Cloth Doll Classes

Marlaine Verhelst ~ Big Foot Bird Click on each picture for a larger view.

Class Starts: September 28, 2009 Class Fee: $65 Kit fee - $69 for appr. 1 week delivery (including shipping and handling) (payable to Marlaine Verhelst) (The kit is optional but highly recommended because it contains almost everything that is needed for the class.) Skill Level: All Levels (For Adventurous Beginners to Advanced Dollmakers) To register for this class click HERE.

CLASS DESCRIPTION       Making a bird with this Styrofoam and papier maché technique is really fun because it is easy and it has a spectacular effect. Especially with high legs like this big foot bird.       Marlaine will guide you step by step through the process. In this class you will learn several techniques and the possible variations are unlimited. The total height of the bird will be appr.18 inches. Size and shape can be adjusted. Suggestions for alternatives will be given. Kit Fee: $69 (payable to Marlaine Verhelst - marlaine@home.nl) Contents: - the pre-cut bird shape out of 4 inches (10 cm) thick European Styrofoam, appr. 8 inches (20 cm) long - a one kilogramme package of 'Omyacolor papier maché, a sawdust material. Celluclay is a good alternative. - electrical wire for the feet, the one with the copper kernel and plastic around it - thin copper wire for the wings - glass marbles for the eyes - two fitting plastic tubes for the leg construction - two brass sticks for the legs - cotton lace for decoration

Marlaine Verhelst       Marlaine Verhelst: doll artist and teacher for over 25 years and NIADA member since 1999. Making dolls and animals is still fun and so is teaching! I live in The Netherlands and I use to travel a lot in the US for exhibitions and teaching. In the meantime I have met a lot of cloth doll makers and I am very impressed by their creativity and the way they are organised. People kept asking me to come over to the USA to teach animal making but that would keep me at least four weeks from home (because of the drying time) and that is impossible. Then the idea of an online class was born. So here I am and I am excited to see how it will work. My work has been published in magazines and books all over the world (in the USA in Susan Oroyans 'Finishing the Figure'), I am an author of several 'How to ..'books, I have just finished a CD-Rom on handsculpting into porcelain (text, illustrations and video) and I am the organiser of a yearly doll holiday and workshop week in Paris (France). More info: http://www.marlaineverhelst.com and http://www.polle.net/marlaine/parijs-eng.htm