More UFO's

Oh dear, I just can't get into doll making mode. I have tried and tried, you can see from the various attempts in the last few posts.............I just keep getting distracted. I am itching to work with air dry clay, I prefer it over polymer because you can really sculpt and sand it and smooth it. It takes time to dry and is messy, I always think back to making mud pies when I was very little........I actually liked making mud pies.


This is a Santa head I whipped up just before Xmas, I was so busy making Santa's, this one was a 4 foot decoration.


Remember Gordon the Rock Collector well this is another unfinished fellow in that style (spoon doll), who I may never finish, but he is in love with the impossible princess so even if he does get dressed, he will stay with me.



So again I am wanting to start afresh and make a whole new doll. The fairy godmother has to wait, the little Lottie has to wait, the polymer fairy has to wait and Nathan's Santa definitely has to wait. I have a clay fairy head waiting for a body, and another clay head for a 20" doll. But I want to start a whole new doll. Just to see who it will be. That is if I ever make the time to sit down and start!

Some days are very trying........

You see my dilemma. Here I am tring to create an older face on a cloth doll. I don't want to use the "common" method of needle sculpting, so I am experimenting with trapunto - a stitched and stuffed method, air dry clay, and next I will just try - needle sculpting..................

Because I want to make this a pattern doll, I need to consider how easy/difficult it should be. I am totally rethinking my pattern designing becuase I don't want to limit the possibilities for doll makers who buy the patterns.

clay over cloth

So I am trying to develop an easy way to add clay to cloth in a pattern form. As you can see from my pics of my first pattern in this technique, you change the complete look of the doll. That's okay, but the cloth only doll to me is more difficult than sculpting in polymer or air dry clay! I may be working too small, but then I don't want to do anything bigger than 20 inches. I have to make a lot of dolls to get this right.

Work in progress

Today I had a breakthrough, as an "artist" I seem to get stuck making design decisions, and it is the whole process of creating a doll that is all about decision making - height, pose, hair colour, costume, eyes. Every doll that is designed goes through this process. Susanna Oroyan wrote about this in her book Designing the Doll and I am terrible at it. I can't draw a sketch of what I want to do, I often look for inspiration from other sources, pictures, fabrics, other dolls. And I tend to get side tracked because there are so many options it can all get a bit hard - well it is for me. After talking to my sister Ingrid yesterday, I started with new determination to just start somewhere - like at the beginning - sculpt the head. My friend Jill said - make it and they will come.........the doll lovers, enthusiasts, buyers, it will all happen, just do it. And I did. I sculpted clay over cloth on a flat face and then I tried a seamed face. Next I will do the cloth sculpted face with clay over. All this is about getting a mature look to a cloth doll. I have already experimented with this method for my pattern doll Aliyah. Knowing what I want to achieve and creating it are two different things, but I am getting there - very slowly...........

Oh Dear it's the New Year!

It has been such a long time since I have posted anything here. It is not that I forgot or didn't care - life just gets in the way and I am still getting the hang of recording my efforts. My darling eldest son Nathan married his long time dream girl Shannyn in November and with all the birthdays and Xmas I really didn't have time for my blog. I was madly making Santas to decorate the house and give to my family etc. etc. Here are some WIP pics......














So I am working on another pattern doll. I sometimes get very lost. I tend to have doubts about how good or bad my dolls are. If I should just sculpt and sell - which I tend to undervalue myself - or should I create lots of pattern dolls and sell those? I have just created the first part of my new pattern and I like what I have done - but will it be "acceptable" to those who buy the pattern. So much self doubt..........