Tuesday 10 January 2017

Day 10 - A desk of two halves.....

Day 10 of my 30 day blog challenge... so far so good. 

Today I've been in the workroom doing yet more casting, this time using white slip for a selection of different doll and toys.

Last week I mentioned transplanting heads onto different bodies and generally mixing and matching to create different styles, so here is a good example....


I have a mould for a vintage style china doll, with moulded hair.  The head is on a small shoulder plate and I mostly use it like this....


.... as a kit for use in my doll shop.  It's devilishly difficult to make up as a finished doll, so I hit on the idea of transplanting the head onto one of my toy doll bodies in order to make an all bisque doll with jointed limbs which would be easier to dress but still retain a china doll look.

This is what she looks like after her head transplant...


Today I've also cast some toy dolls in white, as well as French Bisque flesh colour.  When they have been strung it's possible to give them moulded hair using Fimo, which allows for a wide variety of different styles.

Here's one I made earlier....

Vintage style china doll

During lulls in the casting, I've been making more boxes to go in my doll shop.  It never ceases to amaze me just how many boxes I need to fill shelves and displays.  All of them are going to have things in them, from clothing to haberdashery, accessories to costume patterns  and so on.  So the opposite side of my desk to the casting area looks like this today.

Lots and lots of boxes, plus button cards
It's a good job it's a big desk, but this week you can hardly see any of its surface as there's just so much stuff on it.  When I've finished casting.... hopefully early next week, I shall blitz it to try to restore it to this.....


I have to keep this photo to remind me how it should look, at least once a month.  It's only ever in that pristine state for 10 minutes or so, till it starts filling up again.  When I'm down to no more than a few square inches of free space I know it's time to clear it off and start again.

Tomorrow, I'll give you a guided tour of my workspace 😊

6 comments:

NarinaNäpertää said...

I think the doll came out quite nice :) Sure would love to have one of my own, would be lovely to try if I could make many clothes for it (I suck with cloth making if I tell the truth, but I guess I just need more practice with it..)

Admire your works - I don't think I would ever have the nerves to make casting, I think I would go "all bananas" with it *grin*

I follow your blogging challenge with great interest (follow you by email too) and I can't wait to see how your dolls are going to look when they are done.
Surely I'm going to drool after many of them ;)

Keep up the good work.
I'll try to summon more courage to comment more often..
Hugs, Irina

Megan Schetsche said...

I'm enjoying your 30 days of blog posts very much Sandra. I hope that you will be inspired to keep posting regularly during the year.
As a new doll maker, in a country where there are not many doll makers and hardly any supplies to be found, I'm learning so much from your posts. Thank you! I've been told that it's sacrilege to mix and match doll parts from various moulds, and that one must under no circumstances add polymer clay to porcelain (I work a lot with polymer). I find your approach to the process very refresing and inspiring. Much closer to the kind of dolls that I would like to make.
You might enjoy reading this blog post:
http://bawdybisques.blogspot.co.za/p/the-curse-of-frankendoll.html

Helma said...

What a lovely China doll!

Helma

Contrastes-Rosa Mª said...

Precioso trabajo con las muñecas y su mesa de trabajo se ve muy acogedora , con mucha luz,me gusta.Feliz año nuevo:-)

Sandra Morris said...

¡Gracias! Feliz Año Nuevo para ti también :)

Sandra Morris said...

Megan.... Thank you so much for the Frankendolls link, it's given me some good ideas for new dolls!
I can see how purists would be horrified at mixing up genuine vintage doll parts, but since I'm making my own from scratch I don't have a problem with it. I'm going to do some Frankendolling myself tomorrow and Friday so I'll let you know the results! :)