ATU Creative Contest Entry!

Beth Revis, author of Across the Universe (amazing book btw, go read it if you haven't yet), is having an awesome contest on her blog. All you have to do is be creative! Winner receives a beautiful charm bracelet and an ARC of A Million Suns! An oppurtunity read A Million Suns before January! Isn't that exciting?? I know I'm excited, so I decided to give it a shot.

Here's my entry!

 Amy and Elder

     I decided to make one of my Faceless Fancies dolls. Well, my first ever couple I haven't made one in several years and felt like giving them another try. The design was inspired by the scene from Across the Universe where Elder picks the flowers for Amy, but doesn't get the chance to give them to her. I wanted to give him a second chance and fancy it up a bit.
    The design for Amy's dress comes from the book cover of Across the Universe; the mash of darker colors on the bottom and the lighter colors on the top and the gray ribbon around the waist separating the two is my way of not drawing the faces. Elder is the complete opposite, black and white (and a gray tie to match Amy of course) with the Godspeed logo and blueprint. The base they're standing on is painted like part of the cover of A Million Suns.

Interested in the creation process and the ideas behind the designs? Want to see more pictures? Read on!

The dolls are just wooden pieces glued and tied together. I started by giving everything a coat of white paint and while it dried I experimented with colors for the dress.

I wanted Elder's design to be a contrast to Amy's. Where she is different and colorful, he isn't. I wanted to tie in the Godspeed blue print and logo somewhere and decided it would be neat to actually put it on him since the ship is a large part of him. You know, that whole thing with him being Elder and future Eldest and all. The idea was a lot easier in my head ...

For the logo I made a stencil out of an index card. The logo was a tad more complex. I smeared white pain on the back of the paper and before it dried I traced over the lines I wanted transferred onto the doll. I then went back with a fine tipped paintbrush and cleaned it up a bit.

The hair is made out of embroidery floss. It's glued on in layers and then cut and styled.

 The flowers are made from left over table confetti from my wedding two years ago. (I hate to throw something away when it can be used in something craftsy) After painting, the edges were curled while still slightly wet and then attached to wire stems with small bits of clay.

 The Flower Evolution:

 I painted the base to look like the corner of the A Million Suns cover.

 Put it all together and .....

All Finished!

And there you have it. The creation of my Across the Universe inspired Faceless Fancy. So much fun to make and it gave me a reason to read through the book again, not that I really needed a reason. =)