Playing With Heads Again

Hmmm, interesting weekend :) Instead of painting on the gourd doll as I intended, I got side tracked with sculpting with paper mache. If you refer to my post about creating molds for the Laura doll, I need to sculpt arms and legs for that doll. I decided I needed to make a prototype to figure out what size arms and legs would be appropriate. I had putty molds of the shrunken head, I though I could use them as press molds to get a head the correct size. As you may have expected, press molds are difficult to work with, and of course I ended up resculpting the face ..... but now I have something approximately the correct size to prototype a cloth body and make arms and legs. Other lessons learned, this validates the whole idea of refining the sculpt in wax from the putty molds. These papermache heads don't have nearly the detail that the wax sculpt has, and I am already tired of sanding the papermache! But it was an enjoyable weekend. Maybe I can discipline myself to paint next weekend. I wish all of you time to enjoy these last days of summer. Fall is right around the corner.

The Hobbiest's Nightmare Multi-Tasking or is it Multiple Personality Disorder

I am not sure if I will published this blog entry. Right now I am writing it as self-therapy and I doubt if this could be interesting to anyone but me. After all everyone does creative things for different reasons and my reasons are different from yours. But here it is. I MUST create stuff just like I MUST make music. I put it in same category as eating my vegetables, excercising and watching movies. These things make me feel better and enjoy life. I am not paid for any of these activities but that doesn't mean I won't do them.

The competing interest is my day job. I love my day job, spent years refining the skills I use there, and think society as a whole benefits from my efforts. Bottom line, I am not quiting my day job just because I like to sculpt, paint and play music. BUT how can one find the discipline to fit in all this stuff into a 24 hour day ? How can you stretch and grow as an artist (or musician) if you only have time to indulge once every two weeks ?

And here is the rub. I have always been a goal directed person, probably because I am really lazy. If I didn't have goals I would stay in bed all day with the remote control, laptop and phone nearby. But my artistic goals do not match a twice a month schedule and therefore I ended up feeling frustrated.

More on the Gourd Doll

I woke up in a mood today. For those of you who are irritated with whining, you may wish to skip this paragraph. But needless to say there have been complications in my life that have made finishing art projects difficult. I had to unpack my studio for my daughter to move in, and the studio things have been moved around so often, I can't find anything anymore, and I don't have a place to work. But because I was in a mood (crabby), I wasn't going to let these things stop me. So I went to Joanns, purchased some replacement brushes and mod-podge and decided to dive into the gourd doll UFO (unfinished object).

So I pulled out all of the napkins and special papers I could find, and was happy I did stick to the rose napkin I had intended to use. I then decoupage the napkins to the dolls niche. I am a little nervous since I am not sure what I am going to put into the niche... have some ideas but they are still percolating.

I then laid out some basic colors into the figure with oils. I will need to buy a better lines brush to get the details, so this layer ended up just being the undercoat. I will detail next time I am in the pissy mood :)

New Materials and Molding Techniques

New Materials And Molding Techniques by Kristen Strand-Tibbitts

The picture on the left is the original 30 inch prototype Laura doll. The picture on the right is the Hydroshrink cast of face portion of Laura from the waste mold
The picture on the left is the Hydroshrink heads after dehydrating and shrinking for 6 days. The picture on the right is one half of the mold created from Compsimold-LT
This article is not exactly related to Softies, nor cats and dogs. Although I would argue you could use some of these molding techniques to create molded felt animals like R.John Right!

I attended a private class at Gail Wilson’s workshop in Acworth New Hampshire this spring, where my goal was to learn how to shrink a sculpt, create molds, and refine a doll design. The doll in the above picture was sculpted in earthenware clay, and a plaster waste mold was produced. I poured the head in liquid papermache (FLUMO) , added sculpted hair, and painted her in oils. I always like this doll, and call her Laura. She is about 30 inches tall but not my idea of the ideal doll because she is too large. Also since I was focused on making a pretty face, I did not have any plan on how to attach her head or create a body. I was interested in learning how to shrink down a sculpt, and refine some of my mold making skills and get an overall doll design, for the new and improved Laura doll. We agreed to break this into several sessions, with the first step shrinking down the doll to be about a 15-16 inch doll.

The initial plan of action was very traditional. We could make a putty mold of the Laura doll head, and pour the head in wax. This two part putty mold is a quick and easy method to make molds from originals. It’s a flexible material so its other advantage is you can unmold something with undercuts like Laura’s hair I purchased the putty from http://www.alumlite.com/ . This strategy would be to use the putty mold to cast a wax head, while solidifying, it would shrink a bit, and then one would create another waste mold in plaster and then repeat the process. Gail calculated we would need to do this 5 times to get a doll of about 15-16 inches. However polymer chemistry save the day, and Gail identified a new product called Hydroshrink (http://www.sculpt.com/) which when poured into a mold, the item will shrink 51%. This implied we could do the shrinking in one step!

I had a plaster waste mold of the original doll, which we could cast in Hydroshrink, but I also had a porcelain head that I poured and fired from the original waste mold so this head was 16 % smaller than the original. We decided we would try both, so as to increase the odds of getting a head the size we wanted.

We needed to make a mold of the porcelain head, and here again Gail found another miracle material. We used a product called ComposiMold-LT (http://www.compositherm.com/) which is a hard gel like substance that you can melt on the stove or microwave, and in its hot , liquid state use it like plaster to make molds. The advantage of this material is it is easy to use, and can re-use this to make additional molds. I just cut it up , re-melt, and reuse. So this composi-mold when cooled was used to cast another Laura in Hydroshrink. As it dehydrates and shrinks, it becomes a transparent yellow-ish color. The second photo shows the Laura faces after a week of dehydration and shrinking. According to the website, dehydration/shrinking can take up to 14 days.

So early this summer, my heads have shrunken, and I made putty molds with a product you find here: http://www.alumilite.com/ProdDetail.cfm?Category=Silicone%20Rubber&Name=Mold%20Putty. This stuff is pretty good for a starting point to impove a figure, but you wouldnt want to use to cast doll parts. I poured the putty molds with Medium Firm sculpting wax purchased at Willow Products, attached each side by slightly melting the wax with an embosing gun, and pressing together . There were a few rough edges to smooth, but all in all it looks good. The last images shows wax doll with sculpted in using a softer was (Ether) sold at Willow Products (http://www.willowproducts.com/) .

Currently I am trying to figure out what size arms and legs go with this head. I will try to keep you poseted

Progress on the Gourd Doll

I finally got going on this gal during a miserable rainy day. As you can see from the pictures, I am just trying to get the rough shape in and have lots of refining to do, but I can see where I am going with this figure. I am sort of disappointed since I had a very specific idea in mind when I started her, but my hands created something else. I am not disappointed, as much as irritated that I spent so much time thinking about how I wanted this doll to look, and now its going in another direction! I count this as evidence that I am still quite a beginner in this doll making adventure since I don't seem to be able to design. My fingers just do what they want to do. I intended for her to have a primitive folk art look, but she's looking a little Victorian to me right now... maybe the painting will help! I want to put put some tiny dolls in the space in her skirt. I have a nice collection of Gail Wilson miniature dolls that would look like nice, but of course I want to try my hand at making my own.

The Surprise doll using a Gourd

This doll has been in my head for a long time, and is coming together at a frustrating slow pace. I know part of the problem is I have been thinking of her for too long, and have too many ideas. The other immediate problem is I have a finger in a splint, and can't even hold a paint brush, let alone sculpt. The original inspiration came from antique and antique reproduction surprise dolls, similar to one Jean Nordquist's describes in her 'Alice' booklet. When I started sculpting with gourds, I knew I wanted to try this using a gourd. So in summary, this is where I am at. I started with a gourd that had a nice shape for a skirt, and cut it. This gave me an estimate of how tall the doll would need to be I next create sort of stick figure armature of the doll, with simple wire legs, arms, and body. I added some polymer clay to the body region, mostly to give the whole unit some substance so that I could stick it into the gourd and judge by eye dimensions. I then cut the opening to the gourd that will contain the inside portion, or surprise area. Constructing the inside piece that will contain the little scene in her skirt was a little fiddly, but I did it with card board, snipping here and there so that it will fit inside the gourd. To give structural support to all of this , I covered the cardboard with apoxie sculpt ( that grey stuff). I did this in stages, in part so that I could keep adjusting the shape by checking if the unit still fit inside the gourd skirt. Its actually a tight fit, and I may need to trim it back carefully. The last element, of course is the the dolls head, and here is where I am going nuts. Originally, I wanted to use the head I sculpted and made a mold of (see last blog entry), but I admit I started sculpting another head before I injured my finger. I am still leaning towards using the head I sculpted and molded, and for the mock up picture have included a painted version. The head seems a little large to be in proportion, but I know I can compensate a little when I sculpt in the torso... so I am not sure. Right now I am off to the drug store to get some latex gloves to put over my splint to see if I can work with the apoxie clay... I just can't stay away from this doll any longer

So what will go into the the little niche in the gourd skirt ? Well this is a problem, since I have come up with way too many ideas. I think I will wait until I have the components sculpt and then choose my direction. I have decided that it will have a fairy tale theme, but I don't know if I will sculpt tiny miniatures, or use my collection of paper ephemera and do some type of shadow box type thing.... or should I paint my scenes? I do have the silk fabric to make the dress and some pretty velvet leaves, tiny silk miniature flowers, etc. This should be fun!

Starting too many new projects

I know I haven't been posting. I also haven't done much doll making since last March and not any sculpting. The black-out was coincident with starting a consulting business (programming, not art!). Ironically, the sculpting bug has come back with a vengeance even though I am really busy right now with work and preparing for my son's wedding. But when Lady Muse talks, I can't help but listen.

On the right is a sculpt I did this past January to take along to a mold-making class at Gail Wilson's New Hampshire workshop (http://www.gailwilsondesigns.com/). I know the picture isn't much... but I figure it was important to post something! I had a semi-private class with two other artists. The idea was to bring a piece, and Gail would teach us how to make plaster molds for casting sculpts in either paper mache (FLUMO) or even porcelain. I did this head, a shoulder plate, hands and feet. She will make an 11 inch doll. I have successfully poured the molds with FLUMO, and papermache slip that Gail sells and am cleaning the parts. I hope to show pictures as I work on her. Cleaning has ended up being a huge job, since I didn't listen to advise and sculpted separated head and shoulderplate so that her head will move. Now I have to sand/refine the shape of the neck and shoulderplate so the head glides easily. Not a big deal, but its painstaking work. I have a new programming assignment ( I work at home) so that I sneak off to sand the parts during my trips to the microwave to zap my coffee or during bathroom breaks..... then feel guilty since I need to be programming. I wish I could justify taking a week off just to play with my art projects, but that would be irresponsible.

The other two projects are still in the gathering stages, so I will post them when I have photographs of something in progress. One is a challenge to a Fantasy Art Guild I recently joined, and it will involve an idea that has been in gestation for over a year. I feel like an overdue mother, just dying to give birth to this doll.. The last project is an online sculpting project with Marilyn Radzat (www.thatcreativeplace.org/). My intention is to post more frequently, and try to regain some focus on my art now that the business side of my life is in stasis.

Easter Ornament Exchange

One of the internet news groups I am on had an Easter ornament exchange. I got very lucky and was assigned a good friend as my partner. I wanted to do something special, since she is a special buddy, but my creative muse wasn't sharing any ideas... but low and behold, right at the last minute, I thought of this egg design based on an online class I had taken with Marilyn Radzat ( see fairy bower pictures further down this blog). Anyway the egg gourd I cut, and placed a very thin coating of apoxie sculpt in the inside of the gourd. I put a base coat of ivory acrylics , and then put pink and green pearlescent paints on top of it to give it an abalone look. The outside is cut up glass tiles in apoxie sculpt, with micro beads pressed in the 'grout' . The Kewpies dolls I had laying around, I china painted them, wigged and dressed them. I think its looks pretty cute! My friend like them too. I kinda when nuts too, and ended up making 9 of them and have sent them out to friends and family. So lady muse didn't abandoned me, but I do wish I thought of it earlier...

A doll I need to work on

I started sculpting this doll when I was recovering from knee surgery this past July. She has been looking at me all fall and winter, imploring me to finish her, but I couldnt see what the figure should be. At first I wanted to do a rather elaborate idea of a 'suprise doll' - like the antiques. I was planning to attach her to a gourd, sculpt a dress around the gourd which would have cut door to open into a scence (using miniatures) . I still like this idea, but I think its too ambitious, and I now favor doing a more traditional doll. In honor of spring, I think she should be Heidi- holding a baby goat. Her head is in the right position to look into the baby goats eyes. What do you think? I thought of using the goat picture to sculpt the hands, but of course I would costume the doll in 1800's era homespun. I dont know why this doll intimidates me.... I have a nice start with the head! I think I just need to get started and not worry about it.

BTW, I still want to do the suprise doll too , but I think I need to spend more time figuring out how to do it.

I came back! Mary Izannah

Yes , I know I have been negligent with blogging and you don't want to hear the excuses. But it involved a fractured knee and surgery, and then months of physical therapy, and then apathy! But I am starting to get back into dolls and want to move ahead here. This doll I made in January after I heard a very good doll friend had passed away. Mary was one of the first friends I made in the cyber doll world, and was always an enthusiastic mentor and friend. I miss her terribly.

So the general idea with this doll is what can you do with the old porcelain molds you might have hanging around if you no longer care for porcelain. This is a Triste Jumeau, poured in a liquid papermache slip (Flumo), and then modified by sculpting hair with Premeir air drying clay. I then decided to paint her in a Izannah Walker style. The hair style was vaguely inspired by the character of Elizabeth Bennet in A&E's 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice. My 10 year old daughter was watching it 24/7 during the holidays and it must have imprinted in my subconscious while I was sculpting. Anyway I am happy how she turned out! My doll club liked it too .

Potpouri

I haven't posted anything for quite awhile on my blog. I have excuses of course, but the bottom line is I have been flitting from one project to another.

So here are some examples of some of the silliness I habe been working on. The first two doll pictures are of Esther, a painted polymer clay doll I sculpted last year, but got discouraged when I painted her. I had a bad cold one day in February and sewed a body for her and put her together. I then decided she might not be so bad if I dressed her, so I made her a gown this past week. Now I think she looks OK, and didn't deserve the poor treatment she got this past year.

The third picture is a 'Fairy Bower' I made during a Marilyn Radzat online class through the 'Gourd College' These projects are magical and I am learning alot about how to do mosaic work, etc. I am really enjoying stretching my skills with this one.

The last two pictures are a Mermaid Boat I am working on , sculpted over a Swan Gourd. This crazy idea came to me while working on another one of Maryln's projects, the Sphinx and is inspired by a conch shell my daughter recieved in the mail from my sister-in-law. She is in a rough state right now, and needs lots of refining and sanding, but I think I have an idea of how to paint and finish her.

Ta ta for now and I hope to do better with this blog!

Hatching an Idea

While vacationing in Ireland this summer, I found a lovely reproduction Tucks Paperdoll. I thought , wouldn't this be a great doll . I wonder if I could do a painted cloth doll to look like her ? As I mentioned in my last post, I have been working on painted cloth dolls done in a trompe d'oil style . Susan Fosnot, Hellen Pringle, and others have developed this style to a high art form. I am just trying to learn the basics. However I like this little dolly here, inspired by the paper doll. I decided I wanted a younger girl, still with a little chubbiness. I designed the doll head/body myself, since I wanted some room to paint hair. I may soften the edge a little of the basic shape, since this version of the design has a quite a ledge for her hairline, and if you are not careful with the sewing and stuffing, it can distort like the unpainted stuffed doll ( or I guess I could paint her turning her head!),

Anyway I had a terrible time trying to paint her, and repainted her at least 4 times . At the suggestion of someone in my doll club, I tried painting the basic face in acrylics. At that stage the face was almost cartoon like - just the basic eyes mouth and hair. Then I added shading in oils to get the trompe d'oil 3D look and some of the fine details. I think she looks pretty nice. So I will move forward and work on arms/legs and clothes and finish the design. I admit I have ambitions of creating a pattern here, but first thing first.

Cloth Oil Painted dolls

I have a fascination of Early American portraiture and also love antique oil painted cloth dolls. Many many doll artists explore this style, and I am am just a beginner in my exploration this style. Nevertheless, I am pleased with how this doll came out and figured she deserved an entry in my blog as I consider what type of dress to sew for her.

This doll was sewn in cotton sateen from a pattern by Susan Fosnot and I stuffed her with wool roving- my favorite stuffing material. I drew and painted my own face instead of using Susan Fosnot's template, and I think its a younger face - perhaps of a young girl. Its more stylized face rather than realistic , but I like the doll and am proud of how she turned out. I am definitely having trouble painting curls, but I can always hide them under a bonnet! She was painted in oils, and although I love working with them, I had a terrible time getting the right color for her skin, and not getting everything muddy. I am working on a few other cloth dolls like this one and perhaps will bring on this blog once they are done

As you can see, I have made her under-ware following the style the mid 1850 or so. There is a chemise, drawers and two petticoats on this gal. I am pondering what color her gown should be and am drawn to blue - Its my favorite color! So if you have an opinion let me know at bonameechi@yahoo.com.

Tiny Doll Accessories

I have been working on tiny accessories, OK toys, for my dolls. These are all kits from Gail Wilson ( http://www.gailwilsondesigns.com/) . I confess I am a real addict for her doll kits, and these are just a few in my large collection that I have yet to finish . Ultimately these will go into the dollhouse I am still working on- The doll in the upper right picture is Gail's version of the famous Hitty doll. Hitty is playing with her new Noah's ark set, peg wooden doll, pouting chair and doll bed. To give you an idea of scale, Hitty is about 6 inches, and the peg wooden doll is less than two inches tall . The adorable Noah's ark set is so tiny and precious . The animals are all less than a half inch tall and the ark is about 2 inches long. Notice the gorgeous wooden doll lying on the rope bed. This is a 3 inch wooden miniature Joel Ellis doll that Gail Wilson made - she is just perfect! These lucky dolls have some very nice new toys to play with...

Christmas Izannah Tableau

I just listed this doll on ebay , item 120062981743. I sculpted this Izannah Walker doll this summer. I was looking for something today and found this sled in a cupboard. Its amazing how much doll stuff I have tucked away.... pretty sad! Anyway I think she would look wonderful underneath a tree.

Annabelle Doll Club

I thought I would write about my fascination of dolls that inspired Tasha Tudor 's art work and stories. Tasha's stories

"A Doll's Christmas " and "A is for Annabelle" are some of my most treasured childhood stories and I enjoyed re-reading them to my own children when they were young. As is well known, Tasha Tudor is an ardent doll lover , doll collector and doll artist. The drawings in "A is for ..." were based on her Jumeau French Fashion doll Melissa as is shown in the third picture. This is an alphabet book where each letter describes a lovely doll accessory. If you dont have this book, I think you should make a point of taking a look at it at your earliest convenience!

I know doll clubs have been re-creating Annabelle, the star of her book " A is for.." since the book was published, but I wanted to re-create her in a medium that the non-porcelain doll artist could enjoy. So I found a tiny 9 inches tall EJ Jumeau mold ( Jean Pardina molds) and made one up in papermache and painted in oils. Picture 4 and 5 is my first Annabelle. She now lives with my friend Janice, but I was very encouraged with the results and shared pictures with my friends on the Take Peace Tasha Tudor Yahoo Group and of course they wanted to join the fun too... So now there are about 16 of us across the US and Canada making Annabelle and scouring EBAY looking for accessories. I hope to post pictures of our treasures off and on. Progress on her clothing and accessories have been slow, but very satisfying.

BTW, I will have additional kits for Annabelle in January. Make sure to send me an email if you have any interest at bonameechi@yahoo.com.

Little Dolls

I have enjoyed creating a little doll inspired by the "Little House" books for a friend's daughter. These were my all time favorite stories as a girl, and I still enjoy these stories as an adult. As I started to work on these, by imagination when a little wild, and the clothing I sewed looks a little more 'Dickenson' then Home on the Prairie. Nevertheless, I am pleased with them and feel my sewing skills are starting to improve a little. Sewing clothing for 5 inch dolls is a bit of challenge. Its seemed my entire fabric stash had prints that were too large and I found out that red is a difficult color to match. I still have quite a bit of handwork left on the clothing, and would like to paint a box for the 'spare' doll to put her clothing in.. Santa might need an extra gift!