ADO Featured Artist: Sarah Dressler of Toadstools N Treestump

My name is Sarah Dressler, and I'm located in a little village in northern Delaware. There are so many things that make me tick. Of my many sources of inspiration are my kids.

When did you start making dolls? Why did you start making dolls?

About 7 years ago my daughter fell in love with a small cloth faerie doll a friend's daughter had. I found out where it was purchased and got her one. She was soo in love I decided to get her the series for her birthday, but alas it was being discontinued. I decided to try making one for her. The first ones were pretty rudimentary, long tubes for arms and legs and a bigger tube for the body. As I started researching how to make the heads more dimensional I realized that those long ago figure drawing classes might come in handy after all. I can't read sewing patterns, they might as well be in Greek, but I can draw, so I started making my own pattern, by then I was hooked!

Who or what influences you? Inspires you?

The work of Brian and Wendy Froud are a great source of inspiration, but I can find the seed of an idea almost anywhere. Taking a walk with my kids I may see a seed pod or a cloud formation that starts a new idea in my head. Wandering through the fabric or art supply store often inspires a new project, that really amazing new fabric, or bead/charm seems to say I'm part of your next doll and suddenly I'm standing in line to buy that item. Fantasy movies, like The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, or Spirited Away, and the paintings of James Christensen set my mind spinning and make my fingers itch to start making things.

Tell us a little about your dolls and your process for making them. Materials, preliminary sketches, inspiration, etc.

The process starts with my sketchbook. When an idea strikes I'll make thumbnail sketches so I don't lose track of it. I have small blank books everywhere, in every purse, next to my bed, in my studio... From the sketch I will move to creating a pattern, on card stock or plastic sheet. I used to just make them on 8.5x11" copy paper and trace the lines onto the fabric by holding it onto a window or a light box. Some old patterns I still do that way. But for the shapes I use the most I have cut out shapes so I can lay them on the fabric so I can line up the body part with the part of the fabric I want on that color/shape. Sometimes I just lay the parts out to maximize how many parts I can get from a scrap of fabric. I've managed to get an entire doll out of one left over 9" quilting square a friend gave me. Once I've got my patterns drawn (in pencil) on my fabric I sew them (until about a year ago I was hand sewing EVERY STITCH, but now I have made friends with my sewing machine and most seams are done on the machine.

I like to work in batches, it seems more efficient, and it seems to create families of dolls as well as some very individual characters. In general I use quilter's cotton fabrics for the "skin" and some of the doll's clothing. My wings are usually made with a combination of Angelina film and fibers with some sequins and other embellishments added. I've recently discovered the fun of distressing the wings with my embossing heat gun and have some Goth Fae in mind. I needle felt their hair on, depending on the doll the hair is either a funky combination of eyelash yarns or Yadeno mohair.

Do you have a favorite doll? It can be handmade by you, handmade by someone else, or even (gasp) mass production.

My kids are constantly asking me what my "favorite" is. I don't usually have a favorite, depending on my mood I will have a temporary preference towards something but it often changes as my frame of mind shifts. If I have to choose, at the moment a Gypsy doll that I made for the Gypsy Challenge a few years ago but never submitted is occupying a lot of space in my head. She's one of those dolls who I dressed fully, and her attire took me ages to complete. Her skirt has over 250 tiny bells sewn onto the hem, along with some teeny gold sequins (meant to look like those brass coins on gypsy skirts). I made her some zills (finger cymbals) from more small gold sequins.

Besides making dolls, what do you do? Job, other creative pursuits, hobbies, etc.

Currently my full time gig is being a mom and an artist. In addition to making dolls, I am a scribe in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronisms - a medieval recreation group) which means I reproduce the styles of medieval calligraphers and manuscript painters. I also make jewelry and occasionally dabble in collage. In the summers I teach mixed media art classes for kids from 6 to17 years old.

What are some of your favorite: movies, books, websites, magazines, foods, tv shows? (Any or all!)

In addition to the fantasy movies listed above, I also have a strong inclination towards movies based on Jane Austen's work. Again favorites is a "mood thing" for me but in general I seem to be drawn to romantic comedies and historical themed movies (medieval or Renaissance, or Regency periods).

As for books I'll aim at authors to keep the list from becoming its own book: Jane Austen, JRR Tolkien, William Shakespeare, JK Rowling, Ellis Peters, Neil Gaimen, Charlotte Bronte, Douglas Adams, W. Somerset Maughm, Rosamund Pilcher, Phillip Pullman, Lewis Carroll.

I spend a lot of time on the Etsy web site, the forums and chat rooms are a fun online community.

Magazines don't figure largely in my life, but I do get Art Doll Quarterly, and occasionally I pick up a copy of Faerie Magazine.

Foods ... I love "ethnic" foods: Indian, Japanese, Mexican or really TexMex, Middle Eastern foods all excite my attention. Foods I love to cook - baked goods mostly, cookies, brownies and sourdough breads, and the occasional cake are the things I bake the most often.

TV - I don't watch much by choice (I won't count keeping my kids company while they watch their stuff) When I get to influence the TV choices I tend towards things like MythBusters, Dirty Jobs and Time Warp. If the TV is on and the kids are not around I usually watch movies while I hand sew.