As promised, This is Crabby Granny in her full glory. She's feeling quite cold so she has her shawl wrapped around her shoulders.
Here she is trying to remember the proportions of that healing tonic.
I think she's about to get up...
She has a very nifty yet simple belt. It's made of jute and she can hang just about anything there while she's scouring the woods! One of her staples is a small jar filled with dried herbs. It's her magic potion, a cure-all. And by jolly, it does cure all! She also ties dried branches and other finds by her belt. It keeps her hands free when she's out collecting.
Her shoes are really old and worn out by now. She can really get mud stuck all over it specially when she goes out during a terrifying storm. She says there are mushrooms that grow only during lightning flashes and pounds of thunder, and melt with the first ray of the sun. So she has no choice but collect them while the storm is raging.
A few days ago, after sitting down and writing in her book (I talked about Crabby Granny's book here), Crabby Granny decided to go to Puyallup and hang out at the WA State Fair. She took her rocking chair and cane with her so she was serious about staying there for a while. Must be the flora...
Crabby Granny's cane is made of dark wood. She sculpted a bird's head at the top.
She also made this rocking chair from the branches of a 100-year old tree. The picked up the felled branches after a big storm.
"Whaddya want?" Granny said.
This morning, she sent me this picture. Seems, she's accomplished more than collecting herbs over there at the WA State Fair.
So that's Crabby Granny for you! I'll get more pictures of her at The Fair when I go visit!
(It's actually Betty M, the NWPCG president who sent me the sms photo about Crabby Granny's ribbons at the WA State Fair - much thanks Betty!)
I had other plans but as inspirations go, this little gal just wanted to be made. I found my reference easily - person to model her face on, don't ask me who, just one of my friends. My dolls do not necessarily look like my references. I read before that it's always a good idea to have a reference so that's what I aim for when I work. I finished her quite quickly and it was a great learning experience.
I'll call her Sisa. Sisa in Philippine culture is almost always equated with a crazy woman. This is because a character by that name in Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not), a book written by the Philippine national hero Jose Rizal - spoiler alert - went crazy when her sons went missing.
So crazy long hair, Spanish era clothes, and I hereby dub thee Sisa. Sisa is different and a definite experiment. Firstly, she is smaller, about 9-10 inches tall. She is only semi posable, you can make her stand and sit but her arms do not bend. I'm also still experimenting with the fabric I find here for costuming.
Filipina hair usually flow straight and with the style back then when women wore panetas or combs, the middle part usually lies flat, so that's one thing I have to watch out for when putting hair on my dolls. Right now, with the way her hair is glued on, she has a very modern bounce at the top of her head.
The one thing I'm proud of here is her costume - it can be removed! I was able to make removable clothes and not all glued on like with most art dolls. So if I ever get the urge to make her new clothes, she will be like a regular doll you can dress up. And I do need to give her a new panuelo (the scarf on her shoulders), those polka dots are too big for her.
The biggest lesson for me here is if I want to be able to dress them up, I need to learn how to make clothes. I was barely able to figure out the relationship between the sleeves and the main part of the top for this doll. So I'm trying to learn as fast as I can.
In case you're interested, I have posted links to costume tutorials I found very helpful on my Pinterest board. I have tons of pins on sculpting too.
Alright, with Sisa all done - or almost done, I am craving to make a bigger doll. I might try 16 inches next. I'm like Goldilocks right now, trying to find which size fits me best.
Did a quick shoot of the twins this morning to show their clothes and features better. Too bad I did not have any hair styling products with me to keep their stubborn hair strands in place. Let me know what you think of them.
Part I: how the dolls started is here.
Part II: Hair, painting and costuming is here.
Part II of the twins' adventure - my new dolls project (I started talking about them here). This time they get paint, hair and clothes. I've already painted the face and spent hours putting on hair. Unfortunately, I forgot that I wanted the girl's hair in a bun so I used short strands of hair on her, which I later found was too short for a clean, sophisticated bun. Oh well. Both of their hairs were going wild after it was glued on, hubby kept saying they looked like witches (not helped by having my creepy Halloween bottles waiting to be painted in the background).
Excited to get my hair!
Hmm... I look adorable bald!
Rock and roll!
Headbangers!
After the hair was done, I started with the girl's clothes first. I imagined it would take more time and I was right. It took a lot of tinkering and experimenting. I found a lovely gray cloth for the skirt. The design was small so it looked just right for a 13-inch doll.
Filipiana dresses can be really elaborate. A lot of them are beaded too. I started a Pinterest board to help me with Filipiana inspirations (click here to view my board). Luckily, there is a lot of photo references out there, both from modern and old sources. I love the beauty of traditional Filipino clothes. I had to make do with similar materials though since I have no access or budget for real materials like pina (pineapple) cloth or other elaborately embroidered materials.
I've collected some beads over the years, most from the Philippines and this was the perfect time to use them. I've never really beaded anything before and I only sew out of need. Luckily, sewing is pretty much like riding a bike, once I pedaled off, I found my running, back and blanket stitches coming back to me. The beading though was totally different -- it was hard and tedious. That's why I ended up with two different designs for the front and back of the skirt. If anybody asks, that's intentional.
Experimenting with beads
Skirt first version
I found the top easy enough to make. Her white top is made from Ikea curtain scraps. Back in Dubai, the curtains I bought was too long so I cut it to size and sewed the bottoms back. The rest, I kept with my stash of fabrics that I keep for any future use. That was at a time that I did not have an inkling I will have an interest in doll making at all. Pays to be a pack rat sometimes.
The skirt was patterned after the first easy long skirt pattern I found online. It had a short trail at the back. I snapped this picture above and was simply not happy with it. The waist was too low and the whole thing just didn't seem right. I left it for a day or two and then while reading a cosplayer's blog post about her Elsa costume, I realized I had to put another color in that skirt and it needs to have a flare! I searched for a material that will kind of match the gray cloth and found this two-toned pink striped fabric so I started cutting the original skirt to insert the pink in. Adding those pink strips, made it balloon more, which I thought suited the Filipiana look I was aiming for.
Front of the skirt
Back of the skirt
I also found a lacy sort of fabric with tiny embroideries in pink! I remember when I was kid, they would spray water with starch in it before ironing shirts to make it nice and crisp. So I did the same with this fabric after I cut it to the size and shape I wanted. This was to be her panuelo or the scarf that goes over her shoulders. As final touches, I gave her slippers that matches her skirt and a pink rose on her hair.
A rose on her hair
Traditional ones are embroidered I think. I made hers simpler.
I think I need a fan or an umbrella
I love her dainty panuelo!
The boy was easier. I gave him a shirt, pants and shoes. He is not as formal as the girl but this is the best I can do for now. His shirt is made from one of my Dad's old shirts, so even though his clothes were easier to make, his costume is definitely extra special. His final touch is a straw hat. I've learned a lot from this project so I'm definitely looking forward to my next.
My father passed away three months ago from lung cancer. It has been a very hard time. And it took a while before I could bring myself to work on any project. It's still hard, only last night I was dreaming he was in the hospital, diagnosed with something else and he was going to die in just a few minutes. He wanted to talk to a priest that he does not know personally, he's already spoken to his friend who's also a priest. I called my friend who knew a priest but his contact cannot be reached, I tried the priest at the hospital but he could not be disturbed because he was holding a service and I think I woke up sometime after that, running around looking for a priest before my father goes which was just a few minutes away.
When I finally found the will to open my boxed up clay, I could not find any inspiration. I did not know what I wanted to do. No spark. Nothing. At that point, I've been absent for a few months in all my social network sites as well. Since I could not find anything that interested me, I went back to Facebook and started looking at my feed to see what my family and friends have been up to.
One of my cousins regularly posts pictures of her fraternal twins, a boy and girl, and their antics, and that stirred up some creative interest. Those two are adorable. After a few days, the muses started humming, setting me on an ambitious note: two dolls at the same time, The Twins or in Filipino, Ang Kambal.
Kinda funny how the start of dolls are always scary looking. Creating heads, hands and feet and curing them separately looks like a twisted factory but the end is so much fun and full of beauty. So here's the first look at The Twins:
Boy or girl?
Originally I wanted to make shoe-shaped feet but I changed my mind
Hands waiting to be cured
Cured and "mummified"
Adding feet and hands
These two are going to be a little older than my cousin's twins but they are, finally, going to be dressed in Filipiña. I've long wanted to create Filipiña dolls, and these two are going to be the start. More updates definitely coming soon.
Which reminds me, I have not posted about my weekend at the Faerie Character Workshop taught by Wendy and Toby Froud yet. Now, that was super exciting. The doll I made during that workshop was a product of the vision quest by Wendy and my tribute to my Dad. I'm glad he was able to see that, he's always been very supportive of my art. These two dolls are based on what I learned on that workshop so I'll definitely be posting about that too.
Part two of finishing the twins: hair, painting and costuming are here.
Part three: outdoor photos are here. Yoga Day 2
I am loving Adrienne! I just finished her Day two, 40-minute Yoga session (Day 1 is here) and I feel great. Even the strain on my right shoulder, which has been my constant companion for the last two weeks and has been slowly taking over my right side, seems to be responding well.
Beautiful day. The sun was out when I got up, letting me see the clear blue sky for a change. With buttered homemade blueberry muffin, brewed coffee and Hoggle waiting on my work table, I'm set for the day.
Hoggle is one of my new works for my Etsy shop. I'll be creating more before I upload them. So gotta keep busy, busy.
Ugh. I've just been really slow at crossing off items in my to do list. The holidays lulled me into a very zombierriffic state. I did catch up with a tons of TV series I wanted to finish though, which is always good for the soul. ;)
Last month, my client sent a great big thumbs up, a feedback from his team, for the group caricature he ordered. Always tickled pink when client sends feedback. The team was from a very international background so I had fun playing with the setting with scenes from China, UAE and Japan to name a few.
Year's starting slowly... hard to get back to routine after all the lovely food and late mornings. But one thing I did get back on to is my clay work. Here's a preview of one of my latest creations: Filipiana doll in the simple baro at saya (top and skirt). I'm still not done with her, still tons to do and learn, but this is the reason why I became interested in clay work in the first place. And I am quite happy with how she looks so far. Hope you like it!
Today, I met Lina and Akram Al-Amoudi, two of the three siblings behind FK AD. All three of them took up arts and now they also work together. Isn't it cool when families collaborate like that? I remember when I interviewed Philippine sculptor Julie Lluch and her daughters and fellow artists Kiri (filmmaker - who I first knew in uni) and Aba (sculptor) for Herword.com. It was awe-inspiring to be in a table surrounded by pure talent.
And this afternoon, it was the tandem of Lina and Akram. They shared the basics of sculpting during the Mobius Design Studio polymer clay workshop (SIKKA 2013)– creating an armature out of wire and foil. They also showed us how to create a stand with wire that connects to your head's armature, a technique I have not seen before. It was a nifty trick that kept your head on a self standing base.
After we chose which character to work on from the pile of photos on the table, we started using Sculpey's Original (terracota and white). There was a Buddha, Einstein, Grace Kelly, Charlie Chaplin, Yubaba and a lot of interesting characters being formed by creative hands. And while we worked, Lina and Akram went around showing techniques on creating eyes, nose and such. They referred to the photo each participant chose and commented on the works – what is missing, which should be added, etc.
When I was almost at the point when I think my witchy head was done, I asked the age-old question – so when do you think it's done? And we had a little discussion on why that is always the question – sometimes you just feel like tinkering with your work on and on and as a result, it never ever gets finished.
Akram suggested though that I pay particular attention to the texture and to experiment with it. The top part of my version of the Grand High Witch was smooth like a baby's bottom as opposed to the wrinkly face. The picture was also showing pot marks, maybe warts, and random strands of hair. It was a very good point, so before I sent Litte Miss Witch off to the pit, I gave her more worry lines, scratches, veins, pot marks, warts and maybe even boils. This exercise would be very helpful when I start working on the serious subjects in the same line as my very first sculpture (The Breadmaker).
The teachers, brother and sister tandem Lina and Sami Al-Amoudi from FK AD.
The tools and the polymer clay.
One of the works done by my fellow workshoppers - good sculpting work.
And some more pretty cool work done this afternoon.
They had several photos piled up for references and this one kinda landed beside me,
so I decided to do her – The Grand High Witch in Witches.
And in the oven they go! Hi hi hi hiiiii! The oven is new, so they were not yet used to it.
Minor mishap - the clay works got burnt a bit. My witch's nose is black now.
Akram, Preeti (who was also with me in the class the previous day at
the Animation Chamber) Lina and me.
Tomorrow we're going back to paint our creations. I'm really excited to attend this session. We can use air brush which I have never tried yet. They say it's the best to use for coloring clay.
But before I got there...
House 53! It was House 53. First, I went to 43, found out it wasn't there and for some reason thought it might be 23. Found 23 after a couple of missed turns then discovered it was not part of the fair and was closed. While looking for 33 (I knew it had a 3), I called my friend Malen and she checked the exact number for me which was 53!
It was 35 degrees (35... 53... hmmm) outside today - summer is officially here. So I was all red and sweaty when I finally found the workshop and within minutes, I was putting on my cardigan because the ac was blowing right at me!.
Well, there's nothing that can be done about it, so here's a big, jolly "Hello Summer"!
