Onoma going home - part two

Above is the first page of the journal... the quote is from Marcel Proust and reads "When nothing else subsists from the past, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, bearing resiliently, on tiny and almost impalpable drops of their essence, the immense edifice of memory."

 Page Two

Page Three

Page Four

Onoma is ready to go home!

Arlee's doll Onoma was quite a challenge to know what to add.  Being the last person to work on a doll sometimes is a bit difficult because everyone else has done a great job already.  He/She had wide shoulders to begin with so I decided to emphasize that and added even more width, along with the 'dangles'...

Next I added some further decoration to the waist area...

And finally, Onoma saw these in my stash and absolutely HAD to have them insisting that they must have been lost the last time he/she visited earth.  Who was I to argue?

The next post will show the journal pages I added...

Prince Charming - additions by MA

Prince Charming arrived here and after visiting the other dolls for a bit (and probably stealing a few kisses too) he told me that he really needed a stand, because it was awfully hard to kiss the girls when he kept toppling over! 

So my husband, being the woodworker in the family, created a nice wooden booth where the Prince would feel secure whilst smooching with the pretty women.

The Prince really thought his booth should be green, just like him because, after all, he didn't want to clash.  He gave his approval for some pretty fabric to decorate his booth and then decided that this kissing girls was making him really hungry.  A search through my stash yielded some flies, which made him a perfect lunch (no onions or garlic though, because he is quite conscious of his breath).  The lily pad Talitha made for him was a perfect addition to his booth too, along with some little green butterflies.

Now the Frog Prince is off to visit with Arlee in Calgary.  I wonder what adventures will await him there?

Lady Sebastian visits Ontario, Canada

I hope Lady Sebastian enjoyed her visit here with me because I know I certainly enjoyed having her around!  She and I decided that she really wanted to have her dress painted while she was here and she picked some beaded trim out of my stash, along with a cat charm to add to her apron.  She spied an old ring in my stash and wanted it for an arm band and also wanted a spear (or maybe it's a walking stick to use as she travels through Egypt looking for her father).

We then turned our attention to recording in her journal.

The page above was created using painted textured wallpaper as the background, some tyvek painted and heat shrunk, a painted scarab bug (Lady S wasn't so sure about the "icky" bug), and some Egyptian hieroglyphics. 

This page was painted watercolour paper for the background.  The cat and her wing were a cat button I painted and antiqued and the wing was a metal charm.  The sun was lurking in my stash and reminded Lady S. of the heat in Egypt.  Of course there is lots of gold in Egypt, so there is a string of gold nuggets too.

The final spread was created using some of my rusted fabric for a background.  The artifacts on the right are rubber stamped on hot glue and then antiqued.

Now she's off to Calgary to visit with Arlee!

Serenity's Journal - by MA

Now for her journal...

This is page 1 & 2

The inserts in the pocket on the left...

Page 3....

Centre folds...

Final page....

Serenity - work done by MA

Serenity 

told me she really
wanted to
be able to
stand upright.

So a search began for  a suitable seashell because obviously a seahorse centaur NEEDED a seashell for a  stand...right??  After several false starts she now has her stand.  She has a rod inside her and one mounted in the seashell which slide together to hold her in place and yet are removable for the other artists to continue to work on her.

She also informed me that
she was COLD

here in Canada
and she really thought she should
have a nice warm
crocheted shawl.

(having no arms makes it hard to wear a shawl, but she knows someone else will give her some)

Raisa - MA's additions

My additions include a musical collar 

trimmed with beads,
and arms made from
coiled wire and wooden beads.

The music is from 'Rigoletto'
by Verdi.

Here's journal page # 1....

I repeated the first bars of the  

'Rigoletto' music, along
with some of the
words

and a lace flower,
along with repeating some
of the beads I used on
her collar.

Second journal page...

More of the music from 'Rigoletto',

some music charms,
and a marvelous quote
about music

from Maya Angelou.

Raisa was great fun to play with!!
Hope you like her Yvonne.

Audacity - by MA

When Audacity arrived to visit with me, I knew immediately what she wanted.

She wanted to be riding on an octopus!

An octopus?
Really?

How odd!

Well, after a lot of finagling, she got her desire.

The octopus was initially created with felt, which was then stuffed, gessoed and painted with several coats of paint to come as close as I could to the lovely green colour that Audacity already had.  Each of her tentacles has nine pairs of sequins (held on with beads) for the suckers.  Her eyes came from my stash of teddy bear eyes.  I left Audacity's torso unattached so that subsequent artists could add a skirt or whatever they felt she needed.

Page one of her journal was a picture I found on the internet, which I highlighted and added German scrap around the outside.

'Atlantis, though lost, still lives"

Page two includes multiple layers of acrylic paint and yarn which was drawn through a white glue & water solution before attaching to the paper.  Each strand was then painted.  A plastic altered fish and some sand completed the page.

Page three was another picture I found on the internet, highlighted with more sand (which came from Prince Edward Island) and a sand dollar that was in my stash. 

Page four - included a picture of Audacity and her octopus.  The tag is movable and my information is on the back.  The paper was created using multiple layers of paint and then was stenciled to add the circles (which are meant to represent bubbles in the water). 

Anneelaw and her journal start

Introducing Anneelaw!!



She is made from metal and glass taken from a recycled table lamp dating back to the 1970's.    The glass is clamped to the metal 'skirt' and is removable should the contributing artists wish to do so for any reason.



Above are pages one and four of the journal pages I made for her.  Tyvek and various and assorted fabric bits, fibers and whatever else came to hand. Stitched heavily with variegated thread and then ironed (under parchment) until the Tyvek melted. Notice the outline on the right of a ghostly image?

Below are pages two and three of the journal.



Bottom layer is a recycled Swiffer sheet, rust dyed. Above that is a piece of used dryer sheet dyed with blue paint. On the right is a piece that was leftover from pgs. 1 & 4, and on the left are three squares found in my 'component' box. The poem is printed on a piece of card stock which has been 'aged' with gesso and newsprint.

The poem reads as follows:

Out of the 70's
a lovely lamp grew
and waited for a home.
That home was nice
and the lamp
saw parties and teas
and quiet reading times too.
Year after year the lamp
kept the darkness away. 

Until
it was needed no longer. 

Would it be thrown away?
Discarded and forlorn? 

Why, no!
A dollmaker renewed
the lamp,
named her Anneelaw
and sent her on an adventure
to visit faraway places
and find a new 
life



The pictures above and below show the journal box I chose to use instead of a book. I absconded with an old cigar box from the garage (shhhhhh - don't tell the men!) and covered it on the outside with paper from a recycled shopping bag. The top is crumpled brown paper that has been hand stitched, painted and highlighted with gold.



I left the inside of the lid as it was and lined the inside with some more recycled shopping bag pieces.  The box will hold the journal pages and will allow for them to be nice and thick.