The Creative Process

[Former_Member]

Hey everyone!

I just wondered what the creative process for making dolls looked like for you guys, e.g. where you find inspiration, how you style them, and how you feel about it when you finish making them. Haha, for me, I get inspired from everything. Movies, trends, even fruits and vegetables. Sometimes I don't even have inspiration, and I just start sketching out dolls, adding random details here and there until the page is too full, and I alter as I sew.

Haha, maybe it's just me, but I when I finish a doll, I have all sorts of emotions, like "Wow, you, my little doll were a pain in the butt to get right, but I have to say, you turned out pretty well!" or "I'll never forget making this doll. I learned a new trick for putting on the hair!"

This is just a thread about the doll making process. I really look forward to hearing your thoughts!

[Former_Member]

I make Waldorf style dolls (see my avatar) and I usually start with a hair colour and go from there. The dolls seem to form organically, so I don't usually seem to have much control over them too much!
To be honest, sometimes it's a challenge just to get the eyeline straight!

[Former_Member]

Depends on which style of doll I'm making.

The rag dolls, like in my avi, are just whatever strikes me. I rarely have a plan when I start one, and the doll just tells me what she wants to look like.

My large dolls tho are more character driven. In order to hit the nail on the head, I need some sort of personality or role for them. To sit down, make one, and just pull something out of my head makes it just an empty doll. I need to have some idea of the personality to flesh out the details. Hair, face, body type, wardrobe, name. It all has to work together in my head.

If I start with an idea, I can wander off course because some things just change naturally during the process. But these changes stay within the character of the doll; they rarely wander. I have had a few occasions when I started off making one doll and ended up making another, tho.

There's a connectedness, a more personal bond I feel with my large dolls because they draw from within. My rag dolls are just me having some fun.

[Former_Member]

Also, I've found doing something contrived, like 'gee I'll make a goth doll' doesn't work at all for me!

I did that just recently, thinking it would be interesting. I was so unhappy with it that I took it apart. It looked nice, but it simply wasn't a natural venture for me, and didn't compute with my brain somehow.