Pensive Rosie.

Rosie is finished. She surprised me at the end. She turned out to be very different from what I planned in the beginning. I planned her to be highly decorative with gold locks and complex headdress, but as I was working on her, all these ideas have changed.

Rosie turned out to be a day dreamer, living in her own world. She is a quiet, pensive child, just like me when I was little. Yes, I had my Mom worried there for a while, because I could sit in a quiet corner for hours, daydreaming, inventing my own stories and living through them.

Rosie has musical mechanism inside that also activities motion. She is not big, only fourteen inches (36 centimeters) as she sits on her stand. She is very pleasant to touch, I tried raw mohair for her hair for the first time. I love the feel! I also finally mastered the embroidery option on my expensive sewing machine, therefore Rosie sports a cute little embroidered jacket, custom made just for her.

The August Project: Saturday Fun

August is one of my favorite months. There is slight shift in the nature toward the Fall season, nothing major, yet sun light is slightly softer and more golden, the light breeze brings just a hint of coolness, leaves on the trees are whispering wistfully… sky is so blue. Love it.

Today is the perfect Saturday day, beautiful weather. You would think that I say all that because I enjoy this weather to the full extend, spending my time outside, however it is not so, not quite.

Today I have my precious "ME" time that I was anticipating all week long. Today I sit in my studio, admire the golden day from inside. I am painting today and having so much fun!
Painting is important part of doll making, well done painting breaths life into face of a doll, layer by layer.

For painting polymer clay, I prefer to use Heat Set Oil paints, they do not dry out until they are baked.  I prefer to bake the layers gradually adding more, like china paint. Therefore, painting heads and hands is slow process. The finishing touches I add by "Fiber Castle" markers, they also need to be baked for sealing.

Here are the results of my hard today's work:

This little girl reminds me of me, when I was little.

I just love this little sweetie! 

The Wild Thing! The ears were an experiment!

The light is almost magical.
It is a perfect Saturday afternoon.

"Pearl"

As I said earlier, this little Lady is an experiment in many ways. I made the head, using Elena Kunin excellent tutorial book. It took about three months but I can finally display "Pearl" to the world. The inspiration for the costume is high wested fifteenth century Italian dress. Thanks to Pinterest, it is easy to research and look for costume ideas! I decided to include some of the "in progress" pictures into this post. Here she is, my beauty!

Golden Renaissance. Lucretia.

I finished one of the most complex of my works so far. Lucretia was inspired by the Renaissance Era.

I have already wrote about the making in the earlier entries, so I will not say much here.

Here is the link if you would like to find out more about the process.

Instead, I am posting the wonderful pictures, that are made by my talented husband. I hope you enjoy them!

Lucretia, The Renaissance Doll

I wanted to create something Renaissance themed for a very long time. The Italian Renaissance is one of my favorite time periods for very many reasons. I am sure I am not the only one, who admires this glorious era.






The little Lucretia is my modest tribute to the "Golden" period. Yes, "Golden" is the key word here, because Lucretia is nothing if not "golden". The golden hair and shimmery golden silks are definitely her style.

Since she was nothing but a lump of polymer clay and a pair of glittery green eyes, she completely captivated me and took full charge of herself. She is in such a hurry to be born! So here we are so far!

Polymer of choice is "Fimo Puppen" Face and hands are gently "blushed" with the mix of
 heat set and regular oils,
and delicately touched with
colored pencils and "Fibercastle" permanent markers.
As I said, she took charge…

Shoes are partially cloth and "Sculpy" polymer

Legs and feet are sculpted in "Paperclay"

Lucretia is 23 inches (almost 60 sm.) tall,
she is completely posable, because she is
 mounted on flexible plastic armature.

Right in the middle of the process, I decided to change her hair color from soft blond to golden brown, It changed her character somehow…

 

                                          Here she is, fully assembled. Such a coquette! 

                                            Now I am starting on constructing her costume …

Her hair still needs more work,
but I will leave it alone for now.

Next step: a lot of embroidery and beads! I will show it off next time :)

Lady Marie and Her Wolf

I finally finished this project that took me about four months to complete.

The title is "The Mysteries of Broceliande Forest" This is a composition of two figures.


The work is the tribute to Gillian Bradshaw's novel "The Wolf Hunt". The novel is based on "Lai de Bisckavret" by the12th century poet Marie de France. The story is set in 12th century, therefore I made my best to depict the clothes to reflect the style of the time.

My favorite part of this excellent novel, is the willingness of the main character, likable and brave Lady Marie, to overcome society's stereotypes and be able to face her deepest fears. 

One of such fears for her is the fear of wolves. However, when the incredible turn  of her life brings her face to face with one, she does not back out. It is a very strange wolf: he is wild animal and free spirit of the forest. Yet, he chooses to live among humans. Marie is able to look at the animal without prejudices of her time. As a result, she gains a loyal and loving friend. 

Moreover, Marie applies her  critical and open mind in solving the mystery of a disappearance of a noble knight, who once saved her life. Last time he was seen walking into the Briceliange forest to hunt, at least that what he told his newly wedded wife, and did not come out of it. He is believed to be dead, but Marie has her doubts. So she starts her own investigation.

Will Marie solve the mystery of Broceliande Forest? What will she discover? I can't tell this intriguing story better than Gillian Bradshaw already have. If you want to know more, read "The Wolf Hunt"  You will not regret it!

"Mysteries" Update: Colors!

Yes, it takes me a long time to work on a project, especially a complex project like this. But I regret nothing: it is such fun! It took me about three weeks to select the colors for lady Marie and the fashion style and a pattern of her dress. Thank God for the Internet! So many great resources that were not available before, even a few years back!

Since it is XII century  fashion, she actually needs two dresses: "kirtle" is under-dress that is tastefully shows under a "bliaut" over-dress that was fashioned from heavier cloth.

I just finished the embroidery on Marie's kirtle and finally put the two together. Here are the results!

Also, if you pay attention, you can see that Marie is not alone in her wanderings in the Broceliande Forest… Who may it be wandering with her?

The Mysteries: cont.

I just love to work with this project! It does take a long time for me to get from step to step, but I enjoy every step of the way.

Lady Marie is completely assembled: soft body on wire and air dry clay armature. This time I used polymer clay only for the head and hands. I also completed her hair and although it is much fluffier than I wanted, I rather like it, goes well with the character. It still needs to be styled.

I relieved to see that Marie's face is not quite as tortured as it was without the hair, I was going for a surprise, not horror. It seems to soften somehow. Good.

Next step is her clothes. I am looking forward to this part!

The Mysteries of Broceliande Forest: beginning the journey

          I am starting a new complex project that is inspired by one of my favorite books by Gillian Bradshaw. This is going to be a learning experience for me, since it is not just one doll, but a composition… Don't want to talk too much about it yet, since there is so much to do and to learn. I am sure there some bumps and frustrations are on the way…

However I am happy to share my first steps on "The Mysteries"

 Research is a big one. I had to look at a lot pictures costumes of nobility in of 11-13 centuries, since this is what my personage "Marie" is going to wear. Pinterest is awesome source for things like that!

Yet it is too early for that yet. Good armature and sculpting of head and hands took a couple of weeks… Here are the first steps:

This time, the polymer of choice is "Fimo Puppen"  

"Genesis" heat-set oils is my favorite medium for painting on polymer. It allows more control and time to work, but also is applied in gentle even "blush", that acrylic doesn't provide. I heat-set my oils in between layers before I add more. It helps to avoid mess and blotches of color.

Here is my "Marie" The head is ready along with her hands and neck.

Time to work on strong armature and put her body together…