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.