Marlene Dietrich

I was fortunate to take two workshops with Arley Berryhill in 2010. This doll has been sitting and waiting patiently for me to finish her all this time. This is from his Candlestick Diva class. I was really happy with how her face turned out and right away Marlene Dietrich came to mind. Marlene was cast as a femme fatale and she certainly has the look for it.

She was born in 1901 and lived to be 91, passing away in 1992. I know that name well as she was one of my mothers favourite actresses, having also come from Europe. This is a link to Marlene Dietrich.  This is a link to a Google page of images.

When I decided this was it, no more staring at this poor doll who only needed her headdress completed and something for her to hold, I came up with what to do quite by accident. While cleaning up my work area, there had been a doll standing in the corner, not even half finished and I decided it was time to give her the heave ho. I didn’t like her face (another one of those bulbous nose problems), her breasts were in the wrong position and her arms were just pinned on. She has stood there for who knows how long, so I took the hat off her head, plopped it onto Marlene and said goodbye to the woman of attitude that had stood nekked in the corner for years.

Here’s how Marlene was….

Now with the hat on her head. Not secured, just the way I placed it when I was cleaning up. I’ll leave you for a second to see if you envision what I did. Don’t scroll down just yet, take a minute and see what comes to mind.

I wonder if you saw my vision. My first thought and what I went with, was a woman who needed a riding crop to go with her hat. Of course she isn’t going to go riding, to much glam for that, she just wants to play that part. Did you see the same thing?  I fixed up her hat, made a crop with a fancy chop stick and added a veil.

So what do you think?  Does she have that old Hollywood glam thing going on? I think so. She’s going to be part of my personal collection.