The Journey of an Art Doll

I've been wanting to get back into my sculpting and perhaps create some art dolls. I love the whole idea of creating art dolls and the endless possibilities... especially with all of my antique haberdashery!

Originally I trained to be a porcelain dollmaker.... and for many years porcelain was my absolute obsession. I would dearly love to return to that, but a lot of work still to do to get my studio done in order to accommodate a kiln and all of the mold making and pouring of slips, cleaning of greenware etc. So in the meantime I have been playing with some paperclay, and while doing so I think I have found a whole new appreciation for the medium. By far my most favourite element to paperclay is its ability to be able to add new clay to an already dry piece... something you simply can't do with conventional pottery clay. Is there anything paperclay cannot make???

This piece was made from DAS paperclay, I dearly want to try Creative Paperclay and La Doll, but both are impossible to get in Australia. So looks like the postman will have to do some paperclay deliveries over the next few weeks.

 

I thought in future I might do a blog post on how to sculpt a face. I only thought of taking photos once I got to this stage... so perhaps in a later post I'll do a little tutorial on how to form up a face, and take lots of photos. This top photo though shows the first stage of just getting the features into place. |I love this stage because you can really begin to see what little personality is evolving.

 

Once the basics have been shaped you can start adding a little more detail and begin refining the head, adding nostrils and smoothing the clay. There is still more smoothing to do, but from this stage it will be by sanding the dried head. Then we can think about painting it.

 

 

Mel xx