Pardon the cheap pop-cultural wink, but after a year of writing a blog primarily about dolls, I couldn't resist! And I tried to remain true to reference by eschewing the neutral space of the lightbox for a valley-esque environment for my most recent work-in-progress. Here they are in my backyard, lurking among the shoots of what will soon be one of my favourite flowers, Day Lilies:
I confess, I felt rather silly arranging doll heads in the flower beds and could only imagine what the neighbours would think about the crazy new lady playing with tiny body parts. I've been working with paperclay (an air-dry clay) for the past few days and I love love love it. I can achieve to much more detail and control than with polymer clay, but it it very time consuming as must be built up in layers, left to dry, and then sanded between layers. Polymer clay can be sculpted in one shot, then baked. Sigh. Polymer is instant gratification but paperclay is a love affair. I altered my cloth doll pattern to give them longer legs, because I thought they were looking a little stumpy. I also tried a bit of silk ribbon embroidery on her skirt: I've recently discovered the black & white setting on my camera (oh, the torment of being a luddite!) so I've been experimenting with trying to take artsy fartsy photos. This is a beautiful statue of Copernicus outside of the Montreal planetarium that I happened upon one day: I love how the elements have stained his face...he looks more than a bit tortured... 
