NATURE GIRL

FINALLY got pretty much the look I was looking for. Wanted her to be "impish" with large nose & mouth. After several hairdo's, the synthetic curly stuff , wound up being my choice...after all she's trucking around all over the place, so who has time to keep their hair all combed and neat. Her garland is green chenille's, with dried flowers & leaves, and one little butterfly in front, which was made of 2 pieces of fabric, fused together, with a wire inside to hold shape. Since I wanted her to be able to stand alone, I gave her some nice big feet and leather sandals which could easily hold her full figured bod. I liked the "woodsie" look of her dress, but wanted to fancy things up a bit, so made a top of tie dye print cotton with gold lines, then lined it with a floral print. The front is "beaded" with little frogs and turtles. I had gotten one of those deals on line with about 100 pieces of such stuff....moons, stars, flowers, butterflies, etc. They are made of plastic (no doubt from China) and colors were kinda icky, so I dipped them in acrylic paint: green mixed with gold...much better.
My original idea (and aren't they all?) was to have her holding a small child. But changed my mind on that..then I tried a bunny, and a mouse, but finally decided a nice little frog would be great...goes along with the turtles & frogs on her dress. Also since they are often an indication of things going amiss on our planet, it seemed appropriate. Besides I think froggies are cute...and this Girl is rather on the cutish side! Anyway, since her hands are articulated, I can still put something different if I want to later. But for now she's done. However, as an after thought, I have decided to call her Nature Girl.
It just seems more appropriate for her (at least that's what she told me).

MOTHER NATURE DOLL

This is another case of a doll "being in charge".... I had this vision in my mind of a full figure, "Motherly" style doll, but as I got into the creation of this creature, she took a definite turn in an entirely different direction. Don't get me wrong....I love her, but now that she has been completed, I need to go back to the drawing board to make the doll I planned originally.
I did have fun creating this one. She's a stump doll. I had made feet for her, but when I got ready to paint her toe nails, I discovered I had only given her 4 toes, so skipped that. They are now in the box with the other 4 heads I made. She's much too classy for bare feet any way. She's made of cotton, with the cotton spandex overlay...then painted with gesso and acrylics, which gives more of a porcelain look, rather than cloth. I also finally got the nerve to use some of the mohair squares I bought a while back...the pieces that are still attached to the hide. All I've ever done in the past is to create hair by felting into a wig, so this was new for me. I used tissue paper to make the pattern, then cut it out in long fake fur to check out before cutting into my treasured pieces. Now I'm ready to experiment some more doing this...I think.
Costuming her also took a different turn. Our buddy in India, sent me remnant pieces with lots of embellishments. The colors were way too yellow however, so a dunk in brown dye was necessary. This toned down the yellow, and added to the design on the fabric as the brown showed up more in some areas. I also cut out and bonded the flowers from another piece to add to the skirt. Hemming this shear fabric could have been a problem, but the handy little souldering iron made quick work of that, and allowed me to scallop the edges giving more of a leaf like effect.
Finally I added metalic flower ear rings, butterfly necklace, and a tiny little humming bird, sitting on her finger. It was supposed to be a butterfly. That was what I had planned, but she wanted the hummingbird. Dolls! They can be so pushy! You gotta love'em.