I have been working on the doll this week. As I wrote in a previous blog post, two important considerations have been the weight of the piece and how much it will cost to construct the project. I am trying to keep the weight down by using light weight materials. So far, the materials for the project have been PVC pipe for the frame, cardboard, newspaper, aluminum foil,bubble wrap and tape. I used 1/2 inch diameter PVC because we had some scraps of it left over from another project. At the moment, the legs are looking a little shaky. I am hoping that once other materials are added over the bare pipes that the structure will tighten up a bit. All in all, if I were starting over, I would use a larger diameter pipe. However, that runs into my other consideration: cost. I did not want to spend the money for new pipe. At this point I am still hoping that the smaller pipe will hold up. I have a Plan B if things don't work out.
Once the basics of the form were on I started adding shape to the piece. Circles were cut from newspaper and folded into quarters then opened fully. One line was cut from the edge all the way to the center. This allowed the circle to overlap and become a cone shape. It was taped inside and out at the overlap. The cones were half -way taped to the torso to form the breast shapes. The were shapes stuffed with newspaper to form a firm surface. I had originally planned to stuff the shapes with foil, but I kept poking holes in the cones while trying to tamp the foil into place. I had some polyester fiber fill (left over from another project) I could have used as stuffing, but the newspaper was free and I paid for the fiber fill. Anyway, all's well that ends well. Once everything was stuffed I taped over the entire area.
The next step was to cover the upper torso with bubble wrap. One side of the bubble wrap has the bubbles and the other side is smooth. I put the smooth side outward. I kept working at it until I had a figure that fit the upper dimension I was looking for. What was that dimension? Basically I was looking for 36 inches (15.4 cm.) at the bust. At the moment, the figure looks a little high chested, but that is as it should be. The head for the doll has a fairly long neck that flares out at the base to give the head stability. To accommodate the flare at the base, the shoulders will have to be built up about two inches. That will give the torso a more normal look. The hips for the figure were already in place. I wrote about creating them in a previous blog post. I added some more cardboard to the top of the hips to form the waist area. The cardboard pieces were taped together. Once the cardboard was secure, the form was stuffed with newspaper so that it would remain rigid and not collapse in on itself.
More bubble wrap was added to cover the waist area. I would have kept going and worked on the hip area as well, but I ran out of bubble wrap. I had only purchased one roll because I was uncertain how much I would need for the project. I would rather make another trip to the store than stuck with unused rolls of bubble wrap. My studio is seriously overstuffed with materials and projects and I need to do another purge of unused stuff. Purchasing bubble wrap is on the agenda for this week. Maybe I will go ahead and buy two rolls since I still have the arms and legs to complete as well.
The 4th of July falls on a Wednesday this year. Some holiday activities will be on the weekend of the 1st and other activities will be on the following weekend. I expect to be pretty busy the whole time. I don't think I will have time to post anything until Sunday, July 8th. How did it get to be July already?
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