2016 #5 Carmen {by Gabrielle Price}

 2016 Topic 5: Art Dolls

Hi everyone Gabrielle from Crafty Thoughts here.

Tonight I'd like to share with you this evening with a post about a clay art doll.

I have long admired some of the wonderful art dolls that are online (many of which have featured on this blog!) and was excited to be given the chance to make one. I have made a few but never out of clay and as this has been a bit of ambition this seemed like the perfect opportunity!  My thought was to create a doll that I could mount on the wall (so it would need a flat back) and, as it would be on the wall that I look at most in my Studio I wanted one that was happy! Please let me introduce you to Carmen.

I used air drying clay and fashioned a person – she looks like the inside of an American police murder victim outline, doesn’t she?! The beauty of air dry clay is that it is inexpensive, really easy to mould and you get pretty quick results! To smooth the shape I used a baby wipe, making sure that any joins were well connected as, when the clay dries, cracks can appear. I would suggest that you make your limbs a little chunkier than mine as, when dry, they are terribly fragile.

Then I painted the whole shape in Snowflake and Vintage Lace at the hands, feet and face. I added stripy blue sleeves and tights using Captain Peacock and, when dry, I outlined them using a black paint pen.

For the dress I wanted to make a patchwork frock and those who know me well know I have zero sewing abilities! Luckily Lynne Perrella came to my rescue with her fabulous background stamp LPC030! I stamped it on tissue paper and used the following Cherry Red, Banana, Captain Peacock, and Vintage Lace for the faces, to paint the reverse of the little pictures and then painted the whole piece with Snowflake to make the colours pop!

LPC30

This is what it looked like on the right side. I cut the image in half, turned the top edge of the bottom half over  and glued it over a piece of wire so I could gather it up and tie it round the waist. The top I adhered to the body – I didn’t worry about making it super smooth as it’s supposed to represent material.

The face was another Lynne Perrella stamp LPC003 that I stamped on tissue paper and painted the same way as the dress. I actually stamped it twice – painting one as the face and the second as the bow and the ‘hat’. I adhered the bow and face directly on to my figure but the hat I glued to a little white card and cut the out. I wanted the hat to stand proud – she was starting to remind me of Carmen Miranda - hence her name!

LPC003

I wanted to have her holding something so made her a little bunting. The clay is really good to stamp in – I made sure I spritzed the stamp well with water first, stamped and then cleaned the stamp. In the back of the tile I glued a hook. When it was dry I painted the heart in red and added Treasure Gold as highlights to pick up the details from the stamp – I loved this effect and just about stopped myself before I went too far!

I thought I might show you her in situ! I love Carmen and her mid air dance! Hope you like her too!

Thank you for sharing my journey into clay figures - I will definitely try more as it really was fun making Carmen and Lynne stamps suit these dolls perfectly! I will be ready for those fragile limbs though as they really are delicate! 

Gabrielle (Crafty Thoughts or @freyatom)

Gabrielle ... Thanks for kicking off our new theme with such a fabulously creative art doll. I adore her whimsical appearance and the use of the LP stamps is perfect. The whole composition is fun, colourful and her little bunting is equally adorable. Thanks you for sharing your step by step inspiration. ~Gillian

We would love to see how you interpret this Image Art Dolls  topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #5: Art Dolls, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas,  particularly if you were inspired directly by their post. 

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Art dolls link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, March 20th. The winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.