Three-dimensional Fabric Construction—LESSON FIVE
Three-dimensional Fabric Construction
A web-based Class ( Pamela Hastings 2005-2011
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LESSON FIVE
|FOCUS: Putting it all together—projects with combined techniques, creating civilizations of cloth. Fingers and toes—I don’t do realistic, |
|but there are some who do. Wire skeletons and other ways of making it stand up. Weighty bottoms, the architecture of doll construction— |
|and how to make structure and design work together. |
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|[pic] |[pic] |
| |Two dolls made from exactly the same pattern and concept, but quite |
| |different in “look.” It’s good to work in |
| |series. |
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|I love a triangular body and/or base! With these three-piece bodies, including heads, the base is round, with a piece of plywood or two layers of |
|cardboard just inside and a stone or several large washers as a weight, so the body is sure to stay upright. Both bodies are pieced, with heads and arms|
|made from ultra suede, only because I have a lot of it and it has a nice texture. The form can follow the materials. |
|The heads are pretty flat in front, so I drew features on heavy watercolor paper, colored with pencils and watercolor paint, and then covered the |
|surface with clear acrylic gel medium to seal it. The faces are sewn on with small pearls or beads and the hair is roving (fiber for spinning) tacked on|
|with tiny stitches. |
|With multiple arms, the digits, which are defined with a tight running stitch, can each hold a piece of symbolism to define the subject of the doll. The|
|flat base adds to the primal/goddess effect. |
| |These are variations on basically the same shape, except that| |
| |instead of including the head in the body pattern, the body | |
| |is a bullet shape, the heads are a two-piece silhouette on a | |
|[pic] |flat back, with a little needle modeling to help define the |[pic] |
|Emily Dickenson |facial features, pulling in around the nose and under the |Frida Kahlo |
| |eyelids. | |
| |This series is dedicated to female artists and writers, with | |
| |some of the poetry written on the back of the doll with a | |
| |Sharpie extra fine point marker. I painted the features with | |
| |acrylics, and used color, pattern, and symbolism typical of | |
| |each artist. There is freedom in defining an underlying | |
| |structure, then playing with variations | |
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|The more dolls you make, the more you’ll learn, and the more the opportunity to develop your own style. Start with a small variation in color or |
|hairstyle, change the length or width of a piece, the subject matter. Keep a notebook of inspiration, and play with how you can transform other people’s|
|patterns into your own approach. |
|For many years in succession I’ve challenged myself to create a new Christmas tree | |
|angel. With all the commercialization of the holiday, I think it’s nice to give friends |[pic] |
|and family something handmade, but I don’t want to do a big, long project. I can play | |
|with whatever approach is intriguing me at the time. These are the 2004 angels; the head| |
|is two-piece, slit up the back for stuffing. I printed the faces of my ancestors onto | |
|commercially-prepared fabric—actually; I had printed them too small by mistake, so this | |
|was a perfect way to use them. I zigzagged them onto the halo fabric before assembling | |
|the head. The body is my favorite triangle shape with un-stuffed legs sewn into the | |
|bottom seam. 2-piece wings stuffed and sewn at an angle on the back. | |
|[pic] | |
| |And here’s a doll I made just last spring in an elinor peace bailey|
| |class…using her kit and ideas with my own interpretation, like the |
| |lips made out of folded upholstery fabric and the big black |
| |stitches, and the very short arms with hands cut from heavy |
| |upholstery fabric. |
| |The premise of the class was working with gathered circles of |
| |fabric to build a body. The extension I put on the neck, |
| |exaggerating normal body proportions also made my doll unique. |
| |elinor pre-made the legs from paper clay with wire inside to help |
| |hold the shape, and there were wire loops coming out of the tops of|
| |the legs to attach them to the body, so she sits. |
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| |I like combining different materials in one doll…the contrast of |
| |hard and soft adds interest. Just continue exploring and keeping |
| |your mind open to possibilities as you play…”what would be another |
| |way to do that?” will sing through your mind at all times. |
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| |Ancestor Doll was the first doll class I taught. I | |
| |started making cloth bodies with paper faces so I | |
| |could get more detail into the face without stressing | |
|[pic] |too much. Then I discovered that I could make Xerox | |
| |copies of my plentiful Ancestor photos and tint them |[pic] |
| |in places with pale colored pencils and paint the |Here’s a more streamlined approach to the Ancestor theme.|
| |whole thing with Acrylic Gel Medium with a touch of |The two on the left use photos transferred onto fabric. I|
| |copper paint stirred in to give a very antique look. |just Love piecing those tiny bits of fabric and find that|
| |I pieced the bodies and used mother-of-pearl buttons |modern batiks fit well into an antique theme. |
| |from my vast collection for embellishment. On the left| |
| |is my great grandmother, Kate Owen Leonard, who ran a | |
| |boarding house in NH. | |
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|Participating in Round Robins, where each person starts a body part and the dolls are passed around until they return to their original owners is a good|
|way to see how others solve doll design problems. |
|I made two torsos from my favorite Ultra Suede and finished the one on the left myself, with a dinosaur tooth as a face and porcupine quills across the |
|chest, as Woman On the Edge of Time. I learned too late that I hadn’t really put enough weight in the base to keep her standing securely upright, |
|especially with the tilted back posture and the hair and beads. So think about the structure as you design, and overbuild for stability—a weighty or |
|wide base makes for a solid figure. |
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|In the Round Robin version on the left, Tracy |
|Stilwell made the snake that curls around her hips and makes the base wider—great design solution to prevent tipping over! Sara Austin made the |
|fanatically-embroidered face and Nancy Matthews the clay pea-pod arms. It’s fun to have examples of so many friends’ work all in one piece. |
|She turned into two figures before the Round Robin was completed. The second figure was a mother and child. The body has become a canvas for embroidery,|
|beadwork, and appliqué. The gathered sleeves make a transition to cover what may be an ugly attachment for the ceramic arms. The hair is a wig of |
|different colors and textures of yarn…presenting two very different ways of dealing with the same body shape. |
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|Here are just a few of the many ways to create realistic bodies| |
|from fabric. As you look at other people’s dolls and sew these | |
|and other patterns, you’ll discover yet more ideas. | |
|I love looking at folk and other naïve art for inspiration for | |
|my own work. | |
|[pic] | |
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| |Go back to your basic shapes. Two of shapes two are joined at the bottom with a ladder |
| |stitch at the left—Siamese twins? |
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|Armatures are solid structures inside dolls or other sculptures to lend strength and| |
|form to the finished piece. At the right, I’ve attached some twigs together in a | |
|position suggesting a body. I’m sewing a plastic doll arm over the right arm, | |
|wrapping the body with strips of quilt batting to create a form. I wrote an | |
|affirmation on the quilt batting with a Fabrico pen, and then I’ll wrap the body | |
|with strips of fabric, sewing that to the batting with large decorative stitches. | |
|Using sticks gives us | |
|a head start on the form, since the stick shapes suggest poses and movement. | |
|Susanna Oroyan’s ANATOMY OF A DOLL gives very detailed instructions on creating wire| |
|armatures. Armature wire, from an artists’ supply store, is very flexible and you | |
|can build dolls that are poseable with that wire as a skeleton; telephone or floral | |
|wire works, too. | |
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|Anne Meir leaves her wood armature showing as arms and headdress. The body | |
|is a large wooden dowel set securely into a Plexiglas base, the face from | |
|polymer clay. To the right, I used armature wire for a skeleton, wrapped it | |
|and dressed it in wool from an old chemise…a very poseable dancer…no face | |
|needed. | |
|[pic] |[pic] |[pic] |
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|I like to leave hands off whenever possible. I’ll use wings, stubs, suggestions, and mittens, rather than try to construct a convincing hand, but here |
|are some hands for you to try. A is an outline of a hand, made slightly more believable by quilting to create valleys between the digits. With this |
|style of hand, you can take tucks, pin, and ladder stitch to bend the wrist and/or fingers to make the pose more realistic. B has a separate thumb, |
|which looks a bit too long from this angle. You can draw a hand silhouette, with the two middle fingers together and quilted and the index and little |
|finger more separated. C has individual digits, each stuffed with a folded pipe cleaner. The ends of the pipe cleaners are all inserted into a palm for |
|more pose-ability. I learned this style from Tracy Stilwell, and have made feet with individual toes this way too. The patterns are at the end of the |
|lesson. Make up the samples, and then try adapting some of these techniques to your own patterns. |
|[pic] |[pic] |[pic] |
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|Here are two approaches to feet to add to the stuffed flat, turned up one that I’ve already showed you. These patterns are at the end of the lesson as |
|well. When you sew D, go up both sides, but leave the toe end open (D 1). Bring the top and the bottom seam together and sew the line of the toes across|
|the end and stuff. C has two sides, a bottom gusset and a front gusset. Sew the back seam first, add the front gusset, noticing that on the big toe |
|side, the gusset attaches just behind the toe, and on the little toe side the gusset attaches up further. Sew the whole thing to the foot bottom (sole) |
|last. |
|[pic] |Following are step by step pictures of how I designed a |[pic] |
| |mother/daughter doll, from the first sketch at the left—very, very | |
| |rough shape, to the beginnings of drawing the pattern on the right. I | |
| |usually start drawing with a perpendicular line through the center of | |
| |the body, and work out from there. I drew out how the baby would be | |
| |constructed and its face. | |
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|[pic] |[pic] |[pic] |
|I assemble materials...may not use all of them. | | |
|Constructing the muslin body, with tucks pinned in | | |
|around the face, and then ladder stitched in place. The| | |
|flat base with weights inside insures stability. A | | |
|sweeping posture. | | |
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|[pic] |[pic] |
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|I separated the index finger for more realism, and try the baby in Mother’s arms to make sure she’ll fit. |
|I end up taking a tuck in Baby’s stomach to make her fit better…| |
|she’s pretty big, but I’ll go with her as is. |
|[pic] | |
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| |I decide to paint the muslin, working directly on the untreated |
| |fabric with acrylic paints. I’ve quilted some features into the |
| |face, to give a starting point for painting features. By working |
| |wet paint into wet paint, I can create shadows and subtle |
| |variations in color. I’m not going for too much realism, as you |
| |can see by the color. |
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|[pic] | |
| |Finished painting, added a headdress and panniers, made from the other fabrics I |
| |chose. I added lace and attached it with beads. The antique strips of buttonholes|
| |form strips over the head dress. |
| |The panniers help the doll stand more securely, as well as adding more of a |
| |costumey effect. Since the baby’s body is patterned cloth, all she needs is a bit|
| |of lace to suggest a dress. |
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|Start a doll of your own design. If you have a digital camera, take step-by-step pictures, so you’ll have a record of the changes she/he goes through. |
|Each project you make will teach you valuable lessons to use in the next project. Specialize in one or two of the approaches you’ve liked the best from |
|this class. I know it’s a lot to do in a week, but try a series, each figure building on the one before. Make the individual figures very simple, like |
|my Icons, and then use different fabrics and embellishment techniques for variations. You could use the one-piece rolled jersey doll in lesson 1, and |
|take a picture of the whole group together. Look for a photo of a group of the ancient Chinese tomb figures. |
| [pic] | [pic] |
|Play with the idea of multiples of simple figures. There is freedom in structure. There is impact in repetition. Create subtle variations in each piece.|
|There’s a powerful piece in the Seattle Art Museum of 100 male African figures made with knitted bodies and fabric clothes to express the |
|current powerlessness of males in South Africa. The figures on the left are Chinese terra cotta tomb figures, and I’ve place a group of my dancers |
|together. There is complexity through repetition, more shapes and planes to interact. |
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|[pic] |
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|Experiment with these different hand types, and try them on the dolls you design. Which one do you like best? Can you collect some additional hand types|
|from your studies of other peoples’ dolls? |
|Play with the other body part patterns on the next page…are you keeping up your Notebook of Ideas? They will come in handy during creative dry spells. |
|[pic] |
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4
A
B
C
D 1
D 2
C
10
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