and soon forgot that she was ever shy. 

Fairy-1-face

 So we went back to the first spot and she stood there for me to take another picture.

 

I'm very much inspired by the Fairy books and I hope that there are many more that will come to life in the months and years to come. Making a Fairy doll holds special responsibility, as it is an essence that needs to be captured, more than a like-ness.  

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The dress of the Fairy was sewn from two layers of very fine cotton batiste. A pink one and a blue one. This way it has the almost irridenscent quality of the lilac in the picture of the book. The long wrap around her shoulder is also cotton batiste.

Curly, wavy hair was a special requisite that the little girls mom made to me me. I remember my mother many years ago knitting up some left over wool, washing and drying it and then unraveling it to create textured wool to decorate a dwarf's face with it. I love the springiness this creates in the doll's hair, yet it looks different from the boucle yarn often used for curly hair.

The Fairy is 52 cm / 20" tall 

Each doll is made up of the following materials.

Skin: 100% cotton (Swiss-made to Öko-Tex-Standard 100)
Stuffing 100% “green-processed” wool batt from Canada
Hair: 100% Wool, or a Mohair/Wool Blend
Clothing: 100% natural fibres (linen, cotton, silk)
Shoes: Recycled felted wool sweaters, or pure leather
Face: 100% cotton Embroidery Thread

Workmanship:
Each doll is created individually by artist Monika Aebischer, the proprietor of The Olive Sparrow. She sources and uses only the highest quality materials in her creations – swiss-made skin fabric, Canadian green processed wool stuffing,  wool/mohair for the dolls hair (often hand-dyed by her). Hair for the Olive Sparrow Children is made by crocheting a cap that is sewn to the head, allowing for replacement should it ever become necessary (although most children will object to this, as it changes their doll dramatically). For the wispy hair, a special german mohair is used and a labour-intense technique, for the loose longer hair each strand of wool is individually knotted into the crocheted cap. This is the prime technique for doll-wig creation.

Doll clothing is made from up-cycled vintage and clothing fabrics, in either pure linen, cotton or silk. Up-cycled fabric is wonderful for doll clothes, as the cloth has been washed soft, gentle and free of textile manufacturing products. Monika also felts used woolen sweaters to use for doll shoes and clothing. She knits the doll’s hats out of prime quality knitting wool. Each seam on the doll’s body is sewn twice to allow your child to fiercely love their Olive Sparrow Child. Clothing is sewn with French seams and some are fully reversible.

 

Summer Solstice Celebration

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To mark the longest day in the year Huxley got to stay up until dark. That was always a dream of mine and at seven, he can handle it. 

I returned home from an appointment at 9pm, at which time we took a blanket out into the backyard with a bowl of fresh local strawberries, some yogurt and honey drizzles. The mosquitos promptly chased us to the front porch, where they don't like to hang out. 

As the light changed to that wondrous summer-evening dusk quality we decided to go for a walk through what is referred to as the dog-park in our neighbourhood. We did not meet any dogs, but we discussed how in the olden days this day was often considered the day of the fairies. Huxley said that was silly, as there are no such things. On our walk, we passed through a collection of trees, crossing a little bridge (although there is no water underneath it) and we paused there. Looking into the very dark woods, I got Huxley thinking about the darkness and how without street lights it would be easy to imagine that fairies move among the trees.

Our walk took us through the playground too, where we stopped for a bit of time on the swings. The sky darkened, but it was still not really dark (living in the city procludes that). Returning home, we each litt up sparkling candles in lieu of having a bonefire. 

Now the days will get shorter again. Knowing this makes my soul feel a bit on the heavy side, yet working in the garden and having summer vacation ahead of us lightens that feeling.

Did you mark the Solstice?

The Olive Sparrow Child – Molly

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A lovely customer in Australia contacted me about a custom doll just after I insured my finger at the studio. I was so excited and yet so sad, because with the finger not working, most tasks in creating an Olive Sparrow Child are just impossible. Yet the finger started healing, I gently and gingerly worked on the doll over the past months. When I was able to remove the cast during the day, the finger was very stiff, but I actually think that I helped heal faster by working with it. 

About a week ago the doctor gave me the go-ahead of living cast free again, except for heavy work. Now the doll is finished and I am so excited to show her to you.

Gardening 

I asked her for her name and she said Molly. This is what I do with my Olive Sparrow Children, when they are complete, I hold them in my arms, I give them a big hug and ask for their name. Molly immediately responded.

Gardening 

We had beautiful weather yesterday afternoon, and she asked me to go into the garden to have a picnic amongst the strawberry plants. 

 
Gardening

Molly loves bunnies and she wanted to have her picnic with them.

Gardening 

She tacked up Huxley's play horse and wagon to bring all the dishes and bunnies outside.

Gardening 

It was very warm yesterday (27 Celcisus), so Molly took off her shoes and smock. But she was still hot, so when she started running around the garden, she decided that just wearing her smock and bloomers was just the thing to do.

Gardening 

The smock is reversible, and the natural linen side is shown here.

Gardening

Molly loves her cotton hat and thinks that it just looks so stylish that even though it is hot, she can still wear it.

 

I showed Molly the roses that have just started to bloom in the garden and she immediately wanted to see them up close. I asked her to put some of her clothes on again, as the thorns of the roses can prick her. She was happy to oblige.

Gardening 

Gardening 

The rose is called Rosemarie (my mother's name) and the sweetest, softest pink, and a heavenly scent.

Gardening 

Here Molly wanted to put on her green silk scarf to show you how warmly dressed she will travel to Australia.

Gardening 

Molly then wanted to pretend being a gardener, cultivating her own flowers. She changed her clothes again and is wearing her silk scarf as a kerchief.

We heard some birds chirpping and thought we should go see if we can find a nest. So we went to the front of the house to climb up the sour cherry tree.

Gardening 

Phew.. that was a lot of work, but we did find a nest.

Gardening

That bird told us that his twin sister also had a nest with eggs, right across the street, in front of the high school in one of their young apple trees. We bide farewell to her and headed over.

Gardening 

What a magical encounter.

We were starting to feel tired and hungry.  

Gardening 

Molly sat in the high chair and had a little snack.

Which gave her a whole lot more energy and she decided that she wanted to play dress-up again, it was really hot after all.

Gardening 

Now I have to admitt, that I was getting tired, and asked her to put her travel outfit back on so that we could take some more pictures for her future family in Australia. She was happy to oblige.

Gardening

Gardening
Gardening

Gardening

Now Molly is waiting for her trip to Australia. Unfortunately, we're in the middle of a postal strike. Hopefully it will be over soon, and Molly can go on her long trip. She is such a sweet soul and so much fun, that it will be hard to let her go. 

Molly is 38cm tall (about 14.9")

Each doll is made up of the following materials.

Skin: 100% cotton (Swiss-made to Öko-Tex-Standard 100)
Stuffing 100% “green-processed” wool batt from Canada
Hair: 100% Wool, or a Mohair/Wool Blend
Clothing: 100% natural fibres (linen, cotton, silk)
Shoes: Recycled felted wool sweaters, or pure leather
Face: 100% cotton Embroidery Thread

Workmanship:
Each doll is created individually by artist Monika Aebischer, the proprietor of The Olive Sparrow. She sources and uses only the highest quality materials in her creations – swiss-made skin fabric, Canadian green processed wool stuffing,  wool/mohair for the dolls hair (often hand-dyed by her). Hair for the Olive Sparrow Children is made by crocheting a cap that is sewn to the head, allowing for replacement should it ever become necessary (although most children will object to this, as it changes their doll dramatically). For the wispy hair, a special german mohair is used and a labour-intense technique, for the loose longer hair each strand of wool is individually knotted into the crocheted cap. This is the prime technique for doll-wig creation.

Doll clothing is made from up-cycled vintage and clothing fabrics, in either pure linen, cotton or silk. Up-cycled fabric is wonderful for doll clothes, as the cloth has been washed soft, gentle and free of textile manufacturing products. Monika also felts used woolen sweaters to use for doll shoes and clothing. She knits the doll’s hats out of prime quality knitting wool. Each seam on the doll’s body is sewn twice to allow your child to fiercely love their Olive Sparrow Child. Clothing is sewn with French seams and some are fully reversible.