Sketch of the week- Corset.

Introducing a new, weekly blog feature: sketch of the week. Every Monday I will choose a page from my sketchbook and post it here. The sketch can be a recent or an old one and will not necessarily be doll-related.This corset sketch have been shown at the Villa Terrace museum during my solo show. I made these concept sketches a couple of years ago when I took a lost wax casting, jewelry class. I've been dreaming of creating metal clothes for my dolls for several years and when I began familiarizing myself with wax carving I knew right away that this method would allow me to do it. So, after my first class I came up with this very ambitious design for a 1:6 scale, silver corset. I've yet to make it, though I have a feeling that it won't be long now. However, now that I have some experience with carving jeweler's wax, I'm not sure that this design can be replicated by hand. I will most definitely give it my best shot, but this might be better suited for a machine carving. I really want one. One day I'll get it.Anyway, my first attempt at carving a functional, silver corset for a doll turned out like this. It's not bad, but I can and will do better next time.You can find this corset in the Cinderella gallery. I'm thinking about making it available for orders at one point, only without the breast cups. I don't know exactly yet.

Little Thing

I was featured in the May issue (#06) of the Little Thing Magazine from Hong Kong.  I finally got my copy in the mail today and I'm so happy.  The magazine looks really interesting and covers a wide spectrum of art (from fashion photography to tiny crochet work), I just wish I could read it.I always get excited when my dolls are featured in a magazine, especially when it's in a different part of the world.  My goal is to be featured in a magazine from each continent, I wonder if anyone publishes a doll magazine in Antarctica...You can see scans of the pages here, and more published work here.

The Zodiac Enchanted Doll series.

So, I was shooting two tattooed nudes the other day, playing around with their poses, camera angles and lighting when i arrived at this pretty composition. Inspired by their similarity in hair color, tattoos and hair ornaments, I was brainstorming with words while trying to come up with a title: "girls...sisters...lovers....twins....sisters...twins ..twinsisters...  .....gemini...gemini?.....Gemini!!!", which led to a realization that I had to make a full zodiac of Enchanted dolls.I was so excited that instead of working on an order which was due the next day, I sat at my desk for 2.7 hours and stared unseeing into the wall imagining what my zodiac dolls would look like, while the endless possibilities for their appearances spun in front of my eyes like an invisible circus.When I calmed down the next morning, It had occurred to me that perhaps this topic was way too cliche for me to bother with, but then again the execution may make a difference with this old and tired idea.And don't expect to see my zodiac dolls holding Libra scales, Saggitarius bows and Aquarius water jugs either, as I believe in a minimal use of doll props and only for photoshoots. I'll have to find a different way to convey that they are zodiac signs.So, what I'm trying to say is that I really hate doll dioramas. Or dressed up doll-figurines that don't move. But you know that.This is Edie with a cage tattoo and Noire with a Dragon fly tattoo on their backs. Yup, my little Noire has had a tattoo on her back this whole time and you had no idea. Here it is.And the open bird cage tattoo.Go to tattooed dolls gallery to see close ups of these.

Peacock tattoo on Enchanted Doll

This is something new I had made recently for a custom order. I really like this one. Next time i'm trying a full color, bigger peacock on the front of the doll. Although it was very challenging, it was still easier than I expected it would be. I must be getting better at this.Now that I think about it, I might be ready for human skin. Who wants one? I'm sure I can figure it out as I go. Can't be that hard.Another angle at this tattoo can be found in the new Tattooed Dolls gallery, by the way.

Illumination cape

So it came to my attention that people have been asking questions about this doll. Sorry, Enchanted Doll fans-I didn't mean to hold out on you. I made this a few months ago, but didn't get around to posting any pictures. Here, let me tell you all about it.This is Edie modeling the Illumination cape. My favorite dye sublimation project. So far.The Illumination is a dye sublimation print of the image taken from my watercolor painting. It's covered with organic/celtic designs and flowers all the way around and it's really long. It features four fabulous Sterling Silver box clasps with set gemstones which make this cape so much fun to take on and off, on and off, on and off....obviously I can't stop playing with it. The clasps are quite heavy and this weight effectively counterbalances the weight of this enormous cape. Because it's printed on polyester it's actually quite light for what it is, but there's got to be a balance between the front and the back, otherwise it starts sliding around the body, that's why I used heavy clasps as counterweights, which works fantastic.This cape hides most of the doll's skin with the exception of bare neck, lower arms and sometimes a foot slides free of the folds through the slit down the middle. I really like that effect because it creates such a strong contrast between skin and heavy ornament, making the doll's limbs appear even more sensual and delicate. I just love this outfit and my own Edie always wears it. I think her short hair really offsets the length of the cape and accentuates her neck and her frailness underneath all that fabric.My plan was to make it into a one of a kind project with bead embroidery all over the designs and gold, or at least gold plated clasps, but when I put together this rough try out, it turned out so splendidly that I decided to keep one as it is and possibly make more of it as a doll accessory/outfit available for order. I might give it a red or a blue lining on the inside too.I still plan to make a fancy version of it with gemstones strewn all over it and beads covering the surface, but for now that project is on hold as I'm still working out the best method for attaching faceted gems and cabochons to the fabric and merging them with bead work. I can't wait to get started on it though. Perhaps in August I will.The reason I don't have it up on the site anywhere is because this was an experimental project which doesn't have its own doll yet. It's just a cape for now. I should put more pictures of it up... I will soon, so stay tuned. And let me know if you still have questions about it.Oh and the reason I called it the illumination cape is beause I was partially inspired by the medieval, Celtic illuminated manuscripts. The other part of inspiration obviously came from my favorite artist, Sulamith Wulfing:

New magazine

Oh yeah, I almost forgot: another magazine in Russia has come out with a long Enchanted Doll interview. You can check out the spread in the published work gallery, and if you happen to speak Russian, you can even read it.It's a business magazine called Practice and it's a kind of strange to see my work in there as it seems just a little bit out of place. But hey, I ain't complaining. If the editor of this magazine decided that it belongs there, well, then who am I to argue. I mean, clearly editors in chief know what they are doing when they decide that a spring issue of a business magazine can not possibly go to print without an article about my dolls in it. I think it's this latest publication in Russia that's been bringing a flood of Russian emails to my inbox in the last two weeks. I've definitely been getting to know Russian keyboard configuration a lot better than before.Seeing all my media spreads together makes me long to show more new work. Which I haven't made yet.You might also notice that my published work gallery has been slightly enhanced with larger thumbnails of most of my printed editorials in various international publications, directly below the principal picture. They are all live links just like the little thumbnails on the right side and you can click them too.

Such a pretty doll

This is an experiment with make up and tonal combinations. The goal was to create a face resembling Cinderella without facial resculping of mouth and chin. I believe the resulting expression is very sweet but not as haunting as Cinderella's.This particular snowflake crown is an example of sterling silver finished to a bright shine before the application of patina. Patina is a type of acid which brings out fine details, accentuates recesses and raised areas and gives silver an antiqued, contrasty look playing down the bright shine.  I always prefer treated surface to a shiny one because of the contrast it creates. Pretty as the shiny finish is, I find it reflects so much light from all the surface planes and a lot of detail gets lost in the glare. Although, as can be seen from this fine example, sometimes the untreated, bright finish silver is just the right thing to have.

Dolls are back!

I've got my doll collection back from the museum! This means that the owners of costumed Enchanted Dolls and the lucky Enchanted Doll contest winner will finally be getting their dolls!My house is crawling with dolls again. Figuratively speaking, of course. We unpacked the boxes and took strapped dolls out, but I haven't got them all sorted out yet. The curator of Villa Terrace exhibitions who packed up my dolls did an amazingly thorough job to make sure they all got home in one piece. I'm afraid she even went a little overboard by painstakingly removing ALL of doll's costumes with the exception of a few that were just way too complex and multi-layered. All their clothes came neatly folded and wrapped in tissues down to the last little pieces such as hair pins!!!. I really appreciate her efforts in ensuring the safety of the dolls, although most of the costumes were safe to keep on during shipping with the exception of heavy, metal head dresses. I hate to think that I had to put her through hours of extra work because of a mis-communication. Oh well. What's done is done and the doll's are home. Thank you Villa Terrace for a wonderful exhibition venue for my work and for keeping it safe for me!Now....Anybody wanna play dress up?!

Down the memory lane

I can't believe how much time has passed since the first picture was taken. It makes me sad thinking about it, though I don't think I would want to go back to being 14, fun as that was. I'm pretty happy with myself, and where I am right now. When that photo was taken, I was already making dolls for 8 years.My sister's names are Irina and Alina. Marina, Irina and Alina. I don't know what my mom was thinking. I guess she thought it was cute that all our names sounded the same. My middle sister, Irina (pink top) is studying to be a dental hygienist on the East Coast and this is the first time I got to see her this year. She flew in as a surprise for Alina's high school graduation ceremony, who is going to study medicine at the University of British Columbia.Yup, we've changed some since the first picture was taken. The little one is now too big to sit on my parents' lap. We all still call the "The little one", though she is taller than both of her older sisters...and I think our parents too.It was good to be together again with my parents, like when we were little girls.

Berlin Show summer 2009

I almost forgot:I have two dolls in a group show 'Mid Summers Night Madness', at Strychnin gallery in Berlin this summer. The show opened last Friday, but it will be on for a few weeks and those of you who live in Germany can go and see Shapeshifter and Aphrodite in person.Thank you Strychnin. Elizabeth- you're awesome.

Enchanted Doll in mass media.

These are some of the magazines and newspapers that have featured my work over the last 3 years. I thought I'd document myself with my accomplishments.The very first printed publication to feature an article about my work was a local, French language newspaper 'L'express du Pacificue', three weeks after I had graduated from Emily Carr Institute (now University) of Art and Design. I remember the day I was asked for an interview:It was my last studio hour before the graduation show at Emily Carr and I was building a plywood stand to support my grad project 'Necrophilia' which included a composition of two ball-jointed, porcelain dolls- Snow White and Prince as well as a glass coffin. After spending most of the day in the wood working shop I went out to buy some more plywood sheets at a nearby carpentry store. The return trip turned out to be a real struggle because the plywood proved to be way too heavy for me to carry. Luckily, five minutes into my trip, a young man caught up to me and offered his help, to which I happily accepted. As we walked back to my school, the man asked me about what I was going to do with all that plywood and I told him about my graduating project 'Necrophilia'. He listened to me talk about my work with great interest, which was strange to me, because I at that point I was not used to talking about it outside of class critiques or with any body other than my professors or classmates.As we parted ways, the man gave me his business card and asked me call him. He said he was a journalist, working for a French newspaper and that after hearing about it, he wants to write an article about my work. Next week he assigned a writer to work on the story and two weeks later my interview appeared in the art and culture section of L'Express du Pacificue.And that's how an accidental encounter with a stranger turned into a significant event of my emerging career as an artist. The timing couldn't have been any more perfect. It almost felt like a sign.More publications are on the way this summer and fall.

New magazine interviews with Enchanted Doll.

This Avenue illustrated just came out in Madrid, Spain. I have a six page spread in it.There are more publications on the way all over the world this summer and I get excited every morning in anticipation of packages from publishers. When i get them, I flip though, find my spread, admire my dolls on the glossy pages for a few moments and then put the magazine on the shelf along with the rest of my collection, just to begin waiting for the next one.

New Silver Casting project

So, this is that ambitious project I mentioned on Twitter a few of days ago.It’s a wax carving of a collar for Enchanted Doll. It’s impossible to carve something like this by hand, so I designed it and handed it over to another artist/technician, who rendered it as a 3D model and had it carved by a computerized carving machine. When my casting technician Ryan saw this, he said: “This is by far the craziest thing you’re ever done, and if I can cast this piece for you, it will be the height of my casting career”, because apparently, this thing is un-castable. But then again, a lot of jewelers would consider many of my wax carvings impossible to cast because they are unconventional jewelry pieces, while Ryan was somehow able to make them work.I made some adjustments  to the collar after I took this picture. I spent 8 hours, painstaikingly overlaying the carving with tiny wax granules by hand. It looks just exquisite. I love it and can’t wait to see it on a doll.

Beauty vs Function and Enchanted Dolls.

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.

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

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.