Saturday, December 1, 2012

Kristallstjärna (Crystal Star)

A Snow Angel and her Frosty Friend


Winter is upon us once again. While the snow falls gently to the ground, the snow angel Kristallstjärna (Crystal Star) flies down to her favorite forest to visit her little snowman friend. She brings him a gift basket of beautiful snowflakes ,but as she soon discovers the warmer weather has melted her dear snow friend into a pool of himself. Her heart breaks. His humble scarf and unbecoming buttons lay wet on the ground in the puddle he left behind. Soon to her surprise however, she sees his last attempt to reach her. It is a sign, stuck in the snow. It reads "I'll be back again someday". After all, snowmen are of the winter and will eventually come back to play once the winter snows begin to fall again.
 My newest sculpture just in time for Christmas!
Her name is Kristallstjärna (Crystal Star)
a beautiful Swedish name that
some sweet friends of mine named Clare, Jemma and Samantha came up with.
 I think it fits her perfectly...don't you? 
;-)
This little snow angel is a OOAK
made from Fimo Clay and Mixed Media

She is approx. 7" tall not including the base.
She is made to be free standing and can be taken off her base if you would like
to display here in another setting.
Her Snowman friend is made from mixed media.
He is permanent on the  9 1/2" x 12 1/2" Base along with the Christmas Trees.


Her sweet little blue eyes are glass and handmade by me, and her soft little locks
peeking out from under her hat are tibetan lambs wool.

All clothing is also made by me and embellished with vintage lace and dusted with
some beautiful snow.


She holds in her mittens a carved walnut shell basket full of beautiful snowflakes
 and flowers brought down from the heavens just for her little friend.


I hope you enjoy her as much as I enjoyed creating her!
Have a Merry Christmas!!!

To see a U Tube Video of this piece see here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TbmIxg1-lM

She is available for purchase here:



Tuesday, September 25, 2012

"Our Fairy" Type Little Bisque Dolls

I wanted to share with you a cute little pair of "Our Fairy" type bisque dolls that I have been working on. They are just a bundle of sweetness!!!
When I purchased these little dolls someone had painted their feet and areas on their bodies with gold paint!! After I cleaned them up some little black shoes and blue socks appeared from under that old gold paint.  Perhaps a child had painted them....I am not sure but after I cleaned them up they were so adorable I decided to make them some new outfits.  They are copies of the German all bisque little doll named Our Fairy which is so popular with collectors and stand approx. 5" and 5 1/2" tall. 

I named this doll Violet.

         



She is the smaller one of the two and is marked on her back "Nippon" 
I used a pale lavender batiste for the dress
and overlayed a piece of antique lace on top of it. 
These little dolls are a nice way to use small pieces of beautiful lace to really show it off. I then added some silk ribbon flowers on her dress and made her a little flower head band. I think these dolls are adorable!

The second little doll I named "Daisy"

With her blonde hair and little blue eyes she just looked like a Daisy to me!  ;-) 
She is unmarked.
Her dress was also made with pale yellow batiste and overlayed with antique laces.
Both these dresses were hand stitched. I have found that stitching these dresses by hand as much as possible is the best way to go. I then found some vintage daisy motifs that were added here and there on her dress along with tiny 1/8" blue and yellow silk ribbons to accent her dress. 
Hope you enjoyed meeting Daisy and Violet!!!
:-)

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Where did the time go????

Well....has it really been this long since I posted???
 My poor little blog thought I forgot about her! 
I better "Get To it"  and write something!!! 
Life has a way of slipping by in the blink of an eye!

I have been very busy working on a lot of projects. Both old and new.
 So first I will show you what I am working on at the moment and then hopefully in the next few days
some updates on other related items.

Halloween...it will be here before you know it. Yikes! October in less than 30 days!!! No...it can't be!!!
Well...I have been working on a piece called "Whoo and Boo" this is the first few photos of the sculpt.
 Ummm...what is it???

 Beginning of Armature
 Adding the clay
HeeHee...funny looking....  :-D
 Beginning to look more like an owl.
Almost finished with sculpting, then on to painting and working on his passenger Boo!
I hope to have them done before Halloween. I will post pictures as I get closer!

Nodders!

I came across these little cuties recently and just had to post pictures of them.
They are 3 inches of cuteness!
 Made in Germany these little dolls are stationary except for their heads which turn in different directions.
They are held on by elastic strung through the tops of the heads. Different companies made them from 1920 on.  Mine are not marked but I believe they are German. So cute...just had to share!

R.I.P.

My heart was broken a couple of weeks ago...
We lost our beautiful Arabian horse Mirage.
So sudden...I was not prepared for it.
I still miss him greatly...
I find it so hard to go out to the barn and not have him greet me with
his wonderful whinnies and nudges begging for a scratch behind the ears.
A beautiful being that enriched our lives greatly!
Until we meet again for another ride in the heavens!
I love you... and miss you....my faithful steed!!!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Compilation of my work...New U-Tube Video!




Since I recently discovered how to make a U-Tube video, I thought it would be fun to make a compilation video of my work. I didn't realize however...what a trip down memory lane it would be. Dolls that I had made and forgotten along the way brought back some wonderful memories of when I first started dollmaking and sculpting back in the early 1990's. The memories of  struggles and triumphs when working on a doll came back to me as I looked back on earlier work. As a sculptor...at least with me anyway...I never know what will pop out of the clay. Looking back at the various faces I remembered what had inspired me at the time and how they came into completion. It was a fun project that I thought I would share here on my blog.
 I hope you enjoy it!!!  
Have a wonderful day!!!   ;-)

Monday, March 12, 2012

Rosemary and Sage

Dear friends;
I just had to post this video of our two dogs Rosie and Sage playing in the snow.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEzSbUlX8Pc&feature=youtu.be
This video was just shot about a week ago...we had 8" of snow fall! What! It is supposed to be Spring!!!!
  But....fortunately...it has melted pretty fast with the warmer weather we have been getting. Thank Goodness. But it was beautiful while it lasted.   ;-)
I was cracking up as our little miniature schnauzer Rosie  tried to keep up with her sister Sage playing frisbee. The faster she ran and played the more the little snowballs built up on her legs. By time we were done...she could barely walk.  It was a fun day in the snow and afterwards....they both got warmed up with some big fluffy towels, right from the dryer.
Hope you enjoy my first U-Tube video of our dogs Sage and Rosie...aka ...Snowball!
 I had alot of fun producing it!   LOL    ;-D

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Lou Lou and Bowser

One Of A Kind
Fine Art Doll
by
Marcie Hart
Lou Lou is sculpted from polymer clay and stands approx. 10" on her base.
She is a One Of A Kind doll sculpted from a lump of clay.

Her faithful dog Bowser is always by her side. His bark is bigger than his bite, but he thinks he is
quite tough. He thinks by digging up the biggest bones he can prove to his bigger dog friends that he is tougher than they are, but just between you and me...he is a little softie and ever adoring of Lou Lou! 
;-)

Bowser is sculpted of polymer clay and then flocked with fur. He has a rhinestone studded collar and bone complete with slobber. Mmmmm...a dogs favorite treat!


Lou Lou's little raggedy dollie also goes with her wherever she goes. She has been drug through dirt, sand, and mud and attended numerous tea party's, birthday's and slumber parties.  Lou Lou loves her...and she loves Lou Lou!  ;-)

I had much fun designing and sculpting this little doll.
I love children that look rambunctious with tousled hair and a glint of mischief in their eyes.
Children at play! Nothing cuter and more endearing than that!  ;-)

Lou Lou's gorgeous red hair is mohair, her eyes are hand sculpted and painted. Her glasses are also handmade by me.

Lou Lou stands on a handpainted polka dot base.
 Bowser is permanent but she is removeable.

I hope you like her!
Thank you for viewing!


P.S.  This is my little dog Rosie. We just got her in October 2011 and she was the inspiration behind Bowser. Her sister...Sage...a red heeler ...are constantly playing under my feet when I am working. Even though she is quite small in size compared to Sage....she thinks she IS the boss!
They are exactly 1 year apart and I love them dearly!
I think this doll came out as a subconsience self portrait of me.
I have always loved dolls and dogs....so a piece of me is shining through on this little doll!
;-D


Lou Lou and be purchased here:

;-)

Monday, February 6, 2012

German Bisque Pansy ll Doll 22"

Good Morning Everyone!

I have been falling in love with the German Bisque Pansy dolls for quite some time. I have acquired 3 of them to date and would like to show you one of my favorites.
 This little doll was purchased awhile back and is marked Pansy II Germany on her neck.  She was imported by George Borgfeldt in the early 1900's and is 22" tall. What I love about this sweet doll is her gorgeous big brown eyes and how beautiful her face is.
When I got her she was not dressed and her human hair wig was in thin little braids.
I came across a beautiful little dress that I thought would be perfect for her. After some small mends and a delicate cleaning the dress was brought back to a presentable state. It was quite sheer and delicate so undergarments definitely were in order. All dolls Must have the appropriate undergarments!   She was dressed with antique pantaloons along with 2 petticoats to help  her dress lay nicely. I love the beautiful lace near her waist and hemline.

Her hair... even though it was quite thin... curled up beautifully and now has a soft curl giving it more volume.
I then made a silk ribbon cumberband to accentuate her dress and since her name was "Pansy" I thought it would be cute to dress her with a slight Pansy theme.
The pansy was hand stitched by me on both her headband and her ribbon sash.
A tiny vintage pin was added at the neckline. Socks and shoes were also added to complete her outfit.

Pansy has become one of my very favorite dolls so far. I love the bisque dolls from this era and will be showing a Pansy I and Pansy IV that I am working on very soon too!
Oh...I can't forget to include her darling mohair bear! She takes him with her everywhere she goes!!
Thank you for taking a peek at my sweet little Pansy! 
Have a nice day!!!   ;-)



OOAK Update!
I wanted to mention that I am also finishing up a new OOAK doll.
She will be finished soon!
Be sure and stop by again!!!

;-)

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Happy Tot Composition doll

Happy 2012 Everyone!
I thought I would start out the new year on my blog showing some "New" transformations on some dolls I have been restoring. I have been working on many new projects which I will be showing this year both with dolls and other items. 

I thought I would start off with this little Happy Tot doll that I purchased a couple of years ago.
She was a terrible mess. Someone had tried to restore her and oh how sad she looked with her terrible paint job. I knew this doll would be adorable once she had a little spiffing up.
 Happy Tot was made by American Character Doll Co. from New York city in the 1920's.
She has a composition head/breastplate, arms and legs. Her body is cloth and her eyes tin.
As you can see from the photos she was in desperate need for a transformation. Cracked, lifted paint along with discoloration, holes and dirt.


One thing wonderful about her was that she came with her original tagged dress and slip. After a little mending and cleaning it looks much better.

  Here she is after getting a total repaint and clean new clothes. I later changed her bonnet with one that looked much better but at the time I just wanted to see how she looked with a cute little pink bonnet on.
Happy Tot and her friend!
Here she is with her new bonnet. I made the little rosettes and added new silk ribbon  for the ties.
Don't you think she looks "Much Happier Now"? 
I adore this little doll...she has always been one of my favorites from that time period. These dolls typcially held little rubber tipped bottles but I don't have one at the moment so she holds a tiny little bouquet of sweet flowers for a sweet little girl!   ;-)