Another Go

© Melissa Gaggiano

    I made another go at sculpting a doll head. Not perfect, but certainly a bit smoother than my previous attempt. I believe it is possible to make do with what one has on hand. But having the right tools can also make things so much easier. That said, I am having to 'make do'.
    By the way, this represents the last of my sculpey supply. So it'll be a while before I have anymore progress to share.

© Melissa Gaggiano

Hand Work

© Melissa Gaggiano

    Here's my first go at a sculpey hand. Not a bad first attempt. I would have liked having more tools for smoothing out the cracks. But I seemed to have mastered the general shape. It was important to me that I get the curve of the fingers. Have you ever noticed how your hand and fingers curl in a relaxed state?

© Melissa Gaggiano

Made For Walking

© Melissa Gaggiano

    Since finishing work on the Jean doll I have been practicing/playing with sculpey stuff. I came up with a leg and the base of a shoe. The shoe was moulded off the pictured foot.

    Useful mention: I think the baking process altered the shoe, making it an ever so slightly different shape to the foot.

© Melissa Gaggiano

    Of course this post has me thinking of this lil' song performed by Nancy Sinatra…

Hybrid

© Melissa Gaggiano

    When I woke up this morning I did not know I would spend my day doll making. I fully anticipated a day of writing. But after a round or two of Solitare I realised that wasn't going to happen. So I turned off the laptop, pulled out the Sculpey and set to work, practicing doll sculpting [for which I am a complete noob].

    After baking the doll head, for which I'm rather proud of in a very rough, round about way [Hey, It's progress! You should have seen my previous attempt]. I then decided to practice painting the face. And while I was at it, why not give the new girl a body.

    Before I knew it I was holding my first ever hybrid sculpted-cloth doll. Something I had been wanting to do for such a long time. She's far from perfect, and there are a lot of things I would do differently the next time round, but I love this little draft. So much so I'll make her  a fifties dress and give her a name. She deserves it I think.

© Melissa Gaggiano

    By the way… Is it just me, or do you think the doll looks a bit like this lass?

This is called progress

© Melissa Gaggiano
Progress

    Progress is something that is oh so often confused with failure. So many times in my life I have done this and I am sure there are many out there who experience this.

    You decide to try something new. You have all these amazing visuals in your head of how you want it to turn out, and then you do it. You take the plunge, and make that idea… tangible. And, it looks like crap. So you wail about, 'what was I thinking', 'that's it, the idea was crap, I was crap'. But guess what! That crap creation is meant to happen. It is all part of the process of progress [funny how similar those words are].

    I have been making cloth dolls for a number of years. Compared to my cloth doll design what I am producing now is pretty good. I had been admiring the work of modern porcelain doll artists, so I finally took the plunge into making my own sculpted dolls. How did I fare? My first sculpted doll was dreadful. My second was gawd awful. My third was… not perfection, but there was definite progress.

    So if your heart is into it, take the occasional break but don't give up. And what you think is failure, is actually a stepping stone to something better. It is progress.