World's Worst Ninja rattle

I liked the idea of a ninja rattle, because ninjas are supposed to be silent and only the World's Worst would rattle. Poor little guy. He's fierce and brooding - but not stealthy. I'm going to make a bunch of these and sell them on Etsy for $11 each. If anyone wants one, please let me know!

Jane Eyre Doll

For Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, I wanted to make a milliner style doll. A milliner doll is a doll with a paper mache head, hands, and feet on a muslin body. These dolls were sent by dressmakers in the mid-1800's to show the latest fashions.

Poor Jane Eyre, though, is but a governess. Her linen dress in simple and stark, though her wool cape is passionate red. She has a cotton petticoat under her dress. She can sit on a shelf, but I think she looks more tragic standing in her doll stand.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

I love Lisbeth Salander. I love The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - the book by Stieg Larsson, the swedish film with Noomi Rapace, the Fincher film with Rooney Mara. I love them all. This is my take on Lisbeth in a doll made of polymer clay. Her jacket, belt, and shoes are all real upcycled leather (from old pants legs). Of course she has a tiny wasp tattoo on her neck and a dragon tattoo on her left shoulder. BUT, more importantly, she's ready to go with her stun gun in hand.

I debated with myself long and hard about giving her her famous "F you, you f-ing F" T-shirt. I decided against it. It would be cool for a second, but then...

I hope you like the doll as much as I like the character. I love girls who can take care of business.

Mad Men Joan Doll

Joan Holloway is such a great character on Mad Men. For Christmas I was commissioned to make a one of a kind Joan doll. My Joan is made of polymer clay, and has a form fitting red dress and her signature pen necklace as well as a black fur and purse.

I know Barbie has made a Joan doll, but I really don't like it at all. How do you give Joan and Betty Draper the same figure? Just ain't right. Just my opinion, but just ain't right.

Hamlet doll

Hamlet - the second in my Shakespeare doll line - finished. The melancholy Danish prince is made out of paperclay over a wire armature. His clothes are Elizabethan, and of course they're black because he still mourns his dad. He holds Yorick's jestful skull as he contemplates mortality.

Alas, poor Hamlet. Flights of Angels. You know the rest.

Hamlet the First

I've started my Hamlet doll. Not Shakespeare's noblest character, in my opinion. His dad tells him right away, "Hey, kid, your uncle killed me. Get revenge, but leave your poor mom alone." So what does he do? He puts on a play, TALKS about killing his uncle, but instead picks on his poor mom ("Whoops. Sorry, Dad") and his poor girlfriend. Then he kills Polonius by accident, which sends Ophelia to her death. He then wreaks havoc at the funeral, and Laertes has to fight him cuz he's being such a tool. All this before he can kill his uncle.

If there weren't so many bodies piling up, it sounds a lot more like A Comedy of Errors than a tragedy. Hamlet shoulda stayed in school a little longer.

So, my Hamlet doll will reflect my feelings about this whiny little guy. (That's the other thing. What did whining and playing mad get him besides another Act to procrastinate?) I started with a big Styrofoam ball for the head which I carved into the basic head shape. I covered it with paperclay and put it on a wire armature. I'm going to paint the wood base black, I think.

Lady Macbeth doll

Lady Macbeth. The first of my Shakespeare dolls. I've taken a LOT of time on this one. In theatre "The Scottish play" is bad luck, and to say the name of the play in a theatre is to call disaster upon your troupe. And just so has Lady M caused me nothing but trouble from moment one.

First, I clean my hands religiously while sculpting polymer clay, and store the work-in-progress in plastic in between working. My pirates, perversely enough, never got dirty. But Lady M attracted little specks like a vacuum, and I spent a lot of time gouging out dirty clay and replacing. Grrrr.

Then when she was baked and ready to go, she didn't want to be dressed. She snagged on loose threads and her hands were just a LITTLE too big to go in her sleeves. I had to remake and handsew them on. Grrrr.

While making her dagger, my first attempt snapped when I cut the hole in the guard. Grrr.

Her hair, mohair from the Angora goat, was like a rats nest. I treated it better than any salon with cream rinses and delicate untangling with a knitting needle. I guess it's okay, but you'd never guess I did it.

Now that she's done, I want to start on Hamlet. I'm hoping the whiny Danish prince won't be near as much trouble.

Jane Austen's Emma!

My latest Jane Austen doll is Emma Woodhouse, the confused but clever heroine who knows that to be poor and unmarried is to be pitied, but to be well-off and unmarried is always respectable, and she happily belongs to the second category. The movie "Clueless" is based very much on Emma, and keeps all its humor and innocence. I like the movie, but I love the original.

My Emma is paperclay with viscose hair. Her pink cotton dress has printing of the novel Emma as its print. Mrs. Weston, Mr. Knightley, and Harriet Smith are all discussed in the print on her dress. She also wears little kid slippers, cotton bloomers with lace trim, and a handmade bonnet with handmade lace and ribbon flower along with a feather.