New Illustration: Meranda

           "Meranda" by Debi Cady

          Copyright 2015 all rights reserved 

Meranda is a beautiful, sweet mermaid who lives in the Great Barrier Reef. She is friends with all the ocean creatures, but usually hides from people. She allowed me to paint her portrait as an appeal to humans to make more of an effort to keep the waters of the earth clean - not only to help her and her friends, but to help ourselves as well.

Meranda is now available on many products via my stores at Zazzle , Cafe Press and Red Bubble . I am actually still posting her on Zazzle, with the holiday shopping it has been a really slow process. But I am working on it!

I know it's late, but Ringo & I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, and we wish you many blessings for the New Year!!

Fabric!

I don't normally post about new types of products available in my stores, mainly because there are too many of them! But today I am going to, because it's something I'm really excited about: fabric!

My Zazzle store now has a line of customizable fabrics, with all my illustrations and photos on it ^_^ There are 7 fabric types to choose from (different weaves of cotton, linen and polyester). And, if you like a particular image, but aren't crazy about the background color, need the print to be larger or smaller, or just want to change the way the image is tiled, you can chan change all these things by clicking the "customize it" button on the product page. The fabrics are available by the yard or as fat quarters. You can also order swatches. You can view my fabrics by going to the Craft Supplies department in my store.

I haven't tried any of the fabrics yet, this is a very new product. But I'm hoping to try some of the quilting cotton in the near future, it looks like it'll be pretty nice...

My First Beaded Doll: Snegurochka

Recently I have been trying to make a beaded doll. And today, I finished her! She is my first try, and represents the character "Snegurochka". I am very excited about her ^-^

She stands approximately 7 inches high, and is made entirely of glass seed beads (Delicas and Dyna-mites). This is my original pattern. I have a few things in mind that I want to try changing for my next doll, but on the whole I am happy with her as she is. I hope you will like her too! :) Here are some photos of her:

With porcelain BJD Elena - Snegurochka is made of the same beads as Elena's costume.

The Firebird

I finally finished my Firebird costume! It took a really long time, almost 3 months. But I am really happy with the results, so it was worth it ^-^ Some of you may have seen my WIP post from May, if you did, you will notice that I changed models - the pics I posted before were of Gizella, but I think it looks better on Bu Yong, so it's hers now. I had her in mind for it originally anyways.

So, for those of you who don't know, the Firebird is a creature from Russian and Slavic mythology, sort of like the Phoenix. She is from a far-away land, looks something like a fire-colored peacock, and a single feather can illuminate an entire room. The entire bird glows and shines, she puts off her own brilliant light. If you capture her, she can bring you blessings and fortune, but if she doesn't like you, she can bring your doom. A very interesting character, I think. Which made me wonder, what if, instead of being an actual bird, she was a not-qute-human, but very beautiful, woman?

On to the costume! The entire ensemble is made of glass seed beads, with swarovski crystal accents. It is my own design, inspired by my illustration of the same name.

And now, I will quit babbling, and show you the pictures! I hope you enjoy them :)

Crystal Snow

I finally finished the outfit that goes with Elena's icicle wig! It was inspired by the Russian fairy tale "Snegurochka" (aka The Snow Maiden). But this is kind of a fantasy version. In my imagination, she is actually made of snow and ice. So her "clothes" are just like a part of her skin. 

The outfit consists of a dress, panties, gloves, boots, and wig. Everything is made from glass beads, and is my own design. This was my first beading project (aside from bead embroidery, which I have been doing for several years), and it was really fun! I will definitely be doing more of it ^_^