Gourdo Baggins

I love playing with mixed media, often there is no plan or structure, and the piece just evolves in it's journey. This w as the case with Gourdo Baggins, who is not a hobbit, not an elf but just is.
It started with s studio cleaning mission in which a box of gourds was discovered under a fabric bin.
I found a cloth doll head in my body parts bin and attached it to the gourd neck through the hollowed out back of neck area with E6000 glue. Always a good thing to put those rejected body parts to good use!
Next I applied Paperclay to the cloth head and just let the sculpt become what it wanted.  I painted and blended the head with the gourd with acrylic paints Ears were next. Not a perfect face, but often small irregularities can add character.

The legs and shoes were next, which were formed over a foil covered armature with paperclay and painted with acrylics. I bonded the legs to Gourdo's body by inserting the armature wires through small holes, then reinforced at the top with Apoxy Sculpt. I created some pants for him to hide the leg attachment.

Arms were next and they were created the same as the legs, but I made a small hole in the top of each arm and button jointed with a long jointing needle through the gourd body. I did not want to completely cover the gourd, so I sewed some individual fabric panels resembling and wired them with chenille stems. I attached the panels with E6000 glue, as sewing them on was out of the question.
Gourdo Baggin's hair is loose mohair which I wefted myself and attached to his head. He is a well balanced little guy and can stand alone!

Meet Malaika, my Hoffman Challenge entry for 2015. Her name is African for Angel. A really different approach for e this year creating a stump doll for the challenge. She is 18", and has a cloth over clay face. Fabric manipulation was involved in her costume, as well as fabric covered

 wires, beads and homemade clay jewelry