Another great giveaway!!!

Here is another great giveaway I am pleased to post on my blog! Please visit http://dzfantasy.blogspot.com/2009/04/original-spraypaint-picture-purple-rock.html for all the information on how you can get entered into this great giveaway!!!!

Request from a passing Grandmother....

APRIL 25, 2009

Hello everyone! Once again you may have been wondering where I have been...well, my Husbands Grandmother got very ill and passed away on Sunday April 19, 2009. It has been a very emotional last few weeks. When she was first put in the hospital, she had asked me if I could make her 3 little girl dolls for her to give to these 3 girls who sat with her every Sunday at Church. She said she would like to give them to them for Christmas. Well of course I agreed so I began looking through my molds thinking about which ones to make them. Unfortunatley, her health deteriorated very quickly and as she laid awaiting for the Lord to take her, she looked over at her youngest Daughter and said "Please, make sure Daphne still makes those dolls for those little girls.". Ten minutes later, she was taken. It struck me hard when I was told that was her last request. Now that she had been laid to rest in the Cemetary, I am able to begin on the dolls. Once I get them made, my husband and I are going to go back to Grandma's church and present the dolls to those girls in Grandma's memory.
With this request, I will be once again putting my Polymer Clay on hold. I will be dedicating myself into getting these three dolls made and ready to find themselves in the loving arms are three beautiful little girls whom Grandma loved.

Here is a picture of the greenware for two of the dolls. The greenware has been cleaned and is ready to be fired into bisque. Bisque Firing is a long process to where the kiln heats up very slowly to around 2190 degrees F! I will be waiting until this evening before I fire the kiln since the weather here is finally getting warm. My kiln is located in my dining room and when I am in the process of bisque firing, it heats the house up pretty fast.

I am planning on updating everyone to my progress and of course post some pictures for you all to watch as I create these dolls.

New Doll in the Works

OK, so I am totally addicted!!! As I was cleaning my porcelain Friday morning, I just couldn't stop looking over at my new clay and my two failures. I kept telling myself to stay focused on the porcelain and work on the polymer another day...but it was an itch I just had to scratch! After cleaning two more pieces of porcelain, I knew I had enough for the kiln to be able to bisque fire (which takes all day) I ran right into my craft room and started working with my polymer clay again. This time I made the wire armature and added a small amount of clay to it to act as a skeleton for some stability. I kept all the joints free and I used my embossing gun to cure the clay. I then mixed two types of clay together: Prosculpt and Cernit. I used a bit more Cernit than the Prosculpt and spent about three hours combining and conditioning the clay. I worked on adding the clay for about four more hours and this is what I have so far. I hope this doll actually makes it to the oven!!! So far my clay is staying very clean and this mix is a lot firmer to work with than just the Prosculpt alone. At this point I feel I am making a lot of progress and am really starting to get a "feel" for working with Polymer Clay.

TUESDAY APRIL 7, 2009




Yeah!!!! She has a head!!!!! After about fifty attempts I finally got a head I am happy with. It may not be perfect but it is the best head I have made so far! As I worked on getting the head attached to the body, the clay started getting soft again so I attached a little extra clay where the ears will be and called it a day. I need to let my clay harden back up. This has been a very fun project so far and things are going so much better for me this time. I have the help of the members of my yahoo group and Fantasy Art Guild plus I now have my book from Aida!!!! I am just so excited at this point and I hope everyone is enjoying watching me as I learn how to sculpt these beautiful dolls! More to come soon!!!!

You May Be Wondering When I Will Have More To Show

Boy I am a bad blogger! I never realized how much I needed to add until I logged in this morning. I have gotten some orders for Five Commissioned Porcelain Dolls so I have been busy working on them. Unfortunatley, my Polymer Clay Time has been put on hold (so to speak) until I get these Commissioned Dolls done. Once I get the Porcelain Dolls in bisque form, I will have more time to devote to my Polymer Clay. Since, at this point, the greenware is behaving itself and the cleaning seems to be going smoothly, I expect to have them all in bisque form by the end of next week. So, please don't think I have given up because there is no way that is going to happen. I just have other obligations to attend to first...then....back to sculpting.
Thanks for watching!!!

Anatomy A Must!

So as I strive to learn how to make these beautiful OOAK Polymer Clay Dolls, it has been said many times that the best beginning point for any doll sculptor is knowlede of the Human Anatomy. I never realized how each individual muscle in the human body plays its own role in how the body looks. For example: If I were to raise one arm over my head, the muscles on that whole side of my torso would react causing just that side of my torso to show more muscle tone and texture (the ribs would show more, that breast would be lifted more and so on). I did a little experiement yesterday. I have a lot of mirrors in my bathroom that are positioned to where I can see my whole body from every angle. I sort of posed in different ways to see just how these muscles work and what the effect of them where as I changed positions. I was simply amazed at how every pose changed the entire shape of my contours and how different bones showed in some positions but not others. I can definetly see why you need to have some really good reference pictures of the Human
Anatomy.
Dollmakers are some of the nicest, most sharing people I have ever met in my entire life. There is an ocean of these people online that are willing to help you any way they can. Most of them have amassed tons of information that they are willing to share and all you have to do is ask! When I posed the question to other dollmakers as to where I might possibly get this kind of information, I got hundreds of responses. The following two websites seemed to be the favorite ones of other dollmakers:

http://www.posemaniacs.com/
http://www.human-anatomy-for-artist.com/

I have been to both sites but Posemaniacs is my perferred favorite. My next stop in this learning process will be my local library. So remember, if you want to learn how to sculpt the human figure in clay, you must first learn about the human anatomy.

DLynne Artdolls is having a Blog Giveaway!!!

You have got to visit dlynneartdolls.blogspot and check out her OOAK Skeleton Man giveaway! He is totally cute and would make a great addition to anyones OOAK collection. There are two steps to be entered for this giveaway: Step 1 is as easy as following her blog and Step 2 is to add a post on your blog about her giveaway! This is such a great idea and has me thinking about trying this once I get better with working with the clay. So what are you waiting for...hop on over to her site today to get registered for this awesome giveaway!!!!

Photo is a copy from DLynne's Blog. This is a picture of the doll she made and is giving away.