.....finally all done!!!

....Phyllis King Artworks here in North Carolina/USA!

Finally: here are the last of my 2008 BJP flat fully-beaded dollies with rhinestones! Whew! And I swear I just uploaded the photos IN ORDER, from Feb. to Aug., and when they show up here on this blog, the pix are in reverse order! Sorry about that, but I don't know how to fix them....... I hope you will enjoy reading about how each was made underneath each photo.

This orange/yellow baby shown above is for August; using a clay sunburst face stitched on, and filled in with seed beads, flower and leaf beads and a vintage rhinestone chain. I don't even like oranges, but figured it fitted our hot, humid heat of these southern Augusts here in N.C.!

Here is my July dolly done in all red/white/blue seed beads and daggers and bugles, and a little gold metal star. Her face is pewter and her "headdress" of red, clear and blue rhinestones is part of a vintage pin of costume jewelry glued onto her "head"! She's my "July 4th" dolly..........

Above is my June piece, using all shades of white, eggshell, beige, etc. beads.........several being salvaged from my vast collection of vintage jewelry bits and pieces. If you enlarge the photo you can see better the heart-shaped little rhinestone piece on her chest.....she's my June "bride" dolly! I don't remember where I bought the wonderful crackled square face, but if its creator recognizes her work, please let me know because I surely want more of your gorgeous faces!!!

May's doll above uses the beautiful late spring colors of flower blooms that we have in this area. I used glass seed beads, hot pink sequins, two teal metal donut spacers; great long bugles for her hair and three gold and greenish leaves for her collar. Her wonderful face was made (I'm almost sure!) by dear artist friend in Canada, Maggie Robinson..........and I want more of these faces, too, Miss Maggs! LOVE those eyelashes! And this babe has rhinestone earrings from an old pin:

(all of this year's BJP dolls include pieces of vintage rhinestone jewelry in some way or other.) I call the collection my "Rhinestone Ladies"!

Above is April's doll, using another of Maggie's lovely hand-painted faces. Also used daggers for her hair, seed beads of several sizes and yellowish leaf beads; her rhinestone is at the bottom. Being usually our Easter holiday month, I used the favorites of yellow and lavender mostly, which remind me of childhood Easter egg hunts.

March's dolly features an old piece of metal necklace at the bottom and an old milk glass fat bead........her little face is very small and was "made in China"! I used all the early spring colors of flowers here and loved seeing the seed beads, flower beads, leaves and sequins "bloom" way back when the weather was cold and dreary!

February's doll features an old pewter/rhinestone pendant shaped like a heart for her center........she's my Valentine piece! Her face is a button; the rest of her body is covered with mostly seed and drop beads, with some little frosted glass hearts at her bottom.

That's my contribution to this year's BJP, and I've greatly enjoyed beading the little flat dolls. This was my first year joining this project and the year-long commitment was daunting, but I learned lots of new bead tricks along the way! Thanks for letting me participate and "grow" with my bead embroidery!