Hope you are enjoying the holiday season!

Festival of Trees

I hope you are enjoying the holiday season!  Recently my husband Bob and I went to see the Festival of Trees at the Dulles building in Watertown. 

Bob and I at the Festival of Trees

 We had to pose in front of the choir! 

 

Westelcom tree

This is the Westelcom tree that my son Jason helped decorate. 

 

3D printed decorations

He 3D printed some of the decorations.

 

Year of the Dragon tree

One of the trees I found quite creative was the year of the dragon tree.

 

Under the Sea themed tree

Another one I particular enjoyed was this under the sea themed tree.

 

Nerissa by Andrea Baughman

 Speaking of under the sea, Andrea Baughman, shared with me this picture of the mermaid she created after taking my class Sleeping Mermaid.  She is so talented and creative!  I just love how it turned out!

 

Sleeping Mermaids by Marla L. Niederer

Until next time…..

the warmest of hugs and best wishes,

Marla

New Year, New Projects!

Of course I didn't add complete my unfinished projects to my New Year resolutions list.  How ridiculous would that be?  Instead I chose to embark on three new projects.  I am very excited about each one.  First since I so thoroughly enjoyed presenting an online class on the A for Artistic website, I decided to create another one.   And since I was working on one online class why not work on two at the same time?

This is a picture of the needle-sculpted heads I am working on for the two new workshops.  They both will utilize new watercolor techniques that I have developed for facial coloring.  My goal is to create the dolls to look like they have just walked out of a watercolor painting.  I must say I am really enjoying the process of creating them.

The third project came about during the holidays while I was surfing the net (yes sometimes I do get lost there).  I found a website that just absolutely touched my heart.  It is called Enchanted Makeovers.  You can see it by clicking here:         http://enchantedmakeovers.org/      The organization does makeovers of homeless shelters for women and children so they can have a place that is inspiring to a transformation in their lives.  It doesn't use the traditional let me help you philosophy.  It utilizes the philosophy where everyone in the equation is on equal ground and each person works together to enrich each others lives.  I contacted Terry who is the founder of the organization and asked if it would help if I created a pattern and tutorial for a child friendly stuffed doll for Enchanted Makeovers.  She was really excited about the project so I started to develop a pattern for "Warm Hugs."  I just  started working on developing the pattern and will keep you posted when I get a little further along and have some pictures to share.  

All Dressed Up for Halloween!

A few years ago I used Peggy Wilson's body pattern for her Long Tall Sally doll and designed this costume and hairdo that she is wearing with Halloween colors.  I had so much fun dressing her!  Wishing everyone a Happy Halloween!

Blushing Brides

I am working on more wedding cake toppers.  Here are some of the blushing brides.

This is a close up of one of the brides.  Now I am off to sew some tuxedos for the grooms!