The paperclay was dry tonight, so I was able to start sanding and thereafter fill some of the cracks with diluted gesso. It works just fine on those very tiny cracks.
After sanding her, I started to become unsatisfied with her closed eyes. Her eyelids are too thick! I tried to sand them down a bit, but it didn´t work. I tried two different drimmel tools but neither one worked. I decided to love the eyes anyway. I try to supress my urge to start over and make better eyes....
I am making this doll both a bit primitive and detailed. I want her face and hands to be very detailed, and the rest of her body to be quite primitive. Making something primitive is really hard for me, and I admire those who work intentionally in this way. I always try to make something better and better, an making it primitive feels all wrong, even though I just love the style when others make it!!
A dollartist once said that one should not fight one´s own style, and I think there is much truth in that statement. A big part of the creative journey is to find ones own style, so why fight it?
Very well - my artdoll is not an artdoll, but a MEDICIN doll, so I try to brake all my own rules of perfection, an just go along with my feeling more that my head.
After adding the gesso, I drilled a hole through her wooden body and pulled a rope through the hole. This will be her shoulders and arms. She will stand with her arms hanging down, but I like the mobility in the arms. I also made some breasts with Magic Sculpt. She is partly mother earth, so large breasts will be appropriate ;-) The Magic Sculpt will be rock hard tomorrow.
Well, enough for tonight. Tomorrow I will make her hands, and I will show you how I do that. See you there?
It has been a while since I´ve updated this blog. I haven´t had much time for creative projects lately, but now I am back with new adventures!
As many of you know, I just love dolls. I have always love to make them, and I also spend a lot of time admire other artists work. There are so many talented artists out there, and many, many collectors of their beautiful art.
I´m not quite like that. I don´t particularly like having them displayed in my house just as nice decor. To me, they are personal and part of myself. It looks like, that I just have a hard time making dolls, or other kind of art projects, if it is not deeply personal. I can´t change that. Perhaps it´s just not who I am. Perhaps I am doomed in this way, because it means that every piece of art I produce is made with blood, sweat and tears.
Sometimes it feels like a birth-giving process. I get an idea (fertilized), I work with the idea in my imagination and collect materials for making it (pregnancy), I create the character with a lot of hassle (labor and finally birth, if I´m lucky). At first, I feel very attached to the the doll, like a mother with her newborn child.
I fall in love with it, and want to have it close to me all the time. Silly, I know, but it it´s true. I also have a hard time parting with it. It feels like I am parting with a piece of my own heart. It can also feel very intimate to discuss my art with people. They are talking about a nice piece of creative art, but I´m talking about my inner feelings like stress, love, anger, hate, sorrow, longings and more.
Sometimes I´d wish I could make lots and lots of art and just sell everything fast and easy, without hesitation. That would be so easy. Just to have fun making it.
My art is not like that at all. Like I said, it´s blood, sweat and tears.
During the proces of making a e.g. doll, I travel inside and explore often unknown aspects of myself. Sometimes something shows up, and I don´t know where it comes from. Did I really make that? Who am I really, if I can make this? Questions like that.
At the beginnning, I often get carried away by old stories, myths, fairytales, old paintings, music and lyrics, poems and so much more. Very often lyrics actually. The first time I heard "Princess of China" by Coldplay, my head just exploded with ideas for painting, just after hearing the line "You stole my star".
I had like 10 paintings in mind just like that in 10 seconds! Music often do that to me.
The hard part is to actually go downstairs to my studio, sit down in front of my easel and get started.....
I have had this idea, that dollmaking could be a like a therapeutic process, but I didn´t know how to find a tutor, or any litterature to guide my process. Untill I found it it ;-) I found a tutorial by Barb Kobe, purchased it, and now I am making dolls again. Barb Kobe calls it medicin dolls. I couldn´t believe my luck!
In her tutorial, besides a lot of exercises in unlocking the creativity, she teaches how to make 4 different medicin dolls. The first one I am making is "The Guardian". This is a doll that will protect me while I am going deeper into my shadowself. I have had a hard time making her. I have an endless amount of excuses. I´m the queen of procrastination! I have soo much resistance, even though I really, really want to make her. Do you sometimes feel like that too?
One of my problems, is to choose how to make her. I have a tendancy of being a perfectionist, and it is really a terrible drag! I have it all in my head, but I would like to just sit down and make the god dammed doll with any crafting materials I have lying around, but no, not this person. I will sit and look at the sketch, long for the feeling of clay in my hands, jump around cheering, because I love some fabric or whatever, but keep on hesitating instead of just go ahead and do it.
This Guardian doll has kept me on my toes for some time now. I learn så much about my self during this process.
So, now I am in labor. I am to give birth to my medicin doll. She is a universal protector from another dimension. A beautiful blend of mother earth, a galactic warrior, vulnerable as a butterfly but brave as a raging tiger. She stands with her eyes closed, dwelling into the Infinite Light, but still alert, in case I need her. I welcome her wholeheartedly into my artistic process and life.
Hi, today I want to show you what makes me so happy! Today I recieved a large box of scraps of long haired pieces of fur! I buy them from this lady. the price is very cheap too! 150 danisk kroners for 1 kg! (approx $18)
Iordered them in mainly brown, black and grey colors, and I cant wait to make beautiful hair with it!
This fur will fit a young boy or perhaps a troll?
Beautiful long curly hair for an old witch?
Long black 6" hair for a younger witch?
Oh - there is a cat in there.... Julie is going crazy with all the fur... Biting and licking and rolling herself in it...
Curly light grey for an old hag?
I really love the fur. It is so nice and soft, and smells like goat ;-) Perhaps that is the reason my cat is going insane - hi hi!
Another thing to share tonight is news about Hannah. For those of you who have been following my progress with this doll, I am sorry I haven´t posted final pics of her. The reason is that there is something terrible wrong with her outfit. At the beginning I really loved it, but soon I started to really hate it....Her slim elegance was tucked away in a clumsy dress. I will make her a new very soon. Her legs are terrible too. The keep on bending a little biy out of shape. I think I will remove her stockings and quilt padding and sculpt them completely with Magic Sculpt. In this way I can´t pose her legs, but she will again look slim and femenin like she did in the first stages of her development.
See for yourself:
She is lying on the table for easier fotographing only. She can srtanly stand on her own proudly without support.
Here is her lovely face. She still need some eyelashes, but I really like her kind facial expression. She is a good witch ;-)
Finally I would like to recommend a good book about creativity. It is a very old classic about keeping a journal, to expand ones creativity and spiritual development. It was published back in 78, but I think it is still fresh and relevant. I was wondering if perhaps blogging was the new way of keeping an journal? What do you think?
"The diary is the only form of writing that encourages total freedom of expression. Because of it's very private nature, it has remained immune to any formal rules of content, structure or style. As a result, the diary can come closest to reporducing how consciousness evolves." ~Tristine Rainer
Hannah is coming along nicely, and I want to show you her progress.
I have worked on her body, and give her more qulit batting. I don´t know if she is done. She is still a bit skinny, so I won´t dress her just yet.
I have painted her face. I do acrylic washes. She has emerald green eyes now. Hannash also needs eyelashes. I have some fake one from Hong Kong and will try to use them.
Her hair is almost done. The orange color was wrong, so I changed my mind and gave her dark brown. She is just adorable, and I cant wait to make her hat and dress!
Oh dear, has it already been 14 days since I last posted something? Things have been kinda crazy around here lately, and I haven´t had time to blog!
Well, tonight I have several things to show you!
I´ve been working on Hannah, and she is coming along nicely. First I would like to share some of my experiences with baking "Magic Sculpt" in the oven. Yesterday, I was watching a dvd with my husband, and spent most of the evening sculpting Hannah´s feet in front of the tv. I thought she needed some heavy weight on her feets to stabelize her body, so I used Magic Sculpt. It is heavy and very sturdy. My plan was to cover them both with black polymer clay after. This was the result of several hours of work:
See? They fell over in the oven, and I could not move them at all. The clay was already rock hard!
Notice, that I am using brass tubes. This allow me to work on her feet seperatly, and attach them to her body at a later stage in the process. Don´t you just hate to repeat your work all over again? I surely do!
The next couple of feet was accually better looking so nothing is not good for nothing
I thought her armature was a bit soft, so I added a lot of wooden sticks to her arms and legs. I also put some tiny on her shoulders. Remember to seperate the sticks on the joints, or else your doll will become very stiff and not very poseable.
I used my sketch to make her proportions correct. It is not always necessary, but this particular doll is going to have the correct body. Sometimes I make dolls that don´t have correct proportions, and Hannah´s hands and feets are too big anyway. I like them like that.
It´s fun to play with her pose!
These are my second couple of feet!
Look how I use my little helper to make them stand and not bend over. I fastened toothpicks to my little helper and put them into the brass rods. Worked amazingly!
Here Hannah is already standing nicely on her own. The Magic Sculpt gives her extra weigth.
I also used Magic Sculpt to stabilize other parts of her armature wich else could bend too easy. I don´t want her to bend funny after she has got all here clothes on.
I also attached the hands with Magic Sculpt. This product can be used for so many things! But be carefull. It´s an epoxy material.
Playing around with her pose a little again.
She sit´s very well!
Okay, here is what I have for now. I made her cool witchy boots with black Kato Polyclay. They turned out just fine! I really liked them! Kato is not my favorite brand, because I find it very hard and hard to condition.
I just wanted to use the rest of a big chunk I had lying around.
How did I use to survive without my pastamachine?
I wrapped Hannah with lots of strips of qulit batting. She still need more, but I have to stop for tonight.
I just cut out strips, and attach them with a hot glue gun. Nice and easy. I used some cotton balls pompoms on her knees and elbows.
Hannah wil have orange hair! I have this fantastic Tibetan lamb fur, and I think she´ll look stunning with it. I just can´t wait to start working on her again, but I´ll have to wait untill Tuesday evening, because tomorrow is family visit. Untill then, I can start planning on her costume. I´m thinking a large Victorian black dress!
Her kommer en opdatering på mit Stjerne-mand projekt. Jeg tror det vil interessere dig at se, hvordan jeg bygger mit skelet op, så her kommer billeder af processen, som viser dig, hvordan jeg gør det, trin for trin:
Jeg købte ovale kugler fra "Grønnegården", og satte dem sammen med blomsterpinde. Derefter trykkede jeg kraftig ståltråd gennem kuglerne. For at holde det hele på plads, forstærkede jeg skrøbelige dele af skelettet med Magic Sculpt som er et 2-komponent epoxy ler produkt. Det er de grå områder som er Magic Sculpt. Kan køber her: Morezmore. Som du kan se, har jeg skåret4 stk 5 cm lange stykker aluminiums-rør i 2 forskellige størrelser, som kan glide ind og ud af hinanden, som et han og hun stik.
Dette er fundamentet. Jeg borede huller med en boremaskine, og satte han-delen fast med Magic Sculpt.
Her er figuren sat fast på fundamentet. Dette er en utrolig solid og holdbar konstruktion, som sikrer, at figuren ikke går i stykker.
Her er jeg i gang med at give ham mere pondus. Det gør jeg ved at bruge malertape og staniol.
Når det yderste lag skal være papmache, så tror jeg det skal "bide" på noget, og derfor har jeg lavet et lag med avispapir og tapetklister.
Her er samme figur med et lag af pap-mache massen. Min oplevelse er, at det er svært at arbejde med, da det klistrer til fingerne, og gør det en smule svært at lave detaljer med. Jeg har giver figuren en grovt lag med ler, og så venter jeg til det er tørt, inden jeg sliber og giver det et lag mere. Jeg er spændt på at finde ud af, hvordan det kan holde på finere detaljer.
Jeg er ved at lave en dukke som skal hedde ScallyWag. Det er en lille fyr, som er lidt forhutlet og lever i udkanten af samfundet. Jeg lavede først hans hoved, og blev rigtig godt tilfreds. Skønne former, gode bevægelser i ansigtet, bedrøvet udtryk, alt i alt top nice, som min datter ville have sagt. Jeg lavede hans fødder, og blev bare så glad, fordi jeg syntes at det var de flotteste fødder jeg nogensinde har lavet. Men det gik totalt ged i dem, da jeg havde brændt dem i oven..... Kig selv og græd sammen med mig.... Fejlen var, at jeg havde sat dem direkte ind på et stykke bagepapir på den varme bund i min bordovn. De skulle været stillet på en rist.
Jeg nærmer mig slutningen af arbejdet med min animationsfigur. Det har været svært at få den til at blive som jeg havde tænkt, men jeg tror resultatet er brugbart.
Her kan man se hvordan kroppen er bygget op af træ.
Fødderne er lavet af Magic Sculpt, som giver tyngde og stabilitet.
Så kom der hoved og hænder på. Hovedet er lavet i papirler, med acryl øjne. Hænderne er lavet i Magic Sculpt.
"Oh, jeg er jo kønsløs!!!"
Hovedet er sat fast på kroppen med en kraftig fjeder, som tillader, at det kan vendes og drejes og bøjes.
Han mangler farve og tøj. Det kommer i løbet af weekenden.
Jeg har også købt en kuffert, som han skal bo i:
Jeg fandt den på nettet, og den kostede den fornemme pris af kr. 50,-.
Jeg skal lave en animationsdukke, men det er ikke hvilken som helst dukke. Det skal blive en dukke, som både kan føres fra nakken og hånd, samtidigt med, at den skal kunne bruges som en almindelig hånddukke...
Forvirret? Forklaring følger hermed: Jeg skal bruge en figur til pædagogisk dukketeater/fortælling, og har derfor brug for en figur, som kan føres på et bord, og hvor jeg selv står bagved. Samtidig skal den kunne have en funktion som en mere intim dukketeaterfigur, hvor jeg kan føre den indefra med håndstillinger, når jeg sidder sammen med børnene.
Jeg bliver nødt til at tænke figuren færdig inden jeg går i gang, da der er mange dele som skal kunne arbejde sammen.
Jeg skal lave en hoved, som både har indvendig hul, og udvendig fingerkrog.
Kroppen skal både ligne en figur, samtidig med at der er forberedt til en hånd.
Figuren skal være meget stabil og kunne holde til lidt hårdhændet behandling. Jeg ved ikke om det skal være cernit, Super Sculpy, Træmoddellermasse eller papirler.
Det bliver spændende at se den i proces.
Jeg mangler desuden en god gammeldags kuffert. Hvis du ligger inde med sådan en, så mail lige.
Jeg øver mig på dette produkt, Magic Sculp. Jeg havde bestilt det hjem fra USA, og havde regnet med, at det kom i hudfarve, men den farve jeg fik, var nærmest mørkbrun.
Nå, men jeg forsøgte at blande det med lige dele hvid og "neger-farve", og gav det lige en knivspids af et pink perlemorsglitrende glimmer, som normalt anvendes til hudplejeprodukter og make-up. Resultatet kan beskues på ovenstående billede :-).
I virkeligheden er farven ALT for lyserød.
Dukkehovedet er til en figur som skal hedde "Lille Myr". Jeg aner ikke hvem det er endnu, men det skal blive tigtigt hyggeligt at finde ud af hvem den er.
Jeg gør lidt reklame for dette produkt igen. Der findes en side hvor lerets forskellige kvaliteter gennemgåes. Det er virkelig interessant at læse, hvor mange ting man faktisk kan anvende det til.
Jeg har modtaget en længe ventet pakke fra USA med Magic Sculpt i hvid- og hudfarve. Dette produkt har jeg beskrevet flere gange, og jeg kan kun rose det til skyerne for holdbarhed og styrke. Her er et link til stedet hvor jeg køber dette ler: Morezmore
Jeg vil lave en hånddukke, og kunne ved samme lejlighd teste produktet.
Jeg startede med at lave et hul ind i en 70 mm flamingokugle, hvor jeg limede et stykke kraftig læder i størrelse med min pegefinger. Jeg bruger en speciel flamingo-lim. Derefter lagde jeg et 4-5 mm tykt lag med hudfarvet Magic Sculpt og satte til sidst et par acryl øjne på. I morgen vil jeg lægge lidt mere ler på, så jeg kan modellere et ansigt.
Da øjnene kom på, blev jeg en smule overrasket over udtrykket!
"Hvem er du?" tænkte jeg, og svaret jeg fik var: "Lille Myr!"
"Det bliver sjovt at lære dig at kende, Lille Myr"!
Solengelen er godt på vej til at blive færdig. Jeg lavede flere omfattende ændringer, bl.a. at dække hende med Magic Sculp som er et produkt der hærder op med en helt fantastisk styrke.
Hun er også blevet malet, og fået hår (masser af det).
Der mangler stadig at komme tøj, mere maling og hænder og arme helt til slut.
Det er nu så hyggeligt at lave dukker. Det bedste ved det hele er, at man arbejder med så mange forskellige materialer. Jeg kan bedst lide at lave store dukker på ca 50 cm, så jeg må ofte tænke kreativt, når det handler om lerene og tørretid kontra plads i min lille bordovn. Denne figur har fået Magic Sculp Epoxy på benene, hvorimod ansigtet et lavet af sevhærdende ler. Basen som hun står på er lavet af et stykke træ med træmodellermasse udenpå, og armaturet er lavet af aliminiumsrør, ståltråd, folie og malertape:-).
Man skal kun kigge på knæ og nedefter, da resten bliver dækket af tøj. Støvlerne skal males sorte. Jeg tror denne figur bliver sjov!
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