Rag Pets

blank

I've been feeling a bit blah lately, finding it hard to rustle up inspiration and motivation. Hence, it's been a bit quiet here, despite my determination to post more.

You'd think that there was nothing scary about a blank piece of paper, because really, the worst it can do is give you a paper-cut, right? But when you're lacking in inspiration, it's a scary thing indeed. Much like any idea that's waiting to be made real, it just sits there and... expects things from you. And you know you can do it, it's just so very hard to get things done when you're feeling blank and blah and you end up sort of paralysed by it all. I love making plushies, but getting to the actual making bit is sometimes overwhelmingly hard.

There are times I wish that there was a pill that would give you limitless motivation and fire up your inspiration!

Happy Doll Festival!

I've been meaning to share more about my life outside of the Rag Pets, since I'm a lot more things besides being a toy making elf.
So, as today is Hinamatsuri, the festival of dolls, I thought I'd post a bit about my dolls here. I've been collecting Blythe dolls for about 5 years now and currently have 8½ of them (the ½ is because one of them is a "Petite Blythe", a much littler version of the full sized ones). I also have an Una Moof and a bunch of old and new Barbies hanging around too.

(You can see more pictures of my dolls in my Flickr, here: Dolls!)

I've been a big fan of dolls ever since I was a kid, even though soft toys were (and still are) number one in my heart, so much so that when my friends would tote around baby dolls in their toy prams, I would have a teddy bear or other plushie in mine! Still, I played with Barbies well into my teens, and one of the reasons I wanted to learn how to sew was so I could make clothes for them myself.
I quite enjoy fiddling with tiny little bits of fabric when making doll clothing, there's just something oddly relaxing about working in miniature! Of course having cute and quirky dolls as my muses makes it all the more marvelous too. My love of making mini-clothes is also why the Rag Pets have clothing that can be taken off and put on; I like the challenge of making actual working items of clothing in a tiny scale.

It's also thanks to dolls that I've made a whole bunch of wonderful friends all over the world, and starting to collect dolls again relit my love of photographing as well. It's quite amazing how big an impact dolls have had on my life really, and it's also the main reason I like to celebrate Hinamatsuri, even if it's not a holiday that's observed here in Finland.

Happy Hinamatsuri everyone! :)