As my mother will tell you, I was always a Daddy’s Girl. He didn’t walk on water; he danced the tango on it. After my dad witnessed my stepfather bringing me metal bobs and bits for my assemblage work a few weeks back, he decided that he wanted to play, too. He went to a couple of auctions and brought back all manner of things, including this level:
He also found several dolls, and to my great excitement, a thermostat. I love interactive assemblage, so I decided to make the thermostat my centerpiece for an anatomical assemblage art doll. Of course, I didn’t remember to take pictures until I’d created most of the body, but here goes.
After painting the thermostat and the box separately, I bolted them together, covered the thermostat, in clear gesso, and then detailed the anatomy with colored pencil. I added epoxy clay to create the dimensional ribs and heart.
Vintage composition doll arms.
At this point, panicked a bit. I had planned to use the level as the basis for the head, but suddenly, it looked too small. I altered this doll head, but it turned out too cartoonish.
After trying, altering, and rejecting a papier mache puppet head, I went back to the original level.
First, I removed the lower plastic piece to create a circular opening, and then I painted it with a range of metallics and added clay.
As I hoped, the hair helps with the size.
With the addition of hardware and a lock.
This piece is available in my Etsy.
3 Comments
Melissa · August 1, 2015 at 11:56 am
Oh wow! That is fantastic! I'm glad that you made the head the way that you did. It's much better that way. It's so crazy ah-mazing! 🙂
sarah · August 6, 2015 at 10:23 pm
I've already gushed all over this, but… GUSH. It is so ridiculously amazing.
Cindy Dauer · August 7, 2015 at 9:46 am
Super cool and terrifically creepy assemblage! You're painting so many great faces! I think this one was the totally right move compared to the larger sculptured head. This one fits just right. 😀
Comments are closed.