So, the pictures are kind of bad as I’m not doing a proper photoshoot before the work is done, but they are a nice chance for you to see the process of making, not only the result, I took some during the making too, I doubt that I’ll find them in my messy picture storages, as they were taken many months ago, but when I do, I’ll definitely share them, maybe they will appear in following articles form “He’s a Pirate” series, as you see a lot is yet to be done and published, I think there might be at least 3 articles in the series to look forward to, and I hope you’ll follow the process together with me.
So, I started making this doll a very long while ago, after seeing some inspiring photos in Pinterest. I never expected that it would take so much time, describing the whole making process would be pretty boring so I’ll just mention the most interesting moments. As we know the character Jack Sparrow and of course Johnny Depp who plays him, both have a lot of tattoos, in one of the movies we could see some interesting patterns on Jack’s shirtless body, and he obviously has that famous tattoo on his arm (one that Johnny actually got for real), trying to repeat all the ones from movie would be a bit too complicated so I choose to only put the ones Johnny actually had by that time on the doll’s arms, they are pretty stylized as I obviously couldn’t make them THAT detailed, but here you can see, the triangle art and Betty Sue heart on his right arm and the native American’s head (that I transformed into stylized skull and crossbones, because such head wouldn’t look good so simplified), “Wino(na) forever” and Jack Sparrow one on his left one, that I also stylized a lot because it would be almost impossible to make a well visible bird and sun-like silhouette in such tiny work. I sewed them with black and red threads and, I think, for such small work they are pretty good. The next moment in the making process, that I would like to remember is the hair. Oh. My. God. Jack simply has a huge mess of dreadlocks, braids, beads and bandana on his head. I had to spend hours on Pinterest and rewatch certain moments from movies millions of times to understand what that whole thing looks like from all sides. Have to say, sewing the hair was the most time consuming process, I mean I worked for like 3 days, like Wake up-Eat-Work-Eat-Work-Eat-Sleep. Nonstop. After each work day my hands were swollen and my fingers were literally bleeding from using needle too much, finally when all the hair strands were sewed in place, the most interesting process begin, braiding dreadlocks, I also cut some of the hair in certain length and left in unbraided to add the necessary messiness, the day of braiding was crazy, When I started working I put “The Curse Of The Black Pearl” on TV in the background, when the movie was over I had finished only the very back of the head. Then I turned on “On Stranger Tides” And when it was over I was done with the top part (above bandana), as you see I put a toothpick as the, what was that thing, a bone or something??? And also did more dreadlocks in bottom, I still had to brad the front part where the most beads are, the part that was the most creative to make. I felt too tired to do it on the same day so I decided that I’ll finish it tomorrow, I ate something, went to the bookstore to purchase the new book by Salla Simukka (oh gosh, it was the first time I visited a bookstore since the corona started, and first time I bought a freshly published book in years (usually I wait for a while until they lower the prices)), I mean you have to treat yourself after hard work, right? Then I came home, decided to take the last remains of strength and energy, and despite my decision to finish it the next day, I finished the hair in the evening of that same day. Oh, and sorry for the bad lighting in photos, I took them the same night, it was like maybe 11 o clock, and it seemed to me as it was still light enough. Oh and right after taking the pictures, I simply passed out XD.
You might have heard about the fact that, not a long time ago, Johnny Depp joined Instagram, he has an account now, and posts some interesting stuff from time to time. So, when this doll will be completely finished, I’ll try to find a way to send him photos of it privately, or publish the photos, tagging him, so he could see them. Maybe I’ll do both, but I’ll try my best to make him see the pictures. I don’t know whether I’ll succeed, maybe he won’t receive pictures, maybe he has so many messages that mine will simply disappear, or maybe he will receive them and even answer me. But I’ll do everything to make sure he receives them. Who knows… Whatever will happen, I will surely tell you about it, when I do it.
So, now I have a shirtless Captain Jack Sparrow in my bedroom, unfinished shirt for him (I’m working on it!) and you-know-which movie constantly playing on my TV (so I could look and understand how to make some things to resemble to real character as closely as possible).
I don’t want to finish the article in any way, as this is only the first chapter with more to follow, so let’s continue the process together, tell me what you think of this little Captain Jack, and stay there for the next part coming soon (by soon I mean 3-9 months XD).
To be continued…
