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Thursday, September 22, 2011

Some Works in Progress



First up, is the start of a chipmunk that I'm working on. Second is a skull base for a doll.  My cousin after seeing Hailey, approached me about creating an angel doll for her sister. After giving it some thought and doing some research on angels, I decided to do Gabriel. It didn't seem fitting to do him out of sewn felt and I didn't like the way it looks kind of fuzzy. I wanted something between sculpted polymer and sewn cloth. I recently came across a very talented doll artist, Lisa L. Lichtenfels.  Her work has inspired me to try something different. I'm going to needle felt over a wire and paper clay skeletal structure and then sew nylon over the finished sculpture. I first started to sculpt the head out of styrofoam and when I glued and sewed the felt base to it, the foam core just collapsed. I then tried sculpting the head out of paper clay around a foil ball, like I did for Haily. This time because I was so impatient, I added way to much clay and it cracked while it dried. Plus the weight of the clay smooshed his lower jaw too far out giving him a caveman appearance. Finally, I decided to try sculpting the foam base and then adding a layer of paper clay over it. It will definitely need some sanding.  I've learned a couple of things with this. When working with large areas of paper clay, it's best do it in layers. Also a damp paper towel placed over the sculpture will help keep it from cracking while it's  drying. 

5 comments:

Helen Priem said... [Reply]

This will be very interesting !
:-)

Alessandra Collar Lipman said... [Reply]

Lisa is a good friend of mine, and I know she is very encouraging to other artists. If you have a chance, check out her manuals on her technique.

What you are doing is very cool! Keep up the great work!

Robin Andreae said... [Reply]

Thanks Helen & Alessandra!
Lisa seems like she would be a really neat lady. Besides being really talented, I love the sensitivity and humor in her work. I finally checked out her book on sculpting the head. Our library system doesn't carry her body book. I think where went wrong was the type of foam I was using. She mentioned in her book how the type I was using would crumble, Lol. I went back to just needle felting after several attempts. I'll have to buy her books. Her dvd tutorials seem really interesting, too. Sculpting humans has never really been my thing. But Lisa's work is very inspiring. It makes me want to do a more anatomical approach to my work.

Alessandra Collar Lipman said... [Reply]

Robin- if you go to Home Depot or Lowe's, they carry a thick pink insulation foam that is really good for carving the skulls. Not sure what it is called, but the kind I get is about 3 inches thick (it come in other thicknesses). I know that Lisa has glued foam blocks together if she needs to carve something wider than the foam.

If you ever want to borrow her manuals I would be willing to send them to you. Just send me an email if you are ever interested.

Robin Andreae said... [Reply]

Thanks so much for the information and kind offer, Alessandra.