Marie Antoinette

I’m on the home stretch now with my submissions for the Gallery show next month. This is the start of Marie Antoinette and being that my theme for the show is “The Royal Court”, a loosely based display of her court, I guess I better get busy and finish her and her King Louis. A lot has been written about her life and much of it not very nice, but I prefer to keep her in a positive light. She was very young when she became Queen of France, still a teenager and with that came the rebellious young woman who couldn’t settle in to her role and just wanted to have fun. Of course, in the end it cost her, her life at the guillotine. And just for the record, she did not say “let them eat cake”. I researched that to, and that was actually a quote by someone many years earlier, but because of that time in history, poor Marie was labelled as being the one who made that statement.

This is an adaption of Barbarba Schoenhoff’s “Pas de Deux”. You can see more of that class, just click here.  If you like details and costuming, Barbara’s dolls are all about that. This one, like her Henrietta, are big. The costuming just billows out all around.

When I was putting the body together I was getting concerned because the legs look so long compared to the rest of the body. However when the dress started coming together, I realized why that is. Without those lovely long legs, the effect of the doll isn’t the same. She measures at least 18” tall and probably close to that sideways.

Originally the doll and her partner are meant to be clown like, but I’ve made the face differently. I kept the details very soft and pale as was the real Marie, and instead of painted eyes, I gave her glass eyes. Her pictures show a very pale skinned, not much makeup kind of face. In the 2006 movie with Kirsten Dunst, the makeup is the same, very porcelain doll like. Marie and her King Louis will be dancing in “The Royal Court” display….

More to follow soon…The hair will be the biggest challenge, stay tuned….