An unusual doll... part 3

    Jackie's Link doll, for her Legend of Zelda over fences set-up, was one of the more challenging dolls I have ever made. Not so much because of the doll itself but because I kept seeing more and more details I needed to add. 

    One of the actual challenges was adding the elf ears. This photo shows the super sculpy ears. Now sculpy is bakeable clay and it's not possible to bake this head. So a hairdryer on hot, very close, for several minutes, does actually bake pieces that are this small. Unfortunately I also had to make the ears a bit away from the head so I could tuck the hair behind them. I broke one off, super glued it and was getting frustrated that I would never be able to make the ears. 

    I was talking to Joan Yount on my need to make elf ears and she had a brilliant idea. She said when she had to make elf ears she had removed the original ears from the doll and made the elf ears from tooling leather and super glued them on. I could picture it and I could picture it working. So as soon as I was home I tried it out. And it worked! I painted them to be a somewhat closer match to the skin tone of the face and was pleased with the results. The hairstyle would cover the sort of odd look of the bottom join. I was excited to be past such a big hurdle in the project. 

     So at this point I have made armor out of craft foam and ears out of leather. In doll making, and miniature making in general, you need to be able to look at things differently. Sometimes it takes a few steps but with patience and a few tricks you can make just about anything in miniature. As long as you are willing to keep trying until it works. 

    The last step in the basic doll project was the hairing. Link had a somewhat complex style and I had to hair him in stages to get the correct look. Close to the correct look anyway. But I like how that came out and the hairstyle does make the ears look just about perfect I think. 

    At this point in the project I was on day six and I have made a male doll out of a Gracie, turned that doll into an elf, popped an arm out to get the doll dressed, made armor out of pink craft foam and done probably a hundred details. At least it was starting to seem that way. I also kept on finding more things in the reference that I needed to add. There was this scanner(?) computer(?) thing. 

                                                

Sleeves under the tunic and gauntlets. 

    I needed to add some hooks to the back of the sword and shield to hang them off the doll.

    The sword might be a bit large but it is finished and hangs nicely (two hooks were added for this).

    I also ended up needing to add a couple more leather loops to the belt/shoulder strap configuration to be able to have a place for the hooks of the sword. 

     In the end there were some challenges in the doll, tons of details and bits and pieces of frustration. But I ended up making a doll that was fairly close to the reference and would be part of an epic performance entry.