WITCH CRAFTS

WITCH CRAFTS

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

TRIBAL DIVAS!

Hi All,
Well, it's almost October, which means two things for me -- Halloween (of course) and the International Quilt Convention in Houston, TX.

My buddy Pamela Armas (Treasures of the Gypsy) sells my dolls in her booth at Houston and some of her customers collect my dolls from her. So, I try to make as many dolls as I can to go to Houston at the end of October.

Here are the first finished: I call them "Tribal Divas"


I was inspired by some photos I saw on Pinterest of costumes worn by Live Action Role-Players (LARP). There seems to be a Tribal/Savage-theme game and a post-Apocalyptic game that people dress up for. It really inspired me.

My Trible Divas wear leather, suede, wood & metal beads, chains, bones, skulls, and lots of feathers.

This one has a fruit bat skull on her head, large ram horns (made of brown cotton knit) and squirrel fur on her shoulders:




This one has a tiny bird skull on her head, antlers (made of tan knit fabric) and two muskrat skulls on her shoulder. Both have chicken bones worked into the fringe at the bottom:



Okay, it's back to work for me! Got lots of dolls to finish. Stayed tuned for more at the end of the month!

Have fun!


Monday, September 18, 2017

BABY ZOMBIE DOLL

Hi All,
Just made a Zombie Doll. I bought a porcelain doll from the thrift store and "zombified" it.


 These are so much fun to make! And, you can do it fast. I made this in 2 days!

I bought this doll for $5. Here's what she looked like when I started:


Isn't she sweet?? (Her hair looked better, but I started distressing her wig before I remembered to take a "before" picture.)

The first step is to strip the doll down to nothing and rip off the wig. 

Next, I painted a base coat of gray acrylic.


Because I wanted to use a crackle medium on the face, I needed to paint the color that would show under the cracks (gray & black).

Now, I have never had much luck with crackle mediums. I've tried several brands, and either they don't work at all, or they have tiny, little cracks. I experimented on the back of the legs and had the same results as before -- not good.

So, I tried Kroma Crackle (which I bought for a Michael DeMing class and never used) Kroma Crackle dries white, so I didn't add any color to it. You have to paint it on real thick.

This is the result I got:


Not exactly cracks -- more like a "lizard/leprosy" texture. But, hey, it works. I went over the whole face with some stains to add more color. When it was all dry, I went over everything with several coats of matte medium.

For her dress, I dipped it in a bath of black and gray dye. After it dried, I tore and shredded the lace. Then, dripped some brown and red stain on it.

I glued the wig back on and hacked it up with scissors. Then, I attacked the synthetic hair with my heat gun.


Now, I have a new zombie doll to add to my Halloween yard.

I'm really having fun altering porcelain dolls. You may remember I made a "Demon Baby" a few years ago:


And, here is a Day of the Dead doll I made at Thomas Ashman's class:


So, for a fast and easy Halloween doll, try altering a porcelain doll from the thrift store!!!

Have fun!