On to the next doll

Having given my hands a rest from the stresses and strains of stuffing to many doll bodies and ornaments since last fall, I now think it’s time to get busy on some new projects.

A couple of friends were over on the weekend and wanted to learn how to work with clay. I am by no stretch of anyone’s imagination, an expert in working with clay, but am quite willing to share what I’ve learned. I figured the best way to go, was to play with molds.

I brought out a few things to show them how to condition the clay and how to use the molds. I had molds for feet, hands and lots of heads. This is what we played with, these are mine….they have taken theirs home along with the molds and will practice with other kinds of clay. Some clays are nicer than others.

Although this head, which is a Cyndi Mahlstadt mold, is a bit smaller in proportion to the hands and feet, I think if you want a character doll and not a pretty pretty one, they will work together just fine. Or, you do something like build up the area around her head with tons of embellishments and then proportions then don’t really matter because you’ve offset the proportion problem with the head treatments.

I gave her sandal toes, because I think I’d like to make her some open shoes. The hands may have to be redone, they are a bit thick, but we’ll see. Next month we’ll be getting together again and she’ll get her armature and start to take on her personality.

In the meantime, I’ve got everything together for making Cindee Moyers new doll pattern, “Gift of the Magi”. On Cindee’s site, she has added a portion of a short story to explain where her inspiration came from for this new doll. I have my pile of pretties together, her head is sewn and stuffed and tomorrow, I’ll hopefully get busy with the sculpting, and the body.

I love this new design, and like Cindee’s other dolls even though the faces are the same almost every time, she does manage to make the face so expressive, that you can feel what she was trying to convey…so more to come soon.