New Art Dolls

'Portal maker' 8 inch doll from shapeshifter series coming soon!

Beautiful deer being is almost finished! A chamois skin will be added and clothing made.

'Domini' new 6 inch china painted porcelain art sculpture doll

 SCULPTURE DOLLS
A new adventure in the studio!  Recently I have become enamored with 'Art Dolls'. There are all kinds on the internet. BJD (ball jointed dolls), Plushies, handmade bears, poseable art dolls and more.

In the last 2 months I have begun to design my own version of an art doll. They are really more like a sculpture doll to me because of the labor involved and so much of it is ...sculpture.
Three Prototypes are almost done:
Domini from Forest allies series
Portal maker from Shapeshifter series
Avalon from Deer folk series

After drawing the new designs and watching many videos on how to create a doll, I began with making the heads and limbs in porcelain.  I fired the clay parts and while waiting for them to be completed, I began forming the armatures and buying supplies. I didn't quite know what kind of doll would be a favorite to make so I varied the five prototypes in body type, materials and size.

As you can see they are anamorphic, part animal and part human, a theme I am very much drawn to. Mythical in nature they are many animals put together and rarely represent just one. They are also meant to be androgenous, you can pick the gender yourself!

After the initial firings of the porcelain parts I began china painting the heads. I am new at china painting but excited to begin something new. After a year of classes I feel ready to add it to my studio tool list.  The heads were fired about 3 times for these tests and I was very pleased with the result.

Each step of this new venture has been very labor intensive. I have grown a deeper appreciation for the doll makers who are out there doing this every day. The russian doll makers must have worked for years to develop their amazing meticulous skills. Dorite Zaurite, and  Enchanted Dolls are just a few examples of very talented artists in this field.

After sculpting the parts, painting them, building the armatures, adding pure cotton batting, and sewing the real leather chamois bodies  I have finally made a few samples. See below the ones almost in their final stage. Designing and sewing  the clothes and adding final details are next  I plan to build elaborate cases for them and wooden boxes for shipping

These and more dolls should be ready for sale by June, but I cannot tell you exactly when. I plan to showcase the few I have finished at the Splash Gallery in the Olympia Artwalk, April 26th and 27th. You are welcome to use contact page to let me know of your interest and I will add you to the waiting list.