Friday, June 22, 2012

The box comes back out of the closet...

Well, I had a little success this morning with the needle sculpting, and that was very exciting. I went on the tweak my pattern to improve the shoulders and neck. Then it was time to make a head pattern, so I got out the last head I worked on. When I put it away before, I thought it looked awful. But today it looked really nice to me. Now I've messed that one up and I'm making another set of impressions.

6 comments:

  1. Simon - you are such a tease! This looks fabulous to me......FINISH it already!

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    1. I need a kick in the pants, lol. All I can say is I'm trying, but mind demons keep getting in the way.

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  2. Ok, I have to say, I look at a lot of dolls on the Internet. A LOT! And I've seen hundreds of needle-sculpted face and I've never seen any that look as good as this. Most needle sculpted faces have pointy chins or really ugly noses or bulging eyes, and I'nm talking about big, well-known, respected dollmakers here. I've never seen any that look as realistic and well-proportioned as yours. Susan is right. Please don't tease us any more. You see what I mean about leaving a doll? When you come back after a break, the ones you didn't like turn out to be ok after all. You're not going to get it perfect first time, or every time. But you can't get better until you finish one and start again. It's hard. It's heartbreaking. But it makes you better at what you want to do.

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    1. See? I need the kick in the pants.

      I got that head out that I thought was awful, and I realized I could really make a beautiful doll if I would just let it happen. So I've been taking concrete steps to make it happen.

      I have my own style of needle-sculpting. My needle sculpting is almost as good as my clay-sculpted heads. I do the hair differently, too. Sometimes I think I should do the needle-sculpting to distinguish myself from the others, but then I see that sweet little face that I clay-sculpted, and think I need to make more of those. I'm all a flurry, really. Which makes me think of ice cream flurries, lol. I need some ice cream now.

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    2. I was intrigued by the seams down the face and yes, I've not seen a technique quite like this. They are intriguing, as well as beautiful and we other dollmakers what to see what next. As for the clay faces, I don't think this is a case of either/or. How would you feel about doing both? Then you could try one when you felt like it, and leave it when it becomes tedious or frustrating (which, let's be fair, dollmaking can be, sometimes) and switch to the other?

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    3. Oh, but I'm such an either/or person! All or none! It's very irritating to be so rigid.

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