It is the seventh of January. Now that the holidays are over, my husband and I are just getting back into a regular routine after a vacation trip and the holiday gatherings. I admit that I have taken some time off just to relax and just not worry about how quickly I could get some crafting done during the holidays. There was just too much going on. At the moment, I am trying to get back into a routine of working in my studio each morning. I am feeling some resistance. However, in a few days I will have my normal habits reestablished and I will look forward to going in there and getting started. Until then, it is a matter of showing up until the passion reignites.
I had just completed one Father Christmas figure at the end of 2015. As I blogged at the time, I had seen a technique for making polymer clay eyes that looked like glass eyes. There was not enough time to try that technique on the last doll, so I am making another doll so that I can experiment with the eye process. I was looking at the Making Old Fashioned Santas by Cande Frankel and Beverly Karcher for some inspiration. I liked the outfit for the doll titled Victorian Belsnickle. A Belsnickel is sometimes called a grumpy Santa. In German folklore a Belsnickle is a companion of Santa that travels alone or with another character and is known to give naughty children a wallop with a bunch of Witch Hazel switches. He brought presents of cakes, candy, and nuts to good children and switched naughty children. Unlike the Victorian Belsnickel, the Belsnickel of folklore often wore furs and was very dirty and disheveled. (This is true. Look it up.) When you were a kid and you thought that it was creepy for Santa to be watching you all the time, imagine what it must be like to have Santa's friend come by to beat you with a stick. If you have a few minutes to spend, watch this hilarious YouTube video about a Belsnickel at an office. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNu2oRf-Gjw
The Victorian Belsnickel's clothing was a red robe with a hood and cape trimmed with white along the edge of the hood, cape, and front placket. However, I was not really fond of the construction technique. The doll stood by means of a dowel that was drilled into a wood block which was the armature for the body. The legs were made so that they were in front of the dowel and not part of the support structure. This is a valid construction method, but I did not care for the dowel being visible when the doll was complete. It is true that if you have the correct camera angle or pile other decorations around it that the dowel will be out of view, but why have the visible dowel if you don't need to? There are other means of construction that will hide the support within the structure of the doll. So I am off on my own to construct a doll armature and body in a completely different method from that shown in the book. I will be making the doll from scratch and making the doll's clothes in a style similar to the outfit that the Victorian Belsnickel is wearing. The clothing will be constructed in a different manner also. There is more than one way to make a doll. It is not a matter of one way necessarily being better than the other. It is a matter of how you want to make the doll.
Normally, one would make the doll's head first in order to make the doll body match the size of the head. That is important if you are a beginning doll maker. However, with practice, one gets a feel for this and can work in a different order. I have wire for the armature here, and the supplies to make the head are at the craft store so I am beginning with the body and will make the head of a size to match, So, next blog post, I will begin by showing the armature for the doll. Check back for the Sunday blog post for the first photos.
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