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Monday, October 15, 2007

And the winner is...

I apologize, I have neglected my Blog in the last 2 weeks.
Its been a bit crazy here... ok a LOT crazy!!
Is it the weather? Is it something else? I don't quite know but I am exhausted and scatter brained. *sigh* I might need a vacation. After the UK show... before Christmas. I hope!

Anyway! I wanted to let you know that the winner of the 8th Birthday Give-Away is Kathy Frye from the US!! Congratulations Kathy, your little one will be in the mail this week!!
If you want to see a video of the drawing click here:
Free Baby Drawing
Of course we are speaking Greek, but what we are saying is, "Cody pick ONE number... only ONE"
This was actually the 3rd or fouth take. Before that John just grabbed a handful every time. So we decided to let Cody try and he picked just one :)

We will be holding another free baby drawing for Christmas so stay tuned. We will be asking for those entries next month!
Tina

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Leo the Grumpy Lion

Leo is the #3 baby in the series of Halloween cuties. He had an accident during the second firing in order to set the Genesis Paints. Love the paints, hate they need to be heat set :( Firing your piece again is dangerous... as Leo proves.
but he is cute nevertheless!
Here is his auction link:
Leo The Grumpy Lion

And a couple of pics:
Leo 1
Leo 2
Leo 3

Erica the Little Mouse

I am moving on nicely with my Halloween series babies. I finished Erica and listed her on eBay.
Here is her auction link:

Erica the Little Mouse

And some pics for posterity:
Erica
Erica 2

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Dreaming of Ellie

This is kind of a personal post:

Some of you might know that I was born with a thyroid problem which affects my reproductive hormones and does not allow me to ovulate and thus become pregnant naturally.
It took us 3 years, 3 doctors, 2 surgeries and countless drugs, injections, a miscarriage at 11 weeks following an accident, heartache... a LOT of heartache and almost tearing my marriage apart, but in March of 2005 I was finally pregnant!

It was a bumpy start and a bumpy pregnancy, I won't get into that, but in the end I gave birth a little early, to two wonderful, healthy, perfect baby boys; John Mario and Cody Peter.
John and Cody were named at 12 weeks, when we were told the sexes of the babies. John is named after George's father and Cody is my father's name... its a family tradition for firstborn males to be named after the paternal grandfather. But since there were two boys, my father got to hear his name too (although he will probably hear it twice more since I have two unwed younger brothers).

What I wanted to share with you was that, in the beginning of the pregnancy I was actually carrying triplets. I don't know why, call it instinct, but I am positive the 3rd baby was a girl. Unfortunately she had implanted very near the cervix and she did not make it :(
All through the pregnancy I didn't even think about her or that other lost baby. But when the boys were born, it hit me: these two could have been here right now. I could have had two more little persons in my arms right now. The potential was there. Had they developed they would have had a face. Their hair color and eye color were already determined when they died.. They could have been here.

If I had my little girl, I would have named her Ellie after my grandmother who was the most important person in my life and the one who spurred me on with my doll making. She was very artistic and a very brave and educated woman. The only female in a class of 250 male Civil Engineers right before the 2nd World War and she was brilliant. One of the most sought after Civil Engineers after the war!
She used to tell me bed time stories... not children stuff like Red Riding Hood, but by the age of 6 I knew half of Jane Austin's stories by heart and we had moved on to the Brode sisters novels.

If my Ellie was alive, she would have been close to two years old now, like my boys. She would have looked like my grandmother, with reddish brown hair and green eyes or maybe with blue gray eyes like my dad and blonde hair (95% of people in my family have green or blue eyes, red or blonde hair. I have hazel eyes and auburn hair and only my brother has deep brown eyes with auburn hair. The boys got their browns from George who has black eyes and hair although John has light brown eyes and both have auburn hair)

And so in dreaming of this perfect little toddler I never got to hold and meet, I have been "in labor" mentally for many months now.
And I decided I want to try my hand now and create my Ellie. I missed out on everything about her, her pregnancy, her birth, her first birthday...
So I will start at the beginning... a newborn at 36 weeks like my sons and will go up until my boys' age. They will be 2 in 6 weeks. So for the past year I have practiced making older looking mini babies. I figured if I can't get the anatomy just right, at least they are mini babies not much time or materials lost anyway... and I have gotten to a point I feel I am now accurate enough to try a life size two year old.

So just a personal post today about my dream baby... Wish me luck and I hope to share pics with you very soon... I can't start yet. I have orders to finish... but soon.... very soon :)

Hugs
Tina

Monday, October 01, 2007

Happy Birthday Little Wonders - Free baby for YOU

It all started when I was 7 years old. I pick up something my mom called "Cernit". It came in little celophane packages, in lots and lots of colors. It felt like plasticine. My mom used it to make jewelry. She molded them into shape in her hands, then placed them in the oven like cookies and the soft clay was transformed to hard stone... and her creations would stay like that forever!

I was fascinated! I remember my mom NOT wanting to give me any, because it was expensive but my non-stop chattering and excited jumping from foot to foot, finally convinced her to give me some scraps just to shut me up.
That was it! It shaped my entire future forever...

From the moment I sculpted my first miniature animal, I never stopped. Its been 22 years since that day and my interest has shifted from those miniature cartoon animals to realistic infant and children but my passion remains unchanged.
In 1999, I started selling my creations under "Little Wonders Original Creations" by Tina Kewy.
Back then I was sculpting string puppets, Marot puppets and miniature animals.
They were quite popular with local kindergartens and I had many orders for fairy tale creatures. Usually they were for the entire "cast" of a fairy tale like Little Red Riding Hood or Snow White and the 7 dwarves.

But my interest changed once again when I saw a porcelain doll kit. I knew I wanted to sculpt babies... In April of '01, I listed my first Berenguer Reborn on eBay. Except they weren't called reborns back then.
But reborning wasn't enough for me. I wanted to make my own babies... my first one in 1999 was not only made "without the use of aids" but also without the use of tools!
I only had the back of a paint brush and toothpicks. I had no knowledge of things like styrofoam heads or glass eyes. My previous dolls were made from air drying clay or cernit and everything was hand painted.

I feel I have come a long way since that first baby in 1999. And I owe it all to you, the collector. Because if you hadn't bought my earlier dolls, I would never have the money to by more clay and practice more and be where I am today.

So to thank you, I am offering a free custom mini baby to one lucky collector.
All you have to do is mail me at tina@tinakewy.com with your name, country and e-mail address. Please put "FOR FREE BABY" in the message subject so your e-mail won't get lost in the clutter. I get too much e-mail every day!

You have until Friday the 5th October 2007 to send me your entry. On Saturday I will draw a name at random. The winner can then decide if they want a boy or girl, full sculpt or cloth body etc.

Thank you once again my collectors. Without you, I would be nothing :)
Here's to many more years of creating babies that you love!!
Warmest regards!
Tina Kewy

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