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Showing posts with label Porcelain doll. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Porcelain doll. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Lots of little pieces

I spent this morning casting a few tiny dolls, the first time in my life that I did this, in my way distant past life as a doll maker I just used to buy the greenware, molds are too expensive if you only plan to make a doll once. I am exhausted right now, I think from the intense concentration when you take them out of the mold and then trim them, you have to be so careful not too squash them and those little limbs are tiny.























Now they need to be soft-fired and cleaned before the bisque firing, only then can you start painting them. Porcelain shrinks a bit in the bisque firing so they will be even smaller after the firing. Oh, boy, now I have to clean my kiln that I haven't used in more than 10 years and see if I can still remember how to set it up for a firing.























I made a little bit of progress on the sampler, I am really enjoying stitching this one.

Elga

Sunday, September 16, 2012

All Things Lace

I just want to thank everyone that regularly leave comments on my blog, it is much appreciated, and I treasure each one of you as a friend.

For the last few years I have been itching to do two things, learning how to make bobbin lace and miniature porcelain dolls, lace I have never made before, dolls, lots of them but in full scale sizes and many years ago, but I still have my kiln and lots of china paint.

Last weekend I went to the Johannesburg Embroidery Guild's bi-annual exhibition, but what blew me away was the room box full of miniature lace and right there and then I decided the time is now. So in the last week every spare moment was spent on researching lace making and all the necessary equipment needed. fortunately for me the Pretoria Lace Guild met yesterday and one of the ladies sells the threads etc, and I had a fun time meeting them and seeing some examples of beautiful handmade lace.















Yesterday afternoon I made myself a lace pillow from a piece of 6mm thick MDF cut in a circle, topped with a piece of styrofoam that I bought cut ready to size from a craft store. I shaped the edges with a knife and sandpaper to give it the dome shape. I glued the styrofoam to the MDF with white wood glue and covered the whole thing top and bottom with a thin layer of batting and then made a removable cover out of cotton. Most lace makers choose a plain colored cotton so that the white thread will show up, I found this wonderful blue fabric with just a bit of a darker flower print, the thought of plain blue was just too boring!

On top of the pillow is very fine Egyptian lace thread, some pins for miniature lace making, they are only 0.45mm thick and 17mm long, a pricker for making holes in your printed paper pattern and a neat little tool for pushing the pins in and take them out again.













One item that I need a lot of is lace bobbins, one isn't too expensive, but you always use them in pairs and you could need anything from 6 pairs for the simplest lace to 50 pairs or more depending on your project and that can get quite pricey. One of my new friends was so kind to lend me a bobbin to copy, so guess what, the rest of the afternoon will be spent in turning my own bobbins, I have plenty of wood and a new lathe that needs trying out.

And on the subject of dolls, I thought I would show you a few photos of an antique reproduction Armand Marseille doll that I made way back in 1995 and dressed in a dress made of antique lace with an overcoat of muslin and lace. I also made her wig and lace bonnet, knitted socks and leather shoes.























Most antique dolls were made of white porcelain with a thin coating of pink china paint added all over the head before the painting of all the facial details, painting the eyebrows etc is done in a few successive firings, the lip and cheek color is also built up in thin layers with each firing.























Isn't the lace just gorgeous?























I am so looking forward to making dolls again, I will be going for mini doll classes from next month on.

Have a great week everybody
Elga