Saturday, April 5, 2014

Heads to finish.

In her wonderful book Designing the Doll, Susanna Oroyan shares this photo of one of her pieces:

Heads to Finish by Susanna Oroyan



































The book is one of the very best resources for doll making, filled with techniques and ideas, and also wonderful inspiring photos of every sort of "doll". But this piece has always been one of my favorites in the book! I can so relate to it! This is because not only do I always have ideas floating around in my head, but I have quite a collection of heads lying about my studio. Some are in boxes never to be finished as I have lost interest, but some ever-hopeful pieces wait patiently at my sculpting station, for me to carve out a bit of time to work on them.

















The head to the far left of this photo is going to be finished like the sketch to the far right. I began to sculpt the head last year and I did the drawing in 2010! The cone bodied girl is going to be an angel for my Christmas tree. I started her in November of last year, but she has been in my head for at least five years! Between the bears and the dolls I want to make, the paintings I want to do, the book I plan to write (and on and on) I will surely run out of time on this planet before I run out of ideas! I have never been bored when my time is my own.

I carved out bit of time yesterday to refine this Paperclay head. This little face makes me so happy, and I know I will finish her someday as a one of a kind ball jointed doll. I love her mouth and nose. I am working on sculpting eyes rounder and ears less flat. I actually carved off her ears (I love Paperclay) and started again with them. I think they are much improved, and I am liking her eyes a lot better too. She won't be finished in time for the Philly show in May, but that is just as well. I think I would like to keep her! I took lots of photos because it helps me see what needs work still. I think she looks sweet from every angle (as long as you can imagine the second ear finished that is).











































It's back to bears now, though. I have plenty of them floating around my head and my studio right now too!
Here's a sneak peek at a few for Philly.