|
|
|
|
|
|
April 2007 Issue 2
|
Every year the Wee Peeple Dolls travel far from their home in Bastrop County to participate in a gala Spring Festival:
Scarborough Faire 2007 April 7th through Memorial Day
And the News this year is: On Opening Day- It Snowed! That sure never happened Before! It was certainly an historical event!
It was the first day of the festival and the Wee Peeple Dolls were heading outside to their new look-out zones- they were just positioning themselves and getting settled into their spots, when they noticed lovely white flower petals drifting through the air... ah, they sighed- the air is filled with flower petals on this lovely spring day... how magical- just like in the movie "Legend" where the flower petals drifting through the air get quite dense...
Ah, but then the Lady Kandra told the Wee Peeple Dolls that what they were seeing was really a snow flurry, and that it was very unusual and that it would stop soon, so don't worry about coming back inside the shop, because this silly old unusual snow flurry wouldn't last fifteen minutes.
Although
the Lady Kandra is hardly ever wrong, she was a tad bit off on her
calculations that time, for the snow flurries lasted nine more hours,
Before the Wee Peeple Dolls were finally hustled back indoors, they heard a disturbing sound- it was the sound of a freezing wet man in a kilt tearing uphill in the direction of the parking lot, with his family in tow. All of them were drinking coffee.
So, as tiny hummingbirds flitted around the orange Wee Peeple honeysuckle flowers in the falling snow, and the crowds thinned down to those who had fur coats with them, the vendors hid behind their counters with their space heaters and wished each other a Happy Easter/Merry Christmas, wittily quipping that in 7 short weeks when the temperatures get over 100 degrees, we will really be Longing for teeth-chattering cold! Well, what can we say- it's Scarborough Faire, Lords and Ladies, always an Accelerated Learning Experience.
Other News:
Introducing the Bottle Dolls
The Lady Kandra drinks about six bottles of Topo Chico Mineral Water a day. She lives in Bastrop County, a behind-the-times place which does not recycle glass. The Lady Kandra just could not throw those cases and cases of glass Topo Chico Bottles away, and was determined to recycle them somehow. One day she was covering a glass bottle with fabric to make a vase and it occurred to her that all the vase needed was a head, and it would look like a doll. That very day, she received a shipment of doll heads in the mail from her apprentice, Nancilee, who was learning how to fashion the soft sculpture heads. Immediately the Lady Kandra scooped up the doll heads and ran to her workshop, grabbing one of the hundreds of Topo Chico bottles on the way. It was a glorious moment when she stood back to look at the first Bottle Doll. There before her was a figure which could be viewed in the round, a dimensional figure which possessed a real waistline and bosom, a figure which had arms and hands and could hold things, quite unlike the old flat doll body style. The Lady Kandra knew at that moment that the Wee Peeple Dolls were going to undergo a major change. She had not changed her doll body style since 1988. This doll body style, she knew, would eventually phase out the old doll body style. But there were a few problems.
The
first problem was that the bottles were narrow and could be easily
tipped over. The bottles needed a base or some kind of stand which
would make them wider at the bottom. The very first Bottle Dolls,
therefore, had recycled jar lids affixed to the bottom to stabilize
them. The jar lids were covered with fabrics so they could not be
seen, but this made it hard to sign each piece on the bottom, Beverly Taylor, woodworker extraordinaire, who makes the wooden stands for the Wee Peeple Dolls, had to be consulted. She came up with a design for a wooden base which has a shallow "well" carved into it, where the bottle can snuggle down into the base. Then there was a big discussion on what kind of glue would hold glass bottles to wooden bases. The answer, after much experimentation, was "Gorilla Glue".
The
second problem was- how to dress the doll in such a way as to
reinforce the glass, so that if the doll did tip over, the glass
would not break. The Lady Kandra cut out dresses from all kinds
of different fabrics and then soaked the fabrics in white glue. She
found that stretchy knit fabrics saturated with glue worked best
against the glass and dried hard, like paper mache` or cloth Mache`.
Once the dress was dry and hardened, the glass was reinforced and then The new glass doll bodies were fabulously exciting to work with, but then the question was- would people like them- would the Lady Kandra's customers buy them? The Lady Kandra is happy to report that the new Bottle Dolls have been well received by her patrons at Scarborough Faire. To date, ten bottle dolls have been sold- including Catpeeple Bottle Dolls and the "Old Soul" from the Forest, a male doll holding a large root formation. Huzzah!
Meet the Staff at Wee Peeple
Kenny McDonald did the loading and unloading and drove the Wee Peeple 200 miles each weekend back and forth from Scarborough Faire, all with an injured shoulder. He just went back into surgery and the second doctor did a great job. Kenny is feeling so much better now that he decided to stop working for Wee Peeple and we guess he went out to get a real job. Good Luck to you Kenny!
Kelaine
Kvale is our "Shoppe Singer". You never know when she will
burst into song! She bravely handled the shoppe during "School
Days" and it practically did her in.
Jimmy
has been representing the Wee Peeple Dolls Here he is with a tall Greenman Doll.
The charming Kena is happy to help you at the Wee Peeple Doll Shoppe on Sunday afternoons. She is so cute with her Beadhead Dolls in her hair!
Taking over the driving job for Kenny is Joel Cyzak (the tall one). Here he is, pictured with darling daughter, Shannon, and their friend, Danny. The Lady Kandra is in front with her new hat, designed and made by Kathel.
The Doll Village and the Doll Parade
Once
again the Mini-Wee Doll Parade winds it's way Come on out and visit us! We'd love to see you!
There's still time to use the Discount Coupon too:
|
The
Wee Peeple Newsletter 
