Timber roller derby doll

I made a little me for my derby mate Timber. Before we get started with the show and tell, there two things you need to know.

First thing: meet Timber.

(Roller derby action photos taken by Kellie Atchison Matus Oct 20, Belladonnas vs. CRDA All-Stars)

Timber is number 18 on the Red Deer Roller Derby Associations' The Belladonnas. She's a big ol' dancing tank on roller skates and kind of amazing.

 
It's hard to believe that one year ago she was just learning to roller skate. Though, her nickname throughout fresh meat was 'thirteen years of hockey,' so it's not a surprise she's caught on quickly. People assume she's called Timber because she fells skaters left and right but the real reason is because when she falls, she falls like a giant red wood, with an earth shaking boom. She also falls for absolutely no reason about a half dozen times a practice. But don't tell anyone. She'd hate for her secret to get out.

 
That's Timber.

 

Second thing to know is: the orange background was a profound mistake. I hate hate hate the photos I took but it's too late to redo since the doll is already in Timber's oversized hands.

What possessed me to go with orange? I don't know, other than when I think of Timber who is all of 19 years old, I think of her generation's love of hideously bright colours insulting to nature. Scroll up and check out her tights.

See?

But the orange background, ugh, it was much too much. Even the photo editor kept breaking down, the page overloaded with orange pixels of death. I could of spent a few hundred years learning how to edit out the orange background but I decided instead that I would use the creative edits online and offer you just a fraction of the colour in each photo. That way you can get a sense of colours but not have your retinas seared off in a blaze of orangeness. It's not a great solution, I know, but I've got a lot of stuff to do and I can't be bothered to worry about it anymore.  Plus I also sort of like the pivot-y look it gives to the photos. 

(Warning: I'm going to keep it to a minimum but I may use a few derby terms below and not bother to explain them for those who don't know. All I can say is go watch some derby on wftda.tv or DNN. That's all the help I'm going to give you.  You should already be watching roller derby anyway.)

(Oh, but if you do play derby and feel compelled to point out the lack of particular pieces of important gear on the Timber doll, you can keep that to yourself.  Because they just didn't look right and for this one and only time, the aesthetic is more important than safety.)

And now, I think, we're ready to move onto my girl Timber's little me doll.

Timber is fourteen inches high, made from linen, with painted legs, and acrylic yarn hair. 

Her jersey is jersey (clever, I know).  Her arms and legs have a wire armature within so she is posable (including, as I had fun finding out, into gangnam style).

Timber's Antik skates are made from an upcycled leather jacket.  The skates took me a couple of tries to get them to the right size and I'm not so sure my fingers will forgive me for working without a punch or timble, but I'm a little proud of them.  And I have some modifications for next time to make them even better.

Because they're so excellent, here's another picture of the skates.

Her leggings are painted and then the details picked out with sharpie.  I had a serious debate with myself about whether I could actually draw on a doll with sharpie, but then I remembered that this doll was of a derby girl and we are constantly drawing on our own bodies with sharpie so with the heck not the doll.  Plus, the sharpie looks excellent.  Good work, sharpie!

The back of Timber's jersey and armbands have her number on.  (Below is a back view of a typical player response to a penalties, otherwise known as the 'wtf, it wasn't me?!' gesture of respect.)
 

You can check out her little pivot star booty shorts as she skates away.

 

Questions or comments are welcome!