Secret Swap Nazca Doll

As you know I'm part of the Craft Pimp forum and some of us joined in a Secret Swap. The rules of the swap were to only use supplies already in your stash no buying anything new, to be no bigger than a postcard and must be for the theme of either Midsummer Madness or the Nazca Lines. The Midsummer Madness did appeal to me but I ended up talking myself out of it as I knew I would be limited by my stash and I felt my skills might be lacking. So I decided on the Nazca Lines, the lines in Southern Peru and are fascinating, but how was I going to interpret them. I flicked through a few of my craft books and considered polymer clay but then I thought about a small stump cloth art doll. 

As I started on the face I decided to take photos of each stage, something I had been thinking of doing for a while. As you can see from the pictures below each stage of the face marking out drawing in and then colouring and blending in the colours to bring the face to life. I have to admit it's my favourite part colouring in the face and I really love how this one turned out. 

Next I gave the doll a royal blue silk dress and covered it with a orange / red shot taffeta coat. On the coat I used a yellow thread to sew the Nazca lines, the front I decorated it with the Spider and Labyrinth lines and on the back I put the Humming Bird as there was more room. 

To finish off I added a blue button and black merino wool for her hair and I was pleased with how she turned out. I think if I was able to buy extras she would have been a completely different doll. Making the doll has also given me a few new ideas to make perhaps smaller stump dolls or even spirit / dream dolls. 

My next project will be a big doll for another challenge on the facebook Jan Horrox Doll group.

Until next time

Vic xx

New dolls Ebony and Melody

It's been a busy week again and I've made two small dolls though I had originally planned just to make one big doll. One of the dolls I knew I wanted her to be a dark goth style of doll and the other I knew was going to be a nature or flower fairy. Well the dark fairy ended up being a naughty fairy that gets into lots of mischief and plays pranks.

 As you can see from the photo she's a standing doll, I added wire armature in her legs and it worked well so I may have to make a few more standing small dolls. I ended up calling her Ebony, and she was great fun to bring to life even if I did wrestle a bit with the wings.

The other doll ended up as a seated doll and in shades of green. It was a good to use some beautiful green chiffon from my stash thats shot through with red, which you can just see in the photos, it will be perfect for a christmas doll.

I was going to make some wings but I remembered I had some laser cut butterfly wings that I sometimes use on the pixie elves. I have only a few left and the lilac one seemed to suit her.

I struggled a bit for a name for her and finally decided on Melody which I think suits her really well.
The chief doll tester aka girlie has approved of these two and I'm keeping an eye on her as she does really like Ebony.

Also this week I have revamped my Website it's got a fresh new look and I'm quite pleased with it.

Until next time
Vic xx

Poldark and a Seahorse

As last week was half term I missed making something for the year long challenge but I made sure to make something this week. So I decided to use the last two tall elf bodies, one I wanted to make into a Seahorse the other I wasn't too sure. Well I grabbed my notebook and it opened out on some sketches of things I associate with Cornwall, plus I had been thinking of Poldark recently so a Poldark inspired Cornish Pixie Elf was painted.

The Tin Mine pixie elf did take a little bit of time as I had to wait for the paint to dry before adding  more layers and details. Also choosing the felt to use for the hat was difficult, I nearly used blue but a granite grey seems to suit more. 

The seahorse elf was a slightly easier as the base was a solid periwinkle blue and then I used the pearlescent acrylic inks I had found when I sorted out my art supplies. I layered the inks a bit so the seahorse has a beautiful iridescence to it which sadly doesn't show too well when photographed. 

Both of the elves will be available in my Etsy shop I hope to make a few more elves over the coming weeks. And I also want to make a few more smaller cloth art dolls and maybe another big one, I think its going to be a busy few weeks.

Until next time
Vic xx