Victorian Belsnickel Completed

I have finished this doll at last.  I had a lot of delays this project.  Part of the delay was an inability to find the products I wanted locally.  The other part is just the amount of time spent on this doll.  I sculpted the face in bake in the oven clay.  I attempted my first attempt at sculpting hands on an armature.  The sculpting worked, the hand failed during the heating process in the oven.  And sometimes the weather was against me.  But the doll is finally finished and I am happy at the way it turned out.

The doll stands on its own.  I created the doll with an internal armature so that it did not need an external stand or have to lean against something for support.  I like having a doll with an internal support system but they are a little intimidating.  There are a lot of "what ifs" involved.  You have to make sure that the armature has enough strength to support the doll.  You have to make sure that you leave enough of the internal armature exposed so that it fits deeply enough into the base that the doll will remain upright.  You have to make sure that the doll is balanced.  There are plenty of things to think about that you can only visualized as you are creating the doll.  Will something work?  You have to try it to find out whether it works or not.  But it is great when it comes out right. 

So I painted the base with a mixture of glass bead medium, titanium white acrylic paint, and some pearlizing
medium.  The result is a rough texture.  I prefer the textured look to flat white.  It just looks more like snow and ice to me.  For anyone that may be inspired to try making a free standing doll I have a work of advice about painting the stand.  When you are dry fitting the doll to the stand and are satisfied with the fit, trace around the doll's feet with a light pencil mark.  Paint all of the stand but leave the center of the footprints bare.  Paint slightly over the traced lines, but no further.  The reason for this is that the feet are part of the support system for the doll.  (This may not apply to a doll that was made to sit on something.)  When the dowels are hot glued into the holes, also put some glue on the footprint area as well.  This will give some extra support that will help hold the doll in place in case it is moved or touched causing it to rock.  If you glue the foot to paint, motion of the doll could cause the glue to pull up the paint rather than stay in place.  It is a little extra insurance that the doll will stay in place.

I tried to tell the story of the folklore of the Belsnickel partly through his outfit and accessories.  This doll is dressed in the style of the Victorian Belsnickel, which is a coat with a pointy hood and a rope belt.  (The pointy hood is a feature, not a mistake.)  Traditionally, the Victorian Belsnickel's coats were red or blue, but coats of other colors were not unknown.  Prior to the Victorian era, this figure was described as wearing fur pelts and was very rough looking.  The rope belt is a holdover from the earlier description of the Belsnickel.   Many Belsnickels are shown with their hands stuffed into their sleeves.  Some people say that the hands in the sleeves is supposed to show that the Belsnickel is cold.  Another idea on this style of doll is that the hands are hard to make so the hands are not shown.  Also, Belsnickels were popular candy and chalkware molds.  The hands would have been hard detail to reproduce in a mold due to their small size and could possibly cause the cast figure to stick in the mold.

The Belsnickel was not a Santa, although many people refer to him as a "Grumpy Santa".  He is supposed to look either angry or sad rather than jolly.  Santa and a Belsnickel are not the same, although Belsnickel characteristics have been co-opted into Santa legends.  The Belsnickel brought switches and coal to naughty children.  He did not come in the night while everyone is sleeping like Santa.  He shows up when people are awake and gives the children a swat with the switches.  (I actually saw news footage of this happening a few years ago.  People actually take their children to see the Belsnickel.  The children are frightened.)  The Belsnickel may also give a small treat to exceptionally good children, but the main role of a Belsnickel is to strike fear in naughty children.

For this doll, I tried to tell the story through the accessories.  The doll has a bunch of switches in his right hand.  Actually, the switches are made from broom straw that has been painted with burnt umber.  I initially wanted to use actual bits of stick, but sticks that small were too fragile.  Sooner or later, the doll would have ended up with a handful of stubs.  The broom straws were more flexible, so they should have a longer life to them.  In the left hand the doll holds a coal bucket.  Many people may not recognize that this type of bucket had a specific purpose.  The long spout on the bucket helped pour the coal into the stove or fireplace.  I made the lumps of coal in the bucket by baking misshapen lumps of polymer clay.  I had hoped that I could burn them enough that they would turn black, but they only turned black in spots so I ended up spray painting them black.  They are a little glossy and they did not take a good picture.  They look better in person than they do in the photograph.

I considered making some candy canes to hang on the belt to show treats, but ultimately decided against it.  The pieces would have been very small and difficult to glue to the belt with a good hold without getting glue all over the coat.  I also considered a small pouch with some candy canes hanging out, but a pouch that small was awkward looking.  Sometimes it is better to let an idea go rather than try to force something.  So the doll is left with just some coal and some switches.  

Most people are not familiar with the lore about the Belsnickel, so I guess they are going to consider it to be Santa.  I guess it will be a different take on Santa.  He will not be jolly and he will not have a bag full of presents as he is generally portrayed today.  However, that has more to do with our modern way of thinking than you might suspect.  Switches and coal would not seem like something desirable today, but it had a different meaning in earlier years.  Coal and some kindling to get it going would have been useful in the days of coal burning stoves and fireplaces.  Instead of being a message that someone had been naughty and therefore not worthy of receiving a gift, it would have been given as a gift of warmth; a gift to help with survival.  It might have been a message that someone cared about the child even if the child had not been on his or her best behavior.  A special treat for exceptionally good children showed that their effort had been rewarded, but even a naughty child was deserving of care.  That might have been a message from the Victorian era;  there were so many street children at that time that were cold and hungry.  

Remember the Dickens story Oliver Twist?  It was first published as a serial between 1837 through 1839.  The Victorian era was from 1839 through 1901, the length of Queen Victoria's reign.  Perhaps that is why the Belsnickel was a popular figure in that era.

The doll is complete.  I will be blogging about a new project at the next blog post on Thursday.