2015 #7 Art Doll {by Trish Latimer}

2015 Theme 7: Niches

Hi everyone Trish Latimer here, joining you this evening with a post about niches! This is very much a 'create your own' niche project, not a ready made niche in sight! Art Dolls are my go to project if I have a total free rein on what I create, and when I saw Clare's fabulous face stamps I just knew where they would end up! This little lady is named after her stamp designer... may I introduce 'Happy Clare'....

 

Step One: Whenever I create an Art Doll, I always start off with a sketch so I know where I'm heading. In this case, I stamped the face (Eclectica Clare Lloyd 04), then sketched in the rest roughly.

ECL04

Step Two: As she is to be a free standing clay doll, I made an armature from wire. This does not need to be perfect, it's just a rough shape upon which the clay can be added.

Step Three: I've now added the clay to the shape. This may look like a heavy solid lump of clay but it's not! I used air dry Hearty clay, which is very light and has a spongy feel once dried out. As you might notice, I decided to chop off one of the wire legs from the armature, it was much easier to shape my dolls legs around one strand of wire!

Step Four: No, I haven't forgotten this project is all about niches! The niche in my Doll holds her sparkly heart, and to create it we need to 'cut out' the shape. I've used a cookie cutter for this, it works perfectly through the soft clay.

Step Five: As you can see, we are now left with a perfectly circular hole in the body of the doll. This hole will have a back added to it to form the niche, this is done simply by gluing a decorated piece of card across the back.

Step Six: Once the clay has fully dried out, it can be decorated! I painted the dress with Blue Oyster paint, then added stamped tissue over the top to give the dotty effect. The dots are from the Eclectica Ellen Vargo 06 plate. The glue used to attach the tissue gives the doll a nice glossy sheen, a look I followed through with the rest of the doll.

EEV06

'Happy Clare' was then finished off with bunting, before adding the stamped and coloured face. I emphasized the edge of the niche with doodled circles, before placing in her red sparkly heart!

I just love all of the faces Clare has created, and I'm in the middle of creating a doll for each of them. It's funny how the dolls seem to develop their own quirky personalities as you create them, you will never manage to create two the same! As you can see, adding a niche to this kind of project isn't difficult, and I think a niche just adds that extra detail that will make your art stand out. Why not have a go, I would love to see!
Thank you so much for having me, I've loved sharing 'Happy Clare' with you today!
Trish xx
My Blog  - Ink,Paint,Beads

Thanks Trish, we love your art doll,she is so sweet..with her pretty dress, sparkly heart and red shoes! You have skilfully taken a 2d image and created a 3d doll, fabulous. I hope you will share the rest of your dolls when they are done. ~Darcy

We would love you to join in with challenge #7: Niches If you are inspired by any of our guests who blog with us over the fortnight, then please join in and link up your creativity HERE. 

All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Niches link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, April 26th, winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.