Skip to main content

Midsummer Night's Dream Dolls

The Gumnutters' Doll Group celebrates its birthday each August with the annual "unbagging" of the "doll in a bag" round robin . This year's theme was "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
This is the way it works - each participant provides a "body" in a cloth bag. Someone else takes the bag (unseen) and works on the doll that particular month and then the same process is repeated in the subsequent months - five months, with each person working on a specific doll only once. Each month, there is a set part of the doll to work on - legs, arms, head/face/hair, costuming, embellishments. So these dolls are all collaborations, usually accompanied by journals in which each person who works on the doll adds some information or explanation of her work. It is so exciting to see the final result, as the owner of the doll has no idea how the theme has been interpreted . Unfortunately, I didn't participate this year, as I knew I would be away for a couple of the months, but I was really impressed with these dolls inspired by characters from Shakespeare's comedy . Can you recognise the influence of Hippolyta, Robin Goodfellow and the fairies Mustard Seed, PeaseBlossom and Cobweb ?



And of course, Happy Birthday, Gumnutters and congratulations on another successful "Doll in a Bag" round robin. What will the theme be for 2010? Any suggestions from dollmakers?
Labels:

Comments

  1. KathieAugust 10, 2009 at 8:03 AM

    Gorgeous Dolls! I love Round Robins too ;-)

    Kathleen xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. JudithAugust 10, 2009 at 8:31 AM

    Great fun and companionship in your club.Great dolls too. Nice to see Dolores came to the meeting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownAugust 10, 2009 at 12:58 PM

    Happy belated B'day :)
    The dolls all look wonderful again this year, sorry I missed the dinner, we were driving home that night. Thanks for the lovely post you did on our little sculpting adventure, hopefully I'll get my blog updated soon- ish :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading my blog and please share your thoughts about my blog post by leaving a comment.Your comment won't appear immediately as comments are verified before publication in an effort to reduce the amount of spam appearing. Anonymous comments will not be published.

Popular posts from this blog

Fish and Sticks : Art Dolls

This week I've been working on fish and sticks ....  The sticks are the message stick art dolls which were very popular, attracting some attention and a few orders at the Wise Women exhibition. Each of the message stick dolls are from the Wise Women series, each with her own personality and  message of wisdom, handwritten on a handmade timber tag. I gather the sticks during my walks around my neighbourhood and the tags are made from special bits of timber, some collected by me or  my husband or from off cuts gifted to us  from another doll making friend whose husband makes bagpipes. These dolls start off very simply with a wrap around a stick, in the general shape of a body. 'Naked" message stick dolls - strips of wadding wrapped around found sticks.   Then I usually wrap other layers of fabric, wool, and/or fibres, over which I do some simple embroidery. I sculpt  or mould small face masks for these dolls. I really like using "sari ribbon" as w...
3 comments
Read more

Countdown to Christmas 15 - Diamonds Forever!

How much would you pay for a Christmas  fruitcake?  The world's most expensive fruit cake has been estimated at $1.65 million. Yesterday, I wrote about the less than positive term "Christmas cake as it is applied to unmarried women, so again it amazed me that  in Tokyo, this most exquisite and expensive Christmas cake was created. It took six months to design and another full month to construct. The beautiful cake is fully edible ... that is except for the 223  real diamonds  used as decoration. This cake was part of an exhibition called Diamonds: Nature's Miracle  and was one of 16 exhibits showcasing creative ways with diamonds . Apparently, the cake was auctioned, fetching $1.65 million US. While there have been other very expensive diamond encrusted cakes since this one in 2005 with estimated values of up to $75 million, this Japanese designed cake was the forerunner of the extravagant diamond studded wedding cakes in the higher price r...
Post a Comment
Read more

"Temari Or Not Temari?" Tutorial

 Background Information:  Temari (literally translated “hand ball”) is a Japanese folk craft that is alleged to have originated in China and was introduced to Japan five or six hundred years ago. Traditionally, the balls were constructed from wrapped kimono fabric remnants and silk threads. They were made by mothers and grandmothers for children to play with. Nowadays, decorative embroidered temari represent a highly valued and cherished gift symbolizing friendship and loyalty. Recently I've wondered if your don't use traditional techniques whether you should call what you create "temari". That is an ongoing debate but today I share what I do to make a "non-traditional temari".... 1.I start  with a polystrene ball ( traditionally the balls were wound  silk scraps or other organic materials) and begin to wrap with approx 4 ply wool, turning the ball as I wrap.  2. I then wrap another layer of wool in a similar fashion , this time a 3 or 2 ...
8 comments
Read more