Basket of Witches

I am still playing around with cloth dolls this week. Gives me time to sit and catch up on my television shows while I sew on hair :) I made a couple of witches. Even witches pop up at the Hedgehog Hill Home for Girls. I guess it is becoming a home for orphans, strays and little lost souls. Halloween isn't too far off, witches are definitely needed as part of the gang. These 2 little witch girls have tattered silk dresses just like the others, but I dyed them in grays and blacks and midnight blues. The little hats have an elastic strap to keep them on their heads.

I also thought it would be fun to do a couple of Day of the Dead inspired cloth girls. They can live at the Hedgehog Hill Home as well, but they will probably scare the others. I love painting silly doodles, and these faces are the perfect spot to put them. I put their yarn hair in a lot of braids so that their faces aren't covered with their hair. Same style dresses, brighter colors. They have a little bit longer limbs and are more lanky than the others.

It's really chilly here this morning. We finally got our wood delivered, so we can start stacking and have it ready to go by October, which is just days away. Stay warm!

Collaborations

I have been a bit possessed by the idea of collaborations lately. My doll group, Art Dolls Only, started an annual traveling doll project http://adotravelingdollproject.blogspot.com/ last year. I decided to join the one for 2010 and can hardly wait to jump in. The main groups are 6 people, each starting their own doll, which is then passed on to each other person in the group to do their magic upon. When the doll has finally passed to the sixth person, it is then returned to the originator. In this group, people have all sorts of skills and talents, and work in a variety of mediums. The possibilities are endless.




Wanting to get my feet wet ahead of time, I contacted a new friend in Michigan, Deena Maurus http://fabbydolls.blogspot.com/. Both she and I are at the moment strictly cloth doll makers, and both, I think, a little intimidated with the idea of working with polymer clay. Quite a lot of the ADO artists sculpt in various clays, painting, glueing, sewing, and all sorts of things as they go. I have little experience with sculpting, other than pinch pots and things like that they get you to struggle along with in college art classes. So, before I was thrown into the fire, so to speak, with a collaboration involving so many different techniques, I asked Deena if she would collaborate on a cloth doll with me just for fun. She agreed and was very enthusiastic (she is always enthusiastic, so the perfect person to collaborate with). She is in the middle of some other things at the moment, so I cannot predict when I will be able to publish her completed work on the doll, but she has tremendous costuming abilities and I am frothing in anticipation. When it is done, she will keep the doll and it will likely be used in some way for one of her charitable works. In any case, here is what I sent her, so that you can see what a cloth doll might look like sans clothing. It is about 20" high, had a metal rod running up one leg that is then screwed into a wooden base. The legs can be bent and posed. Her face is flat and painted. She is quite naked! At the moment, we are calling her "Naked Alien Doll" because she looks quite bizarre. I did try draping ropes over her head to see what she would look like with hair (see above), and I think it is quite a lot better. I also put a feather boa around her face to see what she would look like if she were a snow bunny. I have no idea what Deena will do with her, but I can't wait to see.




The faint of heart should look away right about now :)