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 ;-)

Update on the fairytale dolls

 Still working on this project. My paperclay made some cracks, so I had to put some more diluted paperclay on the doll. After that, I sanded them all down, untill det studio was covered in fine white dust ;-)

After sanding the dolls, I changed my mind aabout the wolf´s fur, and covered his whole body in a very string joint compound and made some structure looking like fur. After sanding them again, I painted the base coat using some cheap acryliv paint.

Tip: I have a lot of acrylic paint, and I usually use the cheap quality for priming and basecoats. I like to paint with very expensive paint, so I am not using that for that. 

Tomorrow I will sand the paint again and perhaps give it another layer. Then I´m going to start painting the faces.

I had an idea today. I was thinking about hair and accessories as eg a crown. How to make then stay ontop of the head? I think I want to try to drill a hole in the head, and make wigs that have a stick that fits the hole. Small crowns can also fit in the hole. I must think about how to make that. It really could work, because these dolls are going to be moved, and I don´t want to worry about things falling of the doll. That kinda ruins the magic, don´t you think? 

Now, I´m off to bed. I must get up early tomorrow, because I have an very early appointment with a speech therapist ;-) I need to learn how to breath properly ;-) I´ll tell you more about it later...;-)

Good night! 

She is starting to grow on me (Medicin doll part 4)

Link to part 1
Link to part 2
Link to part 3

Good evening! I´m back, after a couple of busy days, filled with family visits, a trip to an annual medieval festival in Horsens (where I bought a slingshot, and I am going to learn how to shoot/throw with it!!), a Sunday in sleepwear and studying. After a couple of years of working in the kindergarden, I am going back to school part time to take a degree in art and aesthetics. It is very fun, but also a bit exhausting. I need to remember to retreat to my studio, just to breath and let my thoughts run free, without having to relate to anyone. This is how I generate energy.

Tonight I´m back to working with my medicin doll: The Guardian. She is really starting to grow on me! It feels like something inside is communicating itself out to me. I have no idea if this doll making process is nothing more than my imagination running freely, making everything up along the way, making me believe a little, that there really are universal benign forces, looking down on me, encouraging me to keep on working with her. And does it really matter?

I have problems with my perfectionism. I tell my self all the time that this is NOT an art doll, but a medicin doll. I don´t know why I keep on remembering myself that there is a difference, because in fact, there are no rules when it comes to dollmaking. I can do what I want. But to me, it feels safer to work in this manner, because the art doll is made for display, but the medicin doll is made from the heart. In order to work with the heart, I try to keep my focus on the doll´s feeling, and not so much how it looks. But it is rather diffecult. I like perfectionism.

I realized that in my last post I made a mistake. I wrote that the human hands are the same size as the distance from the chin to the top of the head, but this is off course wrong. The hands would be to big. I´m sorry about that. It has been too long since I made a doll. The correct size is from the chin to the forehead hairline. See this link

I decided to paint her body a  beautiful dark Prussian Blue. This color symbolizes in my opinion pure femininity and it symbolises feminine power rising. I will paint swirling waves in silver on her body. This will symbolize the waves of creation.

I like her white pale face, but somehow that look also make her a bit distant. I will start the painting process tomorrow evening. Right now I am working with a image of her much like a snow queen. As I am writing this, I am listening to one of my female muses and great heroines in life: Clarissa Pinkola Estés. She is talking about the story: "The Snow Queen" (The Joyous Body). Isn´t that fascinating? Is that synchronicity, or what? My nightly dreams also show different aspects of both my feminin shadow and power.
This process is fascinating. Medicin dolls are fascinating ;-)
Some pics:

Please welcome Hannah!! Finally finished!

Just dropping by to post a photo of Hannah! Jay!!!! She is finally finished, and I am very pleased with her!

I will post netter photos of her tomorrow, and write a blogpost about my experiences during her making. There are several things I need to share - especially about her armature. See you tomorrow!

Hands, hands and more hands....

This video is an introduction to the volume and the basic shapes of a hand. I think hands are really hard to make, and found this video very helpful. 

A dollartist once told me that one of her students also had a hard time making hands, and she instructed her to make at least 2 or 3 pairs of hands every day for a week. At the end of the week, the student felt more confident and had even started enjoying to sculpt hands. I think I will do the same. 

See, I never ever practise enought, and I can easely tell that my sculpted hands are gettinng better each time I make them. 

If you have more videos or tutorials on sculpting hands, I would appreciate you sharing them with me. 

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? 

New cat

I love to sculpt cats. They are graceful and funny at the same time. I have so much enjoyment just by silently observing my own three cats. Yesterday my Merlin came running inn from the garden, with a wild look in his eyes. I could tell he wasn´t present in there at all. He was lost in a wild bird chase, and he still had the bird (Blackbird) and half of the branch in his mouth!!! I chased him around the house, up and down the stairs armed with a waterspray and a broom, while he was growling with his mouth full of feathers and leafs......
Oh my God - I felt terrible for that bird. I love Blackbirds. They sing so beautifully. At the end I chased him out of the house, and closed the door after him. He then arranged himself outside my window in the studio, and guarded his pray for a long time, growling and spinning.
OKAY! I know I must understand the nature´s way, and I also know that possibly the bird was a gift for me (some experts say, that´s right!), but I hate it when cats do that. I get hysterical and feel like kicking the cat´s bum all the way out of my house... Later the same evening we kissed and made up. (But I still could smell the bird...) Here´s a pic of the rascal:

Merlin The Grey, the big birdhunter.

But I was to tell you a little about the new sculpt :-) Okay, it is made from paperclay. Eyes are acrylic from Hong Kong, and it is painted with bright acrylic colors. It also got a matt varnish, but somehow it is still a bit glossy. I was going for a stray allycat-look. I really liked it befor the painting including the eyes, but something happened after the painting... I still like it and are willing to show it here on the blog, but there is something wrong.... and I think it is the plastic eyes. Somehow I always end up with being irritated when I use them. They signal.... plastic! What do you think? 

The sculpt was a fullmoon gift for my beloved. We celebrate our love on every fullmoon. Yesterday we went to the cinema and saw the movie "War Horse". WE cried a little and enjoyed it very much, especially the part where a english soldier and a german soldier, in the middle of the warfield under a white flag, cooperates in removing all the barbwire from the bleeding horse. That was beautiful. 

Update on sculpting hands

Well, I sculpted a new pair of hands, following some guidence from fellow artist online, and watching tutorials I found on YouTube. Overall I was satisfied, but they broke during the baking... Must work with armature next time :-)

I hate hands!

I really hate to sculpt hands!!! I mean, I really, really hate it! I am never ever satisfied with my accomplishments, and I sculpt with a overall feeling of anger and fear... Funny? I can sculpt a fearly good face and feet are also okay, but not hands... I suck at it! My beloved partner in crime is so supportive, and try to make me feel more selfconfident by claiming that there is absolutly nothing wrong with my sculpted hands, they are just a bit too big (every time...!) He also suggested that I could start by sculpting the hands, and sculpt the face that have the correct anatomical measurements afterwards... I always start with the head and the face, but perhaps I should try a new approach? I think I will try that...

Today, I started out by making a fairly reasonable pair of hands for my vampire doll, but after they had been baked, I sadly realised that they were too big... Okay, I cheered myself up, and started making a new pair. I checked the size and it looked okay, but after baking again (!) I realised that they had almost the same size as the first pair!! Oh my God, I had to take a break, because I felt like screaming!!!! How do I do it wrong all of the time? I know that the hands are getting bigger when I work and sculpt the clay, but how do I measure them correct during the process? I am trying to make nice elegant ladylike hands here! My hands all look like they belong to a Norwegian Troll!!

Look at my accomplishments today:

Here I am still pleased with my second pair of hands. They are definite smaller than the first pair, right?

Oh no, not again! They came out almost the same size as the first pair, AGAIN!!!

I must start my third pair!!! ARGH!!! Anyone?? How do you do it?

I received nice photo frame settings today

I just love theese! I like to sculpt tiny faces. 

They are so fun to make, and I can´t wait until I´ve finished them with washes and a little hat. 

Theese new silver tone frames will be so much fun! 

Endnu en heks på vej

Min 3. heks er på vej, og jeg rimelig tilfreds med resultatet indtil nu. 

Jeg købte et online kursus af Dawn Schiller i at modellere hænder, og de 20 $ var godt givet ud. Jeg lærte flere tricks og fandt ud af, hvorfor flere ting med hænder har drillet i lang tid. Bl.a. så laver jeg for flade fingre og håndflader. Nu ved jeg hvordan jeg skal gøre det bedre. Med en orangewood stick (Matas) kan man lave de sødeste fingernegle!

Heksen er ved at blive polstret med pladevat. Med lidt held, så bliver hun færdig i morgen! Hvis jeg ellers kan finde det, så skal hun have grønt hår!

WIP Forunderlige eksistenser # 3: Heksen Tilda DEL 1

Min 3. heks er i ovnen! Her er et lille smugkig:

WIP Forunderlige eksistenser # 1: Heksen Hulda DEL 1

Jeg har 4 stk sofaben fra en gammel antik sofa, som jeg smed ud, men gemte fødderne :-) Jeg tænkte, at de nok skulle kunne bruges til noget en dag, og YEAH! jeg laver hekse på dem!

Jeg blev færdig med den første sofaben-heks som hed Hilda, så nu er jeg igang med Hulda :-). Hun er højere, slankere, og har mere benede træk. Hun skal have langt gråt krøllet hår, og en sort kjol med blonder ligesom sin søster. Du kan se hvor langt jeg kom i dag på billederne nedenunder. Forhåbentligvis kan jeg blive færdig med hende i morgen.

WIP Forunderlige eksistenser # 1: Heksen Hilda DEL 2

Klik her for at gå til DEL 1

Hilda er ved at være færdig. Hun er blevet rigtig god, og jeg er godt tilfreds med resultatet. Der mangler et par småting som hendes hæklede krave og lidt farve på hænderne. Jeg mangler også at fjerne lim limrester med acetone, men det bliver først i morgen, når jeg kan stå udenfor med det.

Her en en opsummering af nogle af de ting jeg lærte.

• Jeg skal øve mere på hænder. Jeg har opfundet en metode, som fungerer for mig, men jeg skal arbejde meget mere på at lære det ordentligt. Jeg skal muligvis have en tegning foran mig når jeg arbejder, fordi hænderne bliver ofte for store, og det skyldes, at leret giver sig, når det bliver varmet op.
• Jeg skal lære en grundmodel til kjoler. Den jeg anvendte i dag var ikke helt perfekt. Der opstår meget limrestegriseri, når det hele skal limes. 
• Jeg skal være opmærksom på størrelse, samt at forholdene skal passe sammen. 

Heksen er færdig!

I aften blev jeg færdig med min heks!
Jeg er selv godt tilfreds med resultatet, og glæder mig til at sende det til en kvinde i England. Jeg håber hun bliver glad for den.

Heksehoved

Jeg er ved at lave et lille maleri på ca 10 cm x 10 cm, hvor dette heksehoved skal sættes fast ovenpå lærredet. Der skal limes hår og heksehat, og der skal males en baggrund med lidt uhygge.  

Billedet skal sendes til en dame i England  :-)

Stjernemand fortsat del 3 - færdig!

Så er Stjerne-Karl færdig! Billederne viser hele processen fra start til slut, og man kan se, hvordan en figur bygges op fra starten med armaturet, til lagene med papmachepulp og papirler, til det endelige resultat med glimmer og dekoration. 

Nu er jeg klar til nye udfordringer. Mit næste projekt bliver en dukke med bevægelige led.