I woke up today drank a coffee and after a look at my to-do list pondered to get some much more potent stuff… Joking, besides that I am not learned about what to take to enhance productivity I am very anxious about everything that has more mind-altering ability than caffeine or valerian tea.
But back to my to-do list. On Saturday this week (ohhhgggooooooddddddd) is the vernissage of our new exhibition and Silvi and I are working like maniacs to get everything done in time. Between still working on the artworks (no idea why I am always working on them till the last moments) we are writing press texts, make announcements at social media, plan the catering and and and.
And as I am very bad at multitasking, all needs much longer than I hope. You have to envision me hopping around like a confused bunny starting to write, then fetch the phone to post, only to leave the posting midsentence to pick up a needle to sew the neck of my doll.
Ha, great transition. Which doll do you ask? And here is the answer: the huge over life-size doll I made from jersey, upholstery scraps and tape 🤪
Last week I presented you leggings I sewed and already mentioned that they not for me, but a doll and I honestly stuck with it and have the object? sculpture? (not sure how to call it) nearly done.
And it was such a mess. The upholstery flocks and the padding we used (yes, I had help from @giavellottista) were flying around and because of some mysterious static electricity they were glued to everything: Our shoes, hands, the carpet, and the doll.
this is how doing art looks :-D
The upside of the fight against upholstery is that I got inspired for a slightly different presentation of the sculpture. Originally, I wanted to hang the doll up (which would be very difficult in the rooms we use for the exhibition) but now I love how gruesome the doll looks just lying on the floor without her head and upholstery falling out of the open neck.
Maybe I am a tad morbid, but I really love it. For transportation I clamped the neck opening shut hoping this will stay put during the transportation.
The sewing of this doll was a kind of nightmare for me, and I do not want to go into details. I only will tell you that I may or may not have inserted the thumbs several times wrongly into the hand opening.
But if you ever plan to sew such a doll, I will give you a rough report what I did:
First, I constructed the body. Here fore I combined a long sleeve shirt pattern with a bodysuit pattern. Next was said leggings for the legs. For the feet I used a free sock pattern and for the hands a free pattern for gloves. I then sewed everything together and started with filling the hands and feet. Legs and torso have a kind of skeleton made from padding rolls we cut into the right form. The rest is filled with the upholstery scraps which give a kind of cellulite optic for the skin.
The week before this I already crocheted some breast in light pink, but I am not sure if I will use them for the final sculpture…
the breast are still unstuffed...
That’s it for today as I need to run back to my to-do list… :-D
If you are living in Germany and are not far away, you are cordially invited to visit our exhibition. The opening will be at 18:00 on Saturday 21.5.2021 at Velsstrasse 19, Bochum. Would love to see you all there, again I say we need the beamer from Star strek :-)
Thank you @crosheille for initiating and @marblely and @kattycrochet for hosting the #needleworkmonday and the community builder team @lauramica and @romeskie I am so glad to be part of. If you want to see more beautiful projects with yarn, fabric, and most of all needles, follow @needleworkmonday. Or even better grab your needles and keyboard and join the #needleworkmonday community.
Ohhh, if you don't have a hive account and want to comment then visit my Wordpressblog Bliss and Blisters and write me there.
Read more about my art und upcoming exhibitions on neumannsalva or buy some of my digital artworks on NFT showroom.
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Well done, creative woman!! It looks magnificent, and I so appreciate the amount of work in such a project... I've made small dolls stuffed with living beans for an art project years ago, and am planning a doll project with affirmation and healing aspects... It's great to see other artists' works that resonate: thank you so much for doing all the sharing here, @neumannsalva !! Blessings!
Thank you so much for this lovely comment and encouragement, it means a lot. And your doll is amazing, for me it looks quite alive, like if I turn and look a way for a blink it will move. I am always amazed about all the wonderful art out there and it is really exciting to read about your take on dolls. I would love to hear more about the healing/affirmation dolls... as you notice I am more on the destroy-and-burn-everything fraction of art :-DDDD But only in doing not in appreciation, there I love more supportive/nurturing art.
Good God! you are multitasking! hahaha ... I could never in my life make a life size doll and you are making it and also with recycled material. I can't wait to see it finished. Here in Venezuela lived a plastic artist who made life-size dolls. One day when I go to the museum I will take some pictures for you.
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Thank youuuuu and I am so glad the doll making worked out. I was not sure it will, as I also have never made such a huge doll before :-D
And yes, that you'll be very interesting to see how the artist you mentioned is working. I find it always inspiring to see other artist work (and I loooove museums)
Coz that's when all the creative juices ooze out of artists. I used to cram all the time back in the day. It gave me such a rush. Although I'm not as adventurous as before anymore. Lol.
Might I say that life size doll is huge! Your talent and patience is remarkable! It would have taken me months to make one. I am not going to show this to my daughter. Better not give her any idea or else I'll be stuck stuffing giant dolls. 😂
Yep, you are right, I may have the same reason why I am late :-DDD
And thank you so much for the compliment. But don't think I did it in one day. I needed roughly a week for preparing it. I am slow in sewing, i guess someone who has made such a doll before is faster. Especially the hands (I am still groaning when I think about my stupidity)... I had to sew them twice, because every time I inserted the thumb on the wrong side 🤣😱
And I had to smile while thinking of your daughter with a huuuuuuge crochet amigurumi in her arms. Would actually be super cute 🥰
If I were in Germany I would have liked to help you, I think I am good at stuffing giant dolls. In my village I make them every year for Christmas. I hope everything goes well in your exhibition. good luck.
This would have been wonderful! I really needed help, not only because i never have made such a huge doll before, but also because it was a hard to handle because of its size. I would love to see the dolls you make for Christmas, what an interesting tradition!!! Are they for the Christmas story? Here in German we often have a play at church for Christmas the "Krippenspiel" (nativity play, I guess in English) done by children.
Her knitted boobies made me laugh. Its large size gives me a little fear, I already want to see it as part of the work. And a great idea to take advantage of all the scraps 😃. Good luck at the exhibition!
You fear rightfully, these are gigantic breasts. Wait till I stuff them :-D
Thank you for the well wishes (I am getting nervous right now - jitter) ANd I for sure will make photos of the whole set-up. Annoyingly I cannot get the part of the rooms I wanted, but I will rethink and am sure it will also work in a different part of the gallery.
That sculpture-like doll reminded me of the time when we used to burn a human-sized doll for the New Year's celebrations. Days before, the doll would be sitting in a corner and sometimes we would sit them at the table as a diner. Even when we entered the house we greeted him, we only needed to give him his own name haha. I wish you all the best of vibes for the fair.
A human sized doll for celebrations sounds intriguing... It reminds me of an very old film I discovered because of its music - the old version of "the wicker man" with Christopher Lee. There they have a huge wicker doll for celebrating but as its a kind of horror movie they burn not only the figure but also people during the "celebration".
Here we have dolls (which are burned) at Carneval in February. So interesting that there are kinds of similar traditions world wide.
Would love to hear more about yours some day <3
Before they used to burn more dolls, years later they only burned rubbish and old mattresses...and then came the issue of "environmental pollution" and now they don't burn dolls anymore. Although, at New Year's they still sell dolls of political figures to burn (especially former presidents, haha), these are only made of cardboard (like piñatas) and not cloth.
The image of the fallen headless torso with the stuffing coming out is very graphic. There was a long debate here a few years ago about how women murder victims are pictured in crime novels and how they are objectified to serve the purpose of the story. It is something of a trope, I think.
I hope everything goes well for the exhibition and you enjoy the opening 😍
I had the same association with the torso, thats the reason I will display it this way (instead of hanging it up). But the discussion of the topic is new to me, I guess I need to research. Thank you for the hint.
And also thank you for the well wishes for the exhibition. Right now I feel like needing to do several things at the same time... I will be more relaxed when the first works are set up 🙏
Wow forgetting about the errors this I was a very beautiful idea, wow so lovely, I pray you get it right
THank youuuu and I am nearly done. I yesterday arranged the doll in the gallery and we stared to hang up the paintings. Hope there will be a nice audience.
OMG, this is so much work for you to do, how I wish I can help with the cleaning of the upholstery, am sure it created quite a mess.
Now I feel lost about sewing, imagining how you sewed the hands, fingers and toes.
You made quite a huge dull and I kinda wonder what the open neck means.
I think I like the dull without the breast 😁
THank youuuu and yes the cleaning was no fun, these scraps were disbehaving, but I got it done yesterday. (I fear the gallery will look the same after the exhibition... full of upholstery scraps 😱)
I wondered the same with the neck. at first I wanted to construct a head, but then I found the body look so vulnerable and hurt without it, that I decided to go with the open neck. I have a knitted Wallhanging which will be arranged near the doll/body which I embroidered with the sentence "get this into your head" meaning all the messages which are forced into women.
And with the breast... I am with you, but against my own preference (and yours) I decided to attach them to make it easier for the audience to understand that the doll is female.
I love your giant doll! And the "gruesome" part made me laugh.
I can't wait to see your exhibition!
Meanwhile, I know you have a mountain to do, but please don't forget to REST!! <3
Many successes in your exhibition tomorrow, I find the work with the doll amazing, the construction sounds laborious but it looks very good.