Here Comes The Tin Man!

O.k. I left off showing you a wip pic of 3 characters. I finished one but still have the other two to work on. I tried to photo document the steps mostly in case I ever had need to make one of these again for a custom order or something, and also in case anyone was interested in my process. Warning this post is photo and rambling text heavy.

Here he is at the very beginning on the right. I forgot to take a full body photo of him after he was sewn and stuffed but his body is similar to the dolls in the photo below.

I struggled with this doll because I wasn't sure if it was worth all the time and trouble and effort to do all the details I had in mind for him or really any of the others in this series. I had a crisis of felt! I thought about simplifying him to make my life easier, to get him done quicker and move on faster. I suffer from a chronic painful illness so my good work days can be few and this project was turning into an never ending one (at least that's how it felt to me). I had huge plans for a Wonderland project last year that never got off the ground so I was determined to do this one when things just started to fall apart.

While I was moaning and groaning and flinging things around my studio and pretty much depressing myself my daughter asked what was the problem. So I explained it all and she convinced me that if I simplified the dolls I'd be very unhappy with them at the end and what was wrong with details? Even if they never sell isn't my satisfaction with them the important thing? She is always amazed by what I come up with. So then we watched part of the movie so she could see the costumes and details because she has never seen the movie before and became more adamant that I had to do them properly. So per her suggestion I put all the other dolls away and am concentrating on just one at a time. Working so isolated as I do I don't really have anyone to bounce ideas and suggestions on so she was so helpful. She really saved this project.

Here's the beginning of the collar and barrel body that I'm adding over the basic body. I was stumped at what to use for rivets but have a ton of mini white buttons so I hand dyed them a blueish gray.

What I forgot to show is that the button/rivets go down his back too.

I stuffed his barrel to almost bursting.

Closed up the bottom.

Wired and sewed his hands. I HATE wiring and sewing hands. It's usually one of the last things I do.

Made a mock up/pattern of his funnel hat.

It was at this point I realized I sewed the handle on backwards and set everything aside to cool off before I took the whole thing apart (because of the way it was sewn) to position the handle correctly. AAAGGGHHH!!!

Hat pinned in place and you can now see the rivets/buttons on the sides of his head. He has some on the back of his head too.

Arms attached, bow tie in place, axe in hand, done.

It's a horrible day for photos here but I'm done. Once everyone is done I'll do a good photo-shoot of the whole cast. I'm so very pleased with how he came out that I've been carrying him around the house all day. I hope you like him too.