Back to the Projects...

Now this is my latest 'new' craft: 

I started playing with polymer clay because I recently completed my 1:12 scale Victorian Doll's house, and by that I mean that I finally installed the lights and connected them to a battery pack of sorts (I know I'm a bit of a dork, but what-ever). Anyway back to the subject at hand, polymer clay. 

Now Google told me that there are millions of things that I could add to my house made from clay. How awesome. 

So off I went, bought my clay and started playing, first making miniature flowers, then moving on to other odds and ends (with the help of some really cool online tutorials etc.), until finally I thought that I would try my hand at making pose-able dolls. Not for my house, but just 'cause.

The first one that I completed kinda looked like a drag queen, and not a very good one at that, so I won't scar you with those photos, but the next ones turned out okay. Well I think so anyway...  

      

So the Blue Doll (as I've come to call it) was my first successfully completed one. I made the entire thing, from scratch, starting with a wire frame wrapped in some tinfoil for added bulk. I added clay to the tinfoil to give it some rigidity, making sure that the joints, knees and elbows, still have the ability to bend.

I sculpted the head next and painted on the makeup, shaded the cheeks and chest with soft pastels, and painted in the eyes. It's still creepy without the hair (although the painted eyes make it better), not to mention that half of her is green. There is a perfectly good explanation for that however. 

I, like most people today, have a somewhat limited budget when it comes to my crafts (I have a hard time with unnecessary squandering of resources), so, because the beige toned clay is ridiculously expensive, I used a cheaper polymer clay to fill the body of the doll that would be covered by her clothing. Problem solved.

The hair is just craft store doll's hair that I picked up really cheap, but I have seen people use all sorts of things, including wool. For myself however I like the look of the doll's hair. 

I found it  rather a challenge to glue the hair in place directly on the head, regardless of which internet suggestion I tried. In the end however I took a bit of tulle and made a wig of sorts that I glued in place after styling it the way I wanted.

As for the clothing itself, I simply used some scrap pieces of material that I had lying around (the hardest part of that was selecting a colour scheme). And so, having settled on blue, I set to work making the dress. 

It's a rather basic design that is held in place with glue. That is to say, she will never be able to wear anything else, but no matter. Next I took a bit of crushed velvet cut into a rectangle and used that as a cape, once again, just glued in place. 

The trim around her waist and the bottom of her dress is bits of left over lace from a scrap-booking project that was never quite finished.

I have to point out here that I didn't really have a clear picture in my mind of what I wanted this doll to look like at the end of the day, I simply enjoyed the journey and let my mood determine where the project went, and what I did next. 

I am a great believer in following your intuition, and not just with crafts, but in all situations and aspects of life, but I digress.

A prime example is the 'hat': In all honesty it is one of my favorite features and it happened completely by accident. Like I mentioned, I didn't sew the dress in the traditional sense as it didn't need to do much more than look good, and from a distance at that. So, the lighter blue part of the dress is lining rather than silk or cotton etc. making it extremely light weight and easily fray-able (is that even a word). 

Where the hem line is was particularly vulnerable and this 'fluff' that became the hat is just that some of the dress that frayed. 

When I was cleaning up after completing the doll (before she had such a stylish headpiece) I balled up this lot of pulled threads and it made a rather pretty wad of material, wispy and cloud-like, so inspiration struck and I turned it into a hat, placing a bead over the top of it, right in the middle to finish it off... (I know its hard to see in the picture, but its there. Trust me.) And hey! presto! A hat...

Well that was rather longer than I expected, but just before I go, I want to quickly share a few pictures of the second one I finished. 

I worked this one much like the first with little or no deviation in the overall process. The end result was quite a bit different however:

 

To me the Pink Doll looked older, and perhaps wiser than the Blue Doll, so when I was doing her hair, I put a little grey streak in it (you can make it out if you look really closely). I also gave her a shawl rather than a cape (made from more scrap lace that i had laying about the house) and, if you look carefully, she is also wearing earrings, another variation from the Blue Doll. 

Personally I like to think of them as mother and daughter, but again that happened purely by accident and it is not what I set out to achieve. I am, however, happy with the result.

Well that is all for today, I think.

Until next time,
ACL.

PS. A quick snap of the back of these ladies, just so you can see the 'hat'.