Life Size Doll Armature - Padding the Frame Part 2

Calf muscle taped to back of leg.

I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to get a chance to make a blog post today.  I just
purchased a new laptop computer and I am still trying to figure out the how to make things work.  It has a different operating system.  The photo program is completely different.  Some of the features of my previous program photo program are no longer available without purchasing upgrades.   I can still do what I need to do, but not nearly as conveniently.  Thank goodness my husband is a tech guy.  I am sure that once I get used to it things will be okay, but at the moment I feel much like Forrest Gump's mother in the movie by that name.  I just need to go lie down.   Anyway, I am doing my best to get something posted today.

This week I have been working on trying to get the legs padded.  Although they will be hidden under a long skirt, I still wanted the legs to have some type of normal shape.  When I started the doll I had visions of this doll being a dancer.  Now I am not so sure that is going to happen.  It might just be easier to go full Halloween on the doll.  But I digress.

I already had the thighs pretty well padded by the last blog post.  This week I was working on the

lower leg.  I started by creating a resemblance of the calf muscles by making an elongated ball of heavy duty aluminum foil.  It just happened that I had some at the house, I did not buy it especially for this project.  However, using the heavy duty foil was serendipitous.  It is holding the shape better and with less effort than if I were using regular foil.  I taped the foil to the PVC, the covered it with layers of bubble wrap.  I used more layers on the back of the leg, taping them into place without wrapping them around the front of the leg so that there would not be too much bulk along the shin.  It is just a matter of adding the wrap and taping it until you get something like the shape you want.

I thought I had one leg completed down to the ankle.  Looking at the picture, it looks as if it needs a little more padding at the back and side of the knee.  The other leg just has the calf muscle taped on.  Most likely I will finish the other leg tomorrow.  There are so many projects and so little time to work on them.  Once the other leg is complete down to the ankle I will have to take a break before I do the feet.  I need to finish working on the base before I add the feet and shoes.  I know what I want to do to finish the base and it should not be that difficult.  (Famous last words.)   Naturally, it requires another trip to the craft store.

So far, I have not started on the hands.  I would like to get them mounted onto the frame before I add the head.  As a doll maker, I am reluctant to add the head until the rest of the body is finished.  Dolls start to take on personality once the features are added.  It is hard to explain to people who do not make dolls, but for a while, and if you are lucky even longer, dolls seem to be able to tell you who they are.  When their personality comes out you begin to get an idea of how the doll should be costumed and accessorized.  I don't want the personality coming out before I have the hands on her.  She might be horrified.

On a more comical note:  my husband says the headless doll creeps him out.    He is starting to suggest that this is going to be a life size Chuckie doll.  Since it is life sized, it is almost like walking into a person.  Sometimes it can give you a bit of a start if you just happen to catch it out of the corner of your eye.  I tell him that he should not give it any ideas.

Anyway, it is one small step closer to being finished.  I will have more to post on this project next week.

Live Size Doll Armature - Padding the Frame Continued

Building up the arm.

I did not get a chance to post yesterday, but for once it was not my fault.  The area had a lot of rain, and flash flooding and somehow it managed to knock out internet service to our sector.  We were fortunate that it only lasted most of a day.  When my husband initially called our service provider we were told that it could be up to forty-eight hours.  Anyway, I am here today posting what I would have posted yesterday.

I actually had some time to work on my life-size doll project this week.  I have completed most of the under layer that will represent the muscle structure of the doll.  There are still bits to go here and there, but once again I have run out of bubble wrap.  Since I had no concept of how much bubble wrap I would need, I have been buying small amounts at a time, just so I won't end up with vast quantities of bubble wrap left over. I have completed the torso, and the arms, but not the shoulders.  The shoulders will need some special treatment to connect them to the head.  At the moment, it makes the torso look a little high chested, but that will change once the shoulder area is built up.

I have not yet started on the hands.  I plan to use a pair of gloves and stuff the hand and fingers.  The fingers will also contain wires so I can pose the fingers. 

The hips and buttocks have also been completed.  I stuffed bubble wrap padded with rolled up sheets of newspaper for padding to create the shape of the hips and buttocks.  My doll will be wearing a dress, and if the hips and bottom do not have a proper shape the dress will not hang right.  I see that a lot in doll making.  If the figure only has a straight body, with no curves, the whole thing looks like something is off, even if the viewer cannot say exactly what is making it look making it feel not quite right.

Shaping the hip and butt.

The thighs are complete down to the knee.  If I were really trying to make the doll more anatomically correct, I would have put more work into making the inner thigh wider where it intersects the torso.  However, since that is not going to impact how the dress hands on the doll I am not putting the extra time and materials into making that area look more realistic.

The knee caps were created from balls of aluminum foil.  They were taped in place and covered over with more bubble wrap.  I need to purchase more bubble wrap before I do the thighs.  So far I have used three rolls of bubble wrap.  I think I could do finish off the project with one more roll of bubble wrap.  I guess we will see.  I plan on hitting the store for it this morning.

Once the frame has been padded out with bubble wrap it will
be covered with a layer of masking tape prior to adding layers of papier mâché.  Under normal conditions, the tape helps keep the under layers dry when the moistened paper and flour mix is applied.  Since this is plastic, it does not need it for moisture protection, but I am not sure how well the papier mâché will stick to the plastic.  Besides, the tape will be one more layer to add to help firm up the form.  Perhaps I shall purchase another roll of tape while I am at the store too.

When I originally started planning this doll, my plan was to do a lot of work on the musculature of the doll so it had a very lifelike appearance.  However, time has flown this year and I have had very little time to work on this project.  I am going to have to scale back on my plans if I want to have the doll finished in time for the competition.  It will be a nice doll, maybe not quite as life like as I would have wanted.  So maybe that idea will be used on another doll sometime in the future.  Right now my main concern is just to get something completed.

Knee cap.

Check back on Sunday for the next post on this project. I know it has taken a long time to get this project off the ground, but it is finally moving on to a new phase.  Hopefully, it will go on much quicker from this point.

Cabin and Road Trip

Old paint, new paint.

In this case, a whole week got away from me.  I started on this post last Sunday, but had to stop writing because of a million and one things that needed to be done right at that moment.  I never had a significant enough amount of time to get back to it.  So today's post is really last Sunday's post.  I finally was able to get back to it this morning to finish the text and add the photos.  Next week I will be blogging about the doll.  I have not yet given up hope of getting the doll completed in time for the competition, but I will have to scale things back a bit.  I hope you will enjoy the photos from the road.

Because it was the week of the Fourth of July, we headed up to the cabin and spent a week.  Since we were away, I did not have any time to work on the doll.  The good news is that I was able to get to the store and purchase the bubble wrap I needed to finish the project.  (Fingers crossed that two more rolls of wrap will be enough.)  It seems that I will have time to work on the doll this week, so I hope to complete the under layer that represents the muscular system.  I will be blogging on that next Sunday.

Our home away from home.

Sometimes all the cabins in the area are occupied, and we spend time catching up with friends.  Other times we are the only people up there.  This time we had the place all to ourselves.  It was so quiet.  The only sounds were the rushing of the stream, birds singing, and the wind in the trees.  Only rarely did we see a car.  I guess everyone else had somewhere they wanted to be.

Maybe I should add the sound of buzzing insects as well.  This time of year, the gnats are out.  Not just a few gnats, but gnats in great clouds that circle around your head.  Seriously, we have gnat hats: mesh drapes over a hat and sits on your shoulders.  Sometimes you have to wear them to be able to breath without inhaling gnats.  These gnats are sometimes called No see ems.  They are really tiny; so small that they can fly in through the window screens.  It seems like they are all teeth.  If you are bitten you will know it.  You get a bump like a mosquito bite.  It itches unmercifully, and if you scratch it the bump turns into a sore that can last for quite a while.    Even if you have the self-discipline not to scratch it, it itches in your sleep.  You are probably going to scratch it then.  FYI:  according to an article I read in a magazine (I cannot remember if it was Discovery, Smithsonian, or some other magazine, but something of a reputable source.) these gnats are related to the mosquitoes that carry Zika virus.   Anyway, we returned home with a fair number of gnat bites.

Despite the gnats, we still had work to do.  Our plan for the trip was to paint the ceiling on the screened in back porch.  Fortunately, we were able to complete that job.  Unfortunately, we lost a day because we had to deal with a cabin situation.  A family of mice had moved onto the screened in porch.  When we arrived, we found the plastic covering the picnic table had been turned into a lake of mouse urine.  Mouse dropping covered the entire floor of the porch.  They had chewed a hole into a space where the porch roof rafter joined to the house.  We needed to clean and disinfect. 

These were not small mice like we normally see.  They were probably a half size larger that a normal house mouse.  (Field mice maybe?)  When my husband went to repair the area where the mice had chewed, four mice jumped out of the hole, landed on his shoulder, and then jumped to the ground.  We were trying to chase them out the door, but the mice weren't having it.  This was their home and they planned on staying.  They were hiding under and in the wood stacked in the wood rack and among various items stored under the picnic table.  The last mouse was hiding among the chair cushions.  One of the mice became so agitated that it charged straight at me.  I am not usually afraid of mice, but I jumped up and yelled when it came at me.  My husband was laughing.  I don't blame him.  It was kind of funny from the "It's a mouse!" perspective, but not so funny when a angry critter is coming straight at you in a rage.  Anyway, we did get the mice out of there. 

We expect the mice will be back as soon as they realize we have left.  Because of that, we took all the wood out of the wood rack and hauled it back down to the wood shed.  When we come up in the fall we will just be storing what we plan to burn while we are there on the porch wood rack.  Without the wood pile to hide in, we are hoping the mice will seek a home elsewhere.  The picnic table is covered in layers of heavy plastic.  It does not look as nice as the table cover we had on it, but I expect it will be better than the picnic table cover.

So we lost a day to dealing with the mice.  We had plenty of cleaner with us because the porch ceiling needed cleaning before it was painted.  So the porch was cleaned from top to bottom before the painting could commence.  Then it needed to dry for a day.  It took two days for my husband to paint it.  The mice had gnawed on the floor boards of the porch as well as the rafter.  The boards were primed, but we did not have the green paint we needed to cover the primer.  Now we are debating whether or not to just touch up the primed spots or just go ahead and paint the whole porch again.  Hard as it is to believe, it has been five years since the porch was painted.  Time flies.  

I smoked a turkey breast while we were up there this time.  We also made some grill bread.  With baked sweet potatoes and collards it was quite a feast.  Our other meals were fairly light.  It was hot and muggy, and we were not very hungry.  Leftovers and turkey sandwiches stood in for a few meals. I enjoy cooking up there more in the fall, when the cooler weather lets us start up the wood cook stove and a stew can simmer all day. 

Kudzu.

 

On our route home I tried to take a few photos of old gas stations and stores.  They are fast disappearing.  The few that are left are either abandoned, or turned into private residences.  I remember going into stores like these when I was a child.  Even then the stores had the smell of old wood.  They were generally dimly lit, mostly depending on light from the front windows for lighting.  There were wooden floors and wooden shelves.  By then, the wood was worn and scarred.  It had a real feeling of time that had passed.  I miss them.  New stores with metal shelving, bright lights and industrial flooring just cannot convey the same feeling. 

Other than that, most of my view from the road was of green fields or heavy tree canopy.  The fields of hay have been cut and the rolls of hay are sitting in the fields while the hay dries out.   I have often wondered whether these types of bales catch on fire.  What I remember from when they used to  dry hay in hay ricks was that you did not put hay inside until it was dry because it was subject to spontaneous combustion.  Perhaps the hay is too tightly packed to ignite.  Maybe one day I will take some time and look that up. 

I notice that Kudzu is starting to make an appearance in this area.  It is an invasive species.  It was originally imported from Asia to be used as a feed crop for cattle.  It went wild.  The plant covers everything in its path.  The joke is that it grows so fast that if a cow stands in it long enough to eat some it will entangle the cow.   It does not actually grow that fast, but the plant is a monster that covers everything. 

Well, that is about it for now.  I will be back to blogging about the doll in the next blog post.   Check back next Sunday afternoon.