Happy Halloween. It’s that time of year when I dust off my Zombie Dolls off and let them wander the neighbourhood scaring unsuspecting folks!
It’s easy to make and strangely satisfying creating these monster dolls. Just find the most innocent looking doll and follow these steps
1. Gather your ghoulish materials-
Dolls- I have used dolls with porcelain heads, arms and legs that are approximately 40cms tall. These are easy to come by at any Op shop. It’s funny, when you walk into a shop sometimes their staring eyes just find you!
⦁ cheap face paint
⦁ fake blood
⦁ white spray paint
⦁ scissors
⦁ fire starter
⦁ plastic bag
⦁ old box or drop cloth
I suggest finding a place outside to work on the dolls. Not sure about your rules, but playing with fire and using spray paint aren’t allowed in my house!
2. Remove any clothing the doll may have on and set aside.
Wrap the doll’s hair in a plastic bag to avoid getting paint on it. Place the doll on a drop cloth or in an old box and spray paint the face, arms, and legs. Set aside to dry.
3. While the paint is drying tatter up the clothing by cutting holes and slits in the dress. Think what you might look like if you had a really bad night out , now make the clothes reflect it!
4. Once the paint has dried, now channel what your face would look like after that rather Gothic night out.
Use black and gray face paint to darken around the eyes and lips. Create contour along the cheeks and chin to narrow and mature the face. To get a bruised look, add a little red face paint in a thin layer over the black and grey.
Paint the lips red and possibly add a thin red line across the neck to look like it was sliced
Dirty up the arms and legs with a little grey and black paint.
Apply the paint sparingly at first then build up the look you want. Have fun and think zombie!
5. Now let’s get her dressed in her clothes and style that hair.
Think 80’s hair, back comb it until it’s as tall as she is. If you want, you can CAREFULLY burn her hair and clothes a little. The hair will melt and blacken but be careful, it can catch fire quickly. Have some water on hand to dunk her in if needed. Add splatter blood to her clothes, or a drop of blood at the corner of her mouth.
I would like to truly apologize to porcelain doll collectors out there, but be assured no dolls were harmed in the making of this segment!
Well, not really. More like they were given a second lease on life — A Zombie afterlife!
Another version – Day of the Dead
