Guardian Doll gets wet felted

And...here she is again, the Granny Guardian doll I am working on for the Barb Kobe Medicine doll class. She is much closer to being complete having been wet felted while I watched the Pittsburgh Pens, move on the the Stanley Cup Finals. (OK, we're big sports fans here in Pittsburgh!). If you compare photos, you can probably see how she shrank during the wet felt process. That's only appropriate I think as this is to be a transformative process. Now, she'll lay on towels, trying to dry during a particularly damp string of days here. I give her a week and then she may have to bake in the oven a bit! On to the scapegoat doll while she dries! Keep an eye out for the chewed up polymer doll heads to reappear on the scapegoat.

Isla's Ruth

I' ve had the great honor of teaching the same class of Sunday School students for 6 years. The students have given me a great of spiritual joy, always in their innocence, givng me a different way of looking at things. For the last three years my Sunday School class has ended it's year with a project. Each student is asked to choose a favortie biblical person, write a bit about that person and make a doll to represent them. The first year was my idea, the last two, to my delight, the students have asked to make the dolls. It is such a pleasure and joy to share my love of art and dollmaking while I teach about the love Christ. This doll is "in progress", you can see she still hasn't been given a head! (time runs short in a 45 minnnute class.) This is the work of nine-year-old, Isla, a bright young lady with many talents. Her doll is Ruth from the Old Testament story of Ruth and Naomi, a class favorite. When Ruth gets a head, sometime this week, I'll post the finished doll. Ruth appears by kind permission of Miss Isla. Thanks, Sweetie. Teaching you has been a wonderful part of my life!

Medicine Doll Class-Guardian doll

Here's another look at my Guardian Doll in progress. She sat for awhile, waiting to become. I guess like I often do. I wait for God to shine a light a little further out than the tip of my toes to make a move. With God and with dolls, it doesn't really work that way, at least not for me. I need to pick myself up and make my feet move even if it is into the unknown places that God has yet to reveal to me. The doll must be picked up, held, and worked on, allowing the muse to show you the way. The purpose of this doll is to be my guardian through the process of exploring old anger and that hasn't yet been resolved and to help me to break through to the artist who longs to burst forth. I must trust the artistic process and know that God has provided this outlet to also further explore my spirituality.

My dog ate my doll work...

Ah, the adorable dog, Donald. He's turned into Donald Destructo! I had such high hopes when he breezed through obedience classes with flying colors. He decided Wednesday morning to have at it with three unbaked, polymer doll heads. Took me hours to sculpt and only a few seconds for Donald to undo it all. Never willing to get let good work go for naught, I've decided I will use these heads anyway, with only minor repairs and somewhere along the way they will become full fledged dolls with sad tales to tell. As for Donald, he's in the proverbial doghouse. Not to worry he's so charming he won't be there long.! See his fine work below.