Nancilyn's Second Doll

Nancilyn writes:


She was so persnickity during the construction process, I decided she was a diva, demanding and opinionated. She has a mind of her own, and she wanted me to know it. I allowed her to have her way, which, in the end, is probably a positive thing, for as outrageous as she turned out, she has enough sass and brass to make a believer of any skeptic. She needs to be a take charge doll, as her recipient suffers from lupus.

I like the mask concept -- good because none of the faces I had on hand seemed to fit -- so I chose a sun ; it goes well with the fabric I actually picked for my third doll. I try to use glue sparingly, but it couldn't be avoided since there was no other way to apply the sun. It's a little too small, but I justified it as a mask which wouldn't cover the entire face. Well, it's on to stay, and Diva Dearie is stuck with it. By the way she bewailed the fact that my photos are truly terrible (hence you can't see how well the gold of the sun works with the other gold embellishments), but I drew the line at taking her to a professional portrait studio.

Next came the hair. I envisioned a feather headdress and crocheted a "wig" with feather yarn

(the color is Phoenix!). Diva Dearest said it looked like a bad coonskin cap and insisted I cut off the long braid which was to have doubled as a boa. Some compromise is good. Then she got into the stash I was auditioning for Doll #3 and had to have the gold trim I purchased in CA and was hoarding for a project with a decided Hispanic flair. After throwing a tantrum in my head, she prevailed. What to put the braid on? My thought was a poncho. She demanded a kimono.

Some compromise is good. I did pick the fabric; it's wool that I fulled (felted) from a thrift store skirt. The trim turned out to be stiff and very fragile, and hand stitching was not an option. I used glue, but it seems to exaggerate the stiffness. I wasn't able to machine stitch either , sigh, because DD was already wearing the fitted (showing off her tiny waist) garment I'd best describe as a hapi pullover with obi.

DD's dainty, reversible brass hands were flopping like flippers. I stabilized them by beading bracelets. Called for something around the neck. I thought beads from the bracelets could be stitched around the opening. Oh no, DD wants something grander, an Egyptian style collar, for goodness sakes. I think it's excessive, but she's the gal who's going to wear it. I think I was able to tone it down some using bugle beads the same color as the background.

The remaining dressings went easily and surprisingly without confrontation. The healing stones are nestled in silk satin inside a pouch I crocheted with gold elastic. I embellished it more heavily than I might have otherwise, but my hope was to counterbalance the top heaviness. The bow and eye bead got off center from the back of the obi. I couldn't correct it without ruining the trim -- and I certainly wasn't going to waste another inch of it! DD pooh-poohed the idea of a headband, but I convinced her some ornamentation was needed to interrupt the explosion of hair. I couldn't come up with a means of fastening hair sticks from which to dangle baubles. Instead I made a bead cluster with three gold leaves and a cloisonne butterfly charm. To complete Her Glitziness, I loosely wrapped her with 2 kinds of gold thread.