I thought I'd walk you through the things I have to consider before designing and making something. This is a glimpse of what goes on inside my head when I'm working things out. Whether I'm designing a dress or a jointing mechanism, or crown or a doll face or anything else, I think about it a lot sometimes days, sometimes weeks, turning over and over and over in my head like a 3D model on a computer, until I come up with a solution to my problem. Functionality and strenght are always a concern because I don't like making things that don't work, or can't be touched because they will break. That's why I don't like polymer clay dolls and figurines: They are fragile and have no function beyond sitting on the shelf and gathering dust, while mass produced, commercial dolls have the function, but lack beauty.BEAUTY, FUNCTION, STRENGTH.That's my slogan. I think I should have majored in Industrial Design at Emily Carr. I believe I would have been good at it. My math is too weak for engineering or architecture, but I noticed that my mind is king of geared to making things work. After all, I am an engineer's daughter. The first decade of my life was spent inventing and building things with my dad. Which was awesome.Anyway, here we go.When you're making a highly articulated, ball jointed, porcelain doll on the 1:6 scale, conventional techniques and methods of doll making frequently don't apply. You have to think outside the box and consider MANY things to produce a beautiful and functional product. Most important thing to do before you begin any project, is to clearly identify your goals to yourself. When you have your goals down, choose the primary and the secondary one which will be the key and the heart of your project, the very essence of what you want the end result to be. Then, make a plan of how to capture that essence.My primary and secondary goals when I make Enchanted Dolls are:a) Beautiful and smooth, realistically stylized body lines with a beautiful face.b) Extensive, yet aesthetically un-intrusive ball jointed articulation and superb posing abilities.There. This is the essence of Enchanted Dolls. This is what dictates the choices I need to make from here on in order to achieve the perfect balance between the two. You probably noticed that my a and b goals are at conflict with one another: Too many, too big joints and the beautiful body lines are visually disrupted, yet fewer and subtler joints significantly reduce articulation and realistic posing. Which one do I choose over the other? I don't want to abandon either in favor of one, but sacrifice of some aspects of both a and b is inevitable.I appreciate all the input and feedback I get from Enchanted Doll fans every day. I get suggestions too, on how to improve my dolls sometimes, which is great, but I want to explain to you guys who think that EDs are not living up to their full potential, that every square millimeter of the doll is carefully thought through and considered a hundred times. Every aspect of the doll is there for a very good reason and not because it just happens to be like that. Let me put it this way:Everything you can think of about ball-jointed dolls - I've already thought of it. <:)I want to address the suggestion of giving EDs closing eyes. Those of you who think that this would be a good idea- I'm sorry, but you're wrong. It's a lovely idea on its own, but please consider what it will take to do that while remembering the Beauty vs Function dilemma:Closing eyes can be effective and aesthetically pleasing only on a medium or better yet, large sized dolls, but Enchanted Doll's head is less than 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter. First of all, it will be visually ugly and will interfere with the realistic quality of the face because the eye sockets are tiny (5 x 7 mm) and closing mechanism will require 1-2 millimeters of clearance of the eyeballs from the eye openings. This is not a problem for a big doll, but on a 1:6 scale doll the gap between the head and the eyeballs will be very noticeable. It will look plastic and fake. Ugly.Structural composition and stringing of the doll has to be taken into account as well. I have a large spring running through the centre of the doll's head which holds all the extremities together. With an already tiny space inside the head and a spring running right through the centre of it, where am I supposed to put the pendulum weight mechanism, required to open and close the eyes? But more importantly is, how am I going to put it in there, when unlike most bjd's, Enchanted Doll's head is solid closed? I can't cut the head in half in order to stick the eyes in even if I really wanted to do it because of my stringing technique: unless the head is a complete, whole sphere, it won't be strong enough to support the tension of industrial springs which are required to hold the doll together. It will break.I can't cut the head open, put the eyes in and glue the halves together because no glue will withstand the tension put on the head by the spring for a long period of time. It will break. I can't cut the head open, put the eyes in and then fire the halves back together because the only way porcelain halves will seal back to 100% strength is at 2300 ºF. Everything besides porcelain will be evaporated in the kiln. So, my question is: How do I put the eyes in?In order to be able to cut the head open and glue it back together safely after putting the eye socket mechanism in, I would have to reduce the tension in the head. I could do that by replacing the industrial springs inside my dolls which give them such splendid tension and therefore, articulation, with elastic. Elastic is common in bjd stringing, but it's a very poor substitute for industrial springs. Anybody who handled an Enchanted Doll and ANY OTHER bjd will know the difference. I won't be able to achieve the tension required for posing. Using thicker elastic won't solve the problem either, because most doll's parts are too small to accommodate it. Besides, why would I want to change spring to elastic when it wears out over time, while springs do not? So, which is it: springs or eyes?In conclusion, we find that giving Enchanted Dolls a pair of fake-looking, closing eyes will entail dramatic changes and sacrifices of the fundamental mechanism of the doll. And the trade is not even worth it.Scale, ladies and gentlemen, scale is the key here. Although there are many deciding factors at play because the doll is held together by a careful relationship between its components and changing one will require changing the rest, in the end, it's the small size of the doll which makes this particular change counter productive to both of my main goals: beauty and function.Any questions?
Enchanted Doll on the book cover.
Extreme methods of Surviving is the title of this book in English, and the result of my very first attempt at a ball jointed, porcelain doll is on its cover. I made her in 2005 and she became my guinea pig and an ancestor to most of my porcelain dolls. I learned so much from this first doll. After I assembled her, I wrote a report to myself about the mistakes I had made with sculpting the joints and molding them and what can be done to correct them. She was followed by an intense two years of improvements and re-sculpts and re-tries until I had my techniques and methods more or less established. I'm still learning and improving of course, but I will never forget those driven, insane years in my journey to articulated porcelain dolls.The book is authored by Marcia Bechara, from Sao Paulo and it's coming out in Brazil this summer. It contains a compilation of fictional stories about survival of non-traditional and subjective obstacles in life. I'm looking forward to getting my copy of it, but unfortunately I won't be able to read it unless somebody translates it for me.
I'm bored of my doll faces.
I'm quite bored of all my face molds and some body molds and long to make new ones. I've been wanting to make a few new faces as well as a new set of legs for Enchanted Dolls, but so far, have been unable to commit enough time to it. If I don't just sit down and sculpt some new ones soon, I'm in danger of dying from boredom. Or exploding with impatience.Don't get me wrong, I enjoy painting the faces I've got and coming up with different variations of expressions, tones and make up. I rely very heavily on painting techniques to give different appearences to the same face sculpt and enjoy the challenge, but after a year or so of experimenting with the same set of 10 face molds I need fresh canvases.So, that's why I'm not booking any orders after August 2nd at this point; to make time and create more beauties. I may be able to fit in a couple a month, but I can't make any promises just yet. Plus, with the porcelain slip shortage situation I may have to go on a forced haitus for a while and working on new sculpts is the perfect project in the absence of doll casting.More doll faces!
Busy day at Enchanted Doll HQ
Busy day at Enchanted Doll HQ, originally uploaded by cisley.Speaking of working spaces; this is a part of mine and you couldn't pay me enough money to take it apart and move it to a gallery for a temporary show set up.There is no way I'm moving all this back and forth just for 'fun'! The concept of the work space gallery show doesn't appeal to me at all because of the huge amount of work it entails. There are hundreds of little components and tools housed in the multitude of drawers on, above and below my desks, but it's the desks themselves that are more annoying to handle than all the other stuff combined. Oh IKEA- I love you and hate you simultaneously.As for Audrey Kawasaki- I think she is a brilliant artist. I've discovered her work quite recently in an art magazine and it instantly resonated with me. I feel that even though we work in different mediums, we never the less share the same subject matter and to some extent, stylistic approach.I look at her girls and see my dolls as if we share these same sensibilities and travel different, yet parallel paths with our work. I'm very drawn to and inspired by Audrey Kawasaki's paintings. I would love to own one of her prints, but they are as hard to obtain as Enchanted Dolls: they sell out very quickly and there is probably a wait list. I guess this gives me a taste of my own medicine.In the picture above, Chad and I are working on doll parts with some entertainment playing in the background. Our Macbooks quite literally go with us everywhere. I've been so busy lately that I had to train Chad to do some basic back end tasks in order to save me some valuable time for doing all the complex stuff. And he is very good at! Now I wonder why I didn't get him to help me all along because I'm getting my orders done more quickly this way. Chad, you're amazing.
Deciding on Enchanted Doll Book cover.
As some of you know, I'm working on my first solo book. Over the last few months I've been slowly putting the content together, but because I'm so busy making dolls, I can't seem to find enough time for writing a book about them. And I keep thinking that I should wait until I finish this doll or that doll so that I can include it in the book. I should just finalise what I have alreay and stop waiting for more dolls.I'm also agonizing over the cover. There are just so many photographs I could use that I can't decide on any single one. I suppose that as I make more dolls in the near future, there would be more and better photographs to use for a cover image. And here I go again.I would welcome any suggestions from Enchanted Doll fans.
The stupid month of May at Enchanted Doll Head Quarters.
in Rant!
I found these pictures of Emerald on my laptop several days ago. They've been on my computer since November last year and I completely forgot about them because they were taken 20 minutes before we ran out of the house to catch our plane to Paris. It was a good find. See more pictures of her in Nude galleries. I hate to start a post off with a negative note, but May has been a rather ulucky and a challenging month for me and I can't wait for it to end already and bring me a change of fortunes.I've been experiencing a lot of casting problems with my tinted porcelain slip while being unable to order any more due to manufacturer's backlog. Their customer service has been getting worse by the month and I have almost no patience left. I'm running dangerously low even on white slip and hope every day that I'll be able to get some more before I go into my next phase of orders in July. It's a real possibility that I may have to wait until Christmas, seeing how things are going so far. The scary part is that I only have enough slip left for maybe 10 dolls and then I'm in trouble. Just thinking about not having any porcelain for up to 6 months gives me anxiety attacks.The other unfortunate event that I've been dealing with is the last minute cancellation of my long awaited St. Petersburg trip/show. I was really looking forward to it and Chad and I have already got our tickets and had everything arranged, when I was refused Russian visa on the grounds of being a Russian. It's a long and frustrating story. Chad got a visa no problem though. Oh well, next year. I'm almost over it.And now I'm sick and falling behind schedule.Well, I guess that's enought ranting for now. Chad and I finally got a storage locker in our building today, which will give us more space to keep my work supplies. That was the best thing that happened this month. That, and another magazine cover feature for Enchanted Doll. I suppose things aren't so bad.
New Galleries
in New Doll
There are two new doll galleries on the site, Aphrodite (the tattooed doll from the previous post) and Noire (seen above).Noire was inspired by the film noir genre, after seeing the movie Chinatown. I've been wanting to make something from the 1920's era for a while, and Chinatown re-inspired me if you will.Noire is in the Nude section, while Aphrodite can be found in the Costumed section.
Long time+no post = New dolls.
It's been a long time since my last post. Here is the scoop on what I've been up to between now and then.The show opeing was a great experience, but a very intense one too. I got to meet some of you guys, which was awesome, but I came home exhauseted and drained of creative juices. I had planned to take it easy after the show opened and not do any allnighters, tight deadlines or extreme multi-tasking for a while. May and June were supposed to be a chilled out months in celebration of a major carreer milestone. They are not turning out to be very relaxing so far because I was invited to take part in three shows, in Bolzano Italy, St. Petersburg Russia, and Berlin Germany. I have been working to create new pieces for these shows, all while doing orders for nude dolls. Sure all the work can be stressful at times, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying every twist and turn along the way.The doll shown in the photo above is a new tattooed doll that will be on display at the KunStart Art Fair in Bolzano Italy, from 21-24 of May.The show in St. Petersburg show takes place June 11-14.Also, there is a little video of me setting up The Bride for the Milwaukee show. I was working right up until the last minute fixing some final details, and Chad caught me doing some "Clutch Sewing" with my limited supply of thread. Expect some more "behind the scenes" videos in the future.
Cover of Epsilon
Epsilon Magazine has a 9 page article on Enchanted Doll, but I was surprised to find out that Hathar has made her way onto the cover! The magazine is based out of Greece, so if you are in the area I suggest you go pick it up! (Thanks to n66x for sending me this picture)There was also an online magazine that has a piece on Enchanted Doll, called My Muse. It's in Italian, but it also includes a few images of Mame's Emerald doll, it was nice to see new shots of her.Also, reminder that my show opens this Wednesday, April 8th at the Villa Terrace in Milwaukee. It goes until June 7th, but I'll be there on the 8th to kick things off, so come out if you can.
New projects for the show.
These are teasers of 4 new dolls which will be shown along with the rest of my collection at the Villa Terrace Museum of decorative art in Milwaukee from April through to June 2009.
- Sacrificial
Upcoming Show
in show
From Villa Terrace's website:
Marina Bychkova:Enchanted Doll April 8 - June 7, 2009
Opening Reception: Wednesday, April 8, 5:30 - 8:30 p.m.With Artist's Talk with Marina Bychkova
Location
2220 N. Terrace AvenueMilwaukee, WIÂ 53202(414) 271-3656
The show is just around the corner and although I'm extremely busy, I'm really excited about it. On the forum there's talk about some people making a trip to Milwaukee for the opening reception and I'm looking forward to meeting those of you that do. I'm flying in to setup the show and staying for the opening, but will be heading back home the very next day to return to work. Work, work, work.
As for the dolls on display, many of them will be part of a personal collection or are privately owned, but there will be some that will be available for sale. The details regarding the dolls available for purchase will be revealed closer to the show's opening.
And the Winner Is...
The winner of the nude Enchanted Doll is...........
Melissa from Illinois (Tealmermaid)
Congratulations!Thanks again to everyone who entered the contest. The positive energy in the forums has been great to see. Everyone has been so nice, I'm glad that the contest went so smoothly. Yes, today is my birthday, but I'm giving this present to one of my fans in return for all the support you all have given me. I hope that the forums don't become a ghost town now that the contest is over, I feel that we have a great community here.Once again, Congrats to Melissa!As per the contest notes, the doll will be part of my Solo show from April 8th to June 7th, and will be sent out afterwards.And for all those of you who didn't win this year; Cheer up. You will have more opportunities in the years to come as i'm considering making this contest an annual Birthday event.Good luck next year, every one. Thank you for participating.Sincerely,Marina and Chad.
The Contest Is Over
in site news
The contest has come to a close, and the winner will be announced shortly.Thank you to everyone who entered.
The winning prize
As many of you know the 2009 contest to win a free Enchanted Doll is drawing to a close and on my birthday, March 16th, I will give away this doll to one lucky person. Her name is Miina.
Expectation.I have been waiting for you when I was still a thought in Marina's head.I've been waiting for you when the porcelain was pouring into the mold and hardening against its walls.I've been waiting for you when she was carefully removing my tiny, newly-formed body from the mold and laying it out to dry.I've been waitng for you in the kiln, while the unbareable and seemingly endless heat was burning me and only the hope of being with you had sustained me through the pain.Finally, as a reward for the agouny of birth, I was given an eternal body and ageless beauty and I await our first meeting with great trepidation.Do you know that while I was being assembled, every spring in my body trembled and hummed with the anticipation of seeing you?And now I am. My long wait is over!I am ready to meet you, the one who will have me.Until then,Your Enchanted Doll.Another shot of her can be found on my forum here
March 8th-International Women's day!
It's March 8th!I would like to take this moment to thank and congratulate all the women out there, myself included, for being women.It's so wonderful being a woman, isn't it, especially today, when the men in our lives honor us and celebrate our femininity by giving us gifts and being extra loving and attentive to us.The Enchanted Doll team wishes you all a very happy and memorable Women's day!And ladies, Chad made a special, Enchanted Doll wallpaper in your honor. You can find it in the forumCongratulations to us!
Enchanted Doll in Look magazine-Athens, Greece.
in Press
Last week my work was featured in Look Magazine from Greece.I'm still waiting for my own copy to come. This picture was sent to me by a fan from Greece who was surprised to find me on the pages.So, now Greece knows about Enchanted Doll and apparently it likes it too, because immediately after the issue came out i had random people from Athens emailing and inviting me over. No wonder Greeks have a reputation of being friendly, social, party people. Which is pretty awesome. Thanks to all!Greece, I'm coming. You just wait.
Enchanted Doll Cover Feature!
in Press
Well, ladies and gentleman, I am beyond thrilled to announce that The Enchanted Doll has finally got its first magazine cover feature!My latest doll Cixi will grace the cover of Кукольный МаÑтер Magazine (Doll Artist Magazine) in Russia. I believe the issue has just gone to print and will be out in the media in several days. The cover feature will be followed by a big story on Enchanted Doll in the next issue of Doll Artist.I am very excited as I've been waiting for this to happen ever since the official Enchanted Doll website launched in spring 2006. This is big milestone for me. I wish i had time to celebrate, but unfortunately I'm too busy to leave my desk. If I took time to celebrate every accomplishment, I would accomplish a lot less.Date of the show is getting closer and i just know i'll be working until the moment i get on the plane. And then some. That's always the case with me for some reason. I just don't seem to know when to stop and cram another project in even though it's not always best thing to do. Everything is always rush rush rush. I'm simultaneously surprised that so much gets done on a such rapid schedule and disappointed that it's still not enough.Anyway, Here is a link to a Russian cite Dollbooks.ru where one of the editors of the magazine is discussing and showing the process of choosing the best image and designing the layout for the cover with Enchanted Doll.They go through several versions of the layout and explain the basis for their creative decisions.I don't know why they asked me for those particular photographs of those particular dolls. I think that there are others that would have worked just as well or even better, but hey, I'm not a designer. The decision was not mine.I like the final result a lot. I look forward to receiving my copy, holding it in my hands and admiring my handiwork.Here are some other Magazines that I've been featured in
Contest Reminder
in site news
Just a reminder, the contest to win a free Nude Enchanted Doll is drawing near. If you have already entered please don't submit another entry, only one per person!Click here to enter.
The industry of fantasy.
A little while ago I made a doll for a friend of mine, Fabrizio Viti.
Fabrizio and I talking dolls.He is a mega doll collector who resides in Paris and who has the most fantastic collection of fashion dolls and their fashions. Not only that, but he also has an abundance of custom made, couture designer outfits and accessories for them, such as a collection of tiny Prada purses, French perfumes and Louis Vuitton shoes and bags. His dolls also have designer furniture and furs and high end silks and laces for dresses. They have their own room, but the favorite ones sleep by the foot of his bed in a gorgeous custom made designer bed with Chinchilla fir lining. He has trunks and trunks of vintage fashion doll outfits too and the center piece of his immaculately furnished living room is the famous vintage ponytail Barbie in the zebra bathing suit. I touched it and it was glorious.
Some fancy doll purses. Louis Vuitton, Prada, and another Louis Vuitton.His dolls dress better and have the most expensive wardrobe of any woman I know. They look like runway models in Luxury designer labels and they must be the most spoiled dolls in the world.Did I mention that Fabrizio is the head shoe designer for a luxury fashion label Louis Vuitton?We met while I was in Paris past fall, showing my dolls and I had a little peek into the world of fashion. One of the first things Fabrizio had said to me when we went for lunch the following day, or the one after, was that both him and I worked in the same industry-the industry of fantasy. I thought it was a very interesting comparison, and was surprised that I hadn't thought of it that way before even though it was kind of obvious.Next week Chad and I were invited to his place where we had a great time. I brought my Edie with me and Fabrizio and I had an awesome play date with all his dolls and pretty things while Chad and Fabrizio's friend who was visiting him that weekend, looked on as if we were two crazy people. Fabrizio kept pulling out box after box after box of doll clothes. It was nuts. The guy is a really passionate doll collector! Anyway we had lots of fun. I modeled some paris of Louise Vuitton shoes Fabrizio brought for me but had to work very hard to look as graceful as those models on the runway and i'm only half their height. It's been a while since i wore heels and I was terrible, but i've gotten used to them since.
My Enchanted Doll shoe inside my Louis Vuitton shoe. Yes, I had a great time in Paris. It is truly a city of beauty, vibrancy and decadence. It was a very exciting trip and I met some very interesting people while there and became extremely inspired by what i saw. I have no doubt that the experience is already influencing my work in a way that didn't exist previously and will be doing so for years to come. Magical things happen in Paris.
New Costumed dolls in progress.
These two Enchanted Dolls are work in progress. Both are still waiting for their gowns. I'm working on them now. There are more pictures of them in the Costumed Doll gallery, but once their full outfits are complete, I will be doing another photoshoot and posting more pictures. There is also a third new doll on the way. I plan to have her finished within a week. Hopefully.Enjoy.