Initially, this project was going to be a series of international Santas. I found that a bit limited and couldn't find nearly as much source material as I would have liked. One of the themes that I took away from that initial research is the basis of today's Santa paper doll outfit: Father Frost.
I've mentioned before that my husband's family has a Russian and generally Slavic background. I find it fascinating. I love family history and researching his branch has been very difficult but very interesting. I really wanted to do a Russian inspired Santa because of this.
Tomorrow is a Russian inspired Mrs Claus. She came out pretty great and I'm eager to share!
If you're looking for the dolls, you can grab them here.
this is beautiful! i've always liked the winter wizard version of santa claus ~ and seeing him in colors other than red. the pattern on the robe is exquisite!
ReplyDeleteI love seeing a non-traditional Santa. The pattern on his coat is fantastic.
ReplyDeleteI like the winter wizard idea, too. The Santa we take our kids to wears green & burgundy and I always liked that. Fun fact: the Santa we see is at the Burlington Mall in Burlington, MA, where they filmed Paul Blart: Mall Cop. I am in no way encouraging anyone to see the movie, but they set up all of the holiday decorations for the movie set, and then told the mall to keep them. As a result, it's a gorgeous winter set-up!
ReplyDeleteAs for the patterns, I made those last year. I found an old folk flower embroidery pattern that was cool and I used it to develop a bunch of Illustrator patterns and brushes. For me, Illustrator is the ideal tool for pattern making. Not only can I use them in Illustrator, but I can also export jpgs or pngs and use it in Photoshop, too.