A Bit Of This And That........

I have a few things on the go in my studio this week......a piece of mixed media sculpture coming along. I have tried to imbue this with a bit of ambiguity and mystery:

In the doll-making department, I've come up with a body and limbs for my elfbaby head. This one has a body made from synthetic doe suede, which is a lovely tactile fabric for a doll body. The head is knit cotton fabric over paperclay, sized and painted.

When I'd finished sewing, stuffing and assembling this body, I thought it was a tad too small for the head, but not so much that I wanted to re-do it! I'll just enlarge the pattern a wee bit before I use it again.

Here she is all but done. The dress is stained gauzy fabric; the hat is stained, knitted cotton, her pointy-toed leggings are knit fabric and her leafy necklace is made from leather.....and finally, with a couple of finishing touches:

Rummaging.........

People often ask to look inside my journals.......I don't actually mind this too much, but it can feel like someone is rummaging around in my brain, because my journal is my thinking tool.....the place where I work things out and sometimes write or draw some fairly personal stuff. I have journals that go back to 1969.......that is a a lot of years of recorded thought! One day I might get them all out and try and put them in chronological order and just have a bit of a wander through my past ("The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there" - L.P. Hartley) Now I kind of wish I'd used a standard shape and size for all my journals, so they could be neatly shelved in an orderly manner, but I haven't, so that cannot be - that might be a bit of a metaphor for how I do things generally, actually - mis-matched, odd-sized and out of order, but it is what is is. 
Here is a page spread from my current journal and the beginnings of some new work generated by those ideas:

The Making Of "Lyra"

"Lyra" is the latest in a series of cloth dolls with similar thoughtful countenances, but finished in different coloured costumes and paintwork. They all have bodices made of stiffened lace attached to their torsos, which have been painted with multiple layers of subtle colour. I used hand-coloured silk and cotton for their dresses.

Laying it bare

I don't often lay my soul bare for the whole world to see.......but I have in this new piece.
It's called "Memento Mori - Ben Lomond 10th June 2014". I've included a few w.i.p. photos that show something of the process I use in putting something like this together.

Raw materials

Playing with arrangements of elements

the almost-completed piece

Another angle

Detail - the sleeping head

Detail - bottom compartment

Elin

New from my studio this week............This is "Elin". These pictures show some of the steps towards her completion.

The ennui of waiting for clothes!