A Pirate or an Angel

This is an art doll I just finished for a customer. She asked me to make a doll that looks like a pirate but with angel wings. The details are based on the recipients life style and her charity work. There is synchronicity involved in this request. I can make a pirate and I can give her angel wings, but who would have thought that years ago when I bought a pattern for this very style of doll and that someone would request a custom doll like it 12 years later… ;o~  The design is by Sandy Pine. As a doll maker, do you remember this from back to 2005 ?

I followed parts of the design and did my own in other areas. The customer requested either a kayak or canoe as a prop, and that needs an oar, and she definitely wanted angel wings. I also had a base that has been tucked away in a chest, and that worked out great for this theme. She also wanted to add a bottle rum, of course. What pirate would be complete without that…

I had a few learning curves with this project, which is great. Keep those little grey cells happy. For the canoe, I had found some rectangular pieces of birch bark at a small florist some time ago, that had the best unique things she had sourced from who knows where. I had no idea what I would do with them but they were too interesting to not buy.  I found this tutorial online and followed it for the most part, except that’s bigger (about 7” long) and I added a seat and a cross member. CLICK HERE for the canoe tutorial.

The angel wings are made with coffee filters, in a mini version. CLICK HERE for the tutorial. I followed the basic instructions, just super mini sized them.

The oar is made from an image I found, just free handed it. The oar is balsa wood, the handle is a dowel. The rum bottle is a party favour with a Captain Morgan’s label reduced to fit. Here she is, and I’ll continue below with more details.

The costume:  the blouse is made with silk, the leggings are a stretch ribbing that you would use on sleeve cuffs etc. The vest is non woven felt with strips of leather and faux suede. The cuffs are leather pieces and tiny gold buttons.

The Tricorn hat is made from felt. There are lots of patterns on Pinterest for that. You just have to modify the size you need. The hair is from an Etsy seller in the UK. I had thought to wrap the hair up into the hat, but the curls are so nice, I didn’t want to hide them. They are tied with a piece of leather in the back.

Her boots are made with faux suede and wrapped with strips of leather. The boot pattern made no sense to me. I don’t know how she made them to look like the picture, so I had to do my own thing.

The tips of her boots are metal bead caps. I made them in three parts, the legs, the cuff and the shoe part.

Here’s the rum bottle. And her skirt is made from faux suede and soft leather leaves in a few different sizes, fed onto a string and wrapped around the waist. A little bit of jewelry around her neck finished the look.

Here are some close ups. She also has a patch over one eye. You can still peek under it to see her full face. ;o)

And that’s it. She’s gone to my customer who is writing a poem to go with the doll. I’ll look forward to hearing some feedback. Thanks for visiting today ;o))