Aroha - an Artdoll

Meet Aroha

She really evolved while I was working on her, she started as a calico doll bodice on wire legs on a block of mdf.I added some clay and she got her striped tights, oh btw she has perky little boobies and a heart ♥

Then when she needed clothes, this cloak sort of happened, so I finished her of as a little tribal Maori-like doll. I have a little sweet spot for her...named her Aroha, which means "Love", 'cause she just LOVEs those tights, hehe ;)

Choir Boy

 

So, just real quick, okay, because I should be doing a lot of other things in preparation for tomorrow, but I just HAD to share with you all my latest art doll !  I call him Choir Boy. I don't have this feeling often that I really REALLY love something I have just created, but this one.... I don't even know if I want to hang a pricetag on him tomorrow.......

{♫♫♪♫ can you hear his falsetto ? ♪♫♪}

 

Some good ol' legs

Finished FAirY

Rather fitting as my own knee locked up a few times again and doesn't feel so good {softly said} at the moment. Nothing a bit of Counterpain cream and knee band cannot fix - hopefully, it's an old injury come-back :( - Well nevermind this, the good message I want to share is: a little while ago I thrifted 4 beaut old tablelegs 
aren't they just delish ?

the leGs !

  Anyway, I have started to turn them into dolls :) ONE is finished so far, a Cloth +Clay Gritty kind of TabLeleG-FloweR-fAirY, Another one's head is waiting to dry and 2 others are in the earlier wip stages. They are fun to make, take more time than I thought {but what art/craft doesn't ?} but all worth it in the end for me :)

have a look and if you feel like it, make one too !!!

 

head and petals on

first paint stage

aging

Gone soft for dolls ♥

 

 This is kind of a long post with lots of pictures (I like pictures) and links about kind of smallish creatures...... ;)

I want to share this other soft spot of mine, my other desire, a possible challenge ? something I really want to give a serious go a little more at some stage. I started the odd project over the years and some of those are still waiting patiently (as if they have a choice ? - see pics of them below-) to be finished .... if I ever will, because by the time I make some time for them I have other ideas about them already. Now, with having the school holiday kids program in my Art studio for the last 2 weeks, I had been looking for something "simple" to do myself and I made up some super simple calico shapes and stuffed them and started painting little faces. The first two born the other day, I gave wings and they became little angels

 

(a little like my Matryoshka dolls I did a few years ago)

  

the last one is a free little spirit and I really dig her!

 

But seriously, I have been admiring very special dolls for quite a while now. I would love to make some of these really really GR8 and amazingly beautiful dolls. I am in love with the out-of-this-world-oh-so-super-gorgeousilistic dolls by Nefer Kane  

and the tender, fine faces by Paulette Goodreau

   

 but also the grungier folky-arty cloth dolls by some dollmakers like Gritty Jane, and the Steampunky ones by Paula Nerhus and there are so many more. 

Tim Burton - dollmaker extraordinaire

  Of course I understand that it takes time and practise and YEARS of improvement, just like painting and sketching and everything else for that matter.  So .... one day .... I guess when my days have 48 hours and my weeks have 21 days and I will be immortal hehe......but before all that, I WILL make some more "simple" dolls for sure

♥

cloth doll wip 1

same doll wip 2

face start

face done ?

not happy with the nose, but ah well

want to finish her regardless

see where she ended up, stuck in a pot with legs up and all ?

this one is even an earlier one, kinda creepy actually....

♥