I’m often asked about my process for creating my art dolls. While the first step is sculpting the head, putting together the body varies. It mainly depends on whether the art doll will hang on the wall or stand freely. Then I have to decide what type of armature I will use for the art doll’s body. Will it be a hollow form, solid form, wire, cloth, or a combination.
In the video below, I share the process that I’m using for my most recent art doll, tentatively known as “Anemia.”
Enjoy!
I took a leap this month and entered one of my Ornimals into an exhibit. I haven’t entered any art into an exhibit in over a year due to some less than favorable experiences. But the exhibit at Handworks came at the right time.
The Expressions of Love exhibit focuses on art made out of love. Love for a family member, a friend, an acquaintance. Someone or some event that represents love in its many forms. Each piece is accompanied by a story. Some are funny. Some bring tears to your eyes. All are heartwarming.
I entered an Ornimal I created in honor of our first cat, Ren. We adopted Ren shortly after getting married and moving to Massachusetts. She was a beautiful calico who traveled with us to five homes and brought us years of joy.
Ren (1985-2010)
Ren Remembrance Ornimal
(Amy Crawley, 2013)
Here is the story I wrote to accompany this piece.
I caught your eye at the shelter as I rubbed the cage door. “Take me home” I said. And you did. I cried all the way to my new home.
We lived in a couple of apartments. You let me play in the sink water and sit on top of your fish tank. I told you I was a good hunter.
I cried when you tried to keep me out of your bedroom. You gave in and I slept on your head. From then on we always snuggled at night, keeping each other warm.
Sometimes you would take me on road trips to visit your family. Remember the time I sat on your lap and stared into your eyes while we waited to pay the toll? You got the message.
One day we moved into a big house and I had more places to run and hide. That other cat you adopted scared me. But I forgave you and still slept on your bed.
I got older and my body changed. Some things inside weren’t working right. You found a nice doctor and he tried to make me better.
You were good at giving me shots and feeding me whatever I wanted. But over time, it wasn’t enough. My body was telling me something. It was getting close to my time to leave.
When the end came, you held me close and that nice doctor gave me a shot. My fur felt warmer and my breathing relaxed. And then you helped me cross to a place where I run freely, catch fish in a big tank, and wait to snuggle on your bed again.
Ren Ornimal & Story
The Expressions of Love exhibit at Handworks Gallery is on display February 2-24. The opening reception is Sunday, February 3, from 1:00pm to 4:00pm. If you’re in the area, stop in to see all the great pieces.
Note: Pieces in the exhibit are not for sale.
I’m happy to share with you today my newest Ornimal ornaments-two new cats and two new dogs.
I use sculptor’s grade polymer clay to create my Ornimal ornaments. Each piece is sculpted one at a time over a glass base. After the clay has been cured (hardened) in a clay dedicated oven, I apply a thin wash of brown acrylic paint over the piece to accent the texture.
I call this the piggy-ghost phase because many of these pieces look like piggies in this first phase. The ghosty part is because the eyes haven’t been painted. The Ornimals really don’t come to life until the all features are added.
Here is what this new group looked like after the wash of paint and before the features were added.
Cat and Dog Ornimals
Acrylic wash
Amy A. Crawley (2012)
And here is how they look after the features are painted on the clay.
Tuxedo Cat with Mohawk
Amy A. Crawley (2012)
Orange Tiger Cat with Striped Hat
Amy A. Crawley (2012)
Golden Lab with Cap
Amy A. Crawley (2012)
Chihuahua with Top Hat
Amy A. Crawley (2012)
And here is the whole brood. Who says cats and dogs can’t live together?
New Cat and Dog Ornimals
Amy A. Crawley (2012)
These new Ornimals are 2 3/8″ in diameter (60mm) and approximately 3″ tall.
These new Ornimals will be joining me at my first holiday show of the season. You’re all invited to come to the Merrimack Valley Artisans 23rd Annual Art Show & Sale on October 20-21, in Chelmsford, MA. Admission is $3.00. You’ll also have the opportunity to enter a raffle to win select pieces of artwork donated by the artists, including this special Ornimal:
When Pigs Fly…
Amy Crawley (2012)
Merrimack Valley Artisans
23rd Annual Art Show & Sale
October 20-21, 2012
Thanks for stopping by.
Have a great weekend!
Sorry, were you expecting some crude joke about pigs and chickens? My apologies if I disappointed you.
Today I am sharing with you three new Ornimals that are variations on the Down on the Farm series.
When Pigs Fly… is a specially crafted Piggy Ornimal for the Merrimack Valley Artisans (MVA) Holiday show this October. This piece will be raffled at the show as part of MVA’s scholarship fundraiser. I am designing a display stand for this piece as well.
When Pigs Fly…
Amy Crawley (2012)
When Pigs Fly… measures 2 3/8″ (60mm) in diameter. She features angel wings lightly dusted with white glitter.
This piece was inspired by the Tour de France which was playing in the background in the studio. It started out with the Piggy wearing a fashionable black beret. But when I started to paint on the features I wasn’t happy with how the beret looked on his head. So I added a red feather and red bead. It seemed to give him a certain “je ne sais quoi.”
Piggy with Beret
Amy Crawley (2012)
Chickens come in all sizes and plumage. This particular chicken was inspired by the Delaware breed which have black and white feathers.
Delaware Chicken Ornimal
Amy Crawley (2012)
In honor of Chicken Month I will be running a special sale on my Chicken Ornimals in September. If you love chickens, raise chickens, or know someone who does and you’d like to get the details about this special, sign up for my Free monthly art newsletter Studio Happenings. The sale is only available to my newsletter subscribers. (A portion of all Ornimal sales is donated to BayPath Humane Society, a no-kill animal shelter.)
This week I’m sharing with you an art doll I made in 2009 during my first visit to La Cascade in Dufort, France.
This is an art doll that is an example of why you must think through your design and construction process. I had only thought through part of the process back in 2009. It is a challenge to create a piece in a limited amount of time and consider all angles of the process. That’s okay. I’ve learned that it’s completely fine to walk-away with a less than perfect piece.
The workshop in Dufort was with my friend Dayle Doroshow. You can read about it here and here.
By the time I started working on this art doll, we had visited Revel, Soreze, the Farmers Market, the vide grenier, and Albi. I was feeling inspired by all the gargoyles in the area and chose an old office rubber stamp as the base for my doll’s head. (I bought a bag of these stamps at the vide grenier with the intent of using them as art doll “heads.”) I sculpted the head onto the handle of the stamp, wrapped his “neck” around the stem of the handle, embellished and antiqued the head.
Dufort Art Doll head
Amy A. Crawley (2012)
I decided to cover an empty cardboard matchbox with polymer and incorporated it into the body of this art doll. This was something new for me as I had only made hollow-core art doll bodies up to this point. The matchbox is embellished with a piece of napkin, a small sunflower (le tournesol) and a face bead.
Dufort art doll mid-section
Amy A. Crawley (2012)
Now in between his head and his torso is a long cane-embellished snake with two little paw-like hands at either end. These became the arms for the art doll. Using a similar technique I created his long legs and feet.
Dufort art doll legs
Amy A. Crawley (2012)
So there I am with four sections, a head, arms, torso, and legs. Somewhere in the process I had decided that I was going to “string” all the parts together, kind of like a marionette. This is where the construction part became interesting.
Dayle’s lovely husband Dan found a drill at La Cascade. We measured (“eyeballed” really) the horizontal part of the stamp (where the rubber portion would have been attached) and Dan drilled two holes into the wood. Then I set about measuring some buna cord. I laid out each piece and strung the head portion to the arms and torso.
Where this got interesting was hoping I measured each piece of buna cord correctly (i.e: evenly) so that the art doll’s top portion would be balanced. It almost worked. He has a very slight unevenness in his right/left balance. But that just adds to his character.
Stringing the legs to the torso was a bit easier as the buna cord is glued into holes at the base of the torso and top of each leg. But again, I had to measure rather accurately so he wouldn’t have one leg hand lower than the other. (What is that old adage, “measure twice, cut once.”)
My intent in creating this art doll was to have him hang on the wall. After returning home I added the feathers to his head. Then I attempted to hang him on the wall.
And his head immediately drooped over. His head was too heavy. Wah.
For whatever reason my brain insisted that the only way to mount the piece on the wall was to hang it from a nail placed under the wood stamp. And would you believe this approach stayed stuck in my head for quite some time?
I thought about creating a hook on the back. For some reason my brain got stuck on the idea that to create a hook, I’d have to drill into the back of the stamp handle.
Then finally the other day, as this art doll was resting comfortably on a work table, I picked him up, grabbed some 18g wire, and started wrapping the wire around his neck. I made a loop in the back and secured it.
Finally the Dufort Art Doll of 2009 could be hung on the wall without flopping over. Why hadn’t I thought of this earlier?
Dufort Art Doll 2009
Amy A. Crawley (2012)
As I said, had I taken more time to think about the construction of this piece, it may have turned out a little different. Had I not been so stuck on my earlier construction process, I might have completed the piece sooner. Really, all that was missing was a good way to display him on a wall.
I haven’t made anything similar since 2009, in part because of the challenge I faced in figuring out how to hang the damn thing. Now that I look at this piece, I remember how much I enjoyed creating him, especially the marionette-like aspect.
Maybe, just maybe, another one is in my future.
Have a great weekend!
Last month I started selling my Ornimals-Sculpted Animal Ornaments at Country Dogs Pet Retail right here in Bolton. A pet retail shop seems to be a good place for me to sell the Ornimals. I mean, what better place to find animal lovers than at a pet shop? The ideal customer for Country Dogs dovetails with my ideal customer.
Of course a pet shop that caters to dog owners means I need to sculpt more dog-centric pieces. That is a good challenge for me because dog breeds are harder for me to sculpt. Unlike cats, which have a more common facial anatomy across breeds, dogs all vary, just like humans. Even within breeds you’ll find subtle differences. But which breed would I start with?
I decided to sculpt a Boxer because one of the shop’s owners has a Boxer and is involved with Boxer rescues. My sister also owned a Boxer, a female, who was a very sweet pooch.
Boxers were developed in Germany in the 19th century. Their lineage goes back to two German Mastiff type dogs and later the cross breeding of a Mastiff and a Bulldog. Boxers are a working breed. They are intelligent, high-spirited, playful & curious. Boxers bond with families, are loyal and affectionate.
Boxer Dog Ornimal Ornament
(Amy A. Crawely, 2012)
The Boxer Dog Ornimal is approximately 2 5/8″ diameter (60mm). He is hand-sculpted with Super Sculpey, cured, then hand painted with oil paints. Retail price $30.00. Available at Country Dogs Pet Retail.
Thanks for stopping by & have a great weekend.
Do you remember that I shared some process pictures of my Tiny Totem Bobble Birds several weeks ago? Did you think that the birds “flew the coop” because I didn’t share the finished pieces?
Well, the birdies are still here in the studio. But I lost my focus on the blog as I delved into other areas, like delivering work to a new consignment store, preparing for a studio show, and starting a year-long coaching program. I’m sure you’ve had times like this. The fork in the road takes you in one direction and eventually you circle back to that place where you started.
Anyways, several weeks ago I shared the birdies progress pictures. You can see their “beginnings” in this post here and in this second post here.
Today I’m happy to finally share the finished Tiny Totem Bobble Birds:
Tiny Totem Bobble Bird with Heart
(Amy A. Crawley, 2012)
Tiny Totem Bobble Bird with Heart
Front View
Tiny Totem Bobble Bird with Heart
(Close View)
Tiny Totem Bobble Bird with Heart
(Side View)
Tiny Totem Bobble Bird “Spike”
(Amy A. Crawley, 2012)
Tiny Totem Bobble Bird “Spike”
(Close up)
Tiny Totem Bobble Bird “Spike”
(Side View)
This week I started work on a new line of Ornimals, The Farm Animals. There are four Ornimals in this new line, a cow, a piggie, a sheep, and a chicken. Sculpting them has been a bit of a challenge. A couple required do-overs. And I’m sure they’ll continue to evolve from this first iteration. For now I’ll share this group shot of the ornies with the first layer in the process- an acrylic wash.
Farm Animal Ornimals, Phase 1
(Amy A. Crawley, 2012)
Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!
I’ve always enjoyed looking at the nighttime sky. As I get older, I find myself more fascinated with the twinkling stars and constellations. I do wonder “what is out there?”
The Super moon that we had a few weeks back was thrilling. Though it didn’t seem quite as large in my own backyard, some of the pictures posted online were fascinating. Looking at those pictures, an image popped into my head for a new sculpture. I drew the idea in my sketch book and began work on this new piece. I’m thrilled with how it turned out and am happy to share pictures of Moonman with you today.
First up is Moonman before he went into the oven. Looking rather fleshy isn’t he? Usually the sculpts are kind of ugly looking at this stage. He looks rather proud of himself.
Moonman Nekked
An acrylic wash is applied after the sculpt is removed from the oven and cooled. Then the fun begins when I add oil paint for dimension and character.
Moonman’s smiling face (Amy Crawley, 2012)
Moonman’s starry slippers (Amy Crawley, 2012)
Moonman in his starry jammies (Amy Crawley, 2012)
Moonman (Amy Crawley, 2012)
Moonman is approximately 4″ tall. He is made from polymer clay with a glass & wood armature. I think his smiling face might work its way into a new line of ornaments.
Thanks for stopping by.
Last week I showed you a picture of my Tiny Totem Bobble Birds in progress. You can see that post here. If you don’t feel like following that link, suffice to say that the birdies had recently been cured in the oven and were shown without any color. Just plain ol’ cured white clay.
Now, let’s see how I add color to these cuties.
First, you need alcohol inks, rubbing alcohol, paint brushes and gloves.
Luscious alcohol inks (not for consumption)
And here are the little birdies waiting to be colored.
Hi! We're Waiting
Because I will be teaching a class on how to make these little birdies, I can’t share all the specific details on how to create and paint them at this time. Please enjoy these process pictures as each piece is colored. Humming your favorite song while looking at the pictures might be fun. For some reason the theme song from Jeopardy, the one they play when people are writing their answers to the final question, popped into my head.
Do not, however, hum “The Girl from Impanea.” You know what will happen if you do. Just sayin’.
Coloring the top side of Spike
Add a Green collar
Gotta have fuchsia spiky hair
All done & waiting
Don't 'cha love my tangerine wings?
A nice warm yellow for the bod.
Heart-beat
Green hair & a yellow neck
Tout fait, for now.
You may have noticed that I use both Pinata & Ranger alcohol inks. On “Wing” above I decided to only use the Pinata alcohol inks. I noticed a big difference between the two brands almost immediately. The Pinata inks appear to dry with a glossy sheen whereas the Ranger inks appear to dry with a matte finish.
If you use alcohol inks, have you noticed this difference?
To continue this further, I’m going to put a coat of Kato liquid clay on “Spike,” dry it with a heat gun, and see what happens. Will he end up with a shiny coat or will all his colors meld and patina with the liquid clay?
Stay tuned for more pictures of “Spike” and “Wings.”
Oh, if you’re interested in learning how to make these little birdies, leave a comment below that you’d like class information & I can add you to my newsletter list.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!
A few weeks ago, I introduced you to one of my new Ornimals, the Graduate Owl Ornimal. This piece received good feedback so I decided to make more for the upcoming Graduation season. And then I hit a wee little snag. I couldn’t find any 2″ glass bases in order to make more Graduate Owl Ornimals. I only had two left in my studio and one of those bases was supporting my prototype.
Geez, I really hate it when a good idea comes along and then you can’t find the necessary materials to make more.
I hunted around online, talked to some friends, and finally found a source. Thrilled with finding an online supplier who had the bases in stock, I placed my order. A few days later a box arrived. I anxiously carried it to my studio, opened it up, pulled out one container and said “Oh crap, they’re the wrong size!” And I mean they really were the wrong size by a whole 1/2 an inch.
The thought of returning the bases didn’t cross my mind. I was sure I’d find a way to use these small glass bases. I accepted this as a challenge. Thankfully the creative muse was on my side and within a few days this new little guy was sitting on my worktable.
Because of the size of the glass bases, I thought they’d be perfect to make baby ornimals. But something happened on the way from inspiration (a picture of a baby kitten) to action. Introducing Punk Kitty:
Punk Kitty (Amy A. Crawley, 2012)
Punk Kitty Side View (Amy A. Crawley, 2012)
And don’t forget his paws…
Somewhere a proud Tiger Striped mom cat shakes her head and smiles.
And I won’t lay blame for this little guy on Robert Palmer, who happened to be singing away in iTunes while I worked.
As always, thanks for your continued support on this journey. And thanks for stopping by….
Have a great weekend.
Musings from the Moonroom 