First of the Anthrpomorphic Halloween Dolls Completed

As promised, I have photos of the doll I had been working on for the last couple of weeks.  The doll is based on a pattern from a book on doll making.  The pattern, Tom Mato, was created by Sue Little.  The pattern is in a book called Crafting Cloth Dolls:  A Pageant of Patterns, Techniques, and Ideas from Award-Winning Dollmakers, The Quilt Digest Press, a division of the McGraw-Hill Companies.  Author: Miriam Christensen Gourley.  2002.  As usual, I never follow directions exactly, so the doll does look somewhat different from the doll created from her pattern. But I do want to credit the pattern because the doll is based on that work.

Once in a while it is fun to do a project where you don't have to reinvent the wheel first.  In this case, I used a pattern for a cloth doll rather than designing one from scratch.  Making a doll from a pattern is rather like making a quilt from a pattern.  Each color choice, change of pose, and variation from the pattern creates a doll or quilt that is different from another.  For this doll, I used the basic pattern and instructions for creating the body, head and face.  After that I went off onto my own tangent.  The pattern creator made her doll thinner and it had a more vine-like quality to it.  I added a little width and girth to the pattern to make it easier to stuff.  The designer's doll is posed as if it is tip-toeing.  I changed the way the doll's legs were placed so it looks as if it is running.  How you pose a doll really does help to tell the story.

There are many ways to make a doll.  I think the designer of this doll did something really interesting with how the hands were sculpted.  I did not sculpt the hands of the doll I made from the pattern.  I may go back and do that, however, I think I overstuffed the hands and it may not turn out as well.  If you would like to see the pattern, you can find photos of the designer's doll and the pattern in the book cited in the first paragraph.  I just checked on Amazon.  The book is available as a used book.  The price depends on condition of course.  Many of the books in "like new" condition were going  for about ten to twelve dollars.  The price range ran from four dollars to thirty dollars.

I plan to have fun with this pattern and make a few more anthropomorphic dolls for Halloween.   This doll is an anthropomorphic tomato.  I plan to do a pumpkin head doll, and perhaps some other vegetables, such as a carrot or corn cob body.  It is fun to sometimes work in a series and see where the ideas take you.  So stay tuned throughout the year and see what type of figures appear by Halloween.

I already have one other doll body made.  It pretty much follows the same pattern as the first doll.  I cut the fabric and stuffed them at the same time.  The second one has not been sewn together yet.  Now that I have made a couple of them I think I would recommend a few changes to the way things are done.  The pattern works fine as it is.  I just have different preferences as a doll maker.  The arms and legs have pipe cleaners in them so that the limbs are they can hold a pose.  I think that the pipe cleaner stems are not quite strong enough in the legs.  With the pipe cleaners, the legs tend to bow a bit.  I would use some stronger wire encased in tape in the legs.  It might help the doll legs take a little more weight when put in a standing pose. 

I used a commercial doll stand for these pictures.  The pattern for the doll also has instructions on how to create a doll stand for this doll.  This doll does not stand on its own.

Craft materials follow trends.  Something that is available at one point may not be easily available later.  I think this is the problem I ran into with the Styrofoam ball for the head.  I believe that she was able to find smooth Styrofoam (like you see on those ubiquitous white foam coolers).  The smooth balls were not around at the craft store.  I had to purchase the type of rough foam ball that feels like floral foam.  This type of ball is not nearly as smooth.  It made it a bit difficult to paint even after I coated it with two layers of medium Gesso.    My suggestion would be to find something to coat the Styrofoam ball.  I will be working on that with my next doll head.  I could use papier mache' or perhaps make some modeling clay.  I will be experimenting with various types of coatings on the ball.  My hope is that I will find something that creates a smooth painting surface that can be made in small batches for an economical price.  I will have more on my experiments about this in the next few blog posts.

Check back Thursday for the latest on making anthropomorphic dolls.  I will also be working on the papier mache doll doll at the same time.  That doll currently has received a second coat of papier mache'.  It needs one more coat of that.  Then it will be ready to sand and paint.

Anthropomorphic Dolls for Halloween - Part 3

I have been working on my dolls this week.  From the photos I have to day you cannot tell how much progress I have made.  I have one doll, the one made from a pattern from a book almost completed.  I just have to add the face.  I was so close to having it ready.  I will have photos of the completed doll when I post on Sunday.

Muslin and fiberfill armature.

Please scroll down to see the rest of the text.  The blog platform is giving me a fit today and will not allow me to place the photos and text where I want them.  I cannot get rid of the blank space between these two paragraphs.  I don't have a lot of time today to mess around with it.
I created the pumpkin shaped torso using muslin and polyester fiber fill.  Once the fabric was stuffed, I
painted it with white glue to help waterproof it.  Once the glue was dry I covered it with masking tape.  It is ready to have a layer of papier mache' added to it.  It seems a little short to me.  I am not sure how
much I like it.

Aluminum foil and masking tape covered with papier mache'.

Scroll again.

The second doll that I am making, the one with the arms and legs that move when you pull a string, is progressing more slowly.  I am having a bit of trouble with the torso.  I haven't quite hit the right combination yet.  I may have to make a couple of them to get the proportions right.  With that thought in mind, I have started putting together two different torsos.  One torso is an oblong pumpkin shape.  In this case the armature is stuffed fabric.  On another torso, I created an armature from aluminum foil and masking tape.  That armature is created so that it will have multiple pumpkins and squash formed into the humanoid shape.  It remains to be see which one will win out for the final selection.  Old Halloween cards have both types of figures, so one is not necessarily more right than the other.

Please scroll down to see the rest of the text.  The blog platform is giving me a fit today and will not allow me to place the photos and text where I want them.  I cannot get rid of the blank space between these two paragraphs.  I don't have a lot of time today to mess around with it.

I created the pumpkin shaped torso using muslin and polyester fiber fill.  Once the fabric was stuffed, I
painted it with white glue to help waterproof it.  Once the glue was dry I covered it with masking tape.  It is ready to have a layer of papier mache' added to it.  It seems a little short to me.  I am not sure how
much I like it.

The other torso is shaped from aluminum foil and masking tape.  This torso and the legs have a layer of papier mache' on them already.  Two more layers and it will be ready to paint.    I have a head half-way together at this point.  Once the torsos are complete I will work on the heads.  Although things are taking time coming together, we are moving toward the finish line.  It is one of those projects where much of it will be finished all at once.


Once again, sorry about the how the blog looks today.  Every once in a while this happens and I never know why.  Check back on Sunday for pictures of the first completed doll. 

Some Easter Bunnies

A chocolate mold bunny.

This week we had some wonderful weather.  Just a couple of weeks ago there was snow everywhere.  This week the sun came out and we could go outside in shirt sleeves for the first time.  Needless to say it was wonderful and I took full advantage of it.  I washed and waxed my car, picked up the yard, and ran errands that I had put off for a while.  It was so nice to be out without having to trudge through snow, freezing temperatures, or rain.  It feels as if we have had gray skies since November.

Resin Bunny from 1960's

Needless to say that I did not get a lot of crafting done this week.  I really needed to be outside for a while.  There has been some progress made on the anthropomorphic figures, but I am not ready to put up pictures just yet.  By the blog post on Thursday I should have some pictures.  Right now the figures are in pieces.  I also wanted to do a little experimenting with a few
different ways to make the figures.  I started with original instructions on how to make a doll.  From there I am branching out to see how I can transform the idea and find new ways to represent the figures.  It has been a fun learning experience.

Wooden hand carved Bunny.  Age unknown.

One of the things I did this week was to pull out my Easter Bunny and Easter Egg collection.  They only come out for a few weeks each year.   I have not pulled out the entire collection for about three years.  There come a time when a collector has collected so many items that it becomes difficult to display them.  I have reached that point for Christmas, Easter, and Halloween collectibles.  When I bring them out, every shelf, nook, and cranny is covered with figurines.  Once you start collecting, people start collecting or have items to give you.

Wooden hand carved Bunny.  Age unknown.

The collection starts to grow quickly.  I finally had to tell myself to stop.  I still buy items from time to time, but not nearly as often as I used to purchase them.  At some point your realize just how much money is tied up in your collection.  It is all about the chase.  As soon as you find that special figurine, you are off looking for the next one.   There is always something new around the next corner.

I found the two wooden Bunnies at a store a few years ago.  The store owner was not able to tell me anything about where they came from.  The bottom of the figures are bare wood.  When you turn them over you can see that the wood is very old and dry. 

I painted the Easter eggs in the photos.  They are actually bisque eggs I found at the craft store.  They were plain white.  I painted them multiple colors.  I painted them with one color of paint then covered some of the area with peel and stick stickers: hearts, flowers, and stars.  Once the stickers were on, I painted on a second color of paint.  When the paint dried, I removed the stickers and had many colorful eggs.  The egg cups were commercial cups I found at a craft store.

Anyway, after a brief few days of nice weather I will be back at work on the anthropomorphic figures.  Despite the few days of spring weather, we have snow forecast for next Saturday.  Oh yes.  I will be back at work on the figures soon.  Check back on Thursday for the latest photos of the anthropomorphic figures.

Anthropomorphic Figures for Halloween - Part 2

Legs start in profile to create shape.

Musculature is built up with foil and masking tape.

I am at the beginning of a new project: some anthropomorphic figures for Halloween.  My original inspiration was an old Halloween card with anthropomorphic figures.  Once I decided on a topic for my Halloween project, I began looking at a doll making books to decide what techniques I wanted to use to make the doll body.  What I found was a pattern for an anthropomorphic figure.  Synchronicity?  Most likely.  I find that if I am really supposed to make something, the Universe helps by bringing the things I need and places them in my path.  So I decided that not only would I make the doll I planned to make, but also the doll in this book.  So now I have two projects. 

  As I blogged last time, this will be a project creating the figures in cloth and in papier mache'.  The pattern for the cloth doll is called Tom Mato from a  book called Crafting Cloth Dolls by Miriam Christensen Gourley.  2002. Quilt Digest Press, a division of McGraw Hill.  I have made a fair amount of progress in the last few days.  So I'll get on with what has been done so far.

Arms and legs armatures are almost complete.

I started both the papier mache' and cloth doll projects.  I went through my fabric stash and did not find three coordinating fabrics in the colors I wanted, so I made a trip to the fabric store.  Before I was able to get out to the store I tried the pattern in some scrap muslin just to get a feel for how the project was going to work.  I find that it is worthwhile to try a test with scrap fabric first just so there are no surprises when you get to cutting the expensive fabric.  After making a scrap pattern I decided that I would increase the size of the pattern by a quarter of an inch by adding an eighth of an inch all the way around the pattern.  The reason for this
change was to make the small pieces easier to turn.  My fingers are not as nimble as they used to be.  Since the pattern is traced on the wrong side of the material, the pieces have to be turned right side out before the piece is stuffed.  The wrist area of the pattern is very narrow.  It was possible to turn it, but making the pattern a little larger made it much more comfortable to work with.   The head, which is a Styrofoam ball covered by papier mache' will remain the same size.

While waiting to get to the fabric store, I started on my papier mache' doll.  It will also be an anthropomorphic figure, but a pumpkin man this time.  I began by working on the arm and leg armatures.  The shaping of the leg armatures has been completed.  I am still working on the arm armatures.  One arm is longer than the other arm by an eighth on an inch.  I will have to correct that.  I also have to add the metal hooks from which the arms will hang.  When I was a child we had Halloween toys that moved the arms and legs when you pulled a string.  The arms and legs flew up as if the anthropomorphic pumpkin man had been startled.  I am trying to recreate that type of toy.

I began by shaping the leg armatures out of aluminum foil.  I began by making the leg in profile.  Once I had a satisfactory shape showing the contours of the thigh and calf I added more bits of foil and masking tape to make a three dimensional leg.  This takes some time.  The shape of the musculature is build up by little bits and pieces of foil and masking tape.  I estimate that I spent about forty-five minutes on each leg.  The leg is built up bit by bit until it looks as you want it to look.  The big challenge is to make the second leg look like the first leg.   (Note that the leg grows in length and width as more tape and foil is added.  Start smaller than your intended completed size.)

The second leg also started as a profile.  Then more aluminum foil and masking tape are used to build up the second leg.  To make the proportions of the legs accurate I measured around the top of the thigh, just above the knee, and the ankles.  I also measure down the length of the legs and work to make sure the lengths are the same between both legs.  When these proportions are the same on both dolls, the legs will be look like they should.  

It takes a fair amount of time to get this far.  It can be done faster, but taking the time at this point to get the proportions right at this point will save a lot of time and aggravation down the line.  It really depends on whether you want a more detailed doll or a quick craft project.  I hope to have a lot of detail in this doll. 

This is about as far as along as I have come on this project.  Check back on Thursday for more on constructing the anthropomorphic figures.

Anthropomorphic Figures for Halloween

Faux Tesla Halloween Project

Faux Tesla Halloween Project

As I said last blog, I am at the start of a new project.  I make at least one Halloween project each year.  To get inspiration for a Halloween project I look at catalogs of Halloween collectibles.  At some point, something strikes my eye and challenges me to make something of a similar theme.  For example, a picture of an old Halloween post card showing an electrified cat inspired me to create my Halloween diorama called the Faux Tesla Coil Halloween Project.  It was not a real Tesla Coil, just a representation of one.  It did have a cat and a lightening bolt in it which is the part that was inspired by the old Halloween card.  It only takes one little trigger to set me to thinking about how I can create something new for Halloween.

This year my imagination was fired by some more old Halloween cards.  These cards featured anthropomorphic vegetables.  That means vegetables that have human characteristics, such as a pumpkin with a face, arms and legs.  Sometimes the vegetables are dressed and sometimes not.  A couple of the post cards caught my eye and I thought that they were interesting and would make nice dolls for Halloween.

The start of the new project.

After I had decided on a subject, then it became a matter of deciding how I wanted to make the doll.  I had recently purchased a hanging stand at my local thrift store.  When I purchased it I was thinking of making a hanging toy whose arms and legs moved when a string was pulled.  I used to have one when I was a kid.  You pulled the string and the figure's arms and legs flew up in the air as if it was frightened.  I guess we were easily amused as children.  Anyway, making an anthropomorphic vegetable would fit right in with with that type of toy.  To keep the weight down, I thought that the body for the figure should be made from papier mache'.  I had just blogged that I planned to do something from papier mache' next, so things were starting to come together.

Next I started flipping though some crafting books for inspiration on making the body.  There are a lot of ways to make dolls.  Some dolls need a stand or hanger, others are constructed so that they sit or have flexible joints.  Some dolls are freestanding and have an internal support armature.  Some dolls are completely made of cloth and other types are made from porcelain, plastic, or papier mache'.  Some are combinations of some or all of these materials.  There are different body types and construction methods as well.   There is a lot to think about when constructing a doll. 

In one book I hit upon the perfect doll.  It contained a pattern for an anthropomorphic tomato.  The pattern was called Tom Mato by a doll maker named Susan Little.  The book was Crafting Cloth Dolls by Miriam Christensen Gourley.  2002.  The Quilt Digest Press, a division of McGraw Hill.  I purchased this book when it first came out when I was just beginning to make dolls.  I can remember thinking that one of these days I was going to make that particular doll.  But I never got around to it as I was always busy with my own work.  I was inspired by the thin, vine-like body of the doll.  It had a cloth body and a head of papier mache' over a Styrofoam ball.  I decided to make that doll and to make a doll from papier mache' that was a pumpkin figure with a vine-like body that was
inspired by that pattern.  It won't be quite the same.  I want my figure to be a little beefier and more muscular.  Anyway, it will be interesting to see how one creation is inspired by another.  And while I am at it and have the sewing machine out, I might make a cloth version of my papier mache' pumpkin doll as well.  So now my project has morphed into three separate project in the same theme.  Sounds
like it will be fun and I will be busy for a while.

I plan to go through my fabric stash today to see what fabrics I have that might work for the Tom Mato project.  I have made a plan for my papier mache' hanging project and I have started crafting that doll.  I have drawn out a pattern for the other cloth doll.  This doll will have arms and legs similar to the Tom Mato doll, however, the arms and legs will be shaped with more musculature.  The cloth doll will have a pumpkin body instead of a vine body.

Yesterday I started crafting the legs for the papier mache' doll.  I started by shaping the leg armature from crumpled aluminum foil.  The foil was covered by masking tape.  I kept adding bits of foil and tape until things came out right.  I cut some paper clips to make hanging loops for attaching the legs to the body.  It was difficult to get the legs to come out the same length.  I will have more on this for the next blog post.

Painted Box Completed

I glued the felt to the bottom and my painted box is complete.  For the moment I decided to forgo purchasing the velvet to line the inside of the box.  I'll get to that when I get a chance to get to a fabric store.  There is now a fabric store close by, but some other items I need to purchase are across town near another fabric store, so I am waiting for an opportune time to make a trip over to that area.  One of these days I will get around to it.

Since I last blogged, I also added two coats of acrylic sealer to the box.  The sealer added a lot of depth to the color and brought out the wood grain of the box.  It now looks more like a piece of fine furniture than an inexpensive box purchased at a craft store.  Sorry, I did not make new photos.  The pictures here are ones taken before I added the sealer.

I was inspired to paint this box after working with a book on Zentangle.  I needed a wooden box and had originally planned to purchase a box from the craft store.  However, I had been working with the Zentangle and decided that it would be fun to paint some on a box.  For this project I chose to do it with something of a Moroccan style.  I guess I am pleased with the outcome.  It took me a little while to relax and start to paint in a loose manner.  Like most art, the box is best viewed from about six feet away. 

While working with the Zentangle I was reminded of how much this art form looked like the decorations on ancient Greek amphorae, goblets, and bowls.  I decided to investigate a little further to see how one form related to the other.  It was an enjoyable trip to the museum.   I spent an entire morning looking at ancient art.  My research has given me a lot of new ideas for working with Zentangle art forms. 

In case you live too far away to visit a museum, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has put their collection online.  You can spend a day viewing art from the comfort of your home.  Here is a link to the museum.  http://vmfa.museum/  Click on Collections at the top of the page to begin your journey.  I think you will find as I did that the patterns resonate through all cultures throughout the ages. 

Now that the box is completed, I am on to something new.  Spring will soon be here and soon it will be warm enough to work outside, but until then, I need one more project I can work on inside.  I think I will work on a papier mache' project next.  I am not quite sure how it will manifest at this point.  I also will be beginning a new Halloween project.  Maybe this year I will get it completed before Halloween.  It is always so annoying when the project if finished late.  I think I would have completed the project last year if a plumbing disaster had not destroyed a large part of the bottom floor of my house.  Anyway, if I begin the Halloween project this early I just might get it done.

Once it is warm enough I will begin working on a new walking stick.  I prefer to work on those on my outside work bench as I use wood burning techniques on them.  The smell of charred wood does not smell very good.  The odor tends to permeate the house and hangs around for quite a while.  My last walking stick, Shaman Staff came out very well.  I explored adding poetry as well as art to the stick.   The process was intense and inspiring.  It was almost as if I were channeling someone.  I hope I can have that experience again.  It was definitely something out of the ordinary. 

Check back on Thursday for first pictures of the new project.

Stylized Painted Box - Part 4

Now that I am back in town, I have been working on my painted box again.  I have completed the painting, but the box still needs to be sealed with an acrylic sealer.  There are still a few things that need to be done to it.  Once the sealer is dry, I will put the hinges and clasps and handle back.

I also plan to put some felt on the bottom of the box so that it won't damage the dresser.   The box originally came with metal corner protectors on each top and bottom corner.  I removed the lower corner protectors because they were not of very good quality.  I was concerned that the metal bits would mar the furniture.  After all, the box is only a seven dollar plywood box.

The bottom of the box needs to be covered with green felt.  Why green felt?  Why not some other color?  My husband tells me that it has to be green.  He insists that no other color will do and that all boxes have green felt bottoms.  I'm not so sure that will hold true across the board, but I looked at every purchased box I had at the house and found that they all had green felt on the bottom.  I suspect that makers of fine boxes purchase the felt in large quantities to get the best discount.  Also, the dark green will not show dirt as much as a lighter color.  Anyway, I purchased some green felt to add to the bottom.  I guess it is traditional.  If anyone else knows something about green felt and boxes that I
don't know, please inform me.

I would like to add some velveteen to the inside of the box as well.  It might  be a few days before I can get out to the fabric shop. There were only two patches of snow on the lawn today.  A winter storm warning is in effect here now.  More snow is expected.  In fact, we may get as much snow as we had on the ground from the previous storm.  Once the streets are clear, I can get out top purchase the fabric.

This project is almost complete.  I had a lot of fun painting this box.  I decided to paint some fan figures on the box to break the foliage pattern a bit.  That was almost a mistake.  It ended up being too big of a mass.  I ended up painting dots around the edges and through the center to break it up a bit.  The blue dots also helped tie it in with the color of the flowers.  That helped a lot.  It just goes to show that if you think you have messed up a project you should keep painting on it rather than getting upset and throwing it out.  There may be a way to save it.

I also learned that I needed to loosen up a bit on my painting.  The more I tried to make stroke and leaf exactly the same size the worse things got.  When I let go of trying to make everything perfect the design took on a more organic look.  I guess that is a valuable lesson to learn about painting.

This project will be completed in a few days.  Then I will be on to another project.  I think I will do another papier mache' project next.  More about that soon.

Back After a Week

I had to be away for a week.  I stayed with a family member that needed some surgery.  While I was gone I did not get anything done on my painted box project, but I did some more work in the Zentangle workbook.  I haven't taken any pictures of that yet.

I do have pictures of snow.  I drove up twice between snowstorms.  There was a lot of snow.  The local paper said it was the worst snow storm they had had in many years.  I guess most of the East Coast was snowed under.  In fact, from Texas to Maine we are having a series of storms that just won't quit.  No sooner than you dig out from one and the next one comes along.  We did not have as much snow here in Virginia as they have had in the Northeast, but it really is a lot of snow for here. 

I took a few pictures from the porch of the house.  On the way home I stopped at a scenic overlook and snapped a few pictures as well.  I used the camera in my tablet to take the pictures as I did not have my regular camera with me. At the overlook, the glare was so bright on the screen that I could not really see what I was taking a picture of, so I just had to point and shoot and hope I got a picture of something.  I wish that I better photos.  It really was amazing to see the whole valley and both mountain ranges covered with snow.  I doubt that my local readers will find snow pictures all that amusing at the moment, being as we are all pretty fed up with snow, but maybe we will enjoy them later.

We were fortunate that the day of surgery came after the snow storm.  The roads were well cleared and did not have trouble getting to and from the hospital.   It was a sit on the edge of your seat adventure watching the weather day by day hoping that we would actually be able to get to the hospital or wondering whether the surgery would be rescheduled to bad weather.  Fortune smile on us in this case. 

During the snow storm it was snowing so hard that the mountains disappeared.  All you could see was snow and fog.  It was very eerie to have the mountains disappear and reappear before your eyes.  The little house on the left at about the center of the third picture had some pretty chairs on their porch that were painted a Caribbean Blue.  There were also some decorative red flags on the porch.  They were just about the only pops of color on a landscape of white snow and dark trees.   It was very quiet except for the sound of snow sliding off the roof.  It was too cold to be outside for long.  Once in a while you would hear the sounds of children shouting excitedly while they were sledding on the hill.  However, it was so cold that even the attraction of sledding could not keep people outside for more than a few minutes.


The drive home was really beautiful.  There are many farms in the area and the rolling hills are all covered with snow for as far as you could see.  There was heavy snow in the mountains as well.  You could see the snow through the trees.  Some areas had pine trees, but most of the area is deciduous trees and there were no leaves to prevent you from seeing the snow on the ground.  It was very much a great view of bare trees and snow on the mountains.

 Today we are having another weather event.  It started this morning as freezing rain.  It is supposed to switch over to snow this afternoon, then go back to freezing rain.  Sometime overnight the temperature is supposed to rise to just above freezing and then we will just have rain.  At least we hope that is what is going to happen.  It is sleeting heavily at the moment.  Snow is supposed to come again on Thursday as well.  I think in between now and then we are going to have some warmer temperatures and rain showers.  At this point I would gladly have it rain.  I hope that it will melt away some of the snow.

Now that I am home again I plan to start back to work on my painted box.  I would like to complete it in the next week or so.  There is a lot of detail work to paint that many floral patterns on the box.  I think I have one more side to paint on the lid.  I have not started painting on the carcase of the box yet other than to paint a border on each side.  I am looking forward to completing this project.  The hand painted leaves and vines are not hard to paint.  Once I learned to relax and not worry so much about having everything exactly right, it started to come out better.  It does not have to be perfect.  It is the nature of this box that it is a simple pattern.