Yes the wheels do rotate!
Fanny Brice in the musical Funny Girl has always been one of my favourite characters and so I was excited to recreate the outfit from Fanny's famous 'roller skate scene' from the film version staring Barbara Streisand.
The musical tells the tale of Fanny Brice, a real comedian and Vaudeville performer who rose to stardom, despite a very troubled personal life. She gains a career which is everything she ever dreamed of - yet despite her huge public success her personal life ends in sorrow.
It is a wonderful show and I think that Sheridan Smith, who recently played Fanny in London's West End, is the finest Fanny ever!
I used a Fairy Pelham puppet for the base and was lucky that the hair was in good condition and so it required only a light sponging and a small restyling which secured the curls at her neck.
I started by crafting the roller skates onto the moulded legs and high heeled feet of the original puppet. A modelling two part-clay was used. It dries swiftly and is incredibly strong and chip resistant. I moulded the shape and ensured that there were two holes at the base of each skate so that the wheels would rotate. I then made the wheels from the same material, painted them and then secured each one, via thin doweling, onto each side of the skates. The paints I used were enamels, with added glitter resin to embellish. The finishing touches were the gauze ribbon and pearl bead bows at the top of each boot.
The basic dress is in purple velvet, the stripes created by applying sparkly pink ribbon before stitching the shift dress together, The skirts are layered toile netting and I used gauze ribbon, pearl beads, purple lace and diamante trim to finish. The bow at the rear is made from shot purple taffeta.
The hat was made using a circle of very robust buckram (with a hole remaining at it's centre for the puppets head) covered with purple taffeta and edged with lace.
What a fun commission!
Created by Alexander Sanderson Designs
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