I'm wondering if I should do this or not. I am leaning towards doing it, because it would at the very least save all the other artist's hard work somehow.
See the image below of this life-size doll? She is very cool in person. She's made amazingly interestingly. She is also old and stained, which is a GOOD thing. You know how people tea stain dolls? Well, this one didn't need that. She's got the real thing. It's subtle, but it's there.
She was probably made back in the 60s as a college art project, like a term paper sort of thing. The artist's name is not known. We just don't know who made it.
Now, the problem is, the fabric is aging. It is getting a bit fragile. Eventually, it'll be in such a state that it'll be tossed in the trash, this art piece lost forever. It's not something a museum would preserve, I think.
I'm trying to decide whether to just let nature take its course and someday have a little ceremony as she gets placed into the trash in a few years. OR, another thought was to make her a new "skin". In other words, I'd make a doll, using this doll as "stuffing." I'd leave the doll intact, just slide a new outter body over what's there. I might have to add some stuffing. And would do some needle sculpting. Might cut into this doll to add some armature stuff to support her back and neck. She's so well made that her back is still fairly sturdy without an armature, but her neck is very floppy. Her legs bend a lot and could use an armature too.I would likely cut off her hands and totally redo those.
Doing this will compromise the doll. It will lose value as what it is right now, and basically ruin someone else's art. But the alternative is that her art will be tossed in a landfill someday. It would gain value as my art.I can maintain the general shape, and the stitches (except where I had to cut to insert dowling) will be intact, only hidden from view.
It will become my art. It will become a collaboration that the artist 40 some years ago wasn't expecting. Whether she's living or dead now, would she have been okay with me doing this? I know I'd be okay with it if the alternative was to throw it in the trash one day.
Once I'm done with her, she also may not be sitting there like a lady waiting for someone to come have tea with her. She may turn into a creature like most of my dolls come out to be. She would be painted as well, and the paint could seep through onto the inner doll.I'm thinking on it.
Janet
See the image below of this life-size doll? She is very cool in person. She's made amazingly interestingly. She is also old and stained, which is a GOOD thing. You know how people tea stain dolls? Well, this one didn't need that. She's got the real thing. It's subtle, but it's there.
She was probably made back in the 60s as a college art project, like a term paper sort of thing. The artist's name is not known. We just don't know who made it.
Now, the problem is, the fabric is aging. It is getting a bit fragile. Eventually, it'll be in such a state that it'll be tossed in the trash, this art piece lost forever. It's not something a museum would preserve, I think.
I'm trying to decide whether to just let nature take its course and someday have a little ceremony as she gets placed into the trash in a few years. OR, another thought was to make her a new "skin". In other words, I'd make a doll, using this doll as "stuffing." I'd leave the doll intact, just slide a new outter body over what's there. I might have to add some stuffing. And would do some needle sculpting. Might cut into this doll to add some armature stuff to support her back and neck. She's so well made that her back is still fairly sturdy without an armature, but her neck is very floppy. Her legs bend a lot and could use an armature too.I would likely cut off her hands and totally redo those.
Doing this will compromise the doll. It will lose value as what it is right now, and basically ruin someone else's art. But the alternative is that her art will be tossed in a landfill someday. It would gain value as my art.I can maintain the general shape, and the stitches (except where I had to cut to insert dowling) will be intact, only hidden from view.
It will become my art. It will become a collaboration that the artist 40 some years ago wasn't expecting. Whether she's living or dead now, would she have been okay with me doing this? I know I'd be okay with it if the alternative was to throw it in the trash one day.
Once I'm done with her, she also may not be sitting there like a lady waiting for someone to come have tea with her. She may turn into a creature like most of my dolls come out to be. She would be painted as well, and the paint could seep through onto the inner doll.I'm thinking on it.
Janet
