2016 #5 Flower Troll {by Darcy Wilkinson}

2016 Topic 5: Art Dolls

Hi everyone, Darcy here to introduce my little troll buddy. I love Art Dolls and have always made them in some form or another. I think that goes hand in hand with my love of animated films. I was heavily influenced by the film Boxtrolls, if you haven't seen it then you must. They are cute trolls that live in boxes, and they take a name from whatever box they are in. 

So following that logic my troll should be called 'Seeds'

I began with an old box. I glued the lid shut and then used a craft knife to open the front side. I taped all the edges and painted the whole thing first with black and then with Toffee, Caramel and Haystack. 

Once painted I was able to stencil and stamp some old labels. I used words from EDY05, EDY07, EDY11, and ESN03

EDY05, 

Now for some legs. I glued cotton reels together and made some hands and feet from paper clay. These were all painted with Rose, China, London Night and Chalk. I also wrapped some self adhesive medical tape around the legs. 

I made both feet and hands double thickness for stability. Look at those toe nails lol

Next the eyes. I used the carboard inners from ribbon reels, covering them both inside and outside with previously made background papers. These form the goggles. The eyes are made with the poppy stamp from EDY19 onto text paper that was coloured with China. 

EDY19

Finishing touches to the eyes were liquid pearls. The paper eyes were strung into the goggles using clear nylon thread. 

I had a paper clay moustache just hanging around, as you do. so I popped that on too. He kinda looks like he's in disguise now with a fake 'tache . 

The front label required a bit of masking off.. I started with the haberdashery label from HP1211, I masked off the centre so that I just stamped the outer lines. Then I added the word SEEDS from ELB06, and POPPY from ELB23. Finally I stamped my poppy flower from EDY 19 and coloured this with Derwent Coloursoft pencils. Finishing again with liquid pearls. 

I used the wings from EDY17 and pressed them into paper clay, once dry these were painted with China, Rose and Chalk. I also painted some beads and wrapped those with more medical tape. 

 EDY17

The beads and paper clay hands were wired onto the sides of the box and the wings were glued behind. 

I gathered lots of old painted bits of paper and stamped the poppy lots of times. 

Cut out and layered up this stamp makes a really lovely flower , it works so well on so many different patterns and papers. I stamped the stem from the same plate and added these to wooden skewers. The pot is paper clay too, complete with cracks, this was painted simply with Brown Shed. 

A few final photos. 

I love how his packet of poppy seeds has grown and bloomed inside.. 

Monsieur Seeds, the secret poppy troll. 

I hope you like him, he was fun to make. You still have till tomorrow to link up your own art dolls. I look forward to seeing what you make. 

Darcy x

Blog: Art and Sole

Twitter: Darcy UK

Facebook: Darcy UK Eclectica³

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.