Doll Experiment - Part 12

I really ought to have gone straight into painting the doll's face, but I actually started on the doll's hair.  I was looking for something different for the hair.  Most synthetic commercial doll hair looks to artificial for my taste.  I prefer something with a more organic look.   I was not in the mood for surfing the net to find something to use, so I cast my gaze about my studio, looking for something that was readily available.  I found some hemp cording that (as usual) was left over from some other project.  I decided to give that a try.

This choice sort of took me down a rabbit hole.  The cording was cut into nine inch pieces and then unraveled.  The cord was basically two strands of hemp wrapped around each other with a single piece of hemp wrapped around the two cords to secure them.  Once the two strands were separated, it was time to unravel that strand.  Unwrapping the smaller piece of cording caused the layers of hemp to separate into individual fibers made out of hemp.  It looks exactly like blondish-brown curly hair.  The more the strands were untangled, the more it looked like hair.

So I started making strands of this hemp "hair".  I would leave about half an inch of cord at the top so I would have something solid to use when I was attaching it to the doll.  I would unravel a strand, then add a piece of masking tape to the top and attach it to a piece of cardboard.  When my strip of cardboard was completely filled with strands of hair, I would spray the hemp with hair spray on both sides.  The hair spray will help keep the strands from shedding.

I filled two rows of cardboard and started gluing the hair to the doll.  Was I in for a surprise.  The strands did not cover as much area as I had thought it would.  I was going to need a lot more hair.  So I have been spending much of the last several days mindlessly untangling bits of cord into hair.  I made two more cardboard rows and that was not enough either.  I am still making hair.  I can't really tell you how many hours I have spent on this.  It was plenty more than I had anticipated.

When I had added the first section of hair and discovered how much I was going to need, I almost decided to do something else.  However, the hair was attached to the doll using hot glue.  I was concerned that if I pulled the hair off that I would be pulling the paint off with it.  Given that I had build up that flesh color using many glazes, I was not anxious to try to repair that.  So I decided that I would keep going with the cording even if it took a long time.

And that is where things are at this point.  I hope that I have enough hair now to complete the task, but it has not yet been attached to the doll.  I should have some photos of the doll with all her hair on in the next blog post.  Check back on Sunday to see that.