Another Art Doll

This was my first foray into art doll making, which is why she looks a little special. I decided, halfway through, that she was going to be a little bit broken, a little bit 'quirky', and a little bit weird.

I sketched a simple stick man shape, fleshed it out a little (only a little on the arms and legs, I was aiming for the current trend of thin, spindly art dolls that I love!). And for some reason gave it rabbit ears. It took me an absolute age to turn the right way out, and most of the left arm got stuck in the process, so I had to cut the right one down to size to match. 

I spent an awful lot of time making her clothes, because I think this is the most fun part! She has a white tunic top, a pink patterned skirt, blue patterned bloomers, a cream and rose kimono and a blue denim jacket (pictured below) that was originally a pair of blue denim jeans but I made them wrong.

Making her was a great (and steep!) learning experience, and I was pretty happy when I could say it was finished. I would very much like to make a pretty dress for her some day, but sometimes you need to say "it's done now" and put it down, before they have more clothes than you do, and you haven't made a cooked dinner in two weeks.

My two attempts at art dolls so far, with a little red book. This book is actually a needle case I made (a red rectangle of fabric, some wadding, and a few sheets of thin batting for "pages"). The great thing about art dolls is that they are so weird and mismatching, they have their own personalities!

Some things I learned in the art-doll-making process:

• Try not to expect perfection, because it likely won't be, and that's okay!
• Go with the flow; accidents happen. I think the jacket looks better than the jeans did anyway.
• If you think it looks unfinished, try something new. 
• Relax and forget the "rules". If you want it to have no arms, it can have no arms. If you want it to be tiny, or huge, flat, rounded, rectangular, bright, pale, gaudy, hell anything you can imagine it can be!