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.
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.
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.
It has been yet another week of making things and tiny, significant discoveries. Let me start by saying someone must have cast a Lost and Found spell, because on monday two things, which I had given up on ever finding, came back into my life. The cat had lost her collar months ago, which resulted in having to order a new tag and collar for that fluff ball. My eldest lost her jacket at school almost a year ago, and after daily checks in lost property it never appeared. I gave up on it by the time summer rolled around. Then this monday gone, my neighbour finds the cat collar in their garage, and one of my daughter's classmates tips me off about the jacket now being in the lost property cupboard. After those two discoveries I waited and wondered what else just might turn up. I receive rather frequent requests from my daughters to make stuff for them. Some days I can do it, other times I have to shake my head [I honestly don't think I have it in me to make a Stitch doll. Not even on a good day]. But this was a good week as I was able to fulfil my obligations as a creative parent. My eldest asked for a dream catcher. I made it using sculpey [to make the ring], yarn, feathers, a bit of glue and glitter, plus a little bottle [for catching bad spirits]. The next day my daughter said she didn't have any bad dreams because of the dream catcher. I am glad it gave her some comfort.
My other creation this week was a Batman/girl costume for my youngest. This was an economical construction. I picked up cheap black shorts and an oversized black shirt at Big W; Yellow and black fabric from a fabric shop. I created a template to make the yellow logo, and I sewed it to the front of the shirt and the back of the black fabric [which would become the cape]. A little cutting, shaping and sewing later, the cape was attached to the shirt and a yellow sash had been made. The sash made the long shirt look like a dress, which is just what my youngest wanted.
What will the girls have me doing next week, I wonder.
This week I have been quietly working away on a new range of sillies. I call them Silly Critters and they are possibly the quirkiest doll designs that I have come up with. Each critter is totally and utterly unique. My aim was that I not duplicate the facial expression of each little critter and that the symmetry of their faces be a little bit off. You wouldn't get that from a toy factory mass production.
New doll design & construction by Melissa Gaggiano
My youngest client put in a request for a blue sloth. So today I sit, think, draw and construct something entirely from scratch. Stay tuned for the finished sloth.
… and it it's not your socks sliding off into your shoes, then it's your undies losing elasticity and sliding off your bottom. Either way, it's time for new undergarments.
