Traveling through the body

More little paper girls.

They are quiet and serene

And juicy and alive

I hope you like them!

Size reference

Old dolls

These are an example of very old dolls of mine. I have many more here http://www.flickr.com/photos/melinaszapiro/ from those old days and some more recent.

At the beginning people used to tell me how creepy they found my dolls but I never felt they were creepy at all. They looked perfectly normal to me :)

As I see them now I believe that they were some sort of a cleansing for me. I put my inner demons out there as I made each of them. And most of those demons have never returned!  :-D

Oldies: Mariantonietas

These were made some years ago and are an example of how paper can be such an extraordinary expressive material. The dresses are paper napkins and glue and I loved making all those drapes and frills. Looking at these makes me want to make a series to play just with dress and garment.

Remember them? Lemony Girls in Paint

I'm preparing to paint a few more of my girls.
These are the paintings of my Lemony Girls from last year.
I'm not very skilled at painting or illustration but enjoy the process very much.
Taking a couple illustration classes is in my to do list for "sometime in the future" :)
Together with metalsmith and apiculture. Some day!

Paper Person

There's the "people person". I'm a "paper person"

I was the "drawing all the time" child, I'm  the paper journal gal,  the calligraphy aficionado. Handmade paper making and letterpress printing have been my work for almost 20 years.

These days I play with paper. Maybe not the way one is used to think about paper though...

What do all my dolls have in common? They're made out of paper.

Sometimes I would make the entire doll body out of paper mâché. Like for the Squash and Honey dolls. My paper mâché mixes are not always the same. I combine paper pulp with PVC glue, drywall and ground chalk. I alternate the additional materials depending of the result I want but paper pulp is always present.

Sometimes I'll use a thin layer of this kind of paper mâché to cover any "skeleton". That way the piece will be very lighr because it has an airy, lightweight interior made out of crushed paper.

Sometimes I'll use small pieces of paper with light glue, cartapesta style, to cover my lightweight  "skeletons" . I sometimes use foil or even reuse plastic bags for the base, the skeleton. Cartapesta technique is particularly soothing and the feeling of gooey glue in the hands is very nice and relaxing. Almost therapeutic.

Making these bodies, the "skeletons" is an enjoyable part of the process. The creative struggle hasn't begun yet. Canvas making is mechanical and has a physicality to it that lets me rest and prepare for the later steps.

At some moment of this "canvas" making, the spirit of the doll will reveal itself. The colors, the images, the ideas will come without effort and guide the following steps (that sometimes take some effort indeed and they're are full of both, delight and some frustration)

They look very weird at this point but eventually they'll start to make sense!

Squash and Honey Dolls

A single squash and a ton of inspiration is more than what a lazy gardener deserves.

Without further ado, I give you my Squash and Honey Dolls, with leaves, flowers, seeds, bees and other garden delights.

I hope you like them. I certainly do :)

China Fina

Care for a cup of rain?
These are my sweet little "Umbrellitas"

These cheeky ladies took me by surprise while I was labouring on the Squash and Honey Girls.
A quick exercise that materialized in only two days. Fun and effortlessly!
Aren't they cute? I loved to work in a blue palette, a nice respite from all the orange and yellow from the other ones.

No Fine China was used for them :)
Only paper and glue (and a bit of cold porcelain)
I hope you like them!

Art Attacks

An extremely inspired season with the dolls. These are process pics for my soon to be finished Squash and Honey girls.  I think these are the prettiest dolls I've made so far, and the process has me so so hooked that I'm finding it hard to put the brushes aside to do necessary stuff such as working, cooking, grocery shopping or studying math. It's one of those times!
Luckily it's a holiday here today and I plan to spend hours working on these!