Tuesday Talent - Elana Garus

 Elana Garus is a Russian artist from the Moscow region of Russia.  And that really is all I know about the lady.  However I know I really love her dolls.

She makes two styles of doll, one all cloth and this style with a baked plastic face, hand and feet.  They are dressed impeccably with lovely details.

They are quite small, standing around nine or ten inches.

Check out her instagram page and her Etsy shop
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ElenaGarus. Lovely work and a pleasure to admire.

Peggy, A Little Lancashire Witch

 Peggy is a little Lancashire witch in the blues and greys of winter.  She has a hand painted and embroidered face with hand styled wool tops for hair.

Her dress is a Liberty Tana Lawn print and she has coordinating underskirts and knickers.  She is finished with leather shoes, tiny buttons and organza ribbon.  Her black wool felt witch's hat sits at a jaunty angle and she has a portrait of her cat on her lavender sachet.

She is softly stuffed with a good stuffing, she has lots of lavender in her stuffing for a gentle scent and a rose quartz crystal at her heart for love.  She has a knowing smile and I thing she would make a gentle companion.  I hope you like her.

The Leather I Use

 The little shoes that all my dolls have are leather.  I do not use any synthetic material they are all made from bookbinding leather in small pieces I buy from specialist retailers.

To use on the sewing machine you ideally want leather not thicker than 0.6mm and certainly no more that 1mm.  If you buy small pieces they are much cheaper per square inch than the large skivers you can buy and buying lots of smaller pieces means that you have plenty of colours to choose from.  I tend to work on the suede side of the leather because I prefer the look but the shoes look just as good leather side up.

The best place to buy bookbinding leather is Ebay, simply for ease.  The sellers there are used to small purchases and it just works so much more simply than trying to buy from leather wholesellers.  My favourite shop on Ebay is Leather4craft.  They usually have what I want for a very small price and are very helpful in finding something a bit more unusual.  There are also shops like Dolman Leathers a bit more pricey but great stuff and then there are the real specialists like J Hewitt and Sons, proper bookbinders.  They will fulfill your exact requirement but for a hefty price.