Have Your Cake and Heat It Too
Air-dry clay is a perfect medium for dollmaking. The results are beautiful, there is no need for baking or firing, and let's admit - sculpting is relaxing and fun. There's one problem: it takes many hours to dry the clay.
You'll have to wait overnight at a minimum. If you're busy the following day, then your dolls will go on the "back burner" until you'll have time to continue. But there's a sweet solution: A food dehydrator and a cake topper!
Pin Up Boots
These Victorian boots got a nice finishing touch, thanks to a few pins and some black paint.
Avigayil
Please meet Avigayil, a sweet steampunk-inspired doll with timeless charm. Avigayil is a 25"cloth doll, lovingly and carefully "done up" with a variety of mediums, paints, and varnishes to achieve a mock porcelain look.
Transforming a Cloth Doll to “Porcelain”
I'm starting a new doll.
Betty Boop
This is my rendition of Betty Boop, a classy cartoon made into a doll. She is made with fabric and intricately painted in acrylic paint. You will notice that Betty still needs some shoes. That's okay. We like each other because we both like to go around the house with bare feet once in a while. Betty will get new shoes later. I think she is as adorable as could be, with or without the shoes! The Doll Makers Muse version of a vintage Betty Boop pattern is
Shirring Fabric for Dolls
Shirring is a great technique to spruce up any old fabric while adding some serious visual interest without a lot of effort.
Think of it as "cheating surface embellishment." It can be a relaxing pause when you're in dollmaking mode, but not quite sure where your doll is going. Shirring is a great way to create "something from nothing" without thinking or planning too far ahead.
Beaded Betty
Today I would like to share with you an amazing interpretation of Betty Boop, created from my pattern by Dot Lewallen of Speedy Beadie. I am utterly flabbergasted at her work!
Dot made her Betty out of beads! I think it's remarkable. Dot says, "She's ready to boop, and so am I. Boop Boop-Be Doop!" Dot, I'm ready to boop with you, too!
Bibbie
Bibbie is a "blank slate" doll created for a Traveling Doll Project. She'll travel around other artists through the mail. Each artist will add something to Bibbie as she goes, interpreting her according to their artistic vision, and write in an art journal. Eventually she will return completed, and the journal will be filled. The thing I love about Bibbie the most right now is her tutti-frutti hair. It has been floating around my stash for quite some time now (several years, actually), and I am so excited because I think it's a perfect starting point for her. What a personality it gives her, wouldn't you agree?
Making Cartoon Curls