I am finally posting photos of my Properity Doll which I have been creating through an online class with multimedia artist,
Chaska Peacock. Be sure to check out her blog to see other dolls created in this class. Click on Prosperity Doll Class in the left hand column.
The doll is a self-portrait of my intent for personal prosperity and abundance for this New Year 2009. I selected green because it is my favorite color. Green also symbolizes for me my goal for positive personal growth. Green means durability, reliability, luxurious, optimism, well-being, nature, calm, relaxation, Spring, safety, honesty, harmony and freshness.
The head/face of my doll is a mirror which I embellished with fabric trim, beads and yarn. One of Chaska's class examples used a mirror for the head/face. She said when she looked at her doll she saw her reflection. I thought this was really cool. Chaska said we could borrow her idea.
I wrapped the body of my doll with the plastic of a lime green bath fluff. She didn't have enough padding so I went to the drug store and found the bathing sponge and cut it apart. The underskirt is made of green fabric with a soft all over pattern. I measured and cut the strips of the skirt. Then I wrote my goals/affirmations for this year on the strips with black India Ink markers. The goals I wrote on the skirt are the following: happiness in my life; wellness-lose weight, exercise, eat healthy; creativity-making my own art on a regular basis; develop friendships; teach adult art classes; and take art classes.
The blouse is made by wrapping, draping and tacking multi-colored 2" silk ribbon. Besides constructing the body form, I think making the blouse was the most difficult part for me. I then wrapped the underskirt around twice. The overskirt was made using a strip of cotton fabric painted with lumiere paint the same color that I painted the body. It has the same fabric trim as the face along the top and bottom edges. Handspun yarn was glued to the back of the waistband. The yarn overskirt was then wrapped and glued over the fabric skirt.
I still have embellishments I want to add to further decorate my Prosperity Doll. I also plan to make a stand for her. I will post these photos when she is totally finished.
I know last Sunday was Easter, but it is still April! I made all of these egg ATC's except the last one for a swap with Latest Trends in Mixed Media. I have never worked in any other shape format for an ATC before. It was a lot of fun! Thanks Sherre for hosting this swap and sparking my creativity in a different way! I also want to give credit to Karen from the Graphics Fairy for the many free images I used in these ATC's. Karen shares wonderful free images on her site that are to die for. I am so grateful to her. In addition, my new blog background is thanks to Kathy from her site Background Fairy.
As you can see I have a lot to share about the Women's Gathering I attended. An added bonus to the retreat was a gift from Julia to stay an extra night, Sunday, if we wished. Five of us stayed and had more wonderful time relaxing, visiting, more eating, reading, napping & creating art. Kathy Frost, another very good friend, art educator & artist was also on the retreat. This was a wonderful surprise because I did not know she would be there in advance. Kathy brought some incredible paste papers and dyed textured rice papers which she shared with me. The oranges in the 1st ATC & the blue and rust in the 2nd one are Kathy's papers. Aren't they gorgeous! I gave the 1st ATC to Kathy as a gift to thank for sharing.
On the Women's Gathering that I wrote about in the previous post, I created 3 collages based on Archetypal Companions that spoke to me during our growth work sessions Friday night and Saturday morning. Collage #1 represents the Warrior Companion Archetype. The definition of an Archetype (from Wikipedia) is a model of a person, personality, or behavior. The use of archetypes to illuminate personality and literature was advanced by Carl Jung early in the 20th century. 
