Fresh bread...

The weather has been perfect....for staying home and playing dolls that is. A cold front blew in.. a bit of drifting snow...and temperatures plummeted once again to wintery numbers (minus 20's at night and up to -13 to-15C in the daytime). However, the sky is clear and a pretty blue; the sun is brilliant...shining in through the kitchen window. I love to sit in the warmth of it and tell myself I'm still getting some Vitamin D, even through the glass....

I never actually "played" much with dolls as a kid...we didn't have many to begin with, but, sometimes got one for Christmas. I still have some squirreled away in a cedar chest. Remember those? I've always been that way ... sometimes a bit too careful..especially for a kid... but, we didn't have much so I guess I was making sure I kept what I had. I saved mine in pristine condition.














I still like to take out this little gal and look at her from time to time...Mandy Lou...I love her. Well, with the exception of that sorta scorch-y mark on the front of her dress that is .... I did that trying to iron it....sigh...what did we know..we were just little kids.....














Anybody have a Dennis the Menace? oh, brother...look at those dirty feet. Kid dirt I guess...and the rubber is a bit fragile..so I am not going to scrub them...maybe some day I might try cleaning them with some special thing..., but... maybe it is better to leave it... besides, it looks normal for him. Another of my kid dolls...














However, I did like paper dolls... maybe that's where all this doll making stuff started. I used to draw and colour new gowns for Katy Keene.. and other ladies... just by following the outline of their bodies and making a few alterations to the shape. Not that the clothing was too imaginative...we had no clue as to how the other half lived except from seeing the Sears catalogue, some comic books or maybe even the odd movie magazine we would see at the library or some neighbour's house. We sisters danced them around the kitchen table...and talked up a storm with each other's gals.... can't remember what we said, but I'm sure the conversation was scintillating ...

When it's cold outside ... baby .. it's also baking weather. The kitchen is the perfect place to be. The amazing scent of freshly baked whatever wafting about.... I love it. You know when you buy things on e-bay and they say, "From a non smoking environment"? Well, I wonder if any of my dolls and bears retain the scent of cinnamon buns? or lemon blueberry muffins?.... oh, the poor recipient!! ...hahahhahaha..... that ain't fair at all !!










Sitting in the warm Tuscan Peasant Bread scented kitchen, I painted the face on my latest experiment-with-paperclay... thanks Linda for mentioning gesso, but I'll have to try it next time...I was over eager. I just charged madly ahead and painted some flesh colour on her... then had fun doing some eyes. As you can see I even put a stroke of too-dark flesh on her neck. That can be fixed if I decide to finish her. She may never get finished as a doll, seeing as it/she began as a learning experience...but,...if I do finish her ...I was thinking... perhaps ice princess. But then, she looks a bit apprehensive.. perhaps a princess in waiting..or a little girl lost.... she just looks a bit confused to me.























I used several different colours of blue and am happy with the iris ... didn't do anything with the sclera as I left that part white when I painted on the flesh colour. It is the white of the unpainted clay. Very happy with the amount of detail I can get in an eye on the clay. I think gluing on some eyelashes would be a better idea than trying to draw lashes over the slightly raised eyelid ...











My first attempt at painting the flesh is not perfect...and I also experimented with some sandpaper after painting as you can see on the lower left cheek area. I now want to see if I can repaint that area and fix it. A lot of imperfections are noticeable up close...but, at a viewing distance...she is pretty acceptable. I want to get on with making several heads now and practice what I learned and see what else I can come up with in order to make the next ones better.