P2: Doll's Escape project statement

My inspiration for creating this piece was the movie Coraline. I really enjoyed the movie when I first watched it in theaters as a kid. There are some very unique visuals in the film that contribute to a one of a kind viewing experience. I decided I would like to work with some similar mediums to try to simulate some of the imagery that Coraline evoked. My goal was to convey the fear/creepiness that was portrayed in the film through the button eyes and tunnel. To do this, I decided to make a doll of my own likeness and a gray tunnel (which is depicted when Coraline is trying to escape). I wanted to use a cam to move a needle up and down through the doll's button eye. 

I ended up facing a lot of struggles with the Coraline doll and the mechanism itself. I'm not very experienced working with cloth and decided to make the doll with canvas. However, I didn't account for how stiff the fabric would be. In my first attempt at making the body of the doll, I had made the arms and legs too thin and couldn't flip the canvas inside out. In my second attempt, although I made the doll's extremities three times thicker, I still struggled to flip the canvas and had to soak it in hot water to be successful (I ripped some stitches in the process even with the hot water). 

Making the hole in the head of the doll for the needle was also very difficult. Initially, I drilled the hole at a slight angle and the drill bit was not long enough to break through to the other side of the doll's head, which forced me to drill from the other side. The result was a hole that my rod would get caught in. I ended up having to construct my mechanism so that the dowel was never dipping under the surface of the hole on the doll's head, which made it so that you could see the dowel that was attached to the needle, which I felt took away from the effect. 

I struggled with my gears as well. I didn't make the set screw holes small enough and the screw could not be tightened to the point where the gears and cam were fully secured. I had to use E600 glue to secure each part so that they weren't just spinning on the rod. 

Overall, however, I was proud of how my project turned out. I'm glad that the tunnel achieved the 3d effect I was looking for and that the doll had some sort of resemblance to me. I also modeled my cam to look like a button and the part on top of the cam to look like a bug, which I ended up really liking the look of. If I had more time, I would have liked to include a clay model of a child's toy boat in the tunnel as well as some children's socks to better depict the tunnel (and the lives the Beldam took) in the end of the film. I would have also liked to make the Beldam's hand out of needles. I think this would add to the effect of the project overall.