Blog Archives
Winter Road
Watercolour with some pastel pencils used at the end.
This was painted from a photograph taken on my drive into town for groceries. This is on the way back home.
Filtered Light
I’ve been experimenting lately with adding pastel pencils to my watercolour paintings.
This piece was painted from a photo taken on my early morning walk. I added pastel to the darker tree trunks for added texture and to the foliage.
Earth Goddess
My latest fabric sculpture is an Earth Goddess. She is inspired by the colours and shapes of the ochre quarries of Rousillon, France which I visited several years ago. There is no mining of the ochre now but you can visit an old quarry.
Poly: Earth Goddess – Fabric Sculpture by Nancy Leigh-Smith
I took this doll to the NIADA Conference in Asilomar, Pacific Grove, California, where I had a great time and met some wonderful doll artists.
In order to facilitate packing and transportation I used magnets to join the legs to the torso.
Back view of Poly: Earth Goddess – Fabric Sculpture by Nancy Leigh-Smith
I painted her with watercolours before adding the face features with pastel pencils. I painted absorbant ground on the base before painting it with the same watercolours.
Face Detail of Poly: Earth Goddess – Fabric Sculpture by Nancy Leigh-Smith
I spun the yarn for the hair on a drop spindle before sewing it to the head.
I randomly beaded the light parts of her torso, arms and legs.
Beading Detail on Poly: Earth Goddess – Fabric Sculpture by Nancy Leigh-Smith
She is named Poly because she has 6 fingers on each of her hands.
Circles
I finished this doll a little while ago. She is a version of the Tea Bags doll you can see here. I didn’t post it as I was busy working on things for the Almonte Fibrefest which was last weekend and Calabogie Artsfest which is coming up on October 15 & 16.
Circles
Cloth doll
I named her Circles because her jacket is a circle and because of the pattern in her dress. I didn’t have any lace for the bottom of the dress so instead of making an 80 Km round trip to the nearest store I made some using free-motion embroidery and built-in stitches on my sewing machine on water soluble stabilizer. It took longer than the trip to the store but I’m pleased with the result.
Detail of Face
The face is needle sculpted and painted with chalk pastels.
Little Faces
After a few false starts I finally got some pin dolls made.
Pin dolls
They are made of cloth and painted with pastel pencils. I “made” some of the hair, the rest is made from various trims, a piece of lambs skin and some fur.
Whatever Lola Wants…
Lola wants to dance.
This is what Lola looked like a few weeks ago.
Lola: Work in Progress
Since then I have had to make several versions of some of her body parts before I could get them to look the way I wanted.
Lola
Lola: Detail Profile
I usually have a standard order in which I sew the different parts of a doll together. I sew the legs to the torso first. I sew the arms on after the clothes. I usually sew the head on before I put on the hair and then paint the face. This time I put the hair on first. Big mistake! The hair kept getting in the way as I was sewing on the head.
Painting the face comes last.
Lola: Outlining features with air erasable pen
The first thing I do is draw in the features with an air erasable pen. I cover her hair with a piece of cloth to keep it out of the way and to protect it when I spray the face with fixative.
Lola: Outlining features with permanent ink
Once I get the features correct, I go over some of it with a Pigma Micron 005 brown pen. This is permanent ink.
Except for the high light in the eye, the face is painted with pastel pencils.
Lola: Adding colour with chalk pastels
I use 2- 3 colours for the eyes and eyeshadow and 2 colours for the lips. The top lip is always darker than the bottom, which catches more light. I add the highlight to the eye last. I use acrylic paint applied with the tip of a needle.
Lola: More colour
Lola: Face
I also paint the fingernails.
Lola: Painted Fingernails
So here she is, practicing her routine to be ready for her audition for So You Think You Can Dance.
Lola
Prudence
Prudence is another doll whose shape was inspired by a bottle. (See Making a Pattern from a Bottle here.)
I used the same pattern as for Portia and Passion ( see here and here) except that I made the pattern slightly smaller.
The front and one side are sewn together half way
I used the sewing machine to make the hair. Using the same green thread I used in the body, I sewed straight lines on water soluble stabilizer and then sewed over it with a decorative stitch that caught both straight lines.
Sewing decorative stitch over the two lines of straight stitch
After washing out the stabilizer and letting it dry, I cut it up and used Fray Check to seal the ends before sewing it on the doll’s head. I marked dots on the head with a pencil as a guide.
Sewing on the hair
The face was painted with pastel pencils.
Here is the completed doll.
Prudence
Detail – Prudence
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