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Sunday, February 6, 2011

Frida doll finished!



I finished my Frida Kahlo doll! I´m so happy :). I´m a little bit obsessed by Frida and wanted to have one of my own :). This was so far my most difficult doll to make. The face took me a lot of time to paint. She´s quite tall (taller than my previous dolls), has high heels and red nails. And a tear... I bought the small female deer toy few days ago (I love deers), and then realized it´s perfect for Frida (she had a baby deer as a pet). The clothes are quite shabby... I tried to recreate the traditional mexican style dress, but the bodice was hard to sew.
I´ve been at a big Frida Kahlo exhibition in Wien last October, and it was so great. There were her dresses and jewellery on display, too, and I loved to see them! I´m a big fan of Kahlo´s paintings (and they inspire me at my own painting, too).
To make this doll I was mostly inspired by the wonderful Duh buh duh dolls, as well as some other artists all around the blogs. I´m not sure where to put her... the doll can be hanged, but I have to figure out the right place. I´m planning my next doll, but the sewing part is so discouraging. There is a lot of handsewing included, and it just doesen´t look right, when the dress is more complicated. But I´m very happy with the hair! There is a braid too, but can´t be seen very well.

14 comments:

  1. That is so cool! I'm just now doing a lesson on Frida with my students. We are creating self portraits with an animal, like Frida. It can be a pet or a symbol of their personality. We talked about all her crazy pets! She had monkeys and even a pet eagle. I love this! What do you make the actual doll from? I've been wanting to try something with Paverpol, a fabric hardener.

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  2. Oh my Gosh this is absolutely fabulous! This is the perfect Frida! I love everything about it -the face is immaculately done as is the clothes! I think you are being a little too hard on yourself!

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  3. liza jane: thank you! I make the dolls from self hardening clay, it gets hard in the air. It´s not perfect, because it is very soft and is hard to keep in shape (while it lays flat). I´d like to try something different... but it´s not very expensive, so I continue to use it.
    Maya: thank you so much! I´m dissatisfied with the clothes only, I think. The face was a lot of work (the skin tone, mainly), but in the end is fine. I´m impatient with the clothes :).

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  4. wow, your frida doll is so frida! ;) you can be really proud. i love the hair and the little flowers in her hair. did you make those yourself?

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  5. Thank you, nette! I didn´t make those flowers... the pink roses are sold separately, and the red bigger ones are cut from a trim (trim made of flowers; I hope that makes sense).
    I´m dissapointed with my photography... but I guess it´s camera´s fault! :)

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  6. I'm not really familiar with Frida, but this is wonderful. :-)
    Keep up the good work, it will only get better and better. I mean the sewing in particular. With doll clothes, a lot of the charm lies in the fabric you choose... I found this set of FAQs (in Czech) very helpful: http://molendrix.com/FAQ.html - it concerns fashion dolls, but clothes for all dolls have similar "rules". :-) That is, to use thin, flowy fabric...

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  7. thanks for the tip on sewing for dolls... she says it´s 95% handsewing... oh well :). I usually sew it directly onto the doll... which is not very good, but I can´t make both arms the same, they differ in size etc.

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  8. I guess the handsewing vs machine sewing depends on what size your dolls are... If they're big enough, machine sewing could be fine.

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  9. Oh, thank you very much, Hana, thanks to you I´ve been doing nothing but looking at Barbies on the internet for the past two days... LOL :))

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  10. :D Molendrix? She's very great. As a person, too - I met her briefly twice, and she advised me on some things online.
    Her site had the same effect on me several years ago when I first found it.

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  11. "very great"... I hope none of my English teachers will see it. That's what happens when you rewrite your post and don't proofread it. ;-)

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  12. This is so amazingly kool! I really really want one she is so cute! and I love Frida Kahlo too!

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