Mid XIX century hat

Hi everyone!

Sooner than I expected, started a new historical hat.

 This time and inspired by the Palácio da Pena's construction period and its founder - King Ferdinand Saxe Coburg und Gotha - planned my next hat to be around 1860s which means a simple cylinder shape and a small straight brim.

With already some experience from the past two hats I constructed, this one is made from cereal box cardboard because of its lightness.

For the "body" I used this very simple "formula"

 

some tries for the head size measure

For the brim I used normal cardboard because wanted some stability once it's, afterall, the base of the hat. Also, to fit within the head, thought that something thicker would be better.

As I didnt took any photo of the final "ensemble" can only say that once again geometry wise all looked rather disastrous so I took some paper clay paste, tried to redefine the circular shape on the top and, basically, now I'm waiting for it to dry and to cover all with several toilet paper sheets  in order to equalize all. ;)

Thats all for tonight folks, thanks for visiting and following. 

Hope that 2017 will be a tremendous creative year for us all, yey!! :D

Focusing on my Etsy shop

Hi everyone!

Autumn has arrived to Sintra and now the weather is cold and damp... not good for paper mache drying.

As we are struggling to find the means to get a new house, I havent been much focused on my overall creations except the ones I can post of my Etsy shop in order to try to generate some income. In fact, I remodeled some bits on it and now its all about what I call "myroyaldolls colectibles"  (funny enough when my earlier pet portrait painting postings were about to expired, someone bought me one - the big peacock portrait  (which I felt it was a nice sign as peacocks are birds whose spirit's symbol talks about transformation towards acknowledging the beauty of the inner self to the outter self). My very first Etsy sale!).

I feel that slowly I'm opening up my "subject" range and stop being so focused on historical dolls, nevertheless and because I wanted to make things happen, I decided to post all that I have made even if I think that people in general wouldn't be that much interested as they are so connected with Portuguese history - it's worth to try and if no one buys it's at least curriculum!

Some you've seen already:

Amália Rodrigues

           

Early victorian couple

D. Afonso Henriques

Queen D. Amélia de Orleans e Bragança

King D. Carlos I of Portugal

Prince D. Henrique "The Navigator" of Portugal

King D. João I of Portugal

King D. Sebastião I of Portugal

King Louis XIV of France

Like I said I'm planning to do more figures and of different subject, maybe pop stars, movie characters, some ancient gods, little aliens (lol!) BUT up until now la cerise sur le gateau is ... guess!
Marie Antoinette, Queen of France!

With even a photo of its "mid beginings", eh eh eh

Please come and have a look and share it with your friends!
There you'll see some descriptions and little stories that will make you wanting to know about their history  
https://www.etsy.com/shop/MachePte

Silent but not dead - my ongoing projects

Hi everyone!

Its true, I did finished my first oil painting where I used the paper epoch props I made and the reactions couldnt have been better!

So much so that once again I fell into a "so if everyone enjoys my works in general, why cant I sell anything?!" specially now that we'de really need extra money to see if either I could get a studio for myself and thus relieving the house from all of my stuff OR getting a bigger house for both as meine Frau is also a creative person (+ 4 cats (all in a tiny house!!))!

It has been like those days where nothing seems to work although you have a strong feeling that "yes, it will work!" but then ...
And yet again everyone seems to like my work, doesnt or didnt made sense!

Anyways .............. today is Wednesday and its my favourite day of the week, why? Because I was born on a Wednesday and thought it was enough of self pity, so I started to do some of the stuff that had been planning but feared starting due to space.

Here's some of the ongoing projects:

Etsy or no Etsy? Is it worth? Humm... Eitherway started a few new little dolls just in case ;)

Remember the horse post? After much thinking started finally the legs on one of them with a cardboard pattern, wire and paper clay on top.

Somewhile ago I started to make, in expandable foam, a cat shape and the idea was to do a cast out of this in order to be able to do as many cats as I like. Today the idea reversed and, well, decided to work on the cat for me, no use for casts of cats to reproduce.
Want a cat as "prop" to also use as model on future paintings.

There is already some material for a second painting but there's something that lacks, the cerise sur le gateau: a greyhound's headin order to paint.
So I started one from a balloon, a toilet paper cardboard roll and covered it (or started to) with paper clay

I will explain them a bit deeper if/when the projects will have an end. :)

In the meantime I've also been trying to expand my doll collection (from myroyaldolls.wix.com/myroyaldolls), trying to improve some that I dont feel that are very well portrayed or got broken in the meantime, etc.

Thanking you all for the support, nice comments and followers,

Pedro

Mid 16th century hat III - FINISHED!

Hi everyone!

Its been almost a month since I wanted to post the finished mid 16th century hat but somehow the whole constructing things became a bit non sense and not only I turned more into doll making, but also, once having the other hat with the ruff together, alongside that video you probably watched on my facebook page I've also started a painting (which has been slightly draining my attention and energy from whatever.

Anyhow (!), so on the last post I said I wasnt pleased with its "roof" so I've replaced it with two sheets of cereal cardboard and then covered with newspaper paper pieces and glue.

Again gave a coat of sheets of toilet paper to equalize the overall texture, and around the brim, like on the other hat, little toilet paper rolls to fake the stiches.

 Now everything pretty much finished it was time to re-paint all with some coats of black tempera.

As for decoration I went again to have a look upon the French Valois Kings and came up with making in cereal cardboard some sort of cross like "thing" unto which I glued a square made of cardboard where I previously had glued a plastic red or white "diamond".

 The rest was to glue toilet paper on the edges, paint all in yellow plus a coat of metalic gold  in the end.
Made 5 of them, all glued on the"sash". Think its overall effective and easy to do!
It  looks rather convincing and from that epoch, so YAY!!!

The rest of the decoration, as you can see consist upon a sequence of a red sequin with half a plastic pearl glued on top. The same for the brim which visualy combined looks like a V coming from the sash.

As by then all these sort of hats had a plume this one would have to have one too!
Looking rather different from the one on the other hat, I dicided to try to use the same technique as I use whenever myroyaldolls need a plume - grabbed some sheets of toilet paper and folded each over itself whilst applying glue on the centers. After having already 3 of them I've assembled all on the hat, sprinkled them with some glue diluted in water and let it dry. After dried I remade the same process, glued these new sheets over the first ones and thus created a bit more of... of... dont know, just have a look yourself! ;)

 So in the end the overall result is this:

<3 <3 <3 Thanks for visiting! <3 <3 <3

Mid 16th century hat II

Hi everyone!

Weather wise things are rather unstable here, so are my projects, nevertheless lets carry on with the hat.

On my last post I was working on its "roof".
As said before I made a crossed paper strip sort of structure which I covered with little pieces of newspaper and glue. As also said before I wanted to avoid cardboard because of its weight but nevertheless gave a thin layer of paper clay not exactly to make the whole hat heavier but... thought it would help to get some interesting shape? Then covered all with some sheets of toilet paper and glue in order to "seal" the pieces of newspaper (didnt use liquid porcelain this time because I wanted to keep the wrinkly texture from the toilet paper)

 

During the drying process I noticed that the "roof", due to the paper clay, formed some unwanted shapes, the head wouldn't fit that well anymore but ... "not that well anymore" was still okay with me...

Time to make the sash!  The sash was super simple, just folded an entire sheet of newspaper and glued on the hat. 

Gave a coat of black acrylic colour on the whole piece and a coat of varnish on the sash (thus giving an idea of some silky fabric (I hope!)

Test drive time!

(looks like those from Tom of Finland's art work? LOL!)

Now all seems finished and time to start with jewels and plume as decoration, right? 

Wrong!

I decided that the "roof" was way too mishapen for my taste, so today I grabbed the cutter and made some changes!

Cutted off the part of my dislike and with cereal box cardboard (two sheets of it glued together and then all covered with pieces of newspaper and glue on both sides) I re-made the cutted bit and re-glued.

Now once after I cover both pieces on the inside the hat and give another coat of paint, yes, it will be time for decorations!!!

Ah (!) in the meantime, another doll making adventure, King D. João III (remember him? posted his photo on the last post!)!

Thanks for visiting! Do tell your friends to do so too! :P

Mid 16th century hat

Hi everyone!

Yes, you read it right, MID 16th century hat!
Of course that the idea was there way before finishing the late 16th century one, but as I only have two hands... ;)

 The inspiration came partially from the early french Valois kings (from Henri II to his sons François II and Charles IX (Henri III sometimes also wears them but on early portraits), paintings by François Clouet and also images of "my" own Kings, namely, D. João III and D. Sebastião

D. João III King of Portugal

Henri II King of France

Charles IX King of France

Based upon experience, this time I wanted to avoid cardboard because it gets rather heavy afterwards. Plus, the idea upon the "how to" had been fermenting on my mind already a while ago so it was only a question of start doing it!

For the first time, hat wise, I took my friend - the bust - measured its head and with thick paper (80grams) made a sort of headband. On this headband, all around it, I glued little strips of the same paper.

Looks like the Staue of Liberty, right? Lol!

Now the idea was to make two similar brims, one for below and another for the top. For this thought of cutting some strips of newspaper slightly rounded in order to go along with the headband format.

Glued some on the lower brim and had a look at the mirror to see how it looked (yeah, sure!)

The same procedure on the top, ending with something like this

Using the upper brim as border to make the "roof", I glued some crossed strips of that same thick paper.
Then it will be only a question of covering all these crossed "paths" with pieces of newspaper glued in layers and see whats next!

Already looks like a crown, awwwww!

Stay tunned for there will be more!

Thank you :)