The Six Finished Dolls - Doll # 1

I want to name them, but I have this notion, an interpretation of Construction - Deconstruction. So it takes a long time to make a doll, even when they are in a batch. The process with the porcelain requires for the dolls to go in the kiln about 7 times, all the while hoping that nothing goes wrong.

Then there is dressing them up, and adding the wig and jewelry, etc. Then I add the backdrop.

So my construction - deconstruction thing is to finally name the dolls really long names and give them funny stories. I also think this stems in the fact that my full name, Valentino is 4 syllables. When I was in school, Valentino was the longest names in school.

Here's something else, I am also adding my last name as if they were my ex-wives. Sorry, but it's a stupid joke, and it's a way to get my name circulating with the dolls. I've never been into naming them normal names. Then I say, in some other reality, I'm sure all this is real. haha. I'm going to say so-and-so is my 938th wife. So I'll assign a random number and just later on catalog which set really was first and so on.

I'll write more on the next entries.

So here's my first of the six. I hope you like them, and share this blog with your friends and kids.

Once again, I'm posting in order to let kids and other internet users use the pics for themselves, like avatars or making non-commercial greeting cards and adding poetry, etc.. This is also the reason for the green screen.

Finished Dolls by Artist Author Valentino Zubiri!

Ummm,  I had to mention my name on the headline because Google indexes that. I'm not self-centered, I assure you, but it occurred to me to once in a while add my name on the heading.

I'm sorry it took a while to get back. I have been busy up until May, doing something else. Then I decided to finish the dolls, but I also felt I had to study more stuff, including enamels, engraving and stained glass.

I'm uploading 130 plus pictures in separate blog entries. So here is the first set, which will be the shoes, all finished and shaped like shoes.

If there is any knowledge I can share with you. The shoes are striped to match the fabric. They have metal inside, and it's the metal that is keeping the shoe shape.

My desire to make the shoes as "realistic" as possible, is due to lessons in engraving using gravers. Engravers actually use microscopes, or scopes, in order to keep their work as detailed and accurate as possible. If they have this type of discipline, then I thought I should also probably have this type of discipline, at least with the shoes.

I'm sharing all the pictures I took, because there might be kids out there who might want to use it for their internet presence, especially since this set is done.

If you are interested in collecting my work, I'm available. I would prefer that you get in touch with your favorite art gallery, art representative, doll store or interior designer to get in touch with me, unless you are okay dealing with me directly. The dolls in the picture already belong to someone else. I only plan to use a doll's head twice, once for the collector, and once for myself, so I could tour the work, or take photographs.

Just to remind you, making the art dolls from scratch is very time-consuming and there will always be a wait.

I am still looking for a literary agent and have yet to finalize anything with a commercial publisher, but you can now purchase and read Dollman the Musical, A Memoir of an Artist as a Dollmaker, on both Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com. It's a good read, about children and their problems once they've grown up. It can change your life. A Hollywood film company expressed interest in reading it, and all this can take years, if something even ever happens.

I am getting more exposure, having finished this set and sharing pictures on flickr and facebook, together with BlogSpot.

Coming Soon! Stringing the Dolls

I will soon show you the finished porcelain nudes. Here is the first picture in the set.

Thanks for following my blog.

Espresso Coffee with Audrey Hepburn -- My Breakfast at Tiffany's Travel Mug

This entry may look trivial, but it was taken in 2012, around after I bought a Breakfast at Tiffany's travel mug. This way, I can have coffee with Audrey Hepburn, all through the wee hours of the night and sometimes early morning, while experimenting with how I would make the hair for the dolls.

Around August 2012, I went to a local gift shop with a lot of show and comic book memorabilia / merchandise. I've been there many times before just to check out what they had. They always have a lot of Doctor Who merchandise, and I remembered a few Torchwood mugs the last few times I visited. So I was there, ready to finally get a Torchwood coffee mug, because I'm a big fan, and unfortunately, they ran out of it. 

I saw this Breakfast at Tiffany's travel mug, so I got it. Breakfast at Tiffany's is not just a favorite movie for me, but I actually bought the small poster which had a stylized illustration of a full-body Audrey Hepburn. I used the proportions in the poster to come up with my current dolls. Porcelain shrinks, so my final dolls are shorter, down to around 13 inches tall, add a few graduals for the hair and the shoes.

I had grouped the pictures I would share on my blog, but I guess I got a little slow, editing the pics and coming up with the text for the blog entries, so I'm apologizing, it's now April 2013 and just beginning to upload and make this and a few other entries.

I feel it important to acknowledge what an inspiration Audrey Hepburn and her movie, Breakfast at Tiffany's has been, so I'm doing this blog entry.

Strangely enough, I am developing a parallel story about how I met a girl in my apartment building. I hope I get it written soon.

By the way, my twitter following has grown to 1400.  I still plan to raffle out a doll as soon as my Twitter followers reach the 3 million mark.

I will have more developments as I begin to put in more and more entries.

Dollman the Musical - A Memoir of an Artist as a Dollmaker NEW COVER DESIGN

DOLLMAN THE MUSICAL
A MEMOIR OF AN ARTIST AS A DOLLMAKER

FULL FRONT COVER DESIGN

I have plans to replace the cover for the book, Dollman the Musical. This is the cover I'm currently happy with. I am giving myself a week to work on changing the files uploaded to Barnes & Noble and Amazon, and the other site I have uploaded to.

CLOSEUP OF THE IMAGE AND TITLE

I'm also getting an ISBN -- the bar code located at the back of books. I will also have the actual physical printed books available. 

THE IMAGE

The image is the main character levitating or flying away with a little kid, who is actually his younger self. They are wearing the same "thinking hat," the first one ever, given by their mother. That's all I can tell. You have to read the work to understand the hats and the flying away. lol.

UPPER PORTION OF THE BACK COVER

This is the back cover design. It's the same drawing, same title design, but smaller, and with the stanza,

"Dollman please,

Start a revolution

Nothing much too radical

But clearly something magical"

Thanks for following my blog!

Dollman The Musical is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. You can also find it at the Apple Store through the iBookstore app.

I MADE A SALE! 5 New Doll Faces & Work!

I got an order for dolls! My friend Robert read my book, Dollman the Musical - A Memoir of an Artist as a Dollmaker, (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords) and he then decided to get some dolls from me. I told him I want to give him a diorama with 5 dolls.

So I decided to make 5 new faces for him, but I am constantly experimenting and discovering new things, so I may or may not give him this set of 5. I currently have about 13 faces he can choose from, but I am toying with the idea of constantly making new faces. I have yet to decide if everything I will eventually sell will be unique faces, but still give myself the option of redoing the same face for my own collection, but as it is, I have learned that every step takes time.



I don't think the art stops at the recognition of a face. The art includes decisions along the way, like altering the skin colors, the hair, costumes, the setting, and most especially my artistic statement, what message I want to convey.



The message to me is what matters most. Whatever happens in the future, I hope that collectors will collect me because of me, although I intend to keep track of all my works, and have some foresight of what might be expected of me as the source.

I'm still new to all this. I gave Robert a good price, and I'm willing to take in orders, but I constantly tell people, they are getting my art, not dolls. My dolls will always be "imperfect," that they will see a human hand made them, the struggle for perfection will always be there, but it will never be reached.

This artistic process is also a time-consuming endeavor. I see the dolls as a canvas - I make my own canvas as it is, and then more art is added. While canvases may be bought at the art store, my canvas has to be made, and has to go through a time-consuming process. Once in a while, I joke to myself, that if I can turn back time, I would not get into ceramics, but that's my joke to myself. I like what I'm doing - discovering the nuances of making ball-jointed dolls.

I actually decided to stay at home from the last week of February till July, and not "work," so I can stay at home and do all this, including my contribution to Alejandro's stop motion animation feature film.

You might want to read more, by clicking on the pictures. I always put in other thoughts on the picture text, usually more details about the challenges of using porcelain / ceramic to make ball-jointed dolls, or "bjd."

I'm also just now catching up with my blogs, facebook and twitter, taking a break from the actual process of making and handling porcelain. I make sure I document the process, not just for the blog readers, but for myself. I hope it gives people ideas of how time-consuming this is.

Keywords: Porcelain, ball-jointed dolls, ceramics, polymer clay, sculpting, porcelain slip. :-)