I finished up my Harbinger of Spring yesterday and today I will take her over to the Hopkins Center for the Arts for the nonjuried member's show. It runs March 30-April 23.
She is 20" tall. Her wire armature is rebar tie wire, great stuff. The fabric is silk that I coated in acrylic medium. I learned this technique from Elise Peeples last year at artFiberfest in a class called Flying Colors. After she was all dry, I painted her with watered down acrylics. Click on the image to see a bigger version.
This is a really good example of how a doll "talks" to you during her creation. I started with the armature and just started draping the silk coated with medium over her body, just trying to go for a spring, floaty feel. I had her dress completely done and she was still all white, Robyn thought she looked like a snow fairy. I knew I wanted to do the skirts in greens but that was as far as my vision went.
As I was painted I was meditating (it's that mindful meditating again) I started thinking about Spring and the first flowers to pop up, and crocus came to mind. So I painted her face yellow and her bodice and hood purple. It was nice but the face seemed to stark so I left her dry and went off to teach. When I got home I looked at some more photos and realized she really needed petals, I wanted her face to peek out more. Plus it had to be stiff enough to hold a shape. Enter the craft weight interfacing! Side note: I have used more interfacing in the last 6 months than I have used in my entire life.
I cut out the petals, stitched them on and painted them to match the bodice.
And voila', she is done!
More crafty goodness later, I am off to read some blogs!
