Hope - Altered Mixed-Media Doll

Hi, I hope you had a nice week full of creativity and new, great ideas!
I'm back on the blog after some travels I've done to meet my lovely students in Belgium and Hungary - as always I have to admit - teaching is my big love! In the meantime I'm working on the new products - as deadlines are close and finalizing new classes I'd like to offer to you this year! Woo hoo! Yes, it is all happening now and if you won't see me much online that would be the reason - I'm really working on something! :)
If you want some sneak peeks - you can guess some of my new classes just looking at the flyers on the left side of the blog - they will be a hint... but this is not all! Give me a bit more time and I will get there :)

Speaking about classes - I've got a project I'm really excited about for you today!
I really wanted to creating something BIG and bold for the coming Art Venture Seaside in Coronado, California. This event is taking place on 19th and 20th April 2016 and you can see more details and projects of John and Debby here in Art Venture FB group... check it out today and grab your seat as the spaces are really limited!

So - back to the project: meet Hope. She is about 13'' tall and started her life as a quite plain, inexpensive doll, but after a makeover... she is not that usual any more!

The whole process of creating similar project takes a while, but it is very rewarding and fun to do. Good selection of the supplies helps a lot: for creating that rich, layered dress I used my new Art Extravagance Sculpture Medium which makes all fabrics and papers solid and durable - that makes them really great surface to decorate and paint!
For gluing the elements down - Art Basics Heavy Body Gel would be best choice - it dries fast and really holds all the embellishments in place!

There are many ways of painting projects like this one. After covering the doll with a coat of gesso I decided to use combination of shimmering sprays, Mica Powders with Soft Gel and Art Alchemy paints - mostly Opal Magic tones, but few Metallique colours were in use too!

Hope's eyes are in beautiful, mysterious golden shade - this is thanks to Art Alchemy Opal Magic Violet-Gold paint.

You can see I used a wide selection of elements to alter the doll - there are scraps of different fabrics, some lace, paper and fabric flowers, my Mechanicals from older and newer collections and Relics & Artifacts wings from set designed by Sandra Evertson. You will find a full list of the supplies on the bottom of the post!

I have to admit it was both challenging and exciting to work on this kind of project. I had some experience from the past, but building her dress, hairstyle, painting - it was all like one big adventure!
I really hope you like her - although it is not my favourite colour combination I'm really pleased with the result and I honestly can't wait to share my process with you in the classroom. For me it will be a really special event, that's for sure - not only I'm going to introduce new products to the people but also a  new class. which in fact will take 2 sessions to complete... exciting, huh?

Here are the products I used - listed from our Mixed Media Place Store:

Check also projects from Debby and John - aren't they amazing?

Have a great week and come back on Friday!
Sending warmest hugs