I Sculpted an Ancestor

I took a sculpting class some months ago, and learned so much.... I was sculpting in ceramic clay.  This is not the final view, it was taken before the sculpt was fired.  It's interesting working in ceramic clay because there is no armature.  You just have a big hunk of clay to work on, standing and sculpting it at waist-level on the turntable.  We were using all sorts of tools, but most of them familiar, just larger versions of what I use.   I found that my doll sculpting experience really helped me.  This is the first try I have ever done at doing a realistic type sculpture. 
People kept wandering in asking us what we were doing, I guess they didn't realize it was a class...
This is a sculpture-resemblance of my great-great-grandfather; I worked from an old photo of him. 
      Isn't it remarkable what a class can do for one's skills?  I don't know if I could do this well again, but I wowed myself sculpting him. 
 After all the sculpting was done, we hollowed the busts out on the inside, carefully, and then brushed a glaze over them.  Then, the busts were fired in a large kiln.  
Thanks for looking! 

Happy Birthday, Izannah Walker!

Izannah Walker, born in Rhode Island in 1817, began making her dolls in the 1840's.  They are believed to be the first commercial dolls made in America.  They are made of pressed cloth, using several different dies which gave each doll a unique character.  The patent under her name was not filed until 1873, and the dolls after the patent have a different painting style.

They are beautiful dolls, stylized yet lifelike.  A group I belong to online is celebrating Izannah's birthday, and several ladies have made beautiful doll creations to celebrate Izannah's birthday.  I decided to do a drawing, trying to achieve some likeness of the doll -- it is harder to do than it looks -- that face is very simple but kind of defies being reproduced with drawing or sculpting.  I tried to get as many of the features in this drawing as possible, the childish nose, full but small lips, stylized neck, feathery eyebrows, etc.... so this is my interpretation using pencil and watercolor pencil.

             Happy Birthday to Izannah Walker!

An Old/New Doll Travels Back East

This doll, I that completed on commission, went to its new owner last month.  She is 17 and 3/4 inches; I was aiming for 18 inches, but 17 and 3/4 is good enough for jazz.

The new owner had requested an Izannah-style doll in a Springlike dress.

After making her dress, I discovered a little aging trick.  The fabric was orginally a teal blue with lighter blue fleur de lis pattern.  I put it in a glass bowl of bleach and water to age it, and the blue background completely left, leaving a greenish-tinged white background, and luckily, also the fleur de lis pattern.  I laundered it twice to get the bleach out and soften it up, and then brushed some tea on the seams and edges of the sleeves.  Then the dress looked - old! 

I made her a bonnet from vintage eyelet and made a fabric flower for it, and she was all set...

I should mention I did the bleaching outside.  

She was a pleasure to make.

Thanks for reading, and have a good day.