Working on Rosie

One of the heads from the "August Project"reminds me of my
childhood. I decided to start with this little head. I called the

doll "Rosie".

 She reminds me of time, when I was a little girl.
Once upon a time (long, long time ago)  I had a beautiful German made doll.  I called it "Rosie" because of her sweet face and a pink dress. "Rosie" was my all time favorite. Therefore all my sweetest childhood memories associated with her.

"Rosie" is the first doll of mine that will have a musical mechanism with motion inside. I am not very technical person, therefore I did not make the mechanism myself. The mechanism I found attached to an old broken  porcelain doll, that I bought for four dollars in a thrift store.

I am a thrift store junkie. Love them, thrift stores. It is like going hunting or looking for a hidden treasure. I found quite a few old musical mechanisms this way. "Rosie" is the first to have one inside her.

Here are the first steps of working on "Rosie"

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.

August Projects

I have decided to use new approach to doll making. Before now, I have been working on one doll at the time. This time I tried to start multiple projects at the same time.

Why? I don't know… I just wanted to practice sculpting heads, then hands. This is how I ended up with these three funny characters. I did not have anything special in mind when I started them, so I decided to take it as it goes. Here is what I came up with:

I like all three of them, and it starts getting interesting as the ideas form in my head about what to do next. Oh the possibilities! I will keep you posted.

"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!

The Experiment

It has been a long time since I blogged, but not because my passion for dolls has cooled. On the
contrary, I am having a great time experimenting with new ways of sculpting. I have decided to change my approach a little. I bought an ebook written by one of the masters of the craft and the artist whom I greatly admire, Elena Kunin.

Since it was the very first time doing a head this way, I was not sure if I want to go on and finish off the doll completely, or move on to the next head. However, as soon I painted her, I liked her enough to continue. Not everything about it I like, but I think she turned out interesting. Here are the first results.

Meet "Natasha"!

This little girl I started to work on about a month ago. Her sweet face came to me very quickly, it was amazing, how smoothly she emerged. I worked with my favorite "Fimo Puppen"

I decided to share a little of the process with you in this post. I still work on her body, and wanted to try a few new ways of building.

"Natasha" is one of the biggest dolls I ever attempted: 27inches (70cm) and she will be rather static sculpture, than posable doll. Here are the first steps:


 Here "Natasha" is nothing more than a head. Her face is sculpted, sanded and polished. I fit her eyes for the first time, so to say, her first glance at the world.

Now, she has neck and hands. Her head will have an ability to turn and adjust.

I also put painted several layers heat set oil paints

 "Natasha" is mounted on strong wire armature.

I use two kinds of fiber fill to make the balk of her body: loose one  that is usually used to fill in soft toys, and one for blankets.

I sew it together and fill. 

Time to put everything together for the first time!

Next step is to make "skin"

It is Saturday!

It is Saturday, and I finally finished every house task and all the obligations for the day and  ready to threat myself with a little "me" time. This time I am sharing with sweet "Alice".

I put a lot of thought in her attire: her romantic nature required the dress that is equally light and feminine and romantic. I finally decided that soft lace would be just the thing.  Now, when all the hard decisions are done, it is just a simple matter of putting it all together…

I wish you all a happy Saturday!

Working on "Alice"

"Alice" is sporting beautiful light brown glass eyes

Hello, friends!
It has been a while since I wrote something new. I had to step away from my beloved dolls for a few weeks. However, now I am back and ready to pick up where I left off.

  My little "Alice" has been waiting patiently, until I got a special order from "Mohair & More" for her beautiful silken tresses. Now, as they are finally on her head, I find that the wait was worthwhile. Yes, I finally put the little lady together, although there is still a lot of work.
Alice is 23 inches (59 centimeters)

I need to decide on her dress now and I also started on her shoes, more about it in the next post. Here she is, so far, my little beauty!

I used "Fimo Puppen" polymer clay to sculpt her and painted her with  heat-set oil paints for healthy rose blush 

"Alice's" soft body is mounted on flexible plastic armature
(my favorite of late)
which makes it easily adjustable to
standing or sitting  position

I delight in her beautiful silken "Espresso" hair, however, it is too short and
I am thinking of the way I can add extensions 

Yet, Another Little Head…

 I have been working hard to finish lovely Lucretia's dress, but I just had to switch to sculpting! All this bead embroidering is sure fun, but it is getting tedious if it takes long.

Honestly, I don't know yet who it is, there is no name…I think she is rather cute! Names are hard, though. Any suggestions?

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 :)