Once upon a time, there was a very, very old wooden bed frame.
It was so old that parts of it broke, and so it was taken apart and about to be thrown in the trash, when someone thought… wait… we know someone who makes things come to life again….
They gave the broken old bed frame to my son, who offered a piece of it to me:
It was very heavy old wood, which soon revealed itself to be exceedingly HARD… and I mean H.A.R.D wood!
I cut out 2 little mermaids from the former bed frame, wiggling around to try to deal with long notches, deep channels and bored out holes that large screws had once lived in.
I sanded the varnish off one set of mermaid blanks, and then remembered to take a picture of the ‘under construction’ stage… some of those scraps of wood are not useable for carving because they have hardware embedded.
Oh my word! Carving the old hardwood was incredibly challenging, and there were a couple of nights when I was carving until the wee small hours.
I was so happy to finish carving Bedelia, but the incredible hardness and knife dulling properties of the wood made it oh so NOT fun to carve.
So, I am conducting an experiment:
Bedelia’s sister had a long lovely soak, which I hope will make the wood more carving friendly.
And now, oh, poor little mermaid!
She’s in the freezer, waiting for me to have enough time to carve her!
My fingers are crossed that I haven’t destroyed the wood with the soaking and the freezing,
and that I will be able to release the latent mermaid from her cryogenic state soon and more easily than Bedelia!
The next stage of bringing Bedelia to life was to burn and paint her Mermaid scales:
And then assemble her, making all her joints function:
Bedelia wanted to have some Mermaidly fun, so she went for a swim:
Which was a lot of fun, but very tiring, so she came back and relaxed in the studio.
Tottie Tomato went and made Bedelia a lovely cup of tea.
But she was still cold from the wild waves, so I went rummaging through the box of threads that I inherited from my Mother.
And crocheted a lace shawl for Bedelia.
She’s very happy and is looking forward to meeting all the other dolls in the studio.
She is hopeful that I will get to carving her poor icy sister, very soon!
I hope so, too… but the studio has been a busy place lately, the icy mermaid will have to fit in with the other magic that is being stirred up!
I am so pleased to now be part of a lovely blogging group: Scrap Happy, that was begun 6 years ago by Kate Chiconi and her friend, Gun, in Sweden.
The Scrap Happy bloggers all post once a month on the 15th about the wonderful things that they are creating from scraps of this and that, and none of it new….
please check out their blog posts, too. 😀
Kate , Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Tracy, Jill,
Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Kerry, Claire, Jean, Jon, Hayley, Dawn,
Gwen, Bekki, Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin,
Vera, Nanette, Ann, Nancy, Dawn 2, Noreen,
Bear and Carol
Tottie Talks Crafts Blog 
What a lovely story and what a great work!
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Thank you so much 😀
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I love this little charming mermaid💖
On Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 3:02 AM Tottie Talks Crafts Blog wrote:
> tottietalkscrafts posted: “Once upon a time, there was a very, very old > wooden bed frame. It was so old that parts of it broke, and so it was taken > apart and about to be thrown in the trash, when someone thought… wait… > we know someone who makes things come to life again…. ” >
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Thank you so much- she was incredibly challenging to carve, but she’s a real little honey now, so I guess it was worth it, although at the time I was not convinced that I was going to be able to find the doll in the rock hard wood!
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She’s a darling, I hope her frozen sister will be less problematic as she progresses!
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Thank you 🙂 and, oh my goodness, I hope so, too! Poor Bedelia was such a struggle to carve, but I love her to pieces now. I am hoping that a touch of hypothermia will make ‘Frozen Charlotte’ much more compliant in the carving! I hope I haven’t damaged the wood with my watery and icy experiment.
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hopefully you can enjoy Bedelia now the difficult carving is finished. can’t wait to hear how Charlotte’s experiment works out. Welcome to the group.
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Thank you so much, and oh yes, I really am enjoying Bedelia- even though she was such a challenge to carve- whew! I can hear Frozen Charlotte calling to me from the freezer, so I am going to have to liberate her from her icy state and start carving! Hopefully, she’s not as daunting to carve as her sister was! 🙂
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Hello! I’m always excited to see an emial from Tottie! Your stories are so much fun, and your many talents are inspiring.
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Thank you so much, Melanie! 😀
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Lovely to have you in the group! We need many more Scrappy creations that are NOT made of fabric or yarn, and your little people are perfect.
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Thanks, Kate! It’s a delight to be part of the group! Looking forward to more great Scrap Happy days! 😀
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Beautiful carving and cute story, love it!
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Thank you!
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Oh I wish I had the carving skills to create a doll…mine leaves off at carving spoons and those aren’t pretty, just useful. I’m part of ScrapHappy too. Have a great week.. Can’t wait to see Bedelias sister!
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It’s nice to meet you, Bear! 🙂 Bedelia’s sister, Charlotte has been quite a surprise in her own way…. I am still working on her, and will have her grand unveiling on the 15th, for the next Scrap Happy 🙂 I have been carving up a storm, and have been posting daily to instagram but haven’t been good about blogging, so I must get some of my new carvings up here! Hope you are well and blooming 🙂
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I’ve just got to find a piece of wood and try to carve a doll. I looked at prices for one and they are very well beyond my means. I also read where one made the head with paper mache… That I might be able to create… Or clay.
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There are other ways to make dolls, too 🙂 Here are a few videos that I have made of some of my favorite ways of making dolls: https://youtu.be/B9J8VLGyx2Q
😀
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Thanks. I’ll give them a look when I get to internet today.
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