Madam Ludmilla Halloween Art Doll- Photos

I'm posting some pictures of some of my Halloween work on Wednesdays through October. 

This is a doll I made in few years ago.  The is held upright by a doll stand.  She was the second to last doll I made before building free-standing dolls.  She is nine and a half inches tall.  Her body has a wire armature covered by batting strips wrapped with cotton thread, and has an outer skin of muslin.  The head and hands are baked clay.  The hair is wool doll's hair.  She is painted with acrylic paints.

I wanted to make a doll that portrayed the era when seances were all the rage.  I wanted to portray her at the moment that she unveils the crystal ball.  I guess that this is also the doll that started me thinking about dioramas, even though I did not start working with them for a few years down the road.  Without the context of a spooky set-up for a seance, the doll does not really express everything that I wanted to show about a the era.  

 With this doll, I was experimenting with bake-in-the-oven clays to sculpt the head and hands.  I have only made a few dolls by this method.  I don't have much sculpting experience, so trying to sculpt detail in such small parts was difficult.  Also I learned that on such tiny parts, the clay can burn easily. 

I guess I am still experimenting with glues.  This is the third time I've tried a glue that was supposed to glue glass to metal.  The crystal ball fell off just before I took the photo.  In theory, it is supposed to be clear once it is dry.