Vampire Halloween Doll - Part 4

I am back to blogging about my Vampire Halloween Doll.  This was supposed to be a quick craft project, but it has been such a busy time for me that I have barely had time to touch it.  I had expected to be finished with this project by now, but that is not how things have gone.  I have made some progress on the doll, so I guess that is something to blog about.

I completed the sculpting of the hands.  It took a long time because this doll is very small.  It will only be about five and a half inches tall (13.97 centimeters).  One of the reasons it took so long was that much tiny needlework caused a lot of discomfort in my fingers.  The small size also made it difficult to cut off small bits of string.  It seemed like I could see a lot of stray bits that I could not cut off.  I decided to cover the hands with modeling compound to get the frayed edges under control.  When the modeling compound dries, it is a white surface.  So now my vampire will look as if he is wearing gloves.  That would be acceptable with a suit.  After all, it helps cover him from sunlight.

While I was working with the modeling compound, I decided to make his boots as well.  It helps cover up an inconvenient seam.  I need to do a little sanding on the boots, and then I will paint them black.  With a little gloss sealer on them they will look like nicely polished boots.  At least, that is the theory of the moment.

I added the head.  Again, this doll is really small.  After the aftermath of the needle sculpting of the hands, I really was not ready to commit to needle sculpting the face.  The head is barely as large as the tip of my forefinger.  I decided to move into uncharted territory here.  I decided to try making the features out of modeling compound.  If it worked great.  If it did not, well I just might have decided that the coffin the doll will lay in could be re-purposed into a candy container.  So working with tiny dabs of modeling compound, and using an embroidery needle as a tool, I modeled the features and hoped that they would stick.  They did.  So I have a very tiny face in place.  I am hoping that it will survive the painting process.  The little pieces were so small, I was not sure that they would have enough adhesion to stick.  But, so far, so good.  Once the face is painted, I will go back and add some more tiny bits of modeling compound to make the fangs.  They are not on at this point because they would be in the way while trying to paint the lips.

I had a lot of trouble getting a shot of the face.  It was so small that I could not get a good picture with the camera.  I finally sat the doll under a magnifying lens and snapped a photo.  I had trouble getting in close enough to something that small.  I must have snapped thirty pictures of the face before I was able to get a clear shot.  Thank goodness for digital cameras. 

So things are moving along, even if slower than I would prefer.  This time of year is very busy for me.  That is why I start my Halloween project so early.

There is a hurricane coming.  We are not in the direct path of the storm, but may get some rain.  The path of the storm is still uncertain.  The storm could shift further out to sea and only impact the coast, or it could come further inland and give us some heavy rain or flash flooding.  We are right on the border of the rain area right now.  It is possible we could be out of electricity if the winds get up or there is a lot of rain.  In the past, we have lost electricity for several days.  If I am out of electricity, I may not be able to post on Sunday.   I will get back online as soon as possible.  Stay safe everyone.