JACK SKELLING ZOMBIE .....

This is the last of my zombies for Halloween 2014 !!!
This was my response to a challenge given to us by my friend (and our Zombie Doll Swap Mama) VAL ... Create a Zombie Doll for our own collections !!!
I love Jack Skellington ... the character from Tim Burtons movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Such a dapper chap. The theme of this years swap was animated zombies ...... it was a done deal !!!!
I promised some of you that have asked me how I create my dolls, that I would explain in a little more detail, my creative process .... so here goes !!!

WHAT I USED TO MAKE JACK :
- Paper Mache ball
- Aluminum Foil
- Masking Tape
- Piece of Dowel
- Lengths of Chain
- Sculpey
-Paint
- Hands from a plastic skeleton

- I glued a length of dowel into the paper mache ball. I then rolled sausages of foil to create his body shape ... wider at the shoulders, more slender at the hips (don't I wish that was a description of me !!!). Once I was happy with the shape, I glued the other end of the dowel into the foil, and I covered his whole torso with masking tape.
- Time to condition your sculpey, and roll it out to an even thickness ..... now start covering his head, neck and torso. This takes a little time to do, but the sculpey is very easy to work with, so press, roll and smooth away, until your happy with the look. At this point I added his nose, his wounds and his eye sockets too.
- Happy with the way he looks .... Good !!! Now it's time to cook him !!! I put him in the oven at 275 Deg F for 30 minutes. When the 30 minutes is up, take him out of the oven and let him cool completely.
- Once cool, I painted him. Gave him an all over coat of white paint, then accented his eyes, mouth and wounds with black and red paint. Leave him to dry, and then give him a coat of varnish.
- I screwed little circle hook things (you attach them to the back of pictures - they're what you tie the wire onto before you hang them), into both shoulders and both hips. The only way that I could think of to create his skinny legs and arms, was to use lengths of chain. Attach those lengths to those circle hook things ... Voila arms and legs !!!
- Attach those skelly hands .... make some sculpey boots ..... and Jack is born !!! He's in need of some clothes now ....

WHAT I USED TO DRESS JACK :
- Black Felt
- White Button
- And lots of patience, because sewing those white strips onto the black felt was laborious !!!!

I cut a pattern based on his shape ..... you'd need to do the same for your guy (each one is unique). Constructing his clothes was done pretty much the same way as you would construct any garment ...shoulder seams, side seams ...... there's no hems, facings or closures though .... now isn't that a bonus !!!

I finished him off, by crocheting lengths of chain stitch with red yarn ..... No zombie is a real zombie until he eats some brains :-) Stick them into his mouth .... yum !!!!

I'll let you in to a little secret ..... this time yesterday, he was headed to the dustbin !!! He came out of the oven, and his head was sooo squishy and the sculpey had cracked in places ....... the ball that I though was paper mache was actually plastic, covered in a thin layer of paper, so it melted !!! SOOOOO check what your ball is made of  .... it must be 100% paper mache to avoid squishy brains !!!
I'm glad I didn't chuck him out, and decided to use him anyway, because I love the final result !!!

October 1st is not too far off  (oh, I'm excited !!!).... I'm trying to decide how best to display my zombie patch this year ..... I'm wondering if I have time to make some paperclay trees before it's time to decorate ? I still need to get my Halloween wreath done, and  ..... and ..... and ....