Etsy Handmade Portraits: Mimi Kirchner

Mimi Kirchner is a wonderful doll artist and the subject of Etsy's "Handmade Portrait" this week. Watch the video to see some amazing artist wheels turning:

You can visit Mimi's blog here.

Sarah's Visit

I've had the pleasure of a visit from the adorable Miss Sarah, from New Orleans. She belongs to the talented Colleen of Loopy Boopy, and is my latest and final visitor from the Art Dolls Only Team traveling doll project.

Sarah and I have spent our days shopping and at the beauty salon. Sarah got a new bag, new shoes, makeup, purple highlights in her hair, and a breast augmentation. Yep, she went all out! Fortunately for an art doll a boob job only takes a few minutes and is quite painless.




I have fallen in love with sweet little Sarah, but soon it will be time for her to return to Colleen. I will need to spice up a few pages of her traveling journal and then she will be homeward bound.

ADO Elements Challenge

ADO, "Art Dolls Only" team is hosting an art doll challenge. Members and art doll enthusiasts were asked to create a doll in the theme of "elements", and then post their doll on their blog today. Click the picture above to see the list of participants on the ADO team blog, then go blog visiting to see what everyone came up with! The challenge pieces will be posted all weekend.

I am a water lover. I was raised at a Lake, I've lived at the ocean, and I'm a water sign. Both of my children were born under water. So it is no great surprise that I chose WATER as my element and I sculpted three mermaids. I gave them each a Hawaiian name.


Here is the first mermaid I did. Her name is Lokelani (lo-kay-lan-ee).

Lokelani is a one of a kind handmade art doll. She is 9" tall including her base. The shells in her hair were picked up on the beaches of Kauai, and she wears a piece of sunrise shell (a rare and beautiful shell the color of the sunrise) in back. Lokelani is mostly polymer clay. I used a starfish from a vintage box of treasures I inherited, and I did not buy it, you know they kill them just to sell to tourists at the beach, so please don't buy them new!

Next I sculpted a silly little lady named Ke'alohi, which means "the brightness".

She is a polymer clay sculpture which I have mounted to a large clam shell. I painted the clam shell to resemble abalone, and added a few sparkly details.

Her hair is Tibetan lambs wool, she wears Swarovski crystals and seashells in her hair. Ke'alohi stands 7.5" tall including base, and is 6" across.

Finally I made "Pikake" which is the name for a Hawaiian flower used to make leis.

Pikake is the most inquisitive of the three, and I love the movement I achieved with her. It is as if she is swimming in a circular dance. Her hair is spiky and wild, and she is mounted on a silk flower which is meant to represent a colorful anemone.

All three of these mermaids are for sale in my Etsy Shop.
Thanks for looking at my ADO Element Dolls!

Puck Armature

Puck is coming right along. I have started to add hair now, but here is an update on how the armature evolved:

Meet ADO!

Here are a few members of the ADO (art dolls only) team. Our team blog can be found at: http://artdollsonly.blogspot.com/

Click on the pictures to see their etsy shops.

CHERI VOELLMANN

"Flower and Faerie"

DANIELLE DAVIS

"Pumpkinhaus Earthlies Soft Sculpture"

EVA BUCHALA

"Reginald, Bunny Boy"

KY ELIZA

"Owl Boy"

Meet ADO!

Here are a few members of the ADO (art dolls only) team. Our team blog can be found at: http://artdollsonly.blogspot.com/

Michelle of Crow Haven Farm:

Kamila of WoodedWoods:

Nicole from Mealy Monster Land:

Colleen from Loopy Boopy:

Super-Simple Polymer Clay Doll Eyes Tutorial

I originally saw a similar eye tutorial by Susan Spinks on “the clay store . com”, and I decided to try my own version of it, simplified.

Materials:

white polymer clay

wire

acrylic paint

2 wood dowels (optional)

small paint brush (or tooth picks)

clear glaze

1- Start with some plain white polymer clay and roll two balls the same size. If you want to make several pair of eyes at once, roll lots of balls and pair them up.

2- Stick a small gauge wire into each eye, it doesn’t matter how long the wire is because you can cut it to the right size later. Stick the wire end of the eye into a chunk of clay and bake.

3- Now you’re ready to paint the eyes. There are a few different ways to do this. One way is to get two different diameter wood dowels, one for the iris and one for the pupil. The other, less exact way is to wing it (this is the technique I prefer : -)

If you are using dowels, dip the larger dowel into your desired color of paint. This will be the colored part of the eye. It could be green, blue, grey, gold, maybe purple, whatever you desire. Stamp the dowel onto the eye, and let it dry. Next stamp the smaller dowel (the pupil) with black paint in the center of the color and let it dry.

If you want to “wing it”, take your white eyeball and dip the end in your colored paint. I like to have a damp cloth next to me so I can wipe the paint off and try again if necessary. When the colored paint is dry, dip into a tiny bit of black for the pupil, or if you want more control, just paint the pupil on with a tiny brush. It may take some practice, but I really like the results I get with this technique.

You can add stripes or dots to the irises for special effects, I always add a tiny spec of white on the pupil to look like a light reflection. You can also try vertical striped pupils for cat eyes, or sideways stripes for frog eyes. Hint- I use a toothpick to paint on the stripes.

If you want glossy, wet looking eyes be sure to glaze them with your favorite clear glaze or sealer.

I used this technique, including stripes on the iris, on my ADO Broken Heart Challenge Doll:

If you try this technique and use it on a doll, be sure to send me a picture at waxela22@yahoo.com, write ADO tutorial in the subject, and I may include it in a future post!