Victorian Belsnickel - Part 13

I thought I would have the doll completely finished for today, but that did not happen.  I am so close.  I overestimated the time I was going to have to work on the doll this week.  You know how it is.  It looks like your calendar is going to be clear, and then the creep begins.  First you add one thing, then another.  Pretty soon the whole calendar is full.  I enjoyed the surprises that came along the week.  I just ended up doing different activities than what I had planned.  Sometimes it is good to stick to the plan, but other times it is better to explore the potential within the unexpected.  You just never know what is going to come out of a chance opportunity.

I added the trim to the coat and added the cape.  I have the hood attached on top of his head, but it needs a little work.  A characteristic of a Victorian Belsnickel is that he has a long pointy hood.  The hood is long and pointy, but it tends to cave in a little along the length.  I will gave to give it a little stuffing to make it stand up correctly.  That is a minor detail, but I did not want to do it in a rush.

The stand is also ready.  The doll has been dry fitted into the stand, but it has not been glued yet.  There is a bit of a story to that.  I bought an unfinished wooden base at the craft store.  It needed holes drilled in it to hold the dowels that are the main support for the doll.  My drilling skills are only so-so, and I was worried about messing up the base, so I enlisted my husband's help with it.  That was a really a good idea in this case because my drill bit choice might have ended in a disaster.  The dowels were listed as a certain size.  We had a drill bit of the listed size.  The problem being that the drill bit and the size of the dowel bore no real relationship to each other.  The drill bit was clearly larger than the dowel.  If I had just picked out the drill bit and drilled the holes, they would have been too large.  We decided to drill the holes smaller than the dowel.  Then I used some small rasps to shape the holes to a custom fit for the dowels.  That worked, and the doll stands up without any additional support.  So that was a major hurdle out of the way.  I did have to wait until he had time to help me with it, but the delay was well worth it since it saved me from ruining the base.

So the base has been painted.  It took two coats to get good coverage.  I was using a specialty medium, so I had to allow a day of drying between coats.  I will blog more about painting the stand on my next blog post.

I have also been making progress on the accessories.  I still have to do some more painting to do.  I will show them next time (I hope.)  It depends on whether I have the right paint or whether I need to make a trip to the craft store.  If I have to get to the store, it might be a few days.  We are under a winter storm watch.  Snow is coming in tonight.  I know that we get snow in March, but I was sort of hoping that we were finished with the worst weather.  After all, Puxatawney Phil said that it was going to be an early spring.  Anyway, I may be digging out from another storm tomorrow.  Check back on Sunday for the latest (and dare I hope, completion of the doll.)