Creepy Cutie doll Samantha. Playing with Paper Clay.

I have this fascination with dolls. Big eyed and a little creepy are my favorites.  I think this goes back to those 70's Margret Keane prints that were up on my bedroom wall when I was a kid.  I love drawing doll faces but I wanted to try to recreate one of my creepy cuties with paper clay.  Sometime last year I started playing with paper clay and I created a couple of dolls.  Then I played around with polymer clay and created another but with not much time to create I decided to put the focus back on drawing and mixed media. Like always I can't seem to focus on doing one thing and so I kept thinking about creating another doll.

When I first started looking to make a doll I searched you tube to find tutorials and I had found one by mlbetterly.blogspot.com called, " How to make a paper clay doll".  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAQys7HMZT8&feature=share&list=UUSJeidDM4rUO9wdBZUgyHsA&index=10  This was a really fun and easy lesson on how to create a doll out of styrofoam eggs and paper clay.  I decided to use this process to create my creepy cutie.
Items needed to create the doll:

• paper clay
• two styrofoam eggs 1. for the head smaller than the body and 1. for the body.
• chop sticks for the legs
• wood block for the base
• acrylic paint and pan pastels
• washi tape
• music sheet or another type of printed paper
• ribbon, buttons and tulle
• felting fabric for the hair
• varnish
• tissue paper and a tooth pick for the the lolly pop
• E6000 to glue the legs into the wood block and tacky glue for the hair and clothes

When I was playing around with doll making last year I created a bunch of my own eyes by using paper clay and small dot stickers sealing then with uv resin.  It was way cheaper then buying eyes since I am still a beginner.  I used a set of the eyes that I had created before for this doll.

I started by sculpting the head and face then attached it with part of a chop stick to the body and covered the body with the paper clay. I created her arms and hands out of the clay and left the left hand down with an opening to be able to hold the lolly pop later.  I inserted two chop stick pieces for the legs and covered them with paper clay. 

I let it dry for a few days then I sanded the doll. trying to smooth out some of the rough spots. I painted her face using titanium buff for the face and black for the body. I painted stripes for the stockings and used a little pan pastel to color in the cheeks and around the eyes.

At this point she is looking more like the character from Despicable Me!

After I finished painting her I drilled two holes into the block base and put a little glue in the hole to hold the legs into place. When the glue dried I created her shoes out of paper clay and let dry.  I sanded the shoes and then painted the shoes and the base black.

Time for the hair, dress and the rest of the details. I glued the hair on the head with the tacky glue then tied them with string into pony tails.  I then glued small strips of sheet music around for her skirt curling the ends with a pencil. I then I used tulle around the skirt then covered the top part where the glue was in a layer of polka dot washi tape and then red ribbon.  I used the washi tape on her stomach and created a collar with with it as well.  I finished embellishing the doll with small buttons on the collar, a heart button and piece of black ribbon on the front of the red ribbon. I covered the base with the polka dot washi tape and then sealed it with varnish. I also coated her body with varnish as well to help hold the washi tape in place.   I created the lolly pop with paper clay a tooth pick and wrapped it with a piece of a lime green napkin.  Ta-day! My creepy cutie is finished!  My son Jackson named her Samantha.  So please meet Samantha my Creepy Cutie Doll.  Samantha ate too much candy and has a little tummy ache!

I think I might try some more doll making, it was a lot of fun to bring something that you have put down on paper to life.