Large Doll - Part 4

The last two blog posts I had been blogging about a relatively short term project.  Now I am back to blogging about my long term project: a large, almost life size doll.  I guess this doll would be about the size of an eight year old child.  When I blogged about this last time, I had just completed casting the head in paper mache', removing the head from the foam head and removing the head from the mold.  I had also put the pieces of the molded paper mache' back together.  Since then I have worked a bit more on the project.  New readers can go to my blog,  folkartbycaroljones.blogspot.com, and scroll back a few posts to see the information on how the head was created from previous posts.

The paper mache' head had a slight bump that indicated where the nose was on the face, but other than that it was relatively featureless.  My next task was to create the features.  I used more paper mache' strips to build up the nose and mouth.  This was done in a series of layers and some balled up paper for the external nostril shapes.  The areas were built up until I felt that they were raised up enough for the features to be seen.  In the photos the built up strips are darker than the head because the flour paste and strips are still wet.

At this point the mouth looks a bit large.  It is important to remember that the muscles that surround the mouth are seen, but are not part of the red of the lips.  You have to add in some of that musculature in order to make the lips look right. 

The next step was to create the eyes.  That took a little bit of time to get right.  I had to have the eyes sized correctly in relation to the size of the head and also to the size of the mouth.  As a general rule of thumb, a face is five eyes wide.  I also had to figure the size of the iris of the eye.  A dime was too large to just trace around it.  I had to use a compass and make a small circle the that I could trace for the iris.

I also had to build up the upper and lower eye lids with paper mache'.  From previous dolls I have found that it just does not look quite right if I just paint on the eyes and the upper and lower lids.  (My painting skills are not all that advanced that I can make it look right with just paint.)  I added a couple of layers of paper mache' around the area of the eyes to build up the upper and lower lids.  That little bit of depth that was created makes the eyes look more realistic.

The eyes did cause one problem.  I sketched the shapes I needed and cut the pieces out of the newsprint scraps with scissors.  This was okay for the lid at the eye, but it created a hard edge at the outer areas of the lids.  I ended up sanding down the edge, but it still left a little bit of a line.  If I were to do this doll over again, I would tear the outer edges so that it would have a deckled edge that would blend in better with the face.  Oh well, live and learn.

This doll head has a slight tilt to it, as if the doll were looking slightly to the left and downward.  I like this because it imparts the idea of motion; as if something has caught the dolls attention.  Many dolls are made so that they stare straight ahead.  That make the doll look to still and artificial rather than lifelike.  The tilt created a challenge in that the doll's eyes are on a slight tilt rather than being able to draw them in on a straight line.  I hope that they will look natural rather than cock eyed. 

After all the features were completed, I took advantage of a warm day to go outside and sand the doll head.  I hand sanded it with 220 grit and 400 grit.  I was concerned that if I had used a palm sander that it might cause too much vibration and tear the head apart.  There were some areas that I wish had been sanded better.  Maybe I will try the palm sander on a future project.  However, this is a handmade doll, and I am willing for it to show some flaws rather than trying to be too perfect.  (Not that I have to worry about this coming anywhere near perfection.)

The rest of the time I had for crafting was spent on musing and researching.  The head is moving towards completion and it is time to start thinking about the armature that will support the body.  As you might guess, the armature will be made from PVC pipe.  The questions that I had were how to make the armature to hold the pose I wanted and how did I plan to anchor the doll so that it could stand up.  There was much to learn.  I looked at everything from simple 90 degree pipe joints to building fully articulated manikins.  There are many ways to accomplish the objective.  Then it becomes a question of how much work I want to put into it and how much expense do I want to incur in the creation of the armature.

The musings covered everything from how to pose the doll to how much muscle definition I wanted to create in the doll.  My original idea was that this doll would be a dancer.  To make that come out anywhere near right, it is going to take a lot of work.  Dancers tend to wear outfits that  reveal stature and muscles. What type of costume for the doll? 

I also considered things such as what materials will I use to form the body and hair?  How much is this thing going to weigh?  Is this project biting off more than I could chew?  Will I be able to pull it off?  Should I give up and just work on making a witch for Halloween?  What am I going to do with this piece after it is finished?  All this and more has been passing through my brain for some time.  I will be blogging more about the choices I have made as the project moves along.  As choices are made, some doors open and other doors close.  Each choice narrows down how the doll will look. 

I will be blogging more on this project in the next blog post as well as the progress on the doll.  Check back on Sunday afternoon for the latest updates on the doll.
  

A Cute Autumn Centerpiece - Part 2

In last weeks blog post I blogged about wanting to cut expenses on a project and how I made the base for the project.  To recap for new readers, I made a ball from foil and papier mache' for the head.  The base was Styrofoam packing material glued into a 4 inch clay flower pot.  A dowel connected the two pieces.  Raffia covers the entire project with more raffia added for hair.  That was the gist of the post anyway.  You can check last Sunday's blog post (2/04/18)  If you want to see step by step photos.

Today I wanted to blog about making the features and the bonnet.  The inspiration project for this had one way of doing things, but I came up with alternate means of making the objects.  I was trying to use up odds and ends that I have around the studio rather than purchasing new materials for the project.  After all, if you have something you can make do with, why spend more money?

My solution to making the eyes and mouth were to use scraps of fabric left over from other projects.  However, fabric alone was not firm enough to hold its shape well.  I solved this project by using some Stitch Witch fusible to fuse two pieces of fabric together.  I placed a piece of the Stitch Witch between the wrong sides of two pieces of fabric and fused according to the manufacturers directions.  Once the fabric had cooled, I traced the shapes onto the fabric and cut them out.  The fused fabric was stiff enough to hold its shape.

I cut out the eyes from a scrap of brown fabric and the mouth from red fabric.  It wasn't until I started making the nose that I ran into a situation.  The shape did not seem to work well for the nose.  I did not want to introduce another shape or color to the face.  I was stymied for a few minutes, and started playing around with a piece of raffia. 

Playing with the raffia led me into making the nose from raffia.  I started by tying a regular knot in the center of the piece of raffia.  After that, I tied a series of what I believe are called surgical knots.  You begin it by looping your fabric and wrapping the material as you would for a regular knot.  Then you wrap the other end of the material around as well.  When you pull on the ends, the knot tightens into a flat knot.  I kept tying these knots until I had a series of knot long enough to make a nose.  When the desired length was reached , I pulled the remaining raffia to the back and hot glued it down. Then I trimmed off any unused raffia.

Once I had the features made, it was time to hot glue them to the scarecrow head.  Before I did that though, I gave the face a good trimming.  Raffia has little pieces and shreds hanging off each piece.  The face area was very rough looking.  A little judicious trimming helped give the face a smoother appearance.  Once I had experimented with the features until I was happy with the placement, I glued them down with hot glue.

The final bonnet attempt.

Last week I had blogged about making the hair into pig tales.  That pulled all the hair forward.  When the bonnet was glued in place, it made it appear as though the scarecrow had a thick head of hair.  The raffia is a bit wispy, and when the hair was left straight it looked a little straggly.  I folded small bunches of raffia in half, tied them with a single piece of raffia and hot glued the bunches around the head.  Once the hair was put into pig tails, I gave it a trim to even it up a bit.

A working hat would have a wider brim.

Then, it was down to making the head piece.  The inspiration project used a piece of black burlap cut into a circle and glued to the head.  I had some very nice brown burlap, but there was no color contrast, and besides, it is in my project cue and I did not want to be cutting it up for this project.  I tried cutting a piece of black fabric into a circle and gluing it to the head.  It was limp, and looked like someone had just stuck a piece of rag on the head.  I tried folding it and stuffing it with some of the raffia I had cut off when trimming the head.  It really did not look very appealing.  I tried turning the circle into a beret and stuffing it to make it look as if it were made from a heavier material.  That was another non-starter.  I had to take a break for a bit and think about it.

Sometimes, if you take a break and just give yourself a little breathing room, the answer you seek will find a way into your mind.  That is what happened in this case.  I was at a quilting sit-and-sew and a lady showed me some blocks she had made of a 1930s quilt pattern called Sun Bonnet Sue.  When I came home I was flipping through and old quilting magazine and it had an article on the Sun Bonnet Sue quilt.  Another magazine had some red work done with Sun Bonnet Sue designs.  It finally filtered through to me, make a bonnet.

My first bonnet was not successful.

With an idea in mind, I started searching online for bonnet patterns and checking through my fabric stash for colors that would contrast or coordinate with my autumn palette.  I found a free pattern, but it came with absolutely no explanation on the scale of the pattern or how to fit the bonnet.  If you want to look for this type of pattern, use the search words pattern for pioneer bonnet or prairie bonnet.  After searching around on the internet, I did find some instructions with pictures for making variations on a bonnet that was somewhat similar to the pattern.  It was helpful enough that I was able to start figuring things out for the pattern I found.

I had to do a little trial and error to get the pattern the right size for the head.    The pattern looks huge and looked like it would be too large for the head.  I took a few measurements of the head and adjusted the pattern to what I thought would fit.  You have to do a lot of gathering on this type of bonnet.  By the time everything was gathered and matched up, the hat was too small for my scarecrow's head.  I made another one, but this one was too large.  In fact it fits me.  All I have to do was add the ties, and I will have my own hat.  The third one fit just right, or at least right enough.

Sometimes when I work on a project, it will trigger some old memory, buried so deeply that I am not even aware of it.  I remembered I had actually seen my grandmother make herself a hat similar to this one to wear while gardening.  I remember showing me that she used an extra piece of cloth as interfacing and told me that she sewed extra line across the brim of the hat because that helped stiffen the brim.    The brim of her hat was wider than the brim on my hat.  Her hat was an actual working hat where she wanted to keep the sun off her face.  For my scarecrow's bonnet, I wanted the bonnet to frame the face, but not hide the face so the brim is a bit narrower.  I also used some light to medium weight interfacing on the hat brim because I had some scraps of that product.  If  I were to make another hat for myself, I would probably use a heavier fusible interfacing.  I did make the extra stitch lines across the brim, and it did make it stiffer.

At the moment, my fabric stash was a little spare of fabrics in autumn colors.  Being that it was the end of January, autumn fabrics were not in stores either.  I ended up choosing the bright red left over from making my Leaf and Star quilt.  It came down to choosing between the red and a dark brown.  I think the red was definitely the better choice.  It really brightened up the piece.

Anyway, I made the bonnet, but did not make the ties.  I could have sewn on ties, and used that as a ribbon under the chin.  However, I chose to use some silk leaves (left over from another project) to make a collar, and some of the purchased flower heads as a necklace instead.  It added more color and interest to the project.

By making parts of the project myself, I was able to cut between $24.00 and $34.00 dollars out of the cost of the project.  It is really worthwhile to see if you can find a way to shave off a few dollars here and there.  I don't think that the project suffered from the changes I made.  If I try another project of this nature, I might even try to make some of my own flowers.  They won't look as authentic as the silk flowers at the craft store, but they may add some folk art charm to the project.

So that is the end of this project.  Next Sunday I will be blogging more about the long-term doll project I started in January.  Check back on Sunday afternoon for that update.

A Cute Autumn Scarecrow Centerpiece

Finished centerpiece.

New readers may wonder why I am making an autumn centerpiece in January, but long time readers may remember that one of my goals for the year was to make a Halloween themed item each month.  Perhaps scarecrows are only marginally associated with Halloween, but at least it is in the season of late summer to autumn.  I started this piece in January, although I did not finish it until yesterday.  I was working on it during the time I was making the large head for my doll project.  I thought you might be interested in just how this project came about.  The instructions for making this project are fairly detailed, so it will take this blog post and the next one to explain how I made this project.   Once you see how the base is made, most crafters will be able to figure out how to finish the object on their own.

In 1994 I saw a similar centerpiece in a Crafts and Things magazine.  I kept the article because I thought that one day I might make this, and now 24 years later, I finally made something similar to it.  The centerpiece was really cute, but it was also really expensive to make it. Just to give you an idea of how much the original centerpiece would have cost, I went online to a national craft chain's website and priced out each piece.  It would have cost between $32.00 and $42.00 depending on whether or not you could find a 12 inch square (30.48 cm square) piece of burlap or whether you had to buy a whole yard of burlap.  (Many times online companies only sell fabrics by the yard.)  The cost is pretty expensive for a craft item that you may only use for one season.  It might last another year, but raffia tends to turn brown over time and become brittle.  This is not an heirloom craft, just something fun for the season.  I wanted to make something like it, but not something that was exactly like it.  I only really enjoy making things that I can make my own. 

Manufactured lid helped keep in bits of foam.

The cost of the centerpiece is not really out of line with what you might spend if you were to purchase a pre-made centerpiece.  However, when you think about it, if you were to purchase a seasonal arrangement four times a year you might be spending $120.00 dollars during the course of the year.  Over say ten years, that is about $1,200.00 dollars.  At my spending level, that would be the equivalent of a mortgage payment and a winter electricity bill.   That is a lot of money for something that is going to be thrown into the trash, or at best donated to a thrift store.   I try to find ways to keep expenses down by making things from recycled materials and found objects.

I kept the Crafts and Things article because "one of these days I'm going to make this."  It turns out that 2018 was to be the year for it.  It started because I am at the point of having to do a purge of all the odds and ends that have built up over time.  When I make a project, I frequently have little bits of this and that left over, because you can rarely buy an item in the exact quantity you want.  I hate to throw out the leftover pieces because sooner or later I am going to need another little bit of something for another project.  However, over time, those leftovers build up and my studio gets overcrowded and uncomfortable and some of this stuff has to go.  I decided that before I cleaned out the room that I would see just how much of the accumulated debris I could put to good use.

I wanted to try to make the centerpiece in a way that kept costs to a minimum.  My challenge to myself was to make this craft item using leftovers from other projects and to find ways to make or substitute items so that I would not as have many out of pocket expenses for the project.  I managed to cut the costs in a number of areas.  Yes, I still had to pay for the craft products used, but many of those costs had been absorbed in making other projects.  The only real out of pocket expense for this project was the $8.49 cents I spent on the artificial flowers that decorated the hat.  I probably could have made my own flowers from leftover materials, but it seemed like more effort than it was worth.

To start the project I needed a foam ball and block.  The original directions called for a five and a half inch (13.97 cm) diameter ball made out of floral foam and a four inch wide (10.16 cm)  block.  The floral foam is less expensive than Styrofoam,  but that was still a major expense for the project.  Other than the flowers, it was the most expensive part of the project. 

I sidestepped the foam ball by making a  ball out of re-purposed aluminum foil and covered it in paper mache'.  (Note: make sure your foil is not food contaminated.  I place my baked goods in plastic bags, then wrap them in foil before freezing.  The foil never comes in direct contact with food.  After the baked goods are used, there is plenty of clean foil for projects.). On this project, I learned that I don't need to crush the foil so tightly when making the ball.  It was so solid that I had to put some effort into pushing the dowel into the foil.  Once the paper mache' was dry I painted the ball with a coat of Gesso and some leftover straw colored paint.  The gesso was to cover the newsprint, and the color that matched the raffia helped to disguise any areas that might not be well covered by raffia.

The base for the piece is a four inch diameter (10.16 cm) clay flower pot.  The floral foam brick is glued into the pot using got glue and trimmed flush with the base.  I side stepped the floral foam brick by using some Styrofoam packing material that came in some package.  I will say that the Styrofoam was very messy to trim to size and there were little bits of the foam everywhere.  It was a mess to clean up.  At least I had the consolation of knowing that I was re-purposing a material that otherwise would have gone into the trash.  To keep further messy bits from escaping from the pot, I cut a circle with tabs from a recycled file folder.   (Trace around the pot and draw on your tabs then cut it out.)  Glue the re-purposed file folder to the bottom of the pot. I had some terra cotta colored paint from a previous project.  I gave the area two coats of paint.

Next came putting the pieces together.  I inserted one end of the dowel (leftover from another project) into the ball I had made from foil and paper mache', removed the dowel, added hot glue and re-inserted the dowel.   (I think the dowel was about eight inches long.) I flipped the pot upside down and inserted a dowel through the hole in the bottom of the pot, pushing it deep into the foam.  I withdrew the dowel, added hot glue, then replaced the dowel.  This created the base for the project.  The pot needs to be a clay pot because it needs the weight.  This pot was one I had hanging around for so long I cannot remember why I had it in the first place.  It had been sitting on my crafting table holding a bunch of gel pins. 

After that, it was a matter of hot gluing on some raffia.  Basically, I gathered up a bunch of raffia and tied it in half.  Then I glued it to the head.  I did three sections in this manner to have enough raffia to cover the head well.  Then I used a piece of raffia to tie the hair between the ball and the pot.  The raffia was really long, and once the entire ball had been covered, I trimmed the raffia so that it was even with the bottom of the base.  The raffia was a little stretchy, so while trimming I had to remember to give it just a little bit longer length than it actually looked like it should be.

I wanted my scarecrow to have some hair and be feminine.  I glued more bunches of tied raffia together to cover the head with hair.  Left straight, the raffia hair looked too shaggy.  At first I tried making it into braids, but one braid looked much thicker than the other, so I decided that pig tails were in order.  In the next blog post, you will see learn more about why this strategy worked well.

I added eyes and a mouth made from fabric I made a nose by tying bits of raffia.   . I will blog more about making the features in the next blog post.

Anyway, this is a good stopping point.  Many crafters can figure out where things go from here and go off in their own direction.  However, I do have some insights on the rest of the centerpiece that might be worth reading.  I digressed from the original directions by making a bonnet.  Making the hat was not easy.  I hope you will check back next Sunday afternoon for that blog post.


 

Large Doll - Part 3

Last blog post I showed where I had covered a Styrofoam head with strip paper mache' and removed the head from the mold.  It took cutting the papier mache' head into three pieces in order to remove it from the foam head.  The first cut was along each side of the neck and over the top of the head.  The second cut was along the jaw line.  Perhaps I should have cut the head along the center line of the back of the head and the face.  I might have been able to pull it apart in two pieces that way.  However, I chose the other way because the seams on the Styrofoam head ran side to side.  Also, when you cut paper mache' and put it back together, generally a little ridge is formed.  That could have been dealt with.  However, I did what I did because it seemed to be the thing to do at the time.  Perhaps in a future project I will try slicing the head in the other direction.

Today I will be blogging about getting the head back together.  It was not as easy as one would think.  It took a lot of patience.  It also too a few tries to get things to come together properly. 

I began by taping the jaw back to the upper portion of the head.  The most important part of getting the head back together were the registration marks I made on the head before I cut it apart.  By aligning the marks it was easy to see how things joined up.  Rejoining the pieces was not simple.  When you cut strip paper mache' the edges will fan out slightly along both sides of the cut line.  This creates a little bit of a ridge.  Things do not want to go back together in a straight line.

Trying to get masking tape to adhere to paper mache' is not easy.  Masking tape does not easily stick to the dried flour paste.  The edges of the tape want to curl up.  It would have been a great time to use some of the cyanoacrylate glue that bonds in 15 second.  However, I did not have any and was not inclined to go out in frigid weather to purchase some.  I tried using some multipurpose glue, but it was moist enough that it was making the mask pieces mushy on the edges.  I toiled on with the masking tape.  Eventually, I prevailed and the top and bottom pieces of the face were back together.  After that, the area was covered with a layer of paper mache' to add some strength.

Even with four layers of strip paper mache' the doll head was not exactly rigid.  Some areas bowed inward slightly and some outward.  It was not just a matter of placing the two pieces next to each other and moving on.  I started by taping a few inches at the bottom of the neck on both sides; making sure that those registration marks lined up. 

Next I taped the top center marks of the head.  This was the hard part.  One section of the head bowed down.  Trying to hold the head together, force the bowed piece up, and tape it all at once was a real challenge.  Fortunately, the doll head is large enough that I was able to get my hand inside and push up and add tape to the inside of the doll as well. 

The masking tape was still giving me trouble sticking to the project.   I finally found a way of setting the tape that worked.  As I had written in an earlier blog post, I used a foam brush to smooth down the paper strip with the flour paste.  This essentially gave the flour paste a grain line.  By adding a layer of tape running on each side of the cut, in the direction of the grain, the tape stuck better.  Then, when I put the pieces of the head back together, the piece of tape that was going across the cut was stuck to the tape on either side.  I guess the best way to explain it is that it looked like a railroad line.  You have the two rails and all the cross pieces that hold the rails.  Anyway, the tape holding the pieces of the head together stuck much better to the masking tape than to the dried flour paste.  With a considerable amount of pushing and pulling, the head was finally taped back together.

Once the pieces of the head were taped back together, I gave the entire head two layers of paper mache' to the outside of the head and one layer to the inside of the head, making sure that all of the tape was covered. First, I put on one layer outside and inside.  Then I put the head down in front of a fan and let the fan blow air into the head for a couple of hours.  I wanted to make sure that the inside dried quickly to make sure that it did not mold.  Then I allowed the head to dry overnight.  The next day I added a second layer to the outside. 

This is the last layer for the full head.  I will be adding layers build up certain areas and smooth out the areas where there might be a ridge.  I am almost finished with the first stage of making the doll's head.  There will be more on this in a future blog post.

Before I get into the features of the doll head, I will be blogging on a second project.  I am mindful that I had blogged at the beginning of January that I was trying to create a Halloween themed project of some kind each month.  January is almost over, but I have almost completed a (relatively) quick  project.  I will be blogging about that in the next blog post.  Check back next Sunday for that post. 

Large Doll - Part 2

Paper mache' over foam head.

This has been a very successful crafting week.  It was aided by a winter storm.  It was snowing and cold and everyone was staying inside.  I actually got a fair amount of work done despite having a bad cold.

My new project is going to be a large doll.  It will be close to four feet tall.  This is my first attempt at making a doll in this size, so the whole project is one big experiment.  As with any experiment, you have a working hypothesis of what you think is going to happen.  Then you perform the experiment to see if what you expect is actually going to happen or if you end up with something else.  I am hoping that my doll making skills from working with smaller size dolls are going to translate well for this project.

In my last blog post I had just started the project.  I had put a layer of paper mache' over a Styrofoam doll head.  I was using a basic method of paper strips slathered with a paste made of all-purpose flour and water.   This post I would like to elaborate more on my method of working with paper mache'.  Many of my new readers have not seen the older projects and may not be familiar with my methods.  Long term readers may want to skip over the next three paragraphs and move on to the rest of the article.

Rubber  band used to mark center line.

There are many ways to work with paper mache'.  I use this method because it makes less of a mess during production.  I mix flour paste and water and stir until the mixture is really smooth and there are no lumps.  Newspaper is torn into strips appropriately sized for the project.  A large smooth area can use larger strips, but a curved surface will need smaller pieces to prevent the paper from forming folds and creases that will show on the surface of the project.   If you have folds and creases in the paper, it will require more sanding to achieve a smooth surface in your final stages.

I use a foam brush to smooth an even layer of paste on each side of the paper strip.  Then I use the foam brush to smooth the paper onto the surface I plan to cover.  If a piece of paper will not lay flat on the surface, I use scissors and cut the piece so that one side of the cut will overlap the other.  The foam brush helps smooth out air bubbles.  If you leave air bubbles under the paper, you may have a soft spot in the paper mache' after it dries.  The foam brush helps keep a smooth even layer of paper mache' on the suface.  The smoother the surface, the less sanding is needed.  Depending on the project you may or may not need to sand, but on a doll's face I would like for it to be as smooth as possible.

Horizontal registration marks added.

There is another method of working with strip paper mache' that is somewhat quicker, but as I said, it makes a mess.  Dip you strip of paper in a trough of the flour paste.  Use your finger and the side of the trough to remove excess flour paste from the strip.  It does work but... a good bit of the time the strip broke in half leaving me to fish a soggy mass of newsprint out of the paste.  It also sent drips of flour paste everywhere.  If you have a work area where how much mess you leave doesn't matter maybe this is okay.  But I found that flour paste was everywhere and once hardened it was difficult to clean up the work surface, floor and even at times on the wall.  Enough said.

Now, back to this project.  I put four layers of paper mache' on the foam head.  My plan is to remove the paper mache' from the Styrofoam mold.  Looking at the foam head I could see that the head was cast as a two part mold.  I was hoping I would be able to take the mask off as two pieces, but I suspected that it might have to come off in three pieces.  Four layers of paper mache is still fairly flexible, but I did not know if it would flex enough to be able to pull away from the overhang of the chin.  Again, this is an experimental doll.  I have to figure out how to make things work.

I placed a large rubber band on the head at roughly the center line.  I traced alongside the rubber band with a black marker to give myself a cutting line for removing the head.  Then I removed the rubber band.  If I had just used the rubber band, it might have rolled off as the head was moved.  It could come off and give me a sharp snap.  How do I know this?  Experience.   

After removing the rubber band, I added some horizontal registration lines so that I would be able to re-align the piece evenly.  In a previous project I had forgotten to add them and it was really difficult to make the piece line up.  Paper mache' is more flexible than you think and tends to curve inwards or outwards once it is cut.  It is not just a matter of taping the two halves back together.

I used a scalpel blade to cut along the marked line.  A scalpel blade is curved and does  not cut as deeply as a craft knife.  It is also very sharp.  I wanted to retain the foam head in as pristine a shape as possible.  I have plans for it in a future project.

Well, one can hope for a specific outcome, but you don't always get it.  As it turned out, it took cutting the mask into three pieces to get it off the face.  The overhang of the chin was too sharp to allow the chin to pull free.  I am guessing that the foam head was cast in a silicone mold that allowed the mold to peel back.  At any rate, it was not going to work with this mask.  It just means that there is a bit more work involved in putting it back together.

The second cut was marked just under the jaw line and the base of the chin.  If there were any ridges visible one the mask was put back together I wanted to be below the curve of the face.  The ridges can be sanded down, but still the less visible the better.

I won't keep you in suspense, the doll mask is off the doll and put back together.  This post is already getting long, so I will be blogging on how I put the mask back together in next Sunday's blog post.  It was not quite as simple as one would suspect.

Large Doll - Part 1

There is an old saying that well begun is half done.  I can't yet say that I am well begun, but at least I have my project started.  I decided to make a large doll.  The size of the doll is based on the size of the head.  In this case I will be using a Styrofoam head from the craft store as a mold for the doll's head.  The head is roughly seven inches (17.74 cm) long by 6 inches (15.25 cm) wide.  I had originally guessed that the doll would be 36 inches  (0.91 meter) now that I have actually started working on the head, it looks like the doll will be closer to 48 inches (1.22 meters).  Until now, most of my work has been in the 12 to 24 inch (30.48 to 60.96 cm).

My plan for creating the head is to cover the head in paper mache'.  After the head has a couple more layers of paper mache' it will be sturdy enough to withstand being taken apart.  Once the head has enough layers on it I will cup open the mask and remove the Styrofoam head. 

From a practical point, it would be less time consuming to leave the underlying Styrofoam in place.  From an artistic perspective it is important to remove the mold.  That way, I am making a head from a mold rather that using someone else's head for the doll.  At this point the head will be just a basic head shape and I will build up the features of the doll on my own. 

Currently, there are two layers of paper mache' on the doll.  I would like to get on  two more layers before taking it apart.  In order to make sure I could remove the Styrofoam head I wrapped the head in plastic wrap.  The first layer of paper strips was just brushed with water to make it adhere to the plastic wrap.  Then a layer of paper strips coated with flour paste was placed over the wet layer.  This should allow the plastic and the head to come loose from the mask easily. 

Once the head is removed I anticipate that the head may not go back together easily.  In an earlier experience with making a mold of a ball, the ball wanted to collapse inward once it was cut in half.  I expect I will have to do some internal bracing.  My first thought on the subject is to tape the head back together and stuff the head with polyester fiber fill.  It may also need a few wooden pieces of bracing to hold it rigid enough to stay together well.  A second thought is that I tape the head back together and fill it with expandable foam.  At any rate, once the head is back together enough for the two pieces of the mold to stay in place it will receive a couple more layers of paper mache'   Then I can start shaping the cheeks, nose and mouth.  Then I will work on the eyes.  I guess I had better get to work.  That alone is a lot of work.

Check back next week for an update on the progress of this doll.

Jupiter Sphere and Plans for 2018

I finished painting the Jupiter sphere with air dry enamel paints.  The paints will be completely cured and ready for the ball to go outside by the end of January.  I would have taken the ball out just to take a photo of it outside but we are in a real deep freeze.  We had a snow storm last week and had really cold temperatures since then.  The weather forecast for this morning was -2 degrees Fahrenheit (-18.89 C).   We have not had a day above freezing for about a week.  The snow has not melted.  I just have not felt like taking the ball outside to snap a picture.  So all I have to show at the moment was an inside photo.  I guess I will take an outdoor picture once the snow melts.

A few days before the snowstorm it was unusually warm.  A lot of humid air was coming up from the south.  We had a very foggy morning.  The moisture in the air mixing with the storm coming up the coast set us up for a big snow storm.  I snapped a few photos of the sun streaming through the fog.

At the craft store I visited, I did not have a good selection of paint colors in air day paints.   Overall, the sphere is a little darker than I would have wanted.  However, it may turn out better looking when I have it out in full sunshine. 

I guess blogging about the Jupiter sphere is a good sign in a way.  At least I have bestirred myself enough to complete a project.  Ironically, the first time I wrote about creating a sphere painted to look like Jupiter it was also completed at the beginning of the next year.  That was not planned.  I was trying to finish up the project in time to say I had completed one of my goals for the year.

Speaking of goals, it is time to think about what I want to do this year.  I guess the first thing on my list is to complete the Star and Leaf quilt I have been hand quilting for some time.  I also want to get back to making the doll that I planned to make last year; a Flamenco dancer.  I would like to try to enter it into the state fair.  Getting that started is going to be my first crafting priority.  The state fair rules say that the project you enter must be made in the same year as it is entered into the fair. The doll will be about thirty-six inches (91.44 cm) tall.  At the moment, that is an estimated figure, I will be making the head first.  The height of the doll will depend on the finished size of the head.  At any rate, I will be beginning on the head tomorrow.

I would like to make another wood burned and painted walking stick, but that may or may not come about.  It depends on how long the doll takes.  Of course, I want to do some Halloween projects.  In fact, I may try to make one side project each month of some type of Halloween figure.  We will see how long that resolution lasts.  Other than that, I am keeping the agenda open.  I generally find some project that captures my imagination and I end up working on that instead of what I thought I would be working on.  It seems that my plans get bigger and my crafting time is shrinking, so I decided to keep things light this year.  Last year I ended up feeling a little stressed over taking on too much.