Doll Experiment - Part 8

Flat figure. Photo 1.

Please note:  the pictures are all over the place because the blog platform is giving me a lot of trouble today.  It will not allow me to place the pictures where I want them.  It is posting the photos in places where I did not want them to be and I don't have time to keep messing with the blog to get it right.

Glass gems as armature. (2)

I normally blog on Sunday, but yesterday my husband was busy with a project on the computer.  We don't have a lot of bandwidth, so I waited until today to put my blog up.   My apologies to readers who checked in yesterday.

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In the last blog post I showed that I had the doll standing.  There was still more that needed to be done to the doll.  She had some hips, but front and back she was flat.  There was not any muscular definition nor any normal anatomical features such as the bust and buttocks.  That may be okay for a doll representing a young child, but it really does not look right for a doll representing an adult.  Before painting the doll I felt I needed to add those features.  If a doll does not mimic the human shape, it always looks off no matter how nicely the clothing is made.

To create the curves on the doll I had make some sort of armature to be added to the doll.  Then the armature would be covered with papier mache'.  There are any number of ways to create the armature for the breasts and buttocks.  I considered a number of ways to simulate the curves.  Among my choices were:  balled up paper covered by tape, balled up aluminum foil covered by tape, pompoms, small bits of shaped styrofoam, shaped cardboard and tape, and small glass gems.  They all would have worked, although the paper/tape or cardboard/tape combination could have lost its shape if moisture seeped through the tape.  No matter what armature I used, it would probably have required additional bits of padding to make the figure look right.  Generally, my choice comes down to what is available at the moment.  In this instance, what I had available was some glass gems left over from a previous project.  (There are more pictures below, I could not place the photo where I wanted.

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The gems were actually a good size and shape for the bust of the doll.  It was a matter of getting them on the doll in the right place.  Although they look a little small in the photo, you have to remember that the papier mache' is going to add depth and that has to be accounted for when you create the armature.  For the buttocks I used two glass gems on each side: one rounded gem and one oblong gem.  The gems had to surrounded by bits of paper to pad the area to create the correct shape.

Once I had the shapes looking like I wanted, I covered the armature with a layer of strip style papier mache'.  Right now the doll has only one layer covering the armature.  I need to give the areas two more layers to make sure that everything is secure. 

It will take two or three days to add the additional layers of papier mache'.  At the moment, the doll is still balanced even though glass gems, paper, and tape have been added. 

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I may not have anything to blog about on Thursday other than that I will have added the additional layers of papier mache'.  If there is no blog post Thursday, I will be posting new photos again on Sunday.  Hopefully I will have been able to start the sanding by that time.