A GYPSY WITCH HAG

 Hi All,

Sorry, I haven't posted in a few months. Not working that much. But I did get a commission to make a Gypsy Witch Hag. The customer wanted it to look like my original Hag Witch, but with more "sparkle". So, we decided to make her a Gypsie to add some glitz to her.

She is about 18 inches tall and based on my "Baba Yaga" Witch pattern. I don't know why I'm attracted to these old hags or why I like to make them. I am fascinated by the aging process, and very interested in creating wrinkles in a cloth doll.

She starts as all my hags do -- with several layers of skirts. There's a burgundy petticoat (under her skirt you can't see). Her underskirt is made of olive & brown paisley upholstery fabric with an olive skirt ruffle. Then, there's an overskirt of dark red with a tan lace overlay. I gathered this skirt up in the front. I distressed and dirty-ed the skirts with some brown stamping ink by rubbing it into the fabric with a sponge.

Later, I embellished the trim on the ruffle with some green beads and added some coins along the hem of the overskirt.

On the top, she sports a camel "crunchy" knit peasant blouse and a red & brown print corset vest with a green waist sash.

The head and hands are made of deer suede knit fabric (bought from DollmakersJourney.com). I've needle sculpted the face to make the features. The main wrinkles are stitched into the face, but many wrinkles are drawn on the face with colored pencils or pastel chalk. The eyes are painted with acrylic paint coated with a glossy finish. Age spots and freckles were made with colored pencils.

After taking the photo of the panted face, I thought she didn't have an interesting expression, so I widened the mouth and made it "smile".

The hands are made with craft chenille wires (pipe cleaner) in the fingers. I've inserted tiny little pom-poms into the fingers to look like arthritic knuckles. Plastic drinking straws were cut up to make each of her fingernails. Rags of green brocade are wrapped around her hands to make her "mitts". Bracelets were made by stitching beads to the wrists.

To give the head wrap some height, I stuffed a small pad and stitched it to the top of the head. Her grey hair is made of crepe wool. Gold coin earrings are stitched to the head. (Notice I didn't bother to make ears -- just the earrings!)

The head wrap is made of orange & black print with a sash of green, and trimmed with gold braid and coins.

She carries a "wood" staff made of twisted wire, wrapped in several layers of paper tape and cording. It's textured with sand and stained several colors. I sculpted a crescent shape "bone" made of paper clay and cardboard, topped with a metal raven skull (a jewelry piece) painted with acrylics. Chicken bones and lots of beads hang at the top.

And, again with all my hag witches, she carries a belt with many of her witchy supplies hanging from it. There's a crystal ball (Halloween charm), a gold pine-cone (charm), an amber crystal, her all-seeing eyeball (bead), a ring of keys, some vials & bottles of herbs and potions, and her witch pentagram (charm).

Her cape is made of 3 layers of fabric: thick black lace in a spider web weave, heavy grey lace, and black sequin fabric (you can't really see the sequins in the photos, but when the light catches it, her cape sparkles like "magic".)

Happy Holidays!

-AB