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Travel and The Great Smoky Mountains:

DOLLS and PUPPETS:

Hi,
I'm Jean Lotz, a professional sculptor creating wooden dolls. I have written several web pages about carved dolls (antique, modern, regional, etc.) and provided many pages of tips about doll collecting, doll care and doll making. In addition, I have written pages about wood carving and several articles for an on-line wood carving magazine with "lotz of" original patterns for creating simple, carved, wooden dolls. I hope you will visit the LOTZ Doll Pages!

photos thanks to Hanna Kahl-Hyland and Theriault's

We are particularly proud of the one-of-a-kind hand carved WOOD dolls that Mom makes and she is an ODACA artist. Check them out at: LOTZ STUDIO DOLLS and see what we mean!

Lotz Chinese Dragon Costume This is a photo of a Chinese dragon costume that was made with a papier mache head and yards of hand painted fabric, tinsel and mylar strips. It was made many years ago as a 4th grade girl scout project by our daughter. Almost the whole girl scout troop (16 girls) danced inside the costume. The mouth was hinged and supported so the mouth bounced open and closed as the "head" girl jumped. The last girl in the tail was the noise maker! She banged 2 pot tops together as a gong.

Even More Lotz Family Interests:

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SEWING

When I first saw Martha Pullen's TV show on heirloom sewing by machine, I couldn't wait to try it. I didn't have one of those fancy sewing machines. At the time, my sewing machine did just forward, reverse, straight & zigzag. Yes, it is true. You can do some of the semiautomatic French heirloom sewing with a simple machine.

Hand sewing is relaxing for me: needle sculpting, sewing on buttons, tiny French hems, embroidery, etc. But still, I occasionally find myself drooling over one of those modern, computer-linked, automatic, embroidery machines.

My family tease me and call me "the ever busy doll artist", because I always bring my sewing bag along on our travels. I make sure I have enough hand work with me, so if I have a spare moment I can take out a small item and sew a hem or two. I pack a little wooden doll named "Hitty" in my sewing bag to act as my milliner's model. She's always there with us so she has become my family's travel doll.
 

LOTZ STUDIO DOLLS

A quick funny note about Martha Pullen's TV show from Jean Lotz: I was inspired to make a christening gown or a really fancy baby outfit after I saw Martha Pullen's TV show about French heirloom sewing by machine. My only child was 9 at the time, so I didn't have a baby to dress!  I turned to my husband and said, "I'm going upstairs to make a baby!". My husband's eyes lit up and he smiled a funny smile. When I noticed this, I said, "OUT OF WOOD - - A WOODEN BABY DOLL!" His funny smile immediately disappeared. But then he quickly became a BIG FAN of my "LOTZ OF LOVE" wooden baby dolls after he held that very first wooden Lotz baby.

I'll be adding more sewing tips in my "doll making tips" web pages in the future but here are a few that relate to general sewing skills:

PATTERN LAYOUT

Use Weights: Lately a lot of people like using weights instead of pins for pattern layout but you don't need to buy the fancy commercial ones. You can get the largest washers from the hardware store and wrap them in a bit of cloth (like drapery weights) or gather the cloth around the top with a small bow to make a little cloth package out of them. Or if you are in a hurry, then just grab some small tuna cans out of the pantry. They are a real nice size and weight.

Don't give up on pins and pin cushions! I buy good quality glass head pins and ultra thin silk pins and keep most of them on a strong magnet. But I like fancy pin cushions like one I saw which was made from the upper torso of a small teddy bear. At one time, I used a small, terry-cloth bear as a pin cushion. My young daughter (7 at the time) rescued him. Afterwhich, he was still called "pin cushion bear" but pins were never allowed anywhere near her "poor little bear".

Pattern Material: Most of my doll pattern pieces are drafted on to medium weight non-woven interfacing material. It is heavy enough to take abuse of repeated use yet you can see through this material well enough to trace most pattern pieces onto it. Also this light weight material is strong enough so that you can baste the pattern pieces together to check the fit of your new pattern.

I use a different technique on a large project where I might need very many cutouts of the very same pattern pieces. To speed layout and cutting time, I need durable pattern pieces - cut out of plain plastic stencil material or stiff card stock. I lay these patterns on top of thin stacks of many layers of my material and then trace around the pattern. I move the pattern and trace around the pattern again. I soon have all the needed pieces marked up. I insure the material sandwich is well pinned so there will not be any shifting around, then I cut the material. This produces stacks of material pieces ready to be sewn into multiple garments or craft items.

LEARNING TO SEW

I have been often asked, "How can I learn to sew?"

If you are not lucky enough to have an expert seamstress in your family who is willing to teach you everything you might want to learn, then you might look into local sewing classes. Sewing classes are regularly offered at sewing machine and/or fabric stores in my area covering many forms of sewing at beginner to advanced levels.

There are several online sewing groups (such as those in Yahoo groups) that you might join whether you are interested in sewing for yourself or for dolls. Simply find an appropriate group with a keyword search on the group host for "sewing", "sewing for dolls", "hand sewing", and etc.

There are excellent books on basic sewing as well as more complex techniques. You might check your library first for what is available, then for some of the following books at bookstores (all new editions and highly rated on Amazon):

• The Complete Book of Sewing New Edition
  Hardcover: 320 pages
  Publisher: DK ADULT; Rev edition (August 4, 2003)
• Sewing 101: A Beginner's Guide to Sewing (Spiral-bound)
  Spiral-bound: 224 pages
  Publisher: Creative Publishing International; Spiral edition (December 2002)
• New Complete Guide to Sewing (Hardcover)
  by Reader's Digest editors
  Hardcover: 384 pages
  Publisher: Readers Digest (October 24, 2002)

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Please take not of the following book:

IN MY GRANDFATHER'S HOUSE
by Rien Poortvliet
Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Harry N Abrams (October 1988)

This is a great book. It is a pictorial family tree created by a great painter / illustrator, of Dutch ancestry, who researched life in his family's homeland. He details the typical life-styles, dress, housing, habits and customs of the people in this region in great pictorial detail. This is a MUST READ book for anyone who is interested in genealogy - an inspiration to us all to gather as much historical details as we can about the lives and living conditions of our ancestors, not just names, dates and place of birth.

GENERAL:
Everton's Genealogical Helper: online edition
The Genealogy Homepage

UK AND IRELAND:
newsgroup = soc.genealogy.uk+ireland
GENUKI

GERMAN:
newsgroup = soc.genealogy.german

ITALIAN:
newsgroup = soc.genealogy.italian
CIAO - Cultural Italian American Organization

GARDENING

NEWSGROUPS:
rec.gardens dedicated to discussing gardening.
rec.gardens.orchids dedicated to discussing orchid growing techniques.
rec.gardens.roses dedicated to discussing rose growing techniques.
rec.ponds for pond setup and health.

GENERAL GARDENING:
Info on all zones - Growing in sun or shade. Always in bloom from gardening.com
Southern Living Magazine - My favorite source of advice for growing plants in the south.
The Virtual Garden

ORGANIC GARDENING:
list of natural predators

SEED RETAILERS:
Burpee Seed Co.

BULBS, HERBS AND PERENNIALS:
Herbs
Dutch Gardens
Niche Gardens