Doll FINISHED!

So I finally finished my doll.....and I think overall for my first one I did alright. There is a lot of detail I tried to capture in the photos...hopefully they translate but I doubt they will....describing her is as follows....the base is an antique turn of the century cast metal base, it was originally a flag stand so it is very sturdy and heavy. The dress itself is fake embossed leather bodice, with feather like cutouts that lead down to a detailed lace finish....the sleeves are a sheer shimmering blue translucent fabric over some blue detailed cotton fabric with a flower motif. The top of the bodice is finished with lace and crystal and glass bead detailing...the headpiece is a polymer clay base with crystal and glass bead details as well, and the back has long tentacle like feathers sticking out the back. Her wings are totally made of real feathers on a wire base...so they do move around a bit. The scale she is holding has a detailed hand sculpted/painted heart and on the other side a real feather. There also is a silver belt with mother of pearl and silver accents....the doll itself is a polymer clay as well and all hand painted by me. Tons of details to this little lady....I have a lot of different influences with this piece from Egypt. The first influence is Anubis who weighed the heart of a person after they came to the underworld, he would weigh the heart of a person against Ma'at, the goddess of truth, who was sometimes depicted symbolically as an ostrich feather....so I combined the female with the male in this instance and not to loose the connection with the feather I gave her wings. In the story of the scales if the heart was judged not to be pure the heart would be devoured by Ammit, a female demon with a body that was part lion, hippopotamus and crocodile. If the persons heart was devoured they were not allowed to continue their voyage towards Osiris and immortality. So basically the more evil you were, the more heavy the heart. Once Ammit swallowed the heart, the soul was believed to become restless forever; this was called "to die a second time".

I am so fascinated with all this story telling and intricacies of the Ancient Egyptians its easy to become inspired by them. The dress itself I wanted to be more feminine and structured. So I referred to the Tudor period of clothing. The time period of Queen Elizabeth the first, and this time period goes from before her influence as well typically the dates are 1485 and 1603. Yet I concentrated more on the end of that time span which was when she ruled. She was such a strong female figure, and a take no guff kind of woman I thought that costuming would fit my doll/goddess perfectly. 

So yes, it is a wide combination of things with my interpretation, but I enjoyed it...I hope you like the photos and appreciate the time that went into this...for my first attempt at a doll...I am pleased with the result. BUT I want to hone in on my sculpting, dressing and painting skills and that takes time...so there will be more dolls to come....