Medicin Doll

I have started working with making dolls on another level than before. I´m making medicin dolls and are attending a year long course with the wonderful teacher Barb Kobe. It is a wonderful proces.
This is the first doll in a series of 6. She is The Guardian. I haven´t come up with her name yet, but she is a very old, wise woman. She is the protector.
It has been a very special creative proces until now. I don't just make her out of my imagination. I ask myself through intuition, dreams and feelings. I try to work with the inner feeling guiding me in the direction of healing. This is the medicin doll way.

I am working with paperclay. The brand is Creative Paperclay. It is hard to find here in Denmark, so I have to order it from USA. That makes it very expensive, but I really like this clay, so it is worth the money. It hold the details nicely and becomes very hard and durable after curing.



I thought I would show you how I make hands. There are many ways of making hands, and for a long time, I found it very hard and frustrating, because it was difficult to make them identical. They never looked like my drawing. At a puppet workshop, I was tought to make the armature from styrofoam and small pipe cleaners. It is quite easy. At this picture you can see that I have cut out two identical small squares of styrofoam. This is the size of her palms. Then I cut the pipe cleaners in different lenghts. I use my own hand as reference. After this, I glue them into the styrofoam, and let it dry completely.

After it is dried, I take a little portion of the papierclay, and add some water to it in a little bowl. It becomes liquid, and then I paint it on the entire hand. After drying again, I can add small pieces of clay, and use my sculpting tool to smooth and sculpt the hand.

This dolls hands are supposed to be quite big, because they are a part of her symbolisme.

I will make her feets without the styrofoam, They need some weight. Perhaps I will put some lead in them. Don´t know yet.

This is not just an art doll. Itis not supposed to be sculpted entirely with clay. It has another purpose, and therefore I need to change my normal way of making it.

I like to make the body proportions correct. I am a little perfectionistic.
I think I have to throw this habit out the window in this creative proces, because it is not helping me much. Too much thinking is not helping. It is leading me astray.

I was thinking about this for some time. How could I let go of my perfectionisme, and insted try to follow the creative proces? Should I make her with just natural materials like twigs and such? Should I make her as a paperdoll? Would she be an abstract version? Symbolic? Surreal?

I had an inner picture of her, but my feelings kept telling me to go in another direction. My inner picture was an old hag, living deep in the ground, heavy, grey and with dark colored, coarse clothing. This was the doll I wanted to make. But my feelings kept on showing me another version: lighter, happier and much more colorfull. I saw bright blue and yellow with green. Not dark blue and grey.... This version had another feeling than the first one. I had a little difficulties changing my original idea... Do you know what I´m talking about here?
Killing your Darling is very hard, right? I could write a long blog post about that....

Of course I will follow my feelings. That is the sole purpose of my intention of making this medicin doll. Of course I will make her younger, lighter and brighter if my feelings are telling me to.

I decided to make the armature as I had planned, but head, hands and feet will not be anatomical correct. They will be enlarged. Her dress will be big, colorfull and decorated with all the symbols that this doll is trying to show me.

The armature is made with strong steel wire, covered with masking tape. When the feet are done and attached with the head and hands, I will cover the body in batting strips. Then she is ready for clothing. But this is all I have for today. Keep coming back for updates ;-)

Starting a new doll

Good evening! I havn´t been around much lately, because I´m not doing much work in the workshop in my basement ;-) I´m studying norse mythology these days ;-). My great interest in shamanism and druism has got a new perspective, and I feel great satisfaction in finding similarities and commmnn grounds. You see, I never really got any good at being a new-age-native-american-wanna-be ;-) But still I am drawn to the earth based pagan belief systems like shamanism. I recently found a lot of information about the ancient nordic shamanic practices like seidr, and this is very interesting for me, because it is much more in my own spiritual dna, so to say.
Here is a link to an article about the subject.

Very well, I wanted to tell you about my new doll. I am sculpting a earth goddess doll. I have been working on the body proportions and her armature, and as always, I am split between making her anatomical correct, or just making the doll using eyesight and intuition.

I started with some drawings, and allready I had problems deciding. I started with the body proportions as used by Andrew Loomis, but she wasn´t right... She was to skinny, to masculine and not very earth goddess like at all.

 I made my own drawing, following the "rules" of body proportions, but she still didn´t look right. I then decided to change her: larger breasts (she is an fertility goddess afterall!!), longer neck, bigger head, hands and feet, and a bit longer torso. I remembered that, I liked my dolls looking like dolls, and not to realistic hahahahah. I seam to get caught up with my desire to create something very correct, but it isn´t really me! It is just my ego wanting to make art that looks like it is made by an grown up, and not a 40 year old childlike soul ;-) One shouldn´t fight ones own style, right?

Here is what I came up with:

My cat Julie is allways following me in the workshop ;-) Isn´t she beautiful?

 Here is my armature finished. It isn´t very complicated, it is just the way Wendy Froud makes it on her tutorial. I never made the armature this way before, so I am excited to learn if it is functional and sturdy. It is made by strong steel wire, covered in masking tape, with tinfoil in the head and torso. She will be covered and sculpted with polymer clay.

This is what I have for tonight. I will be working more with this doll in the days to come, so stay tuned. Remember to get the feeds on your reader!

New painting: Songs from Anneland: Songs for my beloved"

I still paint themes from my inner world of whimsical dreamscapes. I can´t really help it, it´s just the way my feelings and emotions wants to be expressed. Some people find my paintings dark and a bit scary, but to me they are full of love, light and hope. The scary part is just the inner shadow part, feeling alone and melancholic, but never without hope and trust. 

This one tells the story of a tree, growing out on a cliff, singing odes for it´s beloved, the silent moon. Does she hear his songs of love? The painting isn´t finished yet, there are lots of work to do with it, but I thought I could show you some work in progress photos:

"Wanderlust" is allmost finished!

This painting is almost done. I just need to decide, if I want a blackbird sitting on the branch. 

What do you think?

"Come to the Edge"

Guilliame Apollinaire - French Poet

My favorite quote..... What´s yours?

"The Price of Solitude" New painting almost finished

This is my new acrylic painting from the series "Songs from Anneland, title: "The Price of Solitude". The painying measure 50x70 cm (20"x28"). It is painted black on the sides, so no framing is necessary. As always, the sky is adorned with beautiful Swarovski crystals, wich make the painting sparkle just like real stars in the night. 

In this painting I´m trying to express the feeling of solitude, when you feel like screaming out loud, but there is noone there to listen. The only one listening is the silent full moon, always reflecting your own image of your soul, but never sharing, just showing nothing but your self. 

The tree is screaming in eternal silence, because the mouth is nothing but a great big hole - it´s speechless. 

As every painting I make, there must be hope though. Perhaps just a little one, but it must be in there. I am thinking about something like a bright star, a butterfly or a beautiful bird. Must ponder a bit on that. 

The moon became quite huge ;-) Perhaps it was better before, when it was smaller. Too late to change it now though! 

My abtract studies are finished.

Abstract painting is bloody difficult! How does one know when the painting is finished? What are the guidelines? Are there any rules, or does anything go?
I tried to finish up these two paintings, but I suspect I made a bigger mess instead.... I think I liked them better before ;-)
Also, I painted the sides black, but my art teatcher says that all painting must have a frame. I don´r know about that. I like the somplicety of the black side of the canvas, but sometimes a painting looks much better with a proffessional frame... What do you think?

Please welcome Hannah (Part 8) Finally finished!

Part 1: http://www.solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/10/starting-new-art-doll-please-welcome.html

Part 2: http://www.solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/11/please-welcome-hannah-part-2.html

Part 3: http://www.solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/11/hannah-has-got-new-ears-and-hands.html

Part 4: http://solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/11/hannah-is-coming-along-nicely-now-with.html

Part 5: http://solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/11/please-welcome-hannah-part-5.html

Part 6: http://solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/12/please-welcome-hannah-part-6.html
Part 7: http://solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/12/hannah-has-got-some-more-clothes.html

Hi, I´m back to share the promised photos of Hannah! The weather is terrible here in Denmark, so it´s really hard to take really good photos without daylight, but I have tried, and here are my results:

My husband said she was a bit pale, so I gave her a little more rosie cheeks and nose.  I also made her eyebrows darker, and added clear varnish on her eyeballs and lips ;-) 

I love her pose! She is standing firmly on both her feet, relaxed and in balance. 

Today, I would like to talk about armature. In a artdoll, the armature is really important. It makes the doll sturdy and strong, and will prevent parts from breaking off and so on. It will also help the doll hold it´s own weight. Hannah has hot a strong armature, made with 4mm aluminum wire, steel wire, wooden sticks to control the joints and rock hard Magic sculpt to make hips and legs very strong.

Even though I thought the armature was strong enough, it wasn´t. Another thing that was annoying me was, that her legs kept bending in the wrong direction. And then suddenly her left leg broke of at the hip! I had to remove alle the quilt padding, the wooden sticks and open the entire armature, to discover that it was the aluminum wire that had broken apart! It had become weak after too much motion. 

I therefor resculpted her entire legs with Magic Sculpt, then covered them with paperclay. Sanding, sanding and more sanding ;-) Not a fun proces, but necessary. The Magic Sculpt was probably getting a bit old, because it was really hard to sculpt, and that´s why I covered it up after with paperclay. 

So, aluminum wire is not strong enough! I liked it because it was light and very easy to bend and work with, but the armature can´t brake like that! Depressinly, later on it braked again... This time at the shoulder.... It broke after she was almost done, so there is no way I´m opening her up again. Her arm is protected by layers of masking tape, quilt padding and glued clothing, but it was a tremendous dissapointment to me after all that work, to discover that the alumium wire broke again! I confess, that I have been posing her a lot, back and forth, up and down, to find her right posing statue, but a doll shouldn´t be sold as slightly poseable, if she has a aluminum armature, and that is what I thought I was maling. Over time, she will eventually brake, so this is my advise to all you doll artists out there: don´t use it aluminium wire.  Use strong and hard steel wire instead. 

Even though she isn´t perfect, I still love her. She will stand in my studio radiating good vibrations. Thank god I didn´t sell her or a similar doll. What a shame to discover that it would brake one day. 

 Another funny thing is her facial expression. I think she´s looking very friendly, but my husband thinks that she looks worried. An old friend on Book of Faces found her a bit condescending! I thought to myself: "What??" How can it be, that we all are seeing her expression so differently? How do you see her expression?

Well, I guess it is back to the sculpting table for me. This time I´m bringing my new book with me, as recommended by Dee Schiller from Oddfae: 

I´m off again, thank you for showing interest in my ramblings ;-) 

Winter Solstice 2013

The winter solstice is almost upon us. In scientific terms, the winter solstice occurs at the precise moment when the axial tilt of earth’s polar hemisphere is the farthest away from the sun.

The longest night of the year. From now on the days get colder and colder, but the light is also returning, making our days longer. This is the original Yule. The birth of the light. It is a symbol of life, death and rebirth. 

I like this poem called "The Shortest Day" by Susan Cooper:

So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, fest, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!!

Also, I love this old animated film from 1982, based on the book by Raymond Briggs: "The Snowman" The music is so haunting and beautiful....

"December Full Cold Moon"

December´s full moon name is the Full Cold Moon.It is the month when the winter cold fastens its grip anf the nights become long and dark. This full moon is also called the Long Nights Moon by some Native American tribes.

Oh! Silent moon, reflect on me your silver glow
and hold me safe 'til dawn.
Oh! scepter'd orb, direct on me your silent face
and keep my soul 'til morn.

Glory be. Glory be. Glory be.
You and me, you and me, you and me.
Wrapped in love, help in poise,
allow your silent voice to share my prayer.

Permit my heart...
fearlessly express its radiant glow
to light the dark.

-Stuart Wilde

"Heaven, I´m in heaven....." Update on Hannah and a bit of this and that.

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

Please welcome Hannah (part 5)

Links to previous posts about Hannah:
http://www.solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/10/starting-new-art-doll-please-welcome.html
http://www.solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/11/please-welcome-hannah-part-2.html
http://www.solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/11/hannah-has-got-new-ears-and-hands.html
http://www.solannsworld.blogspot.dk/2013/11/hannah-is-coming-along-nicely-now-with.html

 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! 

What are your ideas?