Old Projects: Murray Doll 2004

Murray was made as a Christmas/Hanukkah gift for my friend & neighbor Tom (Lyn’s husband – see the stuff about Ida).

The champagne bottle is Sculpey – foil is a candy wrapper, & the labels were printed from real labels I found on the web & miniaturized.

To learn about the trial & tribulations of the champagne glasses, read Ida’s page

I probably lost my mind, but I lined Murray’s jacket

The best part about Murray is is bad toupee (fibers from a fake fur glued to a shaped piece of fabric)

The pocket watch is painted Sculpey.

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Old Projects: Thelma Doll Details 2004

Edna was made for my late godmother Elaine, who loved her garden.

 

The hat was made from a round piece of burlap, soaked in liquid starch & dried over a tinfoil form.

The little seed packet (that sits in Thelma’s breast pocket) is a photo of a real Aster packet, reduced & printed on an ink-jet printer, folder & glued like a real seed packet, & filled with pepper to look like seeds.

The little pot was filled with white craft glue & has ground coffee for ‘dirt’.

The belt buckle is a child’s barrette

The trowel has a Sculpey handle, with a piece of toothpick that has 2 pieces of foil covered plastic glued to either side of it.

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Old Projects: Ida Doll Details 2004

Ida was made for my friend and neighbor Lyn for Christmas. I finally came to the realization that sewing elastic into the waistbands of the slacks made no sense (since they would never be undressed), so Ida is the first doll to have a permanent waist band. Still taking the time to do things like lining her little fur stole though! I also discovered that hot-gluing the floral wire from the arms onto the body make the arms more stable.

I has a dickens of a time with the champagne glass for Ida (and her husband Murray). I bought some long bugle beads for the stem (which I of course assumed were plastic), went to cut them, and wouldn’t you know – they were made of glass. Needless to say, there were little glass shards all over the carpet & ultimately in my foot.

The compact is made from Sculpey, & the little hinge (doubt that I’ll ever try that again!) was out of wire. The powder is painted, and the mirror is aluminum foil.

Had to make 2 purses – the first was too small to hold Ida’s hanky and compact.

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Old Projects: Abner & Edna Doll Details 2003

Abner & Edna

Making glassware is a pain in the neck. The plastic gets messy looking once it’s glued with crazy glue. Still looking for a better way. The olives are Sculpey.

The flame on the lighter is a little piece of floral wire painted yellow.

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Old Projects: Intro to Sculpey Dolls

Abner & Edna

The head & body are one piece, with tinfoil in the center to even out the baking time. Holes are pierced in the earlobes of the lady dolls. There are 2 floral wire loops at the front-bottom of each body to attach the legs to, and floral wire loops at the shoulders to attach the arms to (loops are pushed in prior to baking).

The hands (with arms above the wrist) and feet (with legs above the ankle)) are Sculpey with floral wire loops pushed into the top of each before baking. Once baked, long pieces of floral wire are attached to the loops on the arms & legs, and run through a stitched fabric tube. The fabric tube is then fitted over the ends of the arms and legs and glued down. The tube is filled with sand (in the legs), and batting (in the arms). The ends are glued shut, the clay and fabric are painted a flesh tone, shoes/socks painted appropriately, and the ends of the wire are attached to the loops on the body.

Thelma

The ladies all have very saggy boobs, which are sand filled fabric glued to the body. The first pot bellies I did were round pieces of fabric glued to the body & filled with sand, but now I am filling them with batting. The arms were originally filled with sand as well, but it made them too heavy, so now there are batting filled also. The legs still have sand to give them the added weight.

Ida

Nails are made from tiny strips of plastic drinking cups, hair is from from very fluffy baby yarn.

Murray

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