WITCH CRAFTS

WITCH CRAFTS

Saturday, May 20, 2017

ELEGANT BEAST & 18th CENTURY BUSTS

Hi All,
I'm in Albuquerque, NM, where we have are Fiber Art Fiesta. We have this textile show only every other year. I made a few dolls to sell, and they have all sold! (Thanks to my friend, Pamela Armas.)

Here's my tribute to Adnan Karabay, a doll artist who's dolls were popular in the 1980's & 90's (unfortunately died in 1998). He liked to use animal skulls and antique fabrics in his historical costumes.

I call her "Elegant Beast":


I used a real bird skull (I'm not sure what type of bird it was, -- sorry). The body is cloth, which I painted a pale gold to match the painted skull. I added some clay & animal eyes to the skull to fill it in a bit.


The headdress is an antique jet beaded medallion I have embroidered with more jewels. I wired the whole thing to get it in this shape and added some lace, flowers, and feathers, too.


There's also some antique jet embroidered trim on the edge of the dress (hard to see in the photograph).

Also made some more 18th century busts of two ladies going to a masked ball.
Here is "Lady Peacock":



And, her companion, "Madame Butterfly":






 Have fun!


5 comments:

Mary Ann Tate said...

She is elegant...I love her costuming. Just beautiful. The two busts are lovely.

Sue said...

Your Elegant Beast is stunning.

Carol- Beads and Birds said...

All Wonderful but Ms. Elegant Beast is to die for. I could kick myself as I had a skull like that but I cannot think of where it might be now. It was from a Black Bird or Starling I guessed. Your lady is amazing.

Northbrook Designs said...

Just when I think, no, he can't come up with even more amazing creative pieces, and here you go again... Beautiful. The piece with the skull is an absolute show stopper...Wow...

Arley said...

Thanks so much, ladies. It's so nice to hear that you like my work. I am grateful. I hope to make some more "bird" dolls, soon.