Saucy Dolls

Jane Eyre Doll

2012-02-27T16:56:00.000-08:00

For Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, I wanted to make a milliner style doll. A milliner doll is a doll with a paper mache head, hands, and feet on a muslin body. These dolls were sent by dressmakers in the mid-1800's to show the latest fashions.

Poor Jane Eyre, though, is but a governess. Her linen dress in simple and stark, though her wool cape is passionate red. She has a cotton petticoat under her dress. She can sit on a shelf, but I think she looks more tragic standing in her doll stand.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

2012-01-31T09:17:00.000-08:00

I love Lisbeth Salander. I love The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - the book by Stieg Larsson, the swedish film with Noomi Rapace, the Fincher film with Rooney Mara. I love them all. This is my take on Lisbeth in a doll made of polymer clay. Her jacket, belt, and shoes are all real upcycled leather (from old pants legs). Of course she has a tiny wasp tattoo on her neck and a dragon tattoo on her left shoulder. BUT, more importantly, she's ready to go with her stun gun in hand.

I debated with myself long and hard about giving her her famous "F you, you f-ing F" T-shirt. I decided against it. It would be cool for a second, but then...

I hope you like the doll as much as I like the character. I love girls who can take care of business.

Mad Men Joan Doll

2011-12-29T20:49:00.000-08:00

Joan Holloway is such a great character on Mad Men. For Christmas I was commissioned to make a one of a kind Joan doll. My Joan is made of polymer clay, and has a form fitting red dress and her signature pen necklace as well as a black fur and purse.

I know Barbie has made a Joan doll, but I really don't like it at all. How do you give Joan and Betty Draper the same figure? Just ain't right. Just my opinion, but just ain't right.

Hamlet doll

2011-07-02T09:43:00.000-07:00

Hamlet - the second in my Shakespeare doll line - finished. The melancholy Danish prince is made out of paperclay over a wire armature. His clothes are Elizabethan, and of course they're black because he still mourns his dad. He holds Yorick's jestful skull as he contemplates mortality.

Alas, poor Hamlet. Flights of Angels. You know the rest.

Hamlet the First

2011-06-27T14:35:00.000-07:00

I've started my Hamlet doll. Not Shakespeare's noblest character, in my opinion. His dad tells him right away, "Hey, kid, your uncle killed me. Get revenge, but leave your poor mom alone." So what does he do? He puts on a play, TALKS about killing his uncle, but instead picks on his poor mom ("Whoops. Sorry, Dad") and his poor girlfriend. Then he kills Polonius by accident, which sends Ophelia to her death. He then wreaks havoc at the funeral, and Laertes has to fight him cuz he's being such a tool. All this before he can kill his uncle.

If there weren't so many bodies piling up, it sounds a lot more like A Comedy of Errors than a tragedy. Hamlet shoulda stayed in school a little longer.

So, my Hamlet doll will reflect my feelings about this whiny little guy. (That's the other thing. What did whining and playing mad get him besides another Act to procrastinate?) I started with a big Styrofoam ball for the head which I carved into the basic head shape. I covered it with paperclay and put it on a wire armature. I'm going to paint the wood base black, I think.

Lady Macbeth doll

2011-06-21T11:05:00.000-07:00

Lady Macbeth. The first of my Shakespeare dolls. I've taken a LOT of time on this one. In theatre "The Scottish play" is bad luck, and to say the name of the play in a theatre is to call disaster upon your troupe. And just so has Lady M caused me nothing but trouble from moment one.

First, I clean my hands religiously while sculpting polymer clay, and store the work-in-progress in plastic in between working. My pirates, perversely enough, never got dirty. But Lady M attracted little specks like a vacuum, and I spent a lot of time gouging out dirty clay and replacing. Grrrr.

Then when she was baked and ready to go, she didn't want to be dressed. She snagged on loose threads and her hands were just a LITTLE too big to go in her sleeves. I had to remake and handsew them on. Grrrr.

While making her dagger, my first attempt snapped when I cut the hole in the guard. Grrr.

Her hair, mohair from the Angora goat, was like a rats nest. I treated it better than any salon with cream rinses and delicate untangling with a knitting needle. I guess it's okay, but you'd never guess I did it.

Now that she's done, I want to start on Hamlet. I'm hoping the whiny Danish prince won't be near as much trouble.

Jane Austen's Emma!

2011-04-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

My latest Jane Austen doll is Emma Woodhouse, the confused but clever heroine who knows that to be poor and unmarried is to be pitied, but to be well-off and unmarried is always respectable, and she happily belongs to the second category. The movie "Clueless" is based very much on Emma, and keeps all its humor and innocence. I like the movie, but I love the original.

My Emma is paperclay with viscose hair. Her pink cotton dress has printing of the novel Emma as its print. Mrs. Weston, Mr. Knightley, and Harriet Smith are all discussed in the print on her dress. She also wears little kid slippers, cotton bloomers with lace trim, and a handmade bonnet with handmade lace and ribbon flower along with a feather.

Sense and Sensibility Doll

2011-04-18T09:27:00.000-07:00

More Jane Austen! Marianne Dashwood, the oh-so-romantic heroine of Sense and Sensibility, is my latest doll. She's sculpted in paperclay, jointed at the shoulders and legs. I wanted to print the text from the book on the dress again. After much trial and error (and cursing and pulling of hair) I got it down. Her bonnet is the capote style, popular just at the turn of the nineteenth century. Again, she has little slipper shoes and bloomers with lace under her skirt.

I think Emma and Elinor and Fanny are still calling my name.

Pride and Prejudice doll

2011-03-23T17:01:00.001-07:00

Love me some Jane Austen! I finished my "Pride and Prejudice" doll - Elizabeth Bennet, clearly, because chapters about her are printed on her dress and bonnet. Inkjet printing on the fabric worked well, once I got a working printer. She's made from paperclay with tiny slippers, a silk bonnet, and a lightweight cotton dress with embroidered organza overlay.

First of a series, I'm sure. Paperclay is very different from polymer and cloth. On one hand, it's not as breakable or heavy as polymer. Painting and finishing paperclay is tricky - I need to work on that.

Jane Austen revisited

2011-02-16T10:09:00.000-08:00

Okay, so i got a little Austen itch and I'm going to make another doll - this time a Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth Bennett doll. Soooo, how do I show it's a Pride and Prejudice doll and not a Persuasion or Lady Susan doll... By printing text from the book on the dress, I figure. I've heard tell that you can print fabric in your inkjet printer. I got the necessary freezer paper and did a test run. Here's the results - much more old newsprint than old book. I haven't given up, mind you - but I'm going to try to do ruffled strips of print rather than big blocks of it.

More to come!

Steampunk doll

2011-02-14T09:30:00.000-08:00

For my next doll, I went steampunk - as much punk as steam. She has brass chain for arms, brass rods for legs, a steel coupling torso, and marabou hair with a silk dress and sleeves. Her goggles go on her face or up on her forehead. I gave her a hat but took it away again - it took away from her hair. She's available on Etsy (see link on side of page)

True Grit doll - Mattie Ross

2011-02-03T15:29:00.000-08:00

Love me some Coen brothers, especially True Grit. Mattie Ross is my favorite character of the year, so I made me a doll. I made a hat block out of paperclay before I shaped the hat, and I found a replica of the Navy Colt revolver she uses in the film.

True Grit - Mattie Ross doll

2011-01-16T15:24:00.000-08:00

Okay, I love love loved True Grit. The dialogue, the characters, and most of all 14-year-old Mattie Ross, who showed more grit than most. I'm making a doll based on her character. Here's the movie version and then my take on it.

True Grit Pictures

So I'm taking a short break from pirates (haven't weighed anchor on that yet, matey) and I'll post as I go.

Pirate Doll - Suited for Battle

2010-11-18T16:14:00.000-08:00

My latest pirate doll is French. I wasn't aware of this when I started, but she just started talking in a French accent. Go figure. So I think her name is Babette. I gave her a dagger-and-heart tattoo. She'll go up on Etsy tomorrow. Here she is with the rest of the crew.

Pirate Doll - Time for Cheesecake

2010-11-12T21:38:00.001-08:00

Hi! So far, the pirate doll looked more like an albino alien blob than a pirate doll. But a few limbs, a little hair for the head, and voila! One sexy - but pissed off and violent - doll. Next stop - clothing and, of course, weapon. I think she may need a tattoo, too. I'm not sure yet...

How to Make a Pirate - pieces and parts

2010-11-12T15:44:00.000-08:00

It's alive, it's alive! I sculpted and baked the torso, arms, and feet. Since the oven'son, I curled the doll hair by wrapping it around a knitting needle and baking til dry. Here is the torso and hair, fresh from the oven:

Now - to make the fabric pieces. Why do this? Why not make the doll entirely out of clay? Because I want the doll to be flexible, and move her arms and legs. You CAN make polymer clay dolls with joints, but the clay isn't flexible and breaks under stress. So - fabric shoulders and legs. The arms are attached - a button inside the black shoulder piece is stitched through the doll to another button on the other side. The leg is still open - I just stitched the buttons together from one leg to the other, making the hip joints.

(Like her pirate undies?)

Next stop- undressed doll!

How to Make a Pirate Doll 1

2010-11-11T10:16:00.000-08:00

To start making a doll, make a rough outline of the shape of the doll that you will keep going back to as you build it - to make sure the proportions stay the way you want. Then the head - I start with a ball of tin foil for the clay to go over. I do this because polymer clay is heavy, and I don't want a topheavy pirate.

The eyeballs I mold out of white clay so they are the same size and shape. A dot of paint makes the iris, and acrylic gloss finishes the look.

Pirate Doll 2 - Red

2010-11-10T16:33:00.000-08:00

Doll the - okay, now i lost count but this is one of my faves and my first sale! (Thanks, Sylvia!) Red is a mean buccaneer who doesn't know she's small and weak, and her sword and pistol double-dog dare you to mention it. She's a hard drinker and harder brawler. Argh!

I curled her wild strawberry viscose hair on paper clips. It's as time-consuming as you think - take a small piece, wet it and wrap it around an unbent paper clip. Put in oven and set. Her costume is stitched to her so it fits extra tight. I loved making her baldric and sword from sheet metal, a bead cap, and a filligree bead.

She of course has a nasty scar beneath her eyepatch. She lost her eye taking on five armed opponents. They have no arms now, thanks to Red.

Pirate doll 1

2010-11-08T07:55:00.000-08:00

A pirate doll with a pegleg! Who doesn't love pirates? I mean, unless they're slaughtering your loved ones. And such a variety of deformities. My first has lost her leg. I also didn't want her to look coquettish or harmless, so I put a dagger in her mouth.

I started with polymer clay and the muslin body. For the face, I made eyeballs out of white clay and baked them, painted, and glossed them before sticking them in Pirate's skull. Her nose is a little ball of clay, and her mouth was made when I shoved in the dagger. It fell out while baking, but a little super glue solves everything,doesn't it?

The dagger's from a piece of sheet metal wrapped in leather, and the pistol in her sash is polymer clay over a thick wire.

The hat is wool felt, blocked on a ping pong ball.
Argh! Love me some woman pirates!

Jane Austen's Emma Woodhouse

2010-11-05T20:44:00.001-07:00

I love Jane Austen. I've read all her books, and love Emma. For my second doll, I wanted to pay homage to Jane Austen and also to try polymer clay. I sculpted Emma's head, hands, and feet out of Super Sculpey and attached them to a stitched muslin body. I used buttons for the shoulder joints, and stitched joints at the hip and knee. I painted the Super Sculpey pieces with acrylic paint, and also painted the eyes.

I learned my lessons with this doll - 1) mold the eyes and insert them in the clay instead of painting eyes after it's all baked. 2) Don't paint the face - mix the polymer clay to be the right shade- the translucent clay looks more like skin

In Jane Austen's time, most women's dresses were lightweight white cotton. To add interest, I embroidered the edges in blue. The bonnet is silk dupioni over a heavy interfacing. The trim is all hand-crocheted and I love the effect- time well spent.

All that being said, I still love Emma. She was a happy lesson and I like her cheerful, open face

My first doll

2010-11-05T17:40:00.001-07:00

This is the first doll I ever made, a 1770's French court doll that I named "FuFu LaRoux." She's a cloth doll made of muslin. The doll itself is simpler than her dress, which I had a lot of fun with. Her hair is white yarn, and her "eyes" are fake eyelashes. She was a lot of fun!