Patti Medaris Culea - Creative Cloth Doll Faces: Using Paints, Pastels, Fibers, Beading, Collage, and Sculpting Techniques

Creative Cloth Doll Faces

USING PAINTS, PASTELS, FIBERS, BEADING, COLLAGE, AND SCULPTING TECHNIQUES

Patti Medaris Culea

2005 by Quarry Books

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the copyright owners. All images in this book have been reproduced with the knowledge and prior consent of the artists concerned, and no responsibility is accepted by the producer, publisher, or printer for any infringement of copyright or otherwise, arising from the contents of this publication. Every effort has been made to ensure that the credits accurately comply with the information supplied.

First published in the United States of America by
Quarry Books, an imprint of
Rockport Publishers, Inc.
33 Commercial Street
Gloucester, Massachusetts 01930-5089
Telephone: (978) 282-9590
Fax: (978) 283-2742
www.rockpub.com

Digital edition: 978-1-61673-941-6
Hardcover edition: 978-1-5925-3144-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Medaris Culea, Patti.

Creative Cloth Doll Faces: using paints, pastels, fibers, beading, collage, and sculpting
techniques / Patti Medaris Culea.

p. cm.

ISBN 1-59253-144-X (pb)

1. Dollmaking. I. Title.

TT175.M457 2005

745.59221 dc22 2004025594

CIP

ISBN 1-59253-144-X

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Design: Peter King & Company
Cover Image: Allan Penn
Pattern Drawings: Roberta Frauwirth
Illustrations: Judy Love
Photography by Bob Hirsch and Allan Penn

Printed in Singapore

To Kieran, the new little doll in our family

Every child is an artist. The
problem is how to remain
an artist once we grow up.

PABLO PICASSO

First impressions. What do we notice? Eyes? Mouth? Nose? The shape of a chin? The message in a smile? These same impressions are found in cloth dolls. The face is an important part of doll making. It reflects what you want your doll to be. Its who she is.

The face brings a doll to life. It should mirror the heart of you, the doll maker. For the cloth doll makerwhether a beginner or a hall-of-famerthe face of the doll is where memories begin. So how do you make your doll reflect the spirit and joy of its creator?

It is my hope that this book will help you bring a new level of creativity to your artistry. Quite possibly, your dolls faces will do more than make people smile or reflect. I hope your expressive dolls will make hearts sing.

This book focuses on the dolls face. The tools needed for making the face are easy to find. Art stores, craft stores, and even fabric stores carry most of them, and none of them have to be expensive. Youll find many of the supplies in your home already.

mechanical pencil

ruler

eraser

fabric

watercolor pencils and/or crayons

fabric paints

pastels

colored pencils

seed beads in sizes 14, 11, 8, and 6

crystal beads

accent beads

drop beads

scraps of cotton, Ultrasuede, tulle, and other fabrics

cotton Lycra or other stretchy fabric

textile medium

brushes

100% cotton fabric

cotton batiks

cotton Lycra or Doll Skin (stretchy knitted fabric)

Fairfields Polyfil Stuffing

pipe cleaners for wiring fingers

16-gauge galvanized steel wire

thread to match fabrics

hand and machine needles

strong thread for sculpting

upholstery fringe

fabric

mohair

yarn

Jacquards Dye-Na-Flow paints

Jacquards Pearl-Ex pigments

Jacquards Textile Paints

Jacquards Lumiere paints

Stewart Gill paints in the Byzantia, Metallica, Alchemy, and Colourise ranges

Tsukinekos All Purpose Inks

wide, round, and flat brushes

sewing machine

sewing machine needles (sharps in size 10; metallic, embroidery, and top-stitch in size 12)

sewing machine feet (darning foot, open toed foot, among others)

sewing machine tools (for changing needles and cleaning bobbin area)

small bottle of Sewers Aid

extra bobbins

hand-sewing needles (sharps, milliners, quilters basting needles, darners, embroidery)

doll-sculpting needles (3 [7.6 cm] and 5 [12.7 cm])

beading needles in size 11/12 and beading thread

straight pins and safety pins

pin cushion and thimble

rotary cutter and cutting mat

cutting rulers and measuring tape

template plastic

scissors (paper and fabric)

pinking shears

hemostats (hand-held surgical clamps) or forceps

large and small finger-turning tools

stuffing forks

needle-nose pliers

wire cutters

seed beads in various sizes and colors

accent beads

crystals

We can thank Albrecht Drer for giving us a wonderful tool for drawing faces. Drer was a draftsman, painter, and engraver who lived between 1471 and 1528. He came up with a grid method for drawing. He built a large wooden grid inside a frame, and put his model behind this grid. On a piece of paper, he drew a similar grid, and copied what he saw into his own grid. In this way he was able to create an almost perfect image of the model.

Clockwise from top left: grid, colored pencils, watercolor, paints

The basic grid for a face
(not drawn precisely to scale)

In drawing faces, this same principle can be used, only in our exercise we wont be copying a person. Well create a new person. Refer to the illustration (below left) as you draw.

1. Using a ruler and a mechanical pencil, draw a rectangle 3 tall by 2 wide (8.9 6.3 cm).

2. Divide the rectangle in half widthwise and lengthwise.

3. Divide the vertical length into fifths (each unit will be [1.3 cm] wide).

4. Divide the lower half of the rectangle into thirds widthwise.

5. Inside this rectangle, draw a large oval.

6. On the horizontal halfway mark, find each of the one-fifth units where the eyes will fit. Place a small vertical line through the center of each of these.

7. Measure the width of the one-fifth unit for one eye. This measurement will also be the height of the eye. Draw in a square, dropping the lower edge of the square about