Month: September 2015

Good evening! First of all, I did not know how to begin this post, since I have many things to talk about. First of of all, today I went to the museum, were there was an exclusive and biggest Rodin (August Rodin) exhibition ever presented in Canada, at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts https://www.mbam.qc.ca/expositions/a-laffiche/rodin-metamorphoses/. I could not afford myself to miss it where 300 of his most famous works are presented from plaster, to marble and bronze. Do to the adult content, his famous statuettes such as  The Thinker and The Kiss and is mainly reserved for adults only… August Rodin was born in Paris in November 1840 and was one of the most important French sculptors of the second half of the 19th Century at the same time as many art movements such as French Impressionism, Modern Art and English Arts and Crafts. He is considered as the father of modern sculptures and it is good to know that he was fascinated with hands, which became is signature. I took many pictures as I could with my cellphone. There are not great, but better than nothing…due to technical difficulties I cannot post them a the present time!

Now, it is Avene time! This doll’s post will be in three parts and in my eyes, she is an important doll. At first, when you look at her, you may think she’s no different from previous dolls that I made, but the way she was sculpted is different. First of all, Avene is 49 cm tall (19 inches), which is tall for a doll who is entirely made in polymer clay, a mix of Cernit (Flesh) and Prosculpt (Baby), my two favorite clays. Before her, I used to make the armature entirely with strong heavy wire where I added aluminium foiled paper covered with manila masking tape.  Previously, I was fine with this technique, especially for smaller dolls (43 cm or 17 inches tall) , but as soon  as I decided to make taller dolls, things got worst, lots of little cracks appeared and it was time for a change. This change started with the armature : I switched from heavy wire to aluminium, which is lighter and anti rust. 5 different sizes of aluminum wire were needed to make the doll’s body: 10 gauge (legs, shoulders and upper arms), 12 gauge (hips), 14 gauge (torso), 18 gauge (feet and lower arms) and 20 gauge (hands). Secondly, I decided to use Apoxie clay to make the thighs and than cover all the body with a light aluminium foiled paper and finish it all with white masking tape. Since the doll is tall and entirely made with 3 to 5 layers of polymer clay, I wanted the doll to be less heavy. finally, the head it is strung with heavy spring wire instead of an elastic. As for my previous handmade glass eyes, they were replaced by Swarovski  crystal cabochon, that I also made myself.  Part 2 will be posted tomorrow! Thanks to you all!

Marie Georghy Jacob