Something Else New to Try

Well, here I am again, diving headlong into a new craft, one I know very little about in fact: making a doll with a sculpted head.  I'm the kind of person who learns best by "hands on" instruction, so even though I've watched a lot of tutorials and received good advice from an accomplished doll maker, there's just still something lacking in my attempts.

This doll has been in the making for over a year; she sat in the cupboard a long time, waiting to be finished, and now here is Ify (pronounced E-fee), with her chubby, lumpy face and her big eyes and funny mouth:

She has a cloth body, just like an ordinary cloth doll, but her head is a mixture of sorts; first I tried paper clay, but wasn't satisfied.  Next I made a mixture of paper mache clay, using lint as a filler; that's when she got the lumps!  I was never able to sand the surface of her face down to a smooth texture.  Several times I threatened to remove the arms and legs and start over ~ maybe I should have, but she had become Ify by then.

I wanted her to have a good profile and was fairly pleased with it.

Her hair is made from crochet thread glued in place with a paper mache paste.  I fixed a little place in the back so she could wear a ribbon.  I learned this technique of making hair from Mary @ColonyMountainStitcheries, who makes the most beautiful dolls!

So, there you have it!  She'll go sit with the other dolls in the old rocker and soon we'll become close friends and I'll overlook her blemishes because I'm not beautiful either.  I almost didn't write about her, but hey, you gotta start somewhere; I may try again after learning a bit more about the process.  By the way, the dress she is wearing was one for my dolls, about sixty years ago.

Feeling very shy,

Charlotte