The Making of an Art Doll

A while back, I saw some beautiful Art Dolls on the web, and the more I saw, the more I wanted to see if I could make one.

First thing,  I bought several books on Amazon about making Art Dolls, and of course, I ended up making my own pattern and Art Doll. lol.

I can never seem to just get a pattern and make it exactly like that. I have all these ideas of my own and have to create an original. But that's more fun anyway, right?

This is what I came up with. I tried to remember to take pictures as I progressed so you can see how she came to be the Christmas Angel Art Doll.

She stands 14 inches tall and her body is made of Christmas fabric. She is OOAK, of course.

Her face was hand painted by me on muslin fabric. She sparkles with glitter, crystals, beads and sequins. She has a beaded snowflake on one arm. Her earrings are tiny glass ornaments with a red bow painted on them. She does have boobs and a nice tush, though they are hard to see in the pictures.

Her fingers are bendable so that you can place different things in her hands if you want to. That was probably the hardest part to make. When you turn the fingers, it's really easy to poke thru the fabric.

I made a snowflake wand, heavily beaded, for her to hold. It is a small dowel with a string of beads wrapped round and round. From her other hand hangs a tiny shiny birdhouse. I put a red bow under her chin. This was made before Christmas, and I found a lot of the embellishments in the Christmas Ornament section at Hobby Lobby.

She's made on a square, weighted base, so that she stands securely. I put a gathered satin ruffle around the bottom of her skirt, as well as red sequins.

Her wings are semi-transparent and detachable. I used Velcro tabs to attach the wings, so that I could remove them to store her. That was somewhat time consuming. lol. But I didn't want to buy wings, I wanted to make them.

The Christmas tree was cut from thin wood on my band saw and covered with Christmas fabric and then trimmed. The Santa and other little accessories around the tree were purchased items. I think she turned out pretty good for a first try making an Art Doll. Will I make another anytime soon?  ..........not likely, but maybe someday I will give it another go.

Thanks for stopping by.....have a great day!