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My Doll Making Journey

Hello doll makers. My name is Suzanne. I love making things, especially dolls of clay.  My passion for doll making has grown over the last 5 years.  I discovered sculpting one of a kind dolls, known as OOAK, in polymer clay while searching for answers to a problem I was having: broken legs on figurines I had sculpted for my son’s school projects. For years I had made cute animals and even a male “Spartan” for my son for his school projects or just because he wanted a cute toy out of play dough.  I found that I really enjoyed creating these creatures for him.  But each time I made a large figurine, my son would come home from school disappointed. “The legs broke.” he would say.  So after the last disappointment, I decided to find out what I was doing wrong.         Flumo BJDs- Sophie and Annabelle  Although I spent the majority of my time in high school in the art room, we mainly drew pictures or painted.  Figurine sculptures were not part of our curriculum.  In college I majored in
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Recent posts

I'm Back from a Long Stretch! My new Blythe Store

  Good morning doll friends!  It's been awhile since I posted last.  I've had a lot of personal changes happening in my life in the last two years.   My family has moved 3 times now in the last 5 years.  My husband and I are both originally from Memphis, TN.  Because of my husband's job opportunities, we have lived in Paducah, KY for two years, Columbus, SC for a year and a half, and now we live in Charleston, SC near the beach!  We even have palmetto palm trees in our yard! How cool is that? Unfortunately, along with moving, I also have been working full time as a preschool teacher.  I love those kiddos, but I find I'm just exhausted when I get home, so I haven't opened up my blog page to write about dolls for you in about 2 years.   I am hoping this trend will not continue.  I have so much to say, and I want to keep you informed about my doll making journey, as well as my other crafting adventures!   Along with doll sculpting, I also create my own homemade lye soa
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My Big Eyed Doll Head Made in Premier Air Dry Clay

Big head doll with cute elf ears Recently I became inspired to create a doll with a big head and really big eyes. I have loved the doll, Blythe, since I was a young girl in the 70s. The idea of creating a Blythe replica came to me years ago, before I bought a Blythe Basaak doll a few months ago. I owned an original when I was 9. I loved her. I am unsure if she is still packed away at my parents’ house. One day I hope to find her. I really believed I would have to sculpt one of my own if I ever wanted another. So I decided to sculpt a similar doll based on the original Blythe. Her head is smaller. The lips and nose are bigger and her eyes are squarish, not round. I sculpted her out of Premier clay. Below I have pictures of my progress. I sculpted the face first on the back of a glass pan. I dried the face in my oven at 275 degrees. Afterwards, I wrapped a piece of aluminum foil in plastic wrap. I used a size close to the size of the face. I then added clay to the foil to create
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Doll Artist Feature- Kelly Sparks "Higher Delights Dolls"

A few years ago, my husband and I, along with our 10 year old son, left Memphis, TN to move to Western Kentucky for his job.  He is a civil engineer.  He was working on the largest civil works project for the Army Corps of Engineers, which was in its last stages of building 3 locks and a damn across the Ohio River. We loved our time in Kentucky, and miss the friends we made there.  Life has lead us to South Carolina for the Natural Resources Conservation Service, because the damn opened this past September, and we were almost sent to the cold weather instead of the warm South. So we chose being close to the beach and the mountains instead of Mid-America. But this post is about our time in Kentucky. A few weeks after moving to Kentucky, I was browsing Etsy, looking at the wonderful art dolls for sale. While there, I came across the store, "Higher Delights Dolls," by Kelly Sparks Salchli.  Oh my goodness, these dolls were gorgeous!  So I decided to read about the arti
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Flumo and Plaster Casting- the art of creating an Art Doll

For the last 8 or 9 years, I’ve been obsessed with creating art dolls. It started one day when my son, who was in 8th grade at the time, came home with his science project. It was a “zebra” with camouflaged stripes painted in orange and white. I had sculpted it for him, but he had painted it. This was the last of a long line of animals and one “Spartan” warrior that I’d helped him create for school. All of them out of air dry clay made for kids. Although I had spent most of my own time in school taking Art, I had never learned to actually sculpt. When my son was little, I’d make him cute little animals in play dough, and we’d let them dry. He loved them, so I guess he thought I was able to make anything he needed. It does seem that I had made something as a child out of paper machete using a balloon as a form, but I don’t remember if it worked or what it was. Once we did wrap string dipped in sugar water around a balloon. When it dried, we popped the balloon and cut out a hole, pla
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Fair Meadow Dolls and Soaps Store Link

https://fairmeadowdolls.weebly.com/
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My New Store-Fair Meadow Dolls and Soaps

Good Morning Doll Makers! I wanted to announce my new/old adventure.  Years ago, I began a blog on Weebly.com for my handcrafted lye soaps.  Yesterday, I reopened the store to include my hand sculpted art dolls.  Here is the link:   https://fairmeadowdolls.weebly.com/ I have decided to keep both this blog and the store separate for now.  This blog is for tutorials and just talking about doll making in general.  The store is for the actual merchandise I plan to sell online. Why a store on Weebly?  And why don't I call it "She's a Doll of Clay"?  Two reasons: 1- Etsy has way too many doll makers, and I do not believe that my work is being shown.  I have decided to take the matter of sells into my own hands. 2- "She's a Doll of Clay" is not the brand I want my dolls to be under. So what brand, you say?  "Fair Meadow Dolls and Soaps".  Fair Meadow is a play on my father's name, Farley, which means "far meadow".  I f
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