ACTS MAGDALENA

i am the child of the wasteland....a land of haunted houses and monsters i call father. dark talents run in the family, but i shatter the glass to let the moonlight in, not to destroy something fragile for the feeling of breaking beneath my fists. all i can do is scream, crawl out, and keep screaming. but i can hold the sparrow, mend its wing... i am the spring rain and the hurricane... the monsters cower now, not me, not you. *xn*

I love creating things, this is my second big doll:

I took Wendy Froud's doll sculpting class again this year for my birthday (Thank You Rick :) ) I took her class last year and it was two day session this time it was three days and was great to have that extra time (It started on my birthday). Just taking the class is great but to be taught by one of the world's best artists and a founder of the genre of creature sculpting started in Dark Crystal, Labyrinth (and she made Yoda too) is just wonderful.

Here is the doll I made this time. I made her clothing too. She/they are better looking in person, my camera is on its last legs its literally held together with tape so the pix are not great :p Its a lavender and pink sheen to their skin with some slight metallic sparkle and the clothing has those colors in it. The gown is a pillow top I made from sewing together bits and pieces of textiles and brocades and I never made the pillow and I like it being used like this better. Her boots are painted the lav/pinkish colors and mottled to look opalescent. The hair is so wonderful, Wendy brought this and its a blonde soft wool with curl and a beautiful almost irridescent pink fade to pale lavendar too it so it works so well with the skin tone. The skin and features color are acrylic paints blended like a wash and dabbed off as I went along so it built up over in layers on the sculpy. The vest part is leather scrap and the design I burned in with a sodering iron. The blouse is an old silk scarf I got in a vintage store, her "tights" are a German ribbon wrapped around the legs. The whole doll is a wire skeleton wrapped in paper tape and then covered in sculpy and quilt batting. She is fully posable. She is sturdy and heavy but I love that- she is about 17inches tall. I keep calling the doll she but really she is a they :)

I kept the one face's eyes closed because the process Wendy teaches to create the eyes has one stage where they look closed and this one's face looked so pretty with closed eyes that I decided to keep her eyes closed. So you can say one side deals with the things in the daylit real world and the other moves in the dark ethereal world.

I am so happy with her I want a better camera now just to get some "beauty" shots of her/them. This is seriously one of the best b-days of my life and if I had gotten this doll as a gift from someone I would have freaked out from joy, an even better feeling that I made her/they myself! I am so happy! Still more celebrating to come and I think I'll bring the doll along.. still have not named them.. something will come Wendy says they'll always tell you what they want to be called you just have to wait and see.

Edit: This is so cool, Art Conspiracy has already made the doll its "Staff Pick" for the Physical Galleries on their cover page.

�

~* PREVIOUS ENTRY - NEXT ENTRY *~

. ~* BACK TO MAIN PAGE *~ .

~* Christian's 'Stories and Illustrations' INDEX *~

~*email*~

"Any band brave enough to tag it's first CD with the line "remember when listening to music felt dangerous"
had better have the goods or prepare to be cracked by critics.
Well, Acts Magdalena does - and then some�"
BILLBOARD MAGAZINE, Excerpt, Continental Drift., Larry Flick