Raisa's Journal

I decided that the journal spread needed to look old, since Raisa is from the 20's (that's the 1920's). Almost as if it's a letter that got to close to a fire, and one over which many tears have been shed, causing discoloration of the paper. As I stated in my previous post, Raisa is mourning her Johnnie, sitting, staring out the window at the birds.

The first page has music and a bird and starts out "Dearest Johnnie"

"My heart is lost without you. I sit and weep. Music has no meaning for me anymore. I hear the birds outside my window and long for your smile. How long can this go on?".

The journal pages are collaged pieces of paper, vintage sheet music and calendar images with a broken heart partially hidden by the bird. They are colored with fluid acrylics and the writing is done with a China pencil.

Raisa's Heart

Raisa arrived at my house heart broken. Her Johnny dead, her parents keeping her from him in his last days. She decided that she had no reason left to live. As time went on, the sharpness of her grief faded. She was pulled from her deep depression by the birds outside her window. Watching the pair of robins with their eggs, the hatchlings, the care with which the parents nurtured their young, absorbed Raisa. It is too early for hope and joy, but perhaps, life holds something undiscovered for Raisa. She has locked her heart in a box, but maybe there exists someone who can unlock her hopes and dreams again.

Raisa needed a heart, so I made one out of red satin, covered with lace. I stuffed and beaded it and stitched to the inside of her box.

I used the same lace to make a collar for Raisa. I also attached some metallic trim under the lace of her ruffle and attached it with beads.

Here she is, in all of her mournful glory.

Here's the full inside of her box.

Her head on Talitha's quilt with her lace collar.

I also gave her hands, attached to her arms with beads.

I added long geaded trim to the underside of her tutu.

I have her journal to finish up, but couldn't wait to post pictures of her.

The Spy

The Journal pages tell the story here. The words are very hard to read due to the white gel pen and the flash, so I'll tell the story of the pictures so you don't have to worry about reading the words.

Far beneath the waves, in the dark depths, the Queen roamed.

Amphritite, wondering from afar where the Queen was now, disguised one of her offspring in the form of a fish and sent her off into the deep to spy and learn what she could.

Amphritite's spy swam near and far, searching for signs of the Queen. She stayed near the bottom most days, but one evening, she ventured to the surface.

The Queens's minions where watching and saw this strange fish speaking with a two-legged woman.
They hid in the coral and when the fish returned they trapped her there to await the Queen.

What I did - I made the fish and beaded her fins and tail. I also added a starfish and broken shells and coral to the base of Talitha's large coral outcropping.

Anneelaw, International Woman of Mystery

Anneelaw, Mary Anne's Lady of the Lamp, was a stumper for me. She sat on my counter where I could see her every day, but she refused to speak to me. She refused, that is, until I happened to bring my Goddess of Spring, Sirona (http://www.anlinadesigns.com/dolls/Sirona1/index.html), by Anneelaw on the way to Sirona's current display spot on my book case.

Anneelaw became very vocal. She wanted a hat, and not just any hat, but one with feathers. Anneelaw is very purple, but has a bit of turquoise on her, so I decided to go with the turquoise as the main color on the hat. She wanted to be a bit mysterious, so I added a purple tulle veil. And of course, the feathers were from a peacock or two.

Isn't she something?
Unfortunately, when I was getting these pictures, I had company drop by and I forgot to take pictures of jer journal. When she arrives at her destination in south Texas, she hopes that Yvonne will be so kind as to take pictures of her journal pages.

Update (3/21): Yvonne was so kind to send photos of Anneelaw's journal entries. Here are the pictures:

This is the first page. Anneelaw loves purple and I gave her a bouquet to complement her lovely glove and hat.

The next page is a picture of her and her nom du guerre: Anneelaw, International Woman of Mystery.

And this is her hat, along with the story I told in the beginning of the post of her conversation with me regarding the creation of her hat.

And last of all, the description of what I did and made. The journal pages are water color paper and I applied a heavy layer of indigo, purple and turquoise water color crayon, then misted the pages with water and used my Nijii water brush to push the color to create texture.

Onoma's Travels continue

Onoma continues to travel through space looking for information to bring memory to the surface. Onoma's journal entries document the continuing mystery of the odor only Onoma can smell, introducing the ship's medical officer, Arkin, who advises Onoma to take up meditation. To that end Onoma takes up beading and jewelry. This occupation provides an additional benefit. It allows Onoma to disguise a piece of the wreckage from the ship's hold which contains writing which is oddly familiar as a piece of a necklace.

I chose not to add any more body parts to Onoma, but to start adding clothing. I added a garment, which might be a sleeveless Kimono or just a robe of sorts.

I also added another necklace, this with a piece of polymer clay stamped with unreadable writing, a metal finding with a dragon on one side, two glass beads and 3 bells.

The poem I added is from the poem, "All Roads", by Billy Corgan

"Gather me up some stars sprinkled from your eyes

Beckon forth little sighs

Should all roads disappear but one

Disappear while I am sleeping."

Prince Charming Grows a Torso

It is said that when a frog loses a limn, it sometimes regrows it. Well this froggie has grown a torso!

The torso is made of hand-dyed pima cotton. The pattern was drafted to provide the impression of a cross between a very broad-chested, broad-backed, and hunky human male and that of a frog. To keep his torso from flopping about above his lower half, a ribbon cumberbund was stitched to his pants and his torso and stuffed tightly. He was also given suspenders and a floral belt buckle and suspender keeper.

The text in the journal entry reads: Meanwhile, the prince encountered a very mean witch who decided to ensure he would lack the lips to receive love's true kiss or is it true love's kiss? It's so very hard to think without a head!

Lady Sebastien Takes Flight

Lady Sebastian, while waiting for the day of her departure, wandered the streets of New York. On one of these wandering walks, she encountered an import/export business that had Egyptian artifacts which had just arrived. She entered and was astounded at the beauty of the artifacts. One, in particular, struck her, and she decided she must have it. It was a mask, in the likeness of Horus, the winged one.

She returned to her rooms immediately to examine her treasure. "It is just magnificent! Oh, I wish Father could see it!"

She fell asleep, and dreamed.
In her dreams, she was soaring high above the earth.

Oh! She had wings! She could feel the wind ruffling her hair. But, wait - it seems that there are feathers!

"Can it be? I have such keen eyesight!" She exclaimed.
"Oh, wingless daughter - of course it can. You have assumed my form and can fly wherever you will." The voice sounded deep and foreign in her head.


Lady Sebastian arrived and her form immediately spoke to me of a bird. I fought the impulse for a while before seeing a picture of the winged gods and goddesses in Talitha's journal. I found golden wings and painted them to resemble the wings in the funerary paintings in all of my books on the archeology of Egypt.

I painted Lady S's body with gesso and covered her head with paper clay to form her face and textured the hair to make it more feather like. I added paper clay feet as well. Her hair was painted brown and gold and she was given blue eyes and kohl eye-makeup in the style of the Egyptian masks. She has a beak-like mouth to suggest a birdlike visage and she has a necklace with the winged god's charm. Her wings are not attached currently, as there would be no way to clothe her.

Serenity

My start with Serenity is based on a pattern I created for another doll I'm working on at the moment. She's a cloth and wire armature torso and soft-sculpted cloth head. Her name came about as Serenity is something sorely missing in my life at the moment. I hope that she will bring calm and peace into the lives of all she meets and collect some to bring home to me.

Serenity's journal is a book that I bound in my first book binding class. The cover is paper that I painted and stamped.

Inside, I've created a title page that mirrors the chaos and stress of life that Serenity is destined to encounter.

And a set of pages that reflect the calming influence Serenity can bring, if only she is allowed to do so.