dark fairy wip

Well, since halloween is up and coming, I thought I'd take a break from all the jolly santas and let my dark side have a go at it while the jolly soul rested up. I have never made a dark spirited doll, so this will be a new venture for me. She is in the very early sculpting stages as you can tell. I still have to decide how I'm gonna pose her and her prop etc. But, here she is at any rate. She's nothing spectacular at the moment, but hopefully she will be what I imagine her to be once she is finished.

Hugs,
Lori

Lori I love your faces. I went back and was drooling at your Mall table again. I am like drawn to your fae, mainly because their faces look fanciful. I think that fairies that look like a miniature humans should be blown apart with a shotgun. Wheres the whimsy? Don't ever change the way you do your faces girl.
Huggs Paula

Awe, Paula, that has to be the nicest compliment about my fae anyone has ever given me. And, all this time, I have been worried that I can't seem to accomplish a very human like face that was stunning and drop dead gorgeous. I have to say, you have just made my day. Hugs and more hugs.

Well, here is an update of the dark fairy. Unfortunately, she is not completely finished yet as I have had some issues working on her wings. And, too, again, the lighting in my house sucks beyond belief, so the pictures are not the best that I could do. Later, once she is completely finished, I'll post better pictures.

Before I post her pics.....I want to tell you all the ordeal about her wings. I have come very close to yanking my hair out of my head over this darned doll. But, perhaps after you read this, you'll see why it has taken me so long to post any pics. *sigh*

First I took 2 layers of organza fabric and fused them together using a special material. Once I did this, I cut out my wing pattern in the way that I so desired them to be. After I finished this, I then took a light weight wire, and used my sewing machine to stitch the wires down to the wings to create a "veining" in the wings. This allows them to be bendable and freely poseable. It is really a wonderful feature that comes with the fabric wings. Anyway, after I did this, I found some black silk rose flowers at the store. I took the pedals from the flowers and cut these in small pieces that would mimic a "feather". Then, I took these new feathers and glued them down to both sides of the wings creating the layered feather look. Well, needless to say, after all this work, it did not look the way I had envisioned it to look. So, back to the store I went looking for black feathers. I could not find what I was looking for, but ended up purchasing a bag of black "fluffy" feathers. Well, my thought was to take bits and pieces from the fluffy feathers tucking them into my new hand made wings. I thought it would give it more the "feathered wing" look. Well, putting tuffs here and there did not feel very appealing to me. So, I wound up cover the entire wings front and back. Now, mind you, most normal people probably would have taken the entire fluffy feather and just glued the thing down, quill and all. But, oh nooooo, that would have been way too easy for me. I had to cut the feather off of the quills and glue them into position one little bunching at a time. As you can imagine, from start to finish, this pair of wings have taken quite some time to create. If you can believe I have worked on them now for about 3-4 days? Get up, go to work for the normal day job, then spend several hours each night fighting a pair of wings. Yep...that is the process, folks. And, can you believe, even after all that work, I DO NOT like them still. So, back to the drawing board for me.

So, now, I am waiting on some new feathers to come that I have ordered over the internet. These are longer, sleeker feathers, with a smooth appearance. They should be black, with a hint of metallic type of color in some sort of greens as the picture looked. I believe they are rooster feathers of some sort. Anyway, the goal is to have the fairies feathers mimic that of her friend the crow. If you can picture a "magpies" feathers, I guess these might look somewhat like that. *shrug* Hard to say when all you are doing is looking at pictures on the internet when you order something. I just pray they are exactly what I need, otherwise, I'm gonna have to make do with the next best thing. But, it hopefully will be worth the wait for these feathers. As it is, the current wings felt more like black angel wings to me. It just wasn't the look I initially wanted.

Anyway, here are the update pics. I call her "The Raven and the Crow". Unfortunately, because the lighting is poor, you can not see the tear drops she has that are streaming down her face. Hopefully when I post her final pics you will be able to see them more clearly. I do hope you like her so far!







Enjoy!

Hugs,
Lori

Lori, it's 2:19 am and I don't have it in me to read what you wrote. I'll do that tomorrow. Hey......that's today, isn't it. Aw, you know what I mean. Anyway, I must say that your little raven maven is terrific. What a talent you are! D

Lori I wish I would have know you were doing wings this way. I could have helped you. I have been dealing with feathers for over ten years because I used to make a living with them. I tied fishing flys. What you need is a black rooster cape. They are not too expensive. The feathers on the cape are the back and the neck of the rooster. Their are definite left and right feathers. The smaller ones are easier to work with because of the softer barb down the center. Instead of using a backing of light weight fabric, use black interfacing its more stable. Me I would have just bought white angel wings and dyed them. Seems like I have a pair of them around here somewhere.
Any way if you need any help let me know. Hugs Paula

Thanks, Paula, I'll let you know if these do not work for me. The ones I ordered to do the job are iridescent black rooster coque tail feathers. By the picture, it looked like it might do the trick. What do you think?

Hugs,
Lori