This Sunday I will be teaching the 'Madame Crow Fortune Teller' doll class at the Castle! Truth be told, this has been the longest 'prep' for a class yet! I hope I didn't bite off too much thinking we can do this in a day! As you can see, Ms. Crow looks innocent enough... Each one hand-sculpted of paper clay by me, on a 12 inch manniquin. I used a tin-foil mask, as shown, to make the clay weigh less, and help hold up the beaks. For sculpting I followed roughly the same technique used on a Crow head that I sculpted in the 90's.
Once finished, the little ladies looked more like sea-gulls then Crows, and quite naked at that! Flat black spray paint brought them back to their wonderful ol' trickster selves...!
So where does the 'Fortune Telling' come to play you ask??? See her skirt? It is made of 160, yes, 'One Hundred and Sixty' (no more, no less) cut and folded paper sleeves, and sewn into a skirt - each with a different handwritten fortune on it! (Don't tell anyone, but I am no where near having them done...) And there you see, is where most of Sunday will be spent!!!
Madame Crow was inspired by Victorian dolls, created just like these Crows, with delicate paper sleeves as skirts, given as party favors and used to divine young womens fate, luck and chance...
