Mirielle and Miette - Two fine friends

Work on the ears of the pussycat continue.  This is a brief pictorial progress report.

Trimming away excess gessoed canvas in the inner ear is the first step.  These will be adjusted again and maybe even completely removed at a later point but for now I am only trimming them to a more reasonable size.

 

Next, I place small gathering stitches between the ears in the wool to create a bit of expression. 

I tack the wool  securely at the top of the head and along the sides of the neck with tiny stitches pulling the thread all the way through the doll, side to side.These keep it in place while I adjust the fit and begin trimming away the excess wool.

Now I can trim his ears.

Here, I begin to feed the first of many layers of Persian wool fibers into his neck to create a ruff that will clipped and dyed to create a proper and dignified Norwegian Forest cat ruff!

Woolen ears for a pussycat

This little pussycat needs her woolen ears.  I cut a very large length of Pendleton wool duffle fabric following a rough “ear-like” template.  I added textile dyes to create the fur shades  of this cat, which takes a full day to dry completely. The face painting is not completed, but I was eager to show you this next step.  Adding the woolen fur won’t keep me from continuing to add details and refine the painting of the face. 

I tack the wool with straight quilting pins to get a sense of how much excess fabric I want to work into my impression of cat fur.  I use a 5 inch doll needle and Cordonette thread to stitch the wool through the stuffed doll head, creating the ears and the fur around the face.  I will shape the ears by cutting away the excess fabric and pleating or tucking to give expression.  Once that’s done, I can decide what I want to add as furnishings (and will trim away or fringe the gessoed canvas from the initial face mask that are sticking up as strange triangles) i’ll again use textile dyes to shade the inner ears and the ear edges.  Because this will be a Norwegian Forest Cat, there will also be a nice fluffy ruff added to the neckline made from angora or cashmere fibers.

At this phase, she looks just plain goofy, but I decided to share the weird as well as the attractive parts of my work process.

A wardrobe for a dress-up dolly

These are a few detail shots from the creation of a tiny glen plaid pleated wool skirt, blouse, jacket and poncho for a dress up dolly.  Her blouse is cut from a vintage cotton batiste handkerchief with detailed embroidery.  I cut the blouse pieces to allow the hem designs to be showcased on the blouse front and collar points.  Maybe I’ll get that sewn together, along with her jacket, tomorrow.  The little gray flannel jacket with fringed edges is patterned after a Chanel jacket with raglan sleeves.  I have a selvedge trim for the jacket too, just like CoCo Chanel made popular! The tweed poncho has a velvet collar that was once a sleeve on a dramatic smoking jacket.  I have so much fun gathering up bits of vintage textiles that would be too small for almost anything but a doll wardrobe!

March 2020

NOTE;  i wrote this three days ago and I can’t figure out why it went to the top of my page.  Please scroll down to see the posts from Friday and today.  

These are unusual times for all of us, and I think I’ve been out of sorts for most of this new year.  We travelled over the new year holidays, and I returned from a wonderful time with friends and family not feeling well at all.  I had an infection in a bone in my face, and required surgery to remedy the problem.  yuck!  Recovery was uneventful but slow.  I’ve continue to work on 4 projects over the duration and will soon be able to reveal them in their finished state.  

In the meantime, I pray that all of you are safe and well and keeping to a routine that nurtures you and yours.  Social isolation is not a normal state for humans and it’s only because this is our only weapon in managing how Covid-19 decimates a community, that any of us can sustain it.  I long for my days in our local library pulling books off the shelves to learn about new things and feed my inner artist.  Or, for the days I could hop on the bus 74 for a ride to Creative Reuse of Pittsburgh for inspiration and supplies.  A movie date with my beloved is a memory cherished and unless our local drive-in theatre opens their season early, it will be a while until I can fluff (my word for full-stop glam) put on my heels and go out.  In the meantime, I’m in my Puma flats and tights hanging on the couch watching Hulu, Acorn, and Netflix!

My beloved is blessed to work for a great company, and he and his staff are working from home.  What a wonderful and unusual thing to have him home all day long.  We’re sharing the big long work table and I am playing nicely, I promise. 

About my doll work:  The dress up doll’s wardrobe is coming along nicely.  Here are some pictures of my little girl in her dress and petticoat and a few of the work while ‘in progress.’  Her wardrobe includes a school outfit (jacket, skirt and blouse) nightie and robe, a play outfit and a velvet collared tweed wool poncho.  I’ll post pictures of those on another day, and I’ll look forward to our visit then, 

Attaching a lace edging to the petticoat hemline.












The dress before the neckline 
has been gathered.

Norwegian Forest Cat best friend

Today I’m working on the face painting of the Norwegian Forest Cat best friend of the little girl with a coiled braid coiffure, featured in my last post.  This is the first of many layers I will build up to create the personality and expressions for this cat-faced-doll.  This layer wasn’t completely dry and I wasn’t 100% certain when I snapped my photo that i won’t make a few changes to it.  For that reason it hasn’t been sprayed with a sealing coat of Testor’s dullcote.  I like to seal after any layer I am completely happy with before adding more color, brush strokes or details.  This way if I dislike any future work, I can easily remove that work and revert to the last time I thought the work was going in the right direction.  This layered approach allows me freedom in my expression because no errors become irrevocable.  You’re getting a peek at the very first face-up.  It should be interesting to see how she turns out...

The media used for this work (after 4 gold tinted coats of my special flexible ‘gesso’) has included three products from FaberCastell: polychromos hard pastel sticks, watercolor pencils, and Gelatos, and Grumbacher soft pastels.  I only use water media in developing the layers of color and detail so it remains easily reversible. 

Another important step in the creation of these animals is the creation of their furry parts.  You can see the flaps of what may become ear furnishings (that bit of charming fluff in the opening of the Forest cat’s ear.) I may keep it, though it will definitely be trimmed and fringed or it may be completely removed and a different fiber used to create the furnishings.  I’ll make that decision when I add the wool felt for the ear, back and neck fur. All those details unfold as the work progress. I’ve already dyed a boiled and felted length of wool in shaded grays, browns and blacks to be stitched and shaped into fur.  it’s all so much fun!

I’ve used the term ‘daemon’ to describe the animal part of my Topsy Turvy best friend.  This is in the spirit of the Ancient Greek use of the word describing it as a companion and guiding spirit. I’ve found my life enriched by my animal companions and often have felt they had a wisdom about my life of which I was, as yet, unaware. Probably my imagination at work, but none the less comforting to me.

I wonder if any of you have an animal With which you have a spiritual connection?

Topsy Turvy Girl + Forest Cat

Routines help in times of chaos, so I’m committing to write about my work on a consistent basis with new posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  

The history of the Topsy Turvy doll and the unique way I can present storytelling in the doll form really appeals to me.  I am much more interested in it than in the form of the dress up doll.  That isn’t to say that coming up with wardrobe ideas and picturing a child playing out the imaginary activities of a doll’s life doesn’t bring joy, but it is a different kind of experience.  

Of the four projects currently in progress in my workshop, two are Topsy Turvy upside down dolls.  This it the girl side of a doll + forest cat I wrote about previously,  I finished her braided coiled hairstyle created from a length of vintage chocolate brown boiled wool last evening. She’s ready now to have her undergarments applied, and then the forest cat face and ears can be completed.  One step at a time and a new personality and friendship is born!

I’m excited to show you how she and her best friend come together.  I promise to continue to document the completion of this project and the others I have in progress.  I hope you’ll check back with me to see the steps
I take, and enjoy the process with me.

Stay well and safe.  All my best wishes to you and yours in the midst of the our times of uncertainty.

Progress of a Doll’s Face

Here are the steps towards a finished hand painted face on one of my molded doll heads, made with my original sculpted moulds.  The last picture shows all the color ways worked out, yet not with the final sharp crisp details that will bring her face to life.  I’m saving that face photo for when I reveal the completed doll, with her felted wool hairstyle and unique clothing and accessories.

This first photo shows the sculpted face with its organic cotton jersey skin stretched over the mask:

Next I apply multiple coats of a tinted acrylic medium that contains fine marble dust to create the texture I desire while still allowing the ‘skin’ to retain some flexibility.

I build up multiple layers gradually allowing for complete drying between layers.  After these base layers are completely dry I rub the powdered Faber-Castell polychromos pigments into the doll’s face. This is my preferred medium rather than painting on her skin tone.  I believe it gives her a translucent complexion and creates vitality.  

As I work, I occasionally lightly spray the face with a matte sealant to preserve the work thus far. This allows me to remove future layers if I am unpleased with any step in the process.  I use a 000 sized brush and Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils to create the facial details.  

Here she is, one last step for final sharpening and defining of her facial features, nearly complete.