Natalie

This is Natalie.  I've had a list of techniques I was itching to try out - and a spare body - so finally sat down and drew it all together!

The body was one I made as advance work for a class from Sherry Goshon.  After I made the body, I noticed that the instructions said to add the seam allowance to the pattern.  No wonder it looked pretty skinny!  Especially once held next to the correctly sewn body.  Can you say anorexia?  But, never throw something like that away.  It can always be used somewhere!

Her face is paper clay from a mold I made.  I took a dime-store vinyl fashion doll, and used the face to make a mold of polymer clay.  Then I made a paper clay cast from that mold.  Once the paper clay had dried completely, and been cleaned up just a bit, I glued it to a "blank" cloth head and attached it to the body.  Once painted with acrylics, I used some pens and blusher to highlight the features.  I know of some things I will do different next time, but I think she is pretty cute anyway.

An article by Marianne Reitsma in Art Dolls Quarterly (Summer 2006) was my inspiration for the lower half.  After bending a strong wire into eight "legs" I used another piece of wire to wrap them around the doll's waist and at the bottom to define a bell shape (well, if bells were lumpy & lopsided!).  Then I just had fun wrapping and weaving whatever looked interesting - yarns, ribbon, wire, beads, etc.    This was the really fun part!  Digging through the stash is always entertaining and my mind starts spinning off on tangents!  I can blow a couple of hours with that!!!

I used tissue paper decoupage for both her clothing and her hair.  Hair ornaments are actually chocolate wrappers, so there is a little shine with the color.  Lots of glue and Mod Podge made this a fairly messy project.  But then, I enjoy getting my hands really messy sticky once in awhile.  LOL!