Mermaid Art Doll Part 1

Looking at photos of art dolls on Google images is very inspiring. I get so many fun ideas. One photo

of a doll by Virginie Ropar inspired the idea for another mermaid doll. Her doll was not a mermaid, but the designs on the legs were exciting. So I mulled it over for a couple days, designing in my head, making sketches to help me when it came time to actually work on the doll. (I have dozens of sketches and go through them every so often to help with design)

This new mermaid was to be different from the last two I created. Those were modeled on the idea of a real mermaid. This one would be more dark and powerful. I toyed with the idea of black leather for the tail, but I didn’t have any in my stash of fabrics. Then I found a small piece of some awesome dark green velvet. That brought a whole new set of images.

I already had a pattern for the last mermaid doll so I used that one. I didn’t have to do any math or thinking, I could just get started cutting out body pieces and start sewing.

I cut the main body pieces out of a nice cotton fabric. I like to create the body with a tail from the cotton because it gives the body stability. I then create the outer tail that slips over the inner tail and hand sew it on.

I sew the body pieces together, stuff them with polyester fiberfill and then sew them together. The head is done separately from the body to begin. I sew it, stuff it and then do the face, before sewing it on the body. I like to be sure I like the face before attaching the head to the body. It saves a lot of unnecessary sewing. I lengthened the tail a couple of inches because I planned to put in wire to allow posing.

Once I have the body assembled I use Jacquard Dyna-Flo Fabric Dyes to add interesting skin color. I work on getting the torso color to flow into the tail color, in this case to match as close as possible the dark green of the velvet. I keep the tail fabric nearby to compare. The velvet tail, the hair, and all embellishments will come later.

I let the dyes dry overnight. Then the doll went into the dryer on a medium heat for about thirty minutes to set the dyes. Then it would be time to add the tail and other fun stuff.

 

Here are the tools I use in doll making, besides my sewing machine. I have three pairs of hemostats to stuff the bodies. Pinking shears are valuable for cutting around curves to make them easier to turn. The turning rod and copper tubes are for turning fingers and small things.

In my next post I will show you the rest of the creation of this mermaid.

Til next time. J

Terri

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