Worry by Amy Rawson

There’s no hard and fast definition to be found for an art doll. They can be made out of almost any medium or several different media. They come in various shapes, sizes, styles, and designs. They can be very realistic or abstract with barely anything recognizable on them. They can be human, humanoid, anthropomorphic, alien, fantasy, sci-fi, or just about anything in between. “What is an art doll?” is as loaded a question as “What is art?”

Matilde by Colleen Downs

The two main defining points about art dolls that you will find consistently are:
1. An art doll is a work of art. The chosen form might be a doll but the piece is art and is intended to be treated and viewed as such.

Violet by Sarah Faber

2. Art dolls are not toys. Usually, an art doll is for display with little to no direct interaction but even art dolls designed to be interacted with (e.g., puppets, marionettes, jack-in-the-boxes, and automatons) are made for adult collectors and are not toys or usually even considered child friendly. Most people wouldn’t allow their children to play with a bronze sculpture or painting on the wall and art dolls fall into the same category.

Ramon by Ky Eliza Ivany

Just like other art forms can be expressed through multiple media, art dolls can, as well. Art dolls can be fully sculpted or partially sculpted from clay with soft bodies. They can be soft sculpture which involves very detailed sculpting of foam and fabric with a needle to make incredibly realistic features. They can be assemblage taking a combination of various materials and making a doll form out of them.

Meadow Moss by Marjorie Liucci

They can even be altered dolls–consider Barbie, sculpted over, painted and turned into a wood nymph…to the point where you barely recognize her original form. But each of these media follows the same defining points of an art doll–they are works of art first and they are not toys to be played with by children.

Octopus Mermaid by Kate Sjoburg

One-of-a-kind (OOAK) is a phrase that shows up a lot in the art doll realm. It denotes something very specific for doll artists. A OOAK art doll should be an original doll (made from start to finish by the individual artist; from conception through design, sculpting, and finishing the piece) that will not be reproduced again.

Green Witch by Rachael DiRenna

Further breakdown can take place within each media. There are such a variety of clays to use, from high-fire to air-dry and epoxy clays. Some porcelain dolls fall into the art doll category because they are individually made by the artist, rather than being mass-produced from a mold. Polymer clay, air-dry clays, two-part epoxy clays like Apoxie Sculpt, paperclays and papier mache are all used for sculpting either full-sculpts or partial sculpts with cloth bodies.

Orphelina by Mary Esther Ward

Soft Sculpture includes using foam, batting, fabric and nylon to make highly detailed realistic figures. Like sculpting in clay, these figures are sculpted using a needle and without a cloth pattern. It also includes needlefelting which can make some amazingly life-like figures, as well. The key to recognizing soft sculpture is how well defined and how detailed the cloth sculpting is. A simple cloth doll with painted face, mitten hands, and rounded feet doesn’t fit into the soft sculpture definition, but a doll with a needle-sculpted face, individual fingers, and defined muscles is exactly what soft sculpture is about.

Miss Culpepper by Will Wagenaar

Assemblage dolls are much less traditional, cobbling together a variety of items from old doll parts to kitchen utensils to make a doll form that’s somewhat recognizable as such. Just about any item is game to be included in an assemblage doll. Their very nature makes them eco-friendly, upcycling and recycling items that would otherwise end up in a landfill.

Blue Bunny by Bastet2329 known as callmechristie on Etsy

Altered dolls, not to be confused with repaints (which are commercial-made fashion dolls that have been stripped and painted in a new style, frequently including a new hairstyle), are another non-traditional type of art doll. For altered dolls, artists use commercial dolls (Barbies, Blythes, other fashion dolls, cheap plastic dolls) and sculpt over them, remove and/or replace body parts, recostume and just generally remake the doll into a completely new figure. Most of these dolls are so altered, it’s hard to recognize the original doll underneath. While the use of a pre-existing doll might traditionally disqualify these from being considered art dolls, it can’t be denied that they fit well within the defining points of art dolls–they are works of art in doll form and they are not toys to be played with.

Molly and the Zombie Baby by Nicole Johnson

So what is an art doll? Essentially, it’s an original work of art in a doll form used, as more traditional art is, to express something the artist wants to express–an emotion, a political statement, a thought or series of thoughts. Similar to art, the reasons for creating art dolls are varied and can’t be pinned down or limited anymore than you would any other artist’s reasons for creating.

All of the artists whose dolls were featured in this article are sellers on Etsy and you can visit their shops or websites by clicking on each picture.

We recently started an art doll team on Etsy called ADO: Art Dolls Only and you can find more information on us by checking out our team profile.

This article was originally posted in the Storque on Etsy.

Right side of studio

I’m spoiled. I won’t deny it. I have a pretty large studio space, all things

Sculpting tables: L, polymer clay/dry sculpting; R, wet sculpting (air-dry clay)

considered. I have five 3′ x 2′ work tables (not very large but I have work space for different parts of my processes–wet sculpting, dry sculpting, finishing, bookbinding, and drawing/photo taking). These tables are pretty awesome. I ran across a woman at a local craft show who made furniture out of used wood and got her to work with me to design tables for my studio with shelves over them (for storing supplies, etc.). The price was unbelievable, too, so I won’t even go there.

I’m still working on setting some of these up, and rearranging, especially since I don’t do much polymer at all anymore–it’s changed what supplies are used for finishing and which ones are used while I’m sculpting.

Bookbinding Table

My bookbinding space is really too small. I may steal one of the sculpting tables (since I don’t do polymer clay anymore) and use it as a second bookbinding table so I can separate out the wet and dry aspects of it, as well. Plus, since I’ve gotten into leather carving, I’m starting to collect quite a few tools for that and could use more space for storing those items.

Drawing/Photo Table

I’m slowly learning to draw, playing around with quite a variety of media from colored pencils (and all the varieties of pencils you can think of–pastel, watercolor, graphite, etc.) to markers. I have a pretty good collection of artist acrylics, a few watercolors and some ideas for doing some collage work and altered books that could use all these techniques and media. As you can tell by how piled up the table is, I don’t get around to working on this stuff much.

Paper storage, cutting table, and junk pile

I have a thing for drawers. I LOVE cabinets with tons of drawers (watch me drool over apothecary and Warren cabinets). Anyway, I needed a place to store my papers for bookbinding and this was another find. A guy at a local flea market makes chests and cabinets so, again, I worked with him to design a storage cabinet for me–large drawers for paper and tons of little apothecary type drawers for little tools. Another steal, to be honest. I love finding retired people who are creating things for their enjoyment and not trying to make a huge profit on something. I added the glass knobs and antiqued copper label holders (killed my arms in the process, I might add). I use this surface for cutting and tearing paper, gluing up the spines and storing half-finished projects.

Bookshelves

Being a bookbinder, naturally I love books. I especially love how-to’s on making books and dolls. Throw in some books on calligraphy, papermaking, drawing, altered arts, collage, a few books on ancient cultures and languages, and some vintage books for altering and you’ll have my bookshelves (in my studio, don’t ask about the rest of the house). There are frequently piles of books lying around my studio, office desk, and/or nightstand so these shelves aren’t always packed.

You might be able to see the edge of fridge in the picture. Yep, my studio even has a refrigerator in it (it’s the family fridge, although I used to store polymer clay in there when I was using it). Next to the fridge is a tabletop convection oven (it’s ok but leaks heat like a sieve) and a small shelf with my ribbon and yarn.

Fabric storage

And then there’s the fabric. I used to be a self-professed fabri-phobe. Now I’m just a sewing-phobe. I love fabric. I usually go to one of the local fabric stores when they’re having a sale and buy 1/2 yard or one yard of each of those luscious fabrics that would break the bank if you bought enough to make an outfit for yourself. I’m still a novice at fabric hoarding, though, as you can tell by my measly four short shelves of fabric. The tubs were another awesome find at an estate sale–made my fabric organizing a breeze.

So that was about a 360 degree tour of my studio. I envisioned the center of the room being rather empty with possibly a slightly larger table, eventually, for having friends over, etc. But, alas, it’s filled with more storage crap because, like a true artist/crafter I hoard EVERYTHING because I “might” need it at some point.

And that’s my studio space.

The only disappointment was that the picture of one of my favorite dolls got cut from the article. I’m including it here because it’s really such an incredible example of an art doll and it deserves to be seen.

Worry by Amy Rawson

Otherwise, they included all the photos I suggested, even some of the more unusual pieces that might not be considered “Etsy style.”

It was more challenging than I expected because I had an 800 word limit (I came in a little over that) and trying to explain art dolls in 800 words is NOT EASY. But being able to use lots of photos helped and I’m hoping it brings another level of understanding on the subject to the Etsy community.

I’m not sure how long the article will be very visible on the Storque (as in on the main page and easily seen) but I’m guessing only about two or three days, tops. So, once it’s off the front page, I’ll be reprinting it here with mostly different art doll pictures/artists, so you can check back here to see what dolls I choose for my blog version.

Full Body WIP

Ok, well only one right now, actually. And he’s still in progress…

I don’t have a ton of photos but a little update on this project. Worked on him last night while watching Shooter (I love Mark Wahlberg movies–well, most of them) which I’d already seen so I didn’t get too distracted while futzing with his hands. I hate sculpting hands and this didn’t change that perspective much even though my goal was to not be overly critical or particular about how well they came out. I figure these guys aren’t supposed to be perfect so I’m not going to spend hours stressing over how detailed and exact their fingers are. I still might tweak them a bit next time I work on them, but for now, they’re good.

Spring RR Hands

Speaking of hands, you can see the hands I did for my EtsyDAMs Round Robin doll in the background behind Blue Barry here. I’m using Premix (a combination of LaDoll and Premiere clays) and I like it even though the texture is a bit like marshmallow. It smooths wonderfully and is less messy than the Darwi. As you can see, the hands still need to be sanded a bit. They’re deliberately chubby–I’m making the doll a young girl so her hands and face will be rather chubby in keeping with that innocent, cherubic look I’m going for. Of course, this may all change when I get to working on the face more.

Barry

But, back to Barry. I finished his hands and just set them on his body (so they didn’t have flat spots while curing on a tile). Next I’ll need to attach the hands to the body and sculpt over the seam. I still need to clean up his hip joint area which has seams. And I had to break the poor guy’s elbow because the arm wasn’t really positioned correctly. So I need to add a bit of clay there. After that, it’s onto the head.

I also made some eyes while I was at it, since I had a little bit of leftover white and blue Apoxie Sculpt. Made four sets white with blue irises, blue with white irises, and some marbled ones. Oh, and teeth for Mr. Barry–he needs sharp teeth, otherwise, how can he shew on the ribbon?

Eyes

Daisies and Ivy Detail

Starting with the completed one–I did another full-leather binding, this time with some seriously intense designs all over the cover. I have some ivy leaf stamps (left and right), so I initially thought I would just stamp them all over the front and back covers and dye the leather green. Of course, that’s just not complicated enough for me, so instead, I carved vines on the cover, used a petal stamp to make some daisies and then stamped the leaves all over. I dyed the leather in a lovely, emerald green and then painted the flowers in orange, red and yellow overlays. The cover looks fabulous, if I say so myself. BUT (isn’t there always a “but?”) I made some interesting technique errors–minor and they don’t effect the function of the book (and really barely effect the aesthetic), but still.

Daisies and Ivy grooves and headband

First, for some reason, I forgot to do the French grooves while the leather was still wet. It was quite an interesting challenge rewetting the spine and adding in the grooves. Second, the end papers wrinkled a bit when I attached them (the paper itself is a printed Italian paper–gorgeous but not easy to work with). I’m still having problems with my measurements between the spine and covers. Finally, the leather stamping was a challenge itself. I’m used to basic carving and shading to make the carving stand out. Many of the design stamps, however, are not sharp stamps and they take a lot more force to get a good impression into the leather. I even moved to a heavier mallet and I still ended up double-stamping a few because the impression had all but faded or didn’t even show up well to begin with.  But once it was all said and done, I like the finished product well enough.

Daisies and Ivy cover

The unfinished project is a sculpted critter. I was initially thinking I’d call is a pixie–well, truthfully, I had

Blue Barry's right hand armature ready to hang

this idea to use my sample-sized colors of Apoxie Sculpt to make five or six little critters that I was going to call rainbow pixies (because each one would be a different color even though they all look similar, feature-wise). I was planning on making five of them specifically for a little Victorian birdcage I have; one of those wonderful old domed metal cages painted in shabby chic white. I made five armatures and actually have the cage bottom removed so I can fit them all back in but I decided to just make one for now and get a feel for it. See how long it would take to make one and how well I liked working with the Apoxie Sculpt. I do like the clay but it is a challenge changing my sculpting habits.

Blue Barry's left hand armature with bell

So the first one, I thought would be a holiday critter–a mischievous little feller holding some kind of holiday item (a jingle bell) that he’s broken (actually I’m just going to have him holding the bell in one hand and a dangling red ribbon in the other as if he yanked the ribbon off

Blue Barry Grixie with head in lap

of the jingle bell necklace). The thing is, they’re all going to be rather mischievous, wicked even, creatures and I’m starting to think I like the “gremlin” name better than “pixies.” But we’ll see once I get closer to being finished…After dropping my quick pix on my computer, I had the brilliant (if I say so myself) idea of combining the names “gremlin” and “pixie” and calling these little guys “grixies.”

Blue Rorshach Trio

So I’ve been on a bookbinding binge, but this one’s mostly been focused on that simplest of bindings, the 3-hole pamphlet.

These little pamphlets were quite an inspiration for me.

Kaleidescopes, Rorshachs, and Dolls Series

I write…a lot. Not professionally, just as a hobby. Stories, working very slowly on a series of fantasy novels, fanfiction, hobby-type stuff. I’ve found that I get some of my best writing done when I’m sitting in the dr. office waiting for an appointment or eating alone at a restaurant. I usually carry around those super-cheap 8×10 spiral notebooks (not really designed for left-handed people unless you use them backwards). You know, the kind you get for 5- or 10-cents every year during back-to-school time. Problem is, the spiral notebooks are too big, too much paper for one story, and they start wearing out before you fill them up (especially if you’re carrying them around with you to appointments and restaurants). I find myself writing parts of a story or finishing a story in a quarter of the notebook and then starting another story but I have to find the second story I started so I try dog-earing the first page of that story. But while I’m writing that one, I start a third story in the notebook and since I have to find that one, too, I dog-ear that page and then get confused about what’s what and still find myself flipping through 20 pages just to find the particular story or chapter I want to work on. Not very organized, I know.

So, the other day, I grabbed my current notebook on my way out the door to a dr. appointment, noticing that the cover was starting to tear off near the top. As I drove to the dr. office, I started thinking about all these little annoyances I’ve just outlined. And then, I had an epiphany. A rather silly one that went like this, “Oh, hey! I’m a bookbinder! I can make an inexpensive writer’s notebook for myself in just about any way I want.” Yep, mind-boggling, I know.

An interesting beastie design altered from my dragon drawing.

When I got home, I started by drawing a flame design on my graphic tablet. Figured I could print up the line drawing several times, color in various ways and have a series of flame notebooks (ok, so I’m on a Pyro binge right now, what can I say). Then I started playing around with some of the photos on my computer (pics of art dolls and a dragon drawing I’d done) and found the “Kaleidescope” button in my Paint Shop Pro–wheeee! I had fun finding all the rorshach designs in the altered images, saved a bunch of designs for future use and printed out eight different covers on some cardstock I had lying around. Printed out the flame drawing, as well.

The first pamphlet was kind of a trial one–I folded each page, stacking them, and then folded the cover and placed it around them. And realized that the foreedge would have to be trimmed somehow. Unfortunately, I don’t own a guillotine or trimmer that will cut through 40 pages at one time (I used 20 sheets of 8.5″ x 11″ paper folded in half). My various attempts at cutting the pages all together were just plain baaaad. So I took everything apart and trimmed every two sheets in 1/16″ increments, cutting progressively smaller as I went. Put it all back together and it worked rather well with the pages nesting neatly together instead of sticking out at the front edge of the book.

The rest went together smoothly. I had a paper-cutting party getting all the text blocks ready and then folded and stacked them all into their separate books. Once I had everything together, I did an assembly line process, punching the holes in all the books and then going back and sewing them with thread in colors to match each cover design. Simple construction but I think they came out looking pretty fabulous.

The flames drawing done in marker.

The flame design was a bit more work since I had to color it first. I opted for markers for the first round, then decided the background (and inside cover) needed to be black, so I spent quite a bit of time coloring the background and inside, as well. It was worth it but immediately became MY book, since I put so much time into it. I did take a picture of the finished flames when I was done so I’ll probably use the photo for more notebook covers. I also wanted to try out making lined pages and came up with something that works by printing the lines on the paper before cutting and sewing it.

Overall, it was a worthwhile epiphany since I’ve come up with a series of stylish notebooks for both personal use and as a new line in my Etsy shop. They aren’t anywhere near the 10-cent price range but they’re more functional and they look waaay cooler.

Jessica on the left and Alexandra on the right.

My youngest Jessica went as a witch, using a costume she wore last year (yep, it was a tad short) with some long black leggings with silver stars on them and a new hat I bought her.

Jessica the purple witch

My eldest was a bit harder to figure out. Someone had given grandma yards of this weird gold material (it’s pretty but not very easy to work with) and grandma told Alex we’d use it for her costume. So guess who played toga designer? We ended up with a Roman goddess (someone even asked my husband which goddes she was).

Alexandra the Roman goddess

I added elastic straps to her costume before sending her out. It kept slipping down in a rather naughty fashion. As you can see, she already thinks she a model of some sort.

They brought in waaay more candy than they needed and grandma and I already picked through the chocolate…yum!

Well, the first big news is that we finally got Etsy to give us a Dolls and Miniatures Category!! It’s very exciting stuff because people have been on Etsy for over three years asking for one. When I first signed up with Etsy, I was thrilled to find the site but a little disappointed that there was no specific category for my art dolls. After campaigning for several months with a core group of doll artists and miniaturists and a petition of over 700 signatures, we finally got a live category for our art!!

Here’s a link to the category: Dolls and Miniatures on Etsy.

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The Bookbinders of Etsy Street Team is holding a Halloween Challenge. I was planning to enter a book but, as usual, I picked a totally new technique to use (relief work in leather) and couldn’t get it done in time. If I manage to figure it out before the end of the week, I’ll send it in to Rhonda to add to the group. For now, here’s the link to the voting post–GO VOTE!

BEST Halloween Challenge

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Other exciting news for me personally–I finally broke down and bought a graphic tablet. I didn’t go with Wacom (waaaay out of my budget) but got a Genius tablet that had some good reviews. So far I like it a lot but there’s definitely a learning curve that I’m still on the lower end of.

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What more do I have to share? I’ve got more projects started and ideas swirling around my brain than time to get them done. I picked up several copies of dog eared magazine from an estate sale and have had too much inspiration from it. The first time I ever saw it, I hesitated to subscribe because I was interested in basic bookbinding and it’s full of various book arts techniques and discussions from altered books to zines to traditional binding and everything in between. There’s an issue on zines, miniature books, popups and sculptural books. It’s packed full of ideas and with the first issue I was hooked–using rubber bands for binding (which make little books that even I can complete in under an hour), among other simple and unusual binding ideas.

I’ve got a Pumpkin King started that is, alas, going to be finished after Halloween (my usual timing; complete the holiday-themed item following the holiday). Ah well, perhaps some Halloween-all-year-round person will be interested in him. I plan to do a post sharing his progress.

I’ve got two leather relief books I’m working on–a spider on a web and a pumpkin. Again, two items that will problem be completed after the holiday, but I’m learning/teaching myself a new technique so I refuse to be frustrated at my timing.

I’ve got two custom full leather books to make, with two more waiting in the wings. I’ve got four assemblage dolls with books, one of which is pretty far along. I’ve got an Egyptian book that was going to be made out of polymer clay but will now be made from Apoxie Sculpt. I’ve got one Medieval style book in the same boat. Both of those will fall under my Keith Smith Challenge. I’ve got a doll sculpted on a bottle that I’m in the middle of; five pixies that go in a Victorian-style birdcage; and one man standing the rain. I’ve got five stamped and carved full leather books I’m working on; one artist book about Wash’s dinosaurs (from Firefly, the TV series); and one artist book about soap (don’t ask me why–just something that came to me one day that I started on).

Yep, definitely have more ideas and projects started than I have time to work on.

Jessica with her first assemblage doll!

One afternoon, while I was working on one of my Etsy shops, Jessica came into my office with her stuffed bunny rabbit sporting a new “head.” A pumpkin head, in fact, which was the plastic pumpkin that she’d taken off of a Halloween flashlight Grandma had given her recently. Yes, I felt a moment of pride before dissolving into laughter since my daughter had actually made her first assemblage doll!

I have no idea why she felt the need to do bunny ears behind the bunny rabbit, but I had to share the second picture because she’s just too darn cute.

Jessica mugging for the camera.