I just discovered another doll artist to showcase

This is a copy of part of a blog entry from Amarettogirl.  I just discovered her blog this morning and I am blown away.  Her header is fantastic, but this entry is really exceptional.  I have only posted a small part of the entry and you will have to go to her site and read the rest.  The finished doll is showcased there also, so if this is interesting to you, you will need to click over to see the results.  Believe me it is well worth the trouble of clicking.  I will be anxiously awaiting more entries in her blog and I believe you will also.
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This is just an excerpt from the blog:

My mind was set from the beginning that my doll would be a sad, sullen girl - this I knew.
So check out my early stages and as my students told me all along the way the images can be freaky...
Stage one photo and doll by m.diazStage two of my doll  
Stage three - Beginning the Painting photo and doll by M.Diaz  
So having made dolls before and truly enjoying the spirit of allowing a narrative to develop between me, the process and the matter (which in this case of art-making is the doll), I allowed much to be developed intuitively as I went. I also based much of my artistic design choices on where my heart was at that moment...[read more]

Watch Gritty Jane as she paints--amazing!

You can follow her on YouTube at GrittyArts; you can follow her blog at grittyjane.com ; you can join her on her Ning site Cloth and Clay Dolls where you can enroll in online classes.



She is one of my all time favorite artists and I hope you enjoy watching her, too.

Window Shopping Wednesday

This time I want to showcase a lovely lady who taught me to make the prayer dolls.  She is struggling with cancer and yet she continues to share her knowledge and to make her art dolls.  Please enjoy the pictures and then hop on over to her ning site and leave her a get well message.  Thanks.

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Tuesday Tutorial -- Dolls In Motion

I miss watching the Carol Duvall Show.  HGTV has even gotten rid of most of the archives from the show, so when I run across one, I like to keep it in my favorites.  This is only one of her segments on making art dolls.  She is the first person to show me what an art doll really is and I am indebted to her for it.  It's a shame that there are no really good crafting shows on anymore.  Carol Duvall certainly was a class act and obviously a hard act to follow.  We all miss her.


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Carol Duvall Show : Episode CDS-464 -- More Projects »

PDF Click the icon for figures 1 through 6.

Using a simple wire form and clippers, dollmaker Susanna Oroyan adds mobility to a doll by attaching moving parts. These kinds of doll forms bend easily and can be wrapped with any favorite fabric or ribbon. Oroyan's model may have a wooden head and a frozen smile, but she certainly looks and dresses smart enough to become a prized posession.

Materials:

20-gauge craft wire - for dolls under 12 inches
16 gauge wire (available in hardware stores) - for dolls over 12 inches
masking tape
wire-cutting pliers
batting
embroidery thread - nine skeins in desired colors
one-inch diameter wooden bead
silk ribbon 1/4 inch wide - 12 yards of flesh color, three yards for hair, six yards shoe color, assorted colors for clothing and trim beads, flowers, etc., for embellishments

Steps:

1. Make a "W" shape with the wire. The loop will support a head (figure 1).
2. Twist the ends of the wire together at the "neck" (figure 2).
3. Tape the torso below the neck and above the hip (figure 3).
4. Bend the wire to form the hips (figure 4).
5. Bend the wire to form arms and tape them at the shoulders (figure 5).
6. Wrap the armature with batting (figure 6).
7. Wrap the body with embroidery thread to build out and add dimension to the form.
8. Cover the wooden bead (which will become the head) by using a needle threaded with embroidery thread. Run the thread through center hole of the bead until three-fourths of the bead has been covered.
9. Create the eyes and mouth with flat stitches of embroidery thread.
10. Attach the head to the body by inserting wire into the bead hole at the neck.
11. Create a desired hairstyle from some curled silk ribbon.
12. Wrap ribbon around the doll to make the dress bodice.
13. For the skirt, gather the fabric and hand-stitch it to the doll's waist.
14. Embellish as desired.

Susanna's Tips:

• Figures can be built up more quickly by wrapping with two-ply baby yarn.
• Instead of using embroidery thread for the flesh, the figure may be finished with a layer of wrapped silk ribbon.
• Shoes may be created by wrapping the feet with an appropriate color of embroidery thread.
• Silk ribbons may be curled by pulling them over the scissors blade, just as you would create a gift package ribbon.
• Embroidery thread may be curled effectively by first dampening it with a 50 percent solution of craft glue and water, and then wrapping it over a metal knitting needle.

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Wordless Wednesday -- Gritty Jane

If you do any surfing for art dolls or any type of painting, you will no doubt come across Gritty Jane.  She has online doll making classes and is a very talented painter.  She has videos on YouTube where you get to watch her at work.  I love the texture and the subject matter in her painting, but I really love her art dolls.  I hope you do too.  Check out her site at grittyjane or at Gritty Jane. 

Here is just a peek at some of her work:

Window Shopping Wednesday -- Noodle and Lou Studio

Here is an artist that I have been following for quite a while.  She does fantastic mixed media paintings and she loves vintage things.  Her blog is full of pictures of all types of vintage things.  She also makes the cutest little houses, called Lullettes.  I think the houses are what first caught my attention.  Anyway, here are some pictures of her work.  I invite you to visit here blog and go to her Etsy store to see her work.  I love it.  Her work is fun and happy.  You will find her at noodle and lou studio.
Aren't these just the cutest?

 She also makes really cute dolls:

Please visit her and leave her a message if you love her work as much as I do.

My prayer dolls are leaving!

I just gave this one to my friend, Elizabeth.  She put it by her bed.  I am happy that she liked it.

I gave this one to my sister and she set it on her bookcase in her bedroom.  She likes hers, too.

On Sunday, I will be sending this one to another friend.  She is actually the reason I tried making these dolls.  She was in a crisis and I felt sending her a prayer doll might help.  Anyway, she will get hers Sunday.  I'll see if she likes it then.

Tuesday Tutorial -- Felt Dolls

Tuesdays' posting will be some type of craft tutorial that I find as I surf the net.  You'd be surprised at the number and the quality of the tutorials available for crafters on the internet.  As a newbie doll maker, I am always interested in new ways to make dolls, so for this posting we will learn how to make felt dolls.

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This is a posting from SnipSnapHappy.blogspot.com.  I hope you make several of these dolls.  I know I will be trying them out!

Matryoshka Doll Tutorial

After all the fun I had making my matryoshka style dolls a couple of weeks ago I thought it would be mean not to spread the fun a little. So I am going to do my first ever tutorial and try to share with you how to make one!

I have tried to be nice and clear, use lots of pictures and not to over-explain things (as I have a tendency to do) but do let me know if anything can be improved. When I was first starting out with mosaics and sewing and crochet I was desperate for free simple tutorials that made sense so constructive criticism will be most welcome and I promise not to sulk ;)

Right, lets get started…

Snipsnaphappy’s matryoshka doll tutorial

You will need:

• 1 A4 size (about 21x30cm) piece of felt in the colour of the main body of your doll
• 1 A4 size piece of felt in the colour of the hood of your doll
• Some small scrap bits of black or brown felt for the hair (or red, yellow, green or whatever colour you like!)
• Fabric for the face – I use a lovely light canvas hemp fabric (which I buy from Hemp Fabric UK) but some plain cream cotton or linen would do just as well
• Paint for the face (I use acrylic)
• Ribbons, trims, buttons and bits for decoration
• Stuffing (not the sage and onion kind)
• Embroidery threads for the visible hand-sewing
• Plain thread for hand or machine sewing your finished pieces together
• Scissors
• Fabric glue if you intend on gluing your embellishments.

First you need to cut all your pieces. I have done a PDF for you with the shapes you need.  As I can't work out for the life of me if it is possible to somehow upload this to Blogger I have popped it on Scribd.  Click here to go get it.  This pattern is hand-drawn and a little rough round the edges but it should help you get the job done :)  Do let me know if you have any problems retrieving this.

For the front hood, fold your felt in half then pin the pattern piece with the dotted line along the fold…[...]

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My Prayer Dolls are almost done

Here's the bunch so far, just a few things to do to complete them.

The one with the hat still needs the box part.  Her's shrunk when I baked it!

I cannot wait to give these away to my friends.  When I made each one, I concentrated on the attribute I wished to send to them.  Now all I have to do is add the word, so it will be doubly potent.

Window Shopping Wednesday

Another Wednesday.  Now to show you the work of another of my favorite artists here on the web.  I hope you are enjoying these trips to visit websites.  I hope you like these artists so much that you begin to follow their work as I do.  So, here we go....
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Christine Alvarado makes the most beautiful and delicate dolls I have ever seen.  She obviously loves what she does.  Her dolls are exquisite. To visit, just click on any of the images and you will be taken to her site.

Please visit her site and look at all the beauties she has made.  These are just a few.

More work on my faces

I worked a bit more on my faces and wanted to share the outcome.  I like that by posting pictures, I have a concrete way to see progress.  It is easy to forget what you did and when you did it, so this really helps me stay on top of my goals.  I am really liking this particular piece, even if it is just for practice.  I can see several places that need changes and  I still need to do the detail work on each face, but I am holding off until I get all 5 faces with the initial layers.  Once that is done, I plan to work on each face individually to add the finishing touches and then to work on the piece as a whole to unify it and make it all work together.

I am also still working on my dark-skinned face, but I am in the stage where I have to look at it for a while to decide what I do like and what still needs to be done.  I hate that I have to think so much when I paint, but that is how I am so I'll just go with it.

I am also in the mood to make more art dolls with paper clay now that I am taking the pottery class.  I really like the feel of making something with my hands--taking a lump and turning it into something else.

I am still working on the portrait of my dog, Satchmo, also.  I will show you my progress soon!

I found another wonderful artist I'd like to share with you

I was surfing the net, as is my custom, late last evening and I came across the most wonderful art dolls.  I am truly in love.  These little babies are so cute and full of innocence.  Just looking at them makes you smile.
This artist, Gina Gabriel, has a shop in Dublin, CA called Tangerine where she sells her beautiful wares as well as a collection of other artists beautiful things. 

I found her on a website called ElevenMorning, but then moved to her blogs and her Etsy site to see all the wonderous things there.  Here are just a few of the Art Dolls that you will see when you visit her site:

Aren't these just too cute and don't you just smile to yourself when you see them?  I hope you will visit her and let her know that I sent you, won't you?

Twisted Dolls - Creepy Little Sweeties (play at your own risk)

Here is a really great blog entry that describes why these types of art dolls are so popular.  We have always liked gross and scary--why else do scary movies make so much money? I found this post on the blog, HandMadeNews.  I enjoyed reading it and I hope you will, too.  The pictures are great and I even recognized the artists!  Be sure to check out the links to the various artists' sites for even more wonderful art dolls.

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March 22, 2010 | By

Twisted Dolls - Play at your
own RISK!

The trend of dolls made to
reflect their owner'sinner child
may not be a new one. Handmade
dollswith that idea in mind have
been seen on the marketfor some
time now. However, the people
makingand purchasing horror dolls have inner children
with teeth and that is a totally, different story.
These dolls are truly like no other. They are
influenced by horror movies, books, music,
twisted childhoods, imaginary friends bad dreams
and so forth. One of the originators of this trend could be
said to be,The Living Dead Dolls. They were originally
handmade in 1998 and are now produced and available in
mainstream venues. Some handmade horror dollmakers
distance themselves from these
origins through theoriginal concepts
surrounding their dolls, as well as,
the distinction of being, "art dolls". 
Art dolls are typically just as their
name implies pieces of art. They are
individual in concept, execution and
display. These dolls are not toys.
They are expressions of ideas and
imagerythat speaks to their creators
and to those that purchase them. There are other differences
between horror art dolls and other art dolls.  These dolls embody
such things as sideshow freaks, horror victims and monsters,
disfigured children and adults.  They are truly some of the terrors
of humanity.  So you ask, why would anyone want a doll the
likes of these?  The resurgence of Victorian styles is a huge
trend that crosses over into a million others. Including
this one.  The Victorians had a real need to see and collect
oddities. There is also the in growing interest in places such as the
Mutter Museum, which is full of medical examples of naturally
occurring strangeness.  Another area of growing interest is the
history of carnivals and freak shows.    Add all of these things together
and you have all the reason you need for horror art dolls to have all the
adoring fans they're makers can handle.

These dolls are made from everything
you can imagine! You do not
have to be a traditional doll maker to
enjoy this trend!

For example
Polymer Clay - missmillificent 
Recovered/Recycled Dolls -
Sweetbutnotsourscreations 
Assemblage Art - readbetweenlines
Resin - Creepydolls


For generations dolls and sweet little girls have been like peanut
butter and banana sandwiches and bacon. They just to go together.
Well, just like little girls, dolls have changed. They aren't cute and
sweet anymore. There are little girls with skull hair bows and
black nail polish and there are dollies with stitches in their faces
and mix matched eyeballs. They are both creepy and neither
would look out of place in a cemetery. That being said, I for one
am glad to see them! Of course, I'm not the only one. This trend
has dug in its claws and won't let go no matter how much we
scream! (Scream for more that is!)











IMAGES in order of appearance
Ghost Doll Porcelain Repaint Gothic Horror by kittykatsue
Warrior Gothic Dead OOAK Horror Prop Doll Dark Art by DLMarian
Unique OOAK Hand Stitched Rag Doll Original 
Creepy Gothic Folk Art By Jodi Cain/ TatteredRags
Octowoman by mealymonster

LINKS to the world of unique art dolls
Strangedolls.net
Gail Lackey
Strange Moonart 
Demon Kids
INFLUENCES for your consideration
Jon Beinart
Morbid Anatomy 
The Human Marvels
Underbunny flickr
The Quay Brothers
Natural History Museum

Xane Dravor Likes the darker side of crafting. If it is dark, full of teeth and covered in stuff best left to nightmares, she might have it on her shelf somewhere. Sculpture and paintings being her primary mediums. Come by and see what we mean at - House Morbid Ltd