Lost post- Projects: Small dolls Marie and Dorothy

I just found this incomplete post in my drafts- I polished it up a bit, but thought I would go ahead and share it with you.

One of my good friends and I art "challenge" each other to track the year with a continuing art/craft project. Last year we marked the year with 11" X 14" boards that we paper crafted to express the particular time of the year, this year we are marking the year with art dolls. We have no particular "rules" since we are very relaxed about it, just follow the calendar and for 8 different time points create a doll representing your take on the time point. The doll can be completely hand made from the ground up, or a prefabricated doll can be used by either re-working the doll or by just focusing on the clothing. It looks like both of us are not going the pre-fabricated route, I didn't really think we would, but the option was put out there as an "out" in case either of us got really busy. We are also very flexible about the number of dolls, at the end of the year you are not required to have 8 dolls, and you do not have a deadline that dictates when each one is to be completed. When we started the yearly projects the "rules" sounded like it would be too flexible, and if you are a procrastinator- (like myself) you wouldn't get to the project, but for some reason we've both kept up with the process, and have actually produced multiple items. We each ended last cycle with 8 out of 8 boards, and so far I have 2 of the 4 dolls I was supposed to complete but I do plan on "going back" and creating dolls for the events I've missed.


Here is the information for the two I've completed- you've been introduced already but this gives you some details on their construction.

Marie Antoinette- Beltaine/May Day




Her Poem:
When wee Marie was told, there is no bread.
She responded, you should have cake instead.

You've already seen Marie- but I thought I would go into her with more detail.
With her is her grand cake and she stands in a pose offering you some.
She is made mainly from some form of paper,(paper clay, sheets of paper) with the exception of her wig and accessories.

Her body is sculpted paper clay over Styrofoam and her legs are dowel rods with paper clay feet attached. Her eyes are painted antique pearl beads and her wig (the piece I love the most, and am most proud of) is made of wool roving and was hand needle felted together to form the curls and twists. It is highlighted with; strands of colored roving, iridescent roving and little bows that match her dress. After sculpting and sanding the pieces, I painted them with acryllics and then did a "deathly" palor wash over them. (It gives it a gothy feel IMO).



After putting the body pieces together, I began dressing her. The dress is made with pieces of distressed handmade paper that I hand sewed together. The paper in the dress is actually so soft, it feels like fabric, but still remains strong. She wears an underdress, overdress, and a laced corset all made out of paper. I did add lace to the paper for the underskirt trim and ribbon accents for a little "queen decadance" Her accessories consist of a vintage pearl neck wrap with charm elements, and a tiny pair of pearl earrings.



She carries in her arms a needle felted Napoleon doll, who wears a blue uniform with matching ribbon sash, and has a tiny spit curl under his hat. Here he is in progress, before his uniform-


I appologize for the terrible picture- it was taken with an old cell phone.

Her generous cake is multi-tiered with a Styrofoam and papermache box base that was covered in french paper "frosting" and decorated with other paper and ribbon elements. Including a pink ribbon banner that has her poem hand stamped on it and swirled around the cake.



Marie was the first doll I've made using paper clay and using the techniques I followed. I enjoyed putting her together.

Now for her "sister": Dorothy Gail - Summer Solstice - Incomplete.



Her Poem:
Little Dorothy Gale
Did experience heavy winds and hail
Spinning her on a journey to discover
That when up and over the cloud cover,
Like a unwanted gypsy set to roam,
There's really no place like home.

Dorothy is made in the same manner as Marie, with paper clay over a Styrofoam armature. The differences are that she has a more sculptured face, her hands are wire armatured (Marie's hands do not have an armature) and her legs and feet are paper clay over the dowel rods. As you can see I only have her mostly finished
Her dress is also hand sewn distressed paper, and her wig is wool roving needle felted and braided and sparkle purple strands. She holds a needle felted "Wicked Witch of the West" doll and eventually with her will stand a Tornado just about to take her house.



She's asking me to put her legs on- she's ready to go adventuring-


I plan on giving her some accessories as well like a mail bag satchel for traveling in Oz and some sort of necklace. I love the way she looks up with a yearning and a kind of grin that states she's ready for adventure.

I plan to begin the next doll project very soon- I may switch gears a little bit away from "historical storybook", but I've enjoyed the storybook dolls and think I will be doing more (I have a list of possibilities that are too good to pass up- including of course- Alice), but I'm inspired by skeins of overdyed sari silk strips I have that would make a wonderful woven/crocheted cloak/coat for a witch...


Enjoy your creative way-
*JB*

Past Entries- Images Found

Well I've decided to post all my past entries into the Art/Work Show and then I will move on in the next post to more "current events" so here is a list of the things I've posted in years past.

2007 Weaving:

Both are woven on a small "lap" loom. The top is called "The Dark Lady's Mantle" and the bottom is "Forest Floor."

"Forest Floor" went to Union Station, and I to a very wonderful woman who came to the show, and loved my work. They day I delivered it to her, she hugged to her- and that was better than winning an award or even getting paid for my artwork. I hope she is still enjoying it.

"The Dark Lady's Mantle" hangs in my kitchen- and the picture does not do it justice, but was hard to photography when it's all black.

More in 2007- Assemblage:

The Top piece is called "Sumhail" and the bottom is "Piuthar" both are assemblage with polymer clay "masks"/faces that I made paper collage and found objects. I did these mask assembled pieces for about 2 or 3 years before moving on to fiber and more 3-d work. I like collage and I may re-explore this in the future.

2008- Fiber- Collage/quilt and Needle felting

The Top piece is "Sir Lionel Taraxacum- The Dandy Lion", and he's a needle felted art doll in the form of a lion. I also handmade all of his clothes (and they are removable) out of cotton, velvet and silk, with vintage buttons and trim, and he carries a walking stick topped with a glass bead. He's very dapper IMO. - you really can't see it in the picture but he has a long tail that comes to the floor and is tied with a bow (the bow matches the bow in the "pony tail" in his mane as well). I'm very proud of him-
The second piece is "Crow Augury" and is made of layers of felt, canvas, tea stained cotton, hand stamped cotton and velvet, hand drawings and free lace. There are nine crows on the image, and is made with the concept of predicting the future through observation of crows- and the various crow poems I've heard:

"One for sorrow and two for joy,

three for a girl and four for a boy,

five for silver and six for gold,

seven for a secret never to be told,

eight for a wish and nine for a kiss,

ten for a time of joyous bliss"

Well that's it, those are the pieces I've enter in the Art/Work show for the past 3 years. I hope you enjoyed them. If you want more information, just let me know. I think I will go take some pictures of what I am working on now so I can share.

Enjoy your day(s)!

The Results are in...

My piece was not selected :( which is disappointing BUT...

1) Having my art on display in Union Station for a week is big exposure, and I had a lot of people tell me they really liked my piece. A lot said that they didn't think that it was well understood what the process of making the piece was- which was what happened last year. I made a needle felted lion art doll, and he wasn't chosen. (I thought I had a picture but I can't find it- I will take some and either update this or post about him alone.)

2) It's a great push to do something else, and step up my game. Fiber Art is a hard category in this competition. I will break the barrier I know I can- I just have to find the right piece, and blow the audience and judges away. I think I might do that with one of the art dolls I am working on, but I really want to break the barrier in fiber. I think it's become a challenge now. Despite the disappointment, I like the push- we all need that push I think- otherwise we as artists can become stale and compliant.

The comments of misunderstanding what went into and the subject matter of my piece actually led to a somewhat interesting conversation between Mr. W, my mother, and myself about "mass appeal" and that I what I do tends to not have subject matter that has "mass appeal". There was a brief discussion of whether or not I should change this. Mr. W said to me- "Yeah, but would you enjoy creating something like that-is it really coming from YOU if you "sell out" (my term when discussing this)." I sat there and stared at him a second (it really was the first thing he said in the conversation) and I said "absolutely not". He seemed frustrated that I would suggest changing my subject matters. He told me to be myself, to continue to make things that I like, develop original ideas and execute them in unexpected ways. He's right and so supportive and so many other things that I could get all gushy about but you're not here to read about all that.

So what's next? I dunno... I have other things on my plate right now- and I have a little bit of time. I currently am working on a large art doll for a woman's retreat in September, so she's taking all my art time. I will cover her in a future post (not too much in the future). I have plans for a 4-harness weaving and I got a magazine last night (Fiberarts ) that may provide more of a push and inspiration. I am thinking a weaving, or continue with needle felting- maybe I need to keep putting it in front of them so they can really see that needle-felting is an art form- and a time consuming one, to say nothing of dangerous- those barbs burn when you impale your fingers! If you didn't bleed during creation, then it's not done (a joke- not serious). I just tried to find a good definition of needle felting for this post and came up empty- looks like the world wide brain (wikipedia.org) no longer has the information about dry felting in it's entry on Felt so maybe it is a little known technique outside of my world. I am self taught, and I use different techniques than I've read about, but I started by reading Sharon Costello's instructions for figures on Black Sheep Designs. So if you are interested, that might get you started too.

Anyway to make this long story as short as it should have been- I once again have missed the elusive phase 3 opportunity- but it has not stopped me, a minor bump to my confidence but a good push to move forward. Onto the next I say!

Next time- Post on the dolls I've made both needle felted and others- some pictures of my weaving and of course I will share about autocross, we have an event Sunday, so I will have some info fresh in my mind.

Thanks for listening/reading! More sooner rather than later -
Jenn*