Thursday 4 March 2010

The Goddess of my Garden - a Bottle Doll


I belong to a Doll Group called Dolly Mixtures (as we all make a mixture of very ifferent types of doll). We meet every two months and in February we made bottle dolls. I should have used paverpoll as it sticks anything to anything and you can obtain fantastic textures in layers, all at the sticking stage. I didn't have any so I used pva, as I did last year when covering a wooden lamp base.
As you can see, it is rather flat, but the wine bottle has a nice wonky neck which gives it a bit of attitude. I used paper, laces, leaves and scrim etc. then painted it with gesso. If you use paverpoll you don't have to use gesso, as it paints over extremely well. I took the doll to class in this condition.

The lady encouraging us at the meeting provided us all with a face she had made from Fymo using a mould. This is what my doll looked like when I got home, having painted her first with dark brown all over, then adding various shades of green, and some metallic.


Once home I added some hands (not too sure about those!) finished her face and added a lot more paint in various layers until she looked okay.



Decided against the hands, but used some leaves instead (up her sleeves) and added her collar of
fungi that I picked off the treetrunk in my garden. Believe it or not, these are not painted, they are the colour they have acquired during the winter and match perfectly. Last autumn when I picked a few, they were silver grey!
The Goddess of my Garden is now complete (I think).......
If and when I made another one I will use a perfume bottle. They are a lot smaller and some of them are beautiful shapes that would lend themselves very well to this sort of thing. I might even buy some paverpoll!
Till next time.....

5 comments:

Doreen G said...

Wow Val that is clever and I love her colours.

Heather said...

She is gorgeous Val - so mysterious and mystical. What an unusual idea and I love the way you have incorporated natural bits and pieces into hair and costume.

Heather said...

It's me again! Thanks for the tip about printing my stamped designs onto fabric on freezer paper. I haven't long had a printer and am terrified of bunging it up if I use it for 'unorthodox' purposes. If I find myself having a brave day I might give it a go.

Margaret Hall said...

Hi, Val~!!!
OOOOoooo....I think she is boasting wonderful hues of greens and Nature~! How much fun this must have been...Love it~!

sharon young said...

She's absolutely gorgeous, Val, and it was a treat to see how she progressed to her lovely clothes, I think you were right about the hands, the leaves are perfect.