Friday, October 06, 2006
Doll Workshop – Part 2
I leave at 6:30 AM for Westfield, MA from Litchfield, CT – a trip that mapquest says should take 1 hour and 18 minutes. I am treated to a spectacular purple, orange-pink sunrise and enjoying some classical music and thinking all is right with the world. When I hit Panera Bread in Canton I figure that I’m about halfway and I stop for one of their yummy bagels and a really good cup of coffee. I’m heading for three days of art and I’m a happy camper.
This is usually when the author pauses and you know something is coming… the Chinese fortune cookie version of it is “he who believes mapquest’s circuitous route often goes in circles.” I pull up at the workshop slightly nauseous with three minutes to spare.
We gather downstairs in the workroom/studio of a charming doll maker Donna Sabonis (see Donna’s Children for her wonderful dolls). Donna’s house is absolutely delightful with a doll in every nook and corner. There are large sliding glass doors looking out onto the back lawn, coffee and goodies in the adjoining room and five other expectant faces besides mine. We are here to make dolls.
I have fairly good eye-hand coordination. I’m a good quilter, fabric artist, and painter. I’ve taught people how to make Tiffany lamps, how to bind books and how to make teeny-tiny little stitches.
Making dolls is hard.
First of all, it isn’t intuitive. Heads are round balls right? So you roll a ball of clay and put eyes in it. Well, not exactly… You have to make the back of the head first and bake the clay so you have something to hold on to when you are sculpting the face. And you don’t put eyes “in” – you put them under the clay and start with a tiny slit (think newborn kittens just opening their eyes) and you work that slit into brow ridges, eye lids and tear ducts. Chins get added on. Noses get pinched into being and mouths get pushed and prodded into smiles and frowns. Ears are far more complicated than you would expect for things hiding on the side of your head and must line up between the eyebrow and the mouth and sit back the same distance as the distance between the nose and the chin – or was the same distance as the width of the palm. Ah… have to look that one up later. Then comes the top of the head and the neck goes on last.
This is all done while holding it carefully so as not to smush the parts you think you have all ready finished – that is until you have another look at it and realize your Victorian Lady has a nose like a prize fighter or your Santa is looking a touch effeminate. Which I secretly believe is how Mrs. Santa came into being.
Here’s Jack working on one of the heads:
Close-up – a bit blurry but you can get the idea:
The beginning of my doll’s head – on Jack’s doll making book – he was going to be a Father Christmas but I’m thinking more of a girl elf now:
My head after a little help from Jack…
Yes, it is better. No, I am not discouraged. I’ll save that for tomorrow when we do hands and feet.
Doll Workshop – Part 2
I leave at 6:30 AM for Westfield, MA from Litchfield, CT – a trip that mapquest says should take 1 hour and 18 minutes. I am treated to a spectacular purple, orange-pink sunrise and enjoying some classical music and thinking all is right with the world. When I hit Panera Bread in Canton I figure that I’m about halfway and I stop for one of their yummy bagels and a really good cup of coffee. I’m heading for three days of art and I’m a happy camper.
This is usually when the author pauses and you know something is coming… the Chinese fortune cookie version of it is “he who believes mapquest’s circuitous route often goes in circles.” I pull up at the workshop slightly nauseous with three minutes to spare.
We gather downstairs in the workroom/studio of a charming doll maker Donna Sabonis (see Donna’s Children for her wonderful dolls). Donna’s house is absolutely delightful with a doll in every nook and corner. There are large sliding glass doors looking out onto the back lawn, coffee and goodies in the adjoining room and five other expectant faces besides mine. We are here to make dolls.
I have fairly good eye-hand coordination. I’m a good quilter, fabric artist, and painter. I’ve taught people how to make Tiffany lamps, how to bind books and how to make teeny-tiny little stitches.
Making dolls is hard.
First of all, it isn’t intuitive. Heads are round balls right? So you roll a ball of clay and put eyes in it. Well, not exactly… You have to make the back of the head first and bake the clay so you have something to hold on to when you are sculpting the face. And you don’t put eyes “in” – you put them under the clay and start with a tiny slit (think newborn kittens just opening their eyes) and you work that slit into brow ridges, eye lids and tear ducts. Chins get added on. Noses get pinched into being and mouths get pushed and prodded into smiles and frowns. Ears are far more complicated than you would expect for things hiding on the side of your head and must line up between the eyebrow and the mouth and sit back the same distance as the distance between the nose and the chin – or was the same distance as the width of the palm. Ah… have to look that one up later. Then comes the top of the head and the neck goes on last.
This is all done while holding it carefully so as not to smush the parts you think you have all ready finished – that is until you have another look at it and realize your Victorian Lady has a nose like a prize fighter or your Santa is looking a touch effeminate. Which I secretly believe is how Mrs. Santa came into being.
Here’s Jack working on one of the heads:
Close-up – a bit blurry but you can get the idea:
The beginning of my doll’s head – on Jack’s doll making book – he was going to be a Father Christmas but I’m thinking more of a girl elf now:
My head after a little help from Jack…
Yes, it is better. No, I am not discouraged. I’ll save that for tomorrow when we do hands and feet.
2 Comments:
Oh, the joys (and pains) of beginning something new. Let go of all expectations and be surprised at what results. I imagine when you have more "skill", then you will be able to work more intuitively, your forte. Relax, there is no 'wrong' doll face - it's just a different doll's face!
Take care, Love, Holly
So tedious. I guess that's the reason I'm not an artist. It does, however, remind me of that guy (or gal) who has had to make billions of these dolls and then breath life into them and do them every day - forever (however long that is). Although I would say that he (or she) is pretty good, it does seem that it is never done perfectly.
Hope your trip back is shorter (or, at least, not any longer) that your trip there.
Love, Richard
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