The witch sisters Part 1

I´m home alone tonight. Hanging out in the basement studio, having fun with paper clay, watching The Sopranos on HBO (mostly I just listen to the tv) and waiting for my frozen vegetarian pizza to come out of the oven ;-).

Tonight I´m working on a witch bust project. I recently found these nice old wooden thread spools in a gift shop, and I bought them to make the busts. I´m planning on 3 pieces, and right now I am working out the wooden armature. I found this picture from Moonhallow Vintage:

This is the style I´m going for. My dolls never look like the one on the picture, but you get my basic idea. 

I used the wooden thread spoole, flowerstick. white woodglue and some news paper. 

I use the newspaper to stabilize the flowerstick inside the thread spoole. 

A rubber band is also holding the wooden ball in place while the armature is drying.

Dinner-time!!

What I'm up to tonight :-)

I'm working on some tabletop theatre wooden puppets for fairytale-telling in the kindergarden where I work. It' a lot of fun to make these little caracters :-) I purchased them in halfs, and had to glue them together. Then I filled the gaps with some putty and a lot of sanding! I will need some more puppets, because every storyteller must have lots of caracters in the play. For now I have a wolf, a princess, a king, a queen and maybe a prince. I will also make a witch and a hunter. 

My idea is to make a very easy dress pattern, and sew several different dresses, and some wigs.

In this way I can customize the story, and make new caracters every time! 

I went to the public library today, and borrowed a book with russian farytales! I love their take on the witch caracter: Baba Yaga! I will find a way of telling the little children about her! She is amazing. More on that later! 

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 ;-) 

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!

"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

Hannah has got some more clothes ;-) (Part 7)

I am making Hanna´s dress. I still need a blouse underneath, but I think I ´ve got the design right ;-)
I´m so happy to see her getting finished. I totally love her facial expression. She looks at you like she is asking you a question, or trying to figure you out. I´ll share better pics soon.

We have a dreadfull hurricane here in Denmark. They call it "Bodil" (#stormdk, #bodil). All trains stopped all over Denmark (first time ever). No bridges open and ferries cancelled. It is quite nice to stay inside and listen to the heavy wind outside. It will be interesting so see what the world looks like tomorrow!

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

Please welcome Hannah (Part 6)

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

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!

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?