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Growing up I lived in a small town in western Pennsylvania long before the days of internet commerce. My dad travelled to New York City seasonally for business, and had a regular stop at an art store to bring back supplies for his resident artist, me! I was in third grade when he brought back a wood box filled with 72 sticks of pure joy. It was a case of FaberCastell Polychromos. I even lent them to my dear friend Marie when she was into tinting photographs. I was in fifth grade when a cardboard box of Grumbacher soft pastels made the trip from New York City to St. Marys in Daddy’s suitcase. Both are still with me and have been packed and unpacked in more home and studio moves than I can count.
In my current production process, I’ve discovered that I can rub a polychromos or pastel stick on a sheet of emery paper and turn it into a sheer to semi-sheer pigment powder. Custom mixing these color powders and burnishing them onto the textured primed skin of my dolls with a soft sable brush, I can mimic the rich shades of live skin. I seal the pigments with a spray of clear matte sealer before adding the final details with watercolor and colored pencils to bring my doll portraits to life.
Documenting my creative process with photographs and written descriptions doesn’t come easy to me. I have to break my creative flow to get the photographs taken and sometimes I just blow right past a phase and on to the next before realizing I missed an entire phase of the process. For those of you who have been following me, I’m committed to staying with this endeavor, so keep checking in with me.
Most of my creativity lately has been focused on a very special project. I’m keeping the progress of this doll secret until she is completely finished, and has arrived at her new home. Now, there’s something you can look forward to!
Because the nature of my processes require time between production phases for drying or curing, I’ve also been working on an 18 inch dress-up doll. This photo shows her body, with jointed hips and knees, and her face mask which is not yet covered with its cotton jersey skin or stitched in place.
The 18 inch structure is the basis for the American Girl dolls which are all the rage for little girls. The size of the doll allows for clothing whose size is not so small and fiddly to be difficult for little girls to undress and redress their dolls. I have a basic wardrobe in the works for this doll, dress clothes and school clothes, play clothes, a tote bag and a toy.
I spent this past Monday at the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, NY studying the dolls made by Martha Jenks Chase and Izannah Walker. They were the dress-up dolls of another century and it was an honor to be able to hold them and study all the handmade details in both the doll and her clothing. Very inspiring!
