Big Doll 2

This is a 14" model, seen at the Imitation of Life Construction Company show in San Diego last summer. She may become a study for a Big Doll, too. Working large, there are lots of new problems for me to solve. It's a challenge, but there is something quite magical about BIG!


10/20/07 Working on Big in my garage. I've already put a dent in the living room ceiling by moving the armature.

The right is a shot inside the armature, where I'm squirting Great Stuff, an expandable foam, used for filling holes in insulation. It makes the core rigid, but light.

The original sketch for Women's Work, about
an inch tall, on a whole page of sketches, that are gradually becoming more 3-D models for potential Big Dolls.

Armature for the Nine-foot Woman's Work: This is getting to be an obsession! As I said before, people seem to put more credibility into art that is BIG, including dolls. My friend, Tom Light, had a metal fabrication business in Milwaukee, was a specialty blacksmith, and is a wonderful resource when it comes to doing anything with metal, plastic, or other esoteric materials that I know nothing about.

This armature is 8.5 feet tall and just barely fits in the highest pitch of my living room ceiling. On the left, you can see the 14" tall models for the larger pieces to come. Woman's Work is the white one second from left.

The wire is electrical conduit, with a round rock attached to the base with Great Stuff, an expandable foam that is usually used to plug gaps in insulation. It's an amazing material, and Tom came over with a sock filled with it, which I'm now building into the core of the body for solidity and light weight.

At the right is the smaller version of Woman's Work as I started to attach the fabric skin onto the batting flesh. I

This model is 14" tall, and the finished doll with be nine feet. Yikes!!!

I love the way the lines of sewing follow the lines of the body and how she took on a life of her own as she went through the stages of being "fleshed out."

The batting base allows me to pin and sew right to the body. When I do the Big one, I'll have to use a ladder to access the top.
At the right is the wire armature for the 14" version. I'm comfortable working this size. I used thin wire, like rebar that I got for a Keith Lo Bue class, stuck into a cork and glued onto two big washers for weight. The next picture is covering the armature with batting and stuffing. This kind of low-tech construction is comfortable to me, but not nearly as impressive as the 9-foot version.