I crafted a lil man🌙

I have always loved cinema. As a teenager, I borrowed a collection of Méliès films from my local library…and I was completely fascinated by the creativity I saw.

Lately, I've been juggling multiple projects, both professional and personal—altering Lorcana cards, working on the robot, moving house… and yet, I still felt a real sense of emptiness. The feeling of doing things automatically. Then, I stumbled upon some sculptures I made seven years ago at my parents' house, inspired by famous fairy tales. This has given me my next project: to get back into sculpting small models… but moving ones this time!

The main idea is to create a piece inspired by A trip to the moonThe doll's head will be similar, though more suited to my style, and her body will be slender. As for her costume, I will try to recapture the whimsical feel of the costumes in her filmography, while also drawing inspiration from the costume of the character Pierrot.

For this, I buy wire which I use to create a rigid armature. On top of that, I add aluminum to create volume (head, arms, feet, etc.). I'm careful not to cover the areas of flexion. Once I have my skeleton and muscle tissue, I cover everything with self-hardening clay.

The self-hardening clay dries quite quickly, which gives me time to add layers to achieve a result more in line with my expectations. I do some initial tests with acrylic paint, adding a little water for a more diluted look. And finally, my doll begins to come to life!

Now I need to dress it. Since it's a small project, I mainly want to use fabric I already have on hand without having to buy any more (not to mention that the quantities are literally soooo small). Finally, I create a tiny pattern to sew pants and a shirt (inspired by my pirate's shirt!) and a jacket. I cut everything out of my white stretch fabric and paint stripes on the pants and color the jacket black with acrylic paint and Ecoline. Before finishing my sewing, I add some fabric scraps to stuff the figure.

I dress my little man and add 2 gears to his jacket and there you go!