Large Doll - Part 6

This week I am back to blogging about my large doll project. The doll will be approximately fifty-two inches tall.  (1.32 meters.)  It keeps growing. I had taken a couple of weeks off to work on my short term project.  Every once in a while I have to get away from a large project or I get bored with it.  That's my story and I am sticking to it.  Actually, besides the short term project, I spent some time on research for the doll project.  I also had to make a trip out for some needed supplies for the armature.  I am ready to get back to work on the project now.

I began this project in January, creating the head out of paper mậché.  New readers may want to go to my blog and view the posts for earlier in the year to see the step by step process: http://folkartbycaroljones.blogspot.com/

I generally make the wig for my doll myself.  I had actually planned to do it this time, but some issues came up.  The main issue was cost.  Doll hair for sale at a craft store cost about $2.50 a packet for a 0.9 ounce package.  For a doll this size I would need many of them, because I want the doll to either have hair long or hair long enough to create a bun.   That would take a lot of doll hair packages.  I considered my options and decided to look at wigs.  My initial thinking was that I would by a long hair cosplay wig and cut it up to make my own doll wig.  The wig had so much hair that I was thinking that it might have enough doll hair to keep me going through several dolls.  However, once the wig arrived, I'm thinking I might use the wig as it came out of the package.  It seems to fit pretty well and very little modification was needed for it to fit. 

For the record, cosplay wigs are fairly inexpensive.  I was surprised. The prices were quite reasonable for costume wigs.  Cosplay wigs come in all sorts of styles and colors, from normal hair colors to neon and florescent.  I was really pleased to find such a quantity of good quality wigs out there.  I think I will be using this resource for future projects.

At this point, I have not glued the wig to the head.  I want to attach the head to the body before I add the wig.  The hair will just be in the way during that process.  I don't want to get glue on it.

Some of my other research over the past couple of weeks was about making and adjusting the size of  wigs.  I have my own preferences for making wigs, but spent some time looking for better ways to make a wig.  What I found is that my method is similar to making what is called a ventilated wig.  The base of the wig is made of lace and tulle or some type of netting.  The hair is attached one strand at a time to the netting by a hook that either has a bent end or one that looks somewhat similar to a small latch hook.  I have never made a wig cap from tulle, but it would be a very similar process.  Many of my dolls have hair that is rooted into a muslin wig cap using a needle to pull the hair  through the fabric.   Once half the strand is pulled through the wig cap, then tied in a double knot.  It takes a long time.  I don't think I want to time to do it with a this a doll this size.  It could take months.  This project is on a September deadline. 

I also spent some time learning how to make wigs smaller.  One of the best YouTube videos I found was How to Make Your Wig Smaller by GodivasSecretWigs.  If you have an inclination to make a large doll and use a wig made for humans, I highly recommend this video.  It is much simpler to change the size of a wig than I would have imagined.

Another video I watched while doing research is how to adjust the size of a styrofoam head to make it to the size of the wig.  This might also be valuable if you wanted to make a large doll and needed to scale up the head.  All of these videos are readily found by using a few key search words.  I had actually seen this video once before when I was originally thinking about making a large doll.   I was glad to be able to find it again.

Other than that, I made the trip to the hardware store for some PVC fittings.  I raided my husband's stash of hardware for the pipe.  I guess that I am ready to begin working on the armature.  It is a little bit daunting, but I am sure that once I begin I will wonder what I was so worried about.  I hope to have the armature cut to size and dry fitted this week.  I may have to wait to glue it together.  The glue requires a well ventilated area.  It is probably best done outside.  It looks like we are going to have rain and snow later this week so that part might take another week.  After that, things should go fairly quickly.  At least I hope they will.  Since this is my first experiment with making a large doll, I really have no idea what might come up.

Check back next Sunday afternoon for an update on this project.