Constructed Alice

This is a doll I made last year. Or was it the year before? Either way, I gave it to my youngest daughter. This is an Alice, younger than she is in the book, but asleep and dreaming all the same. I took this photo of her in my hand to show scale.

She's sculpted from polymer clay; head and shoulder, legs from the knee and arms from the elbow. The body is sewn from tea-stained cotton curtain lining, which I used to buy at John Lewis but can't find in the US. The fabric has a slight sheen and a lovely, soft warm surface. Thinned acrylic glaze is used to blush the soles of her feet, her hands and her face. As she's sleeping, I just needed some colour on her eyelid and on her lips. I'd intended to sew her head to her body, hence the holes in her chest, but in the end I glued it together.

The hair is from an old hair clip, washed and straightened with boiling water. There's a very user-friendly tutorial here Tips and tricks for Doll hair for cleaning, straightening and styling doll hair.

This is Sleeping Alice completed.