Friday, July 28, 2006

Concept of the Spirit Doll



When I was given the challenge of making something with a flat quarter of Christmas fabric I was stumped for two weeks. On Tuesday I just decided that something had to be done with the fabric. I pulled out a sheet of paper from my printer and started cutting a paper doll. This doll started to take form deep in my memory. Somehow I remember always being fascinated by Archeology and the discovery of old things. One of those things was a stone carving of a lady that was somewhat rounded and pretty much like the what I came up with. Then I needed to make it into a Christmas theme so I called it a Christmas Spirit Doll. This was two fold as my name is Christmas and the fabric was from the Christmas collection found at Jo Ann's Fabrics. As I worked on her I thought that the arms needed defining and so I placed an angel button in both sides of the doll and then the legs needed forming. I hand stitched this in and began putting beads on. The face was one that I made last week and was going to make a doll pin with. That changed when I put it on the fabric it sort of brought personality to the doll. I brought the doll to competition in one day. The people who know me know that I work in only one mode and that is non-stop when I get an idea. Before I went to bed I had created the doll and written a pattern for it.

Now I need to consider what to charge for the pattern and if I will put faces in the pattern packages. Then today I showed the doll along with the 4 others I built since Tuesday to a friend and she asked what I would ask for a doll that has so much bead work and time in it and I just did not have an answer. Before I left her home we had talked about creating the doll and putting it in a kit with various things to be added by the buyer. This would make the doll into the spirit of the buyer and not mine. As a crafter I feel that when someone invests time into something to make it their own it is better appreciated.


Today is Friday and now I have a Mother and baby made. The fabric is Batik but i used discharge paste to discolor parts of it. This was done by applying the paste to a rubber stamp and then applying it to the fabric. When the paste was dry I steam ironed it and it took the color away. The test piece was so good I used it to make the pouch for the baby to ride in. The stamp was of bamboo.

What are your opinions on these thoughts?

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