New Doll: Tatiana, "The Golden Hair" Doll

Well, it took a looooooong time, but I finally finished Tatiana!!! She is my second knitted  doll. She is inspired by my illustration of the Russian fairy tale "The Golden Hair", although I did change her a bit. Mainly, I simplified the pattern on her dress.


She is made of 100% bamboo yarn, and is knitted from a pattern I wrote myself. The embroidery on her dress was done with glass beads, and her headband is made of freshwater pearls and swarovski crystals. She is stuffed with corn fiberfill.


I feel bad that I took so long to finish this little doll. Actually, she was done quite a while ago, but it took me a long time to complete her dress - I kept having to set it aside for many reasons. One of those is that I hurt my thumb a few months ago, and have been unable to knit or do much else with it. It seemed a little better the past few days, so I thought I'd try to finish her. I'm glad I did. Now I want to start making another doll! lol


I am very happy with the way my Tatiana turned out, I hope you will love her too ^-^ Here are some pics:

Tatiana (right) with my first doll, Alyona

Alyona (left), Tatiana (right)

New Illustration: Morozko

"Morozko"
Ink on watercolor paper
9x12"
©2012 Debi Cady

Scenes from the classic Russian fairy tale are depicted in this whimsical illustration. On the right, the wicked stepmother orders her husband to take his daughter to the forest and leave her there to die. In the center, the girl receives gifts from Morozko. Magical snowflakes from Morozko's staff dance around the borders. This is one of my favorite fairy tales, I remember my mom reading it to me when I was young.

As always, this illustration is available on my stores at Cafe Press, Zazzle, Red Bubble, and my deviantArt Print Shop

New Illustration: The Wood Maiden

"The Wood Maiden"
Ink on Watercolor Paper
5x7"
©2011 Debi Cady

Betushka spins flax while her nanny goats graze, unaware that the Wood Maiden is approaching to dance with her. Scene from the Czechoslovakian fairy tale "The Wood Maiden".

I actually did this illustration last year, but never posted it because I was thinking of using it as part of a larger project. Since I have decided not to do that particular project, I can now share this illustration with you ^-^ As mentioned above, it is from a Czechoslovakian fairy tale. In this story, the Wood Maiden is a supernatural being. She likes to dance with children. She sometimes rewards little girls with riches and magical things (as happens in this story), but she will dance little boys to death (although in this story that does not happen, thankfully!). It's kind of strange, but still a cool story. Betushka's dress was inspired by a Valachian folk dance costume. I looked into many different Czechoslovakian costumes for her, and there were so many pretty ones! But in the end I felt this one suited her best. It looked like it could be worn by a younger girl, and it didn't look too rich, which was important to me since she was supposed to be a poor girl. 

As always, this illustration is now available at my stores on Cafe Press, Zazzle, Red Bubble, and my deviantArt Print Shop. My Cafe Press and Zazzle shops have added sooooooo many new products in the past couple of months, it's just crazy! But some of them are really cool, and I am still adding to it, so be sure to check them out ^-^

Also, in the next few days, I will be posting my newest illustration, of the Russian fairy tale "Morozko". It's been a long time coming, I actually started it a few months ago, and should've finished it quite some time ago! But I've had some stuff going on in my family that prevented me from working much on any of my projects. Now that things are settling down I should be able to do more again. I have another little knitted dolly almost finished, I just need to do the beadwork on her dress. So sometime in the next month I should have her ready too :)

New Illustration: Snow Maiden (Red Version)

©2011 Debi Cady
Ink on watercolor paper
5x7"

This is the second version of the Snow Maiden that I have drawn, the first version was done in different shades of aqua and blue, this one is all whites and red. Why? I have no idea! I just like this picture, and I was envisioning it in different ways. I think they are equally pretty ^-^ I wish I could be there, surrounded by all the snow! It's way too hot here right now :(

This illustration is available on various items at my stores on Cafe Press, Zazzle, Red Bubble, and my deviantArt Print Shop.

New Illustration: The Golden Hair

The Golden Hair
Minerals on Papyrus
©2007 Debi Cady

"The Golden Hair" is a Russian fairy tale about a girl whose father, Poloz, owns all the gold in the world, and controls it. Her hair is actually made of gold, and is so heavy that she is rooted to the ground with it. The story is about her, and the man who loves her, and how they finally manage to outwit her father so that they can be together. It's a good story! 

For this illustration I actually made my own paint out of minerals, the paper is papyrus. So it is all natural ^-^

This illustration is now available on my stores at Cafe Press, Zazzle, Red Bubble, and my deviantArt Print Shop . 

New Illustration: Aioga

Aioga
Ink, colored pencil on bristol board
©2006 Debi Cady

This illustration is based on a Nanai folktale called "Aioga". I first read it while studying Russian in high school (the Nanai are a Siberian people), and it is now one of my favorite stories. It's about a very pretty, but not so nice girl, who is very vain and very lazy. Whenever her mother asks her to help with something, Aioga makes up some lame excuse about how she can't because she might hurt her hands or whatever. The little neighbor girl ends up helping instead. In the end, Aioga's mother makes pancakes, and when Aioga asks for one, she tells her she might burn her hands, so she can't have it, and she gives it to the neighbor girl instead. Aioga sees the girl eating her pancake, gets really angry, starts yelling and flapping her arms, and ends up turning into a goose. There's more to it, but just so you get an idea of it.

This image is now available in my stores on Cafe Press, Zazzle, Red Bubble and my deviantArt Print Shop.

Dachshund Furry Tails: Russia

Cover of Dachshund Furry Tails: Russia
©2009 Debi Cady

Above is the cover of my first book, Dachshund Furry Tails: Russia. It was published on October 31, 2009. It is a collection of 11 stories based on traditional Russian fairy tales, but all the main characters are dachshunds. The stories in this book are:

-Jack Frost (also known as "Father Frost" or "Morozko")

- Vasilisa the Beautiful

- The Scarlet Flower (a story similar to Beauty and the Beast)

- Snegurochka (also known as "The Snow Maiden")

- Prince Ivan and the Firebird

- Aioga

- Emelya and the Magic Pike

- Baba Yaga 

- The Golden Fur (originally known as "The Golden Hair" or "The Girl With the Golden Hair")

- The Snow Dachshund (originally a version of "The Snow Maiden")

-The Frog Princess

The book is fully illustrated in color, and is available at Create Space and Amazon.com

If you'd like to see all the illustrations from this book, please check out my Cafe Press Store or my Zazzle Store All of the illustrations from the book are available on various items at these two sites, so if you want to see them, they are the best places to look ^-^

Hello ^-^

Welcome to my blog! I'm not quite finished setting it up at the moment, so it looks pretty boring, but I am working on it...

The main reason for this blog is to share info about my art and books, like what I'm working on, when new stuff is released, etc... I also plan to write quite a bit about my miniature dachshund, Ringo, and my Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls (BJDs). 

About the name for my blog, if you are not familiar with Russian fairy tales then it probably sounds pretty strange. But there is a reason I chose it. I love fairy tales, particularly Russian ones. In several of the stories I've read, they mention a place called "the thrice tenth kingdom", located "beyond the thrice ninth land". No one really has any idea where it is. But that is always where the hero/heroine of the story has to go to find treasure, their lost love, magical objects, medicines that can bring people back from the dead, whatever. It's always something really cool and unique. Which is exactly what I'm hoping you'll find here, once I have everything set up. ^-^

Now, I will introduce you to Ringo! Ringo is a miniature dachshund, and he is 5 years old. He is my friend, companion, "baby", model, and muse. He is really sweet and funny, and, as I'm sure you can tell, I love and adore him very much. He loves having his picture taken, so here are a few for you to see now:

Hello, everyone!

I'm so sad, nobody feeds me enough (yeah, right Ringo! :P)