A Very Special Healing Doll by Nancilyn

I share with you a beautiful doll by Nancilyn, as well as her beautiful story from her blog which she allowed me to use.

The class was an extra-ordinary experience experience for me as I have never before been blessed by such a large number of angel-like, giving students.

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Nancilyn writes:

This is the last of the three healing dolls from Mai-Liis Peacock's online class from Joggles. For me it is the most special because of what I experienced during her construction. It's very personal, so I'll share the story at the end in case you'd prefer to skip it.

Mai-Liis patterned this doll form to accomodate a fabric image of the Virgin of Guadalupe as a means of teaching us the image transfer process. Since I happened to have that particular fabric, I simply fused it to a background of similar color, then planned the rest of the doll. I loved the idea of following up with a Hispanic theme using bright, jubilant colors, opulant texture, and ornamental detail just shy of overkill , yet preserving the reverence and dignity of a traditional style. Neither Catholic or Hispanic, I in no way wanted to create a mockery, but I realized religious festivals throughout Latin America are celebretory, an occasion like the Day of the Dead is an excellent example. Still I would need to select the recipient carefully.

Actually I'm gifting this doll to two persons. I will give it to a friend who recently and unexpectedly lost her daughter to cancer and who herself has since been diagnosed with lymphoma. It is my wish that she will someday pass the doll on to Hope, her granddaughter, the little girl adopted from Guatemala by the deceased. In the detail here you can see two of the charms I selected as milagros. The angel represents Hope's mother. I hope my friend will take comfort from the Blessed Mother's posture of prayer and loving expression.


Some additional notes on this upper portion of the doll. The crown or halo is comprised of 3 shell sequins stitched with seed beads. I embroidered the roses with 2 mm silk ribbon and scattered more seed beads among them and using another for the jewel at her collar. I stitched a chain with gold thread to "attach" the charms. These charms were pewter. I used some really old and dried out Treasure Gold on the angel. I realized my entire collection of Treasure Gold colors was dried up. When my attempts at microwaving didn't work, I contacted the company and was told a few drops of Xylene (on which the products are based and available at hardware stores) should soften it up. The hope charm didn't fare as well with the Treasure Gold, so I painted it with the same gold Lumiere I used to seal the edges of Our Lady's veil, a piece of silk chiffon hand dyed in an earlier experiment with an acid dye. I then varnished the charms. The raw edge at the end of the fused fabric bothered me , too abrupt a change. The tri-colored ric-rac seemed to do the trick.





An essential healing stone for this doll was an undrilled chunk of obsidian purportedly mined at the location of the incident from which the story of Apache Tears evolved and is reputed to be a powerful agent to ease grief. A pouch was needed to hold one the larger stones and others collected for their healing and protective benefits. Hung over the pouch (made from velvet ribbon and stitched closed with decorative embroidery) are four additional symbols I deem essential to healing and living: love, courage, balance and faith. I used a strand of beads to girdle the figure and frame the pouch.

I made the cloak from silk velvet and used bright confetti fringe. Although this is a doll that particularly addresses grief, I wanted the overall effect to be light, not somber, and hopefully bring a smile to the beholder. I used Stef Francis silk floss for the simple chain stitching and help blend the multicolor of the background fabric and the fringe. I debated a closure for the cape, but opted to use none. Instead I just tacked it together at the neckline and let it hang from the doll's neck.

A remarkable thing occurred as the doll (whom I began thinking of as La Senora) neared completion. I became aware that the grief I was holding since the death of my own daughter two years ago was lifted. I can now talk about her without tears, and today, the anniversary of her passing, I will visit her grave for the first time since the funeral. I know that once I knew the purpose of the doll I was happy when I worked on her. I thought a lot about the grieving process and hoped the comfort I was starting to feel would be played forward through the doll.
I should also mention that when I purified the stones for this doll, I cleansed a piece of the same obsidian for myself. It sat next to me the entire time I fashioned the doll.

Another Beautiful Healing Doll

Here you see another talented student, Nancylyn's doll! I know from experience that she is even more beautiful than her picture! As much joy I feel when I see the creative spirit of the student doll-maker emerge in birthing her doll, I feel blessed when the doll-maker shares her process.

Nancylyn writes:

This is Mai-Liis' Nature Spirit doll pattern which I made up in a batik. I wanted to go a little more "formal" with this doll because of the potential owner, so she lacks the woodsy nature of the sample doll. I cloaked my doll in a remnant of silk paisley, and I crocheted a turban with metallic copper and faux feather yarns. I then draped her with incredible novelty and hand painted fibers. For additional personalization I placed a ruby red crystal on the headpiece to represent the recipient's birthstone and added an elephant (which the future owner collects) as a good luck symbol. I also placed an evil eye bead on the rear of the turban to watch her back, so to speak.

My doll wears a sacred heart milagro over own, and after much consideration placed the special healing stones on the dolls tummy, giving her a pregnant look which I decided was appropriate since I think of my friend as a nurturer.

It also occurred to me that cloaking the stones would protect them from impure handling or curious fingers of grandchildren. This doll is not a toy! I have hidden other healing items inside the doll and even in her ruanda, and each thing is there for a specific reason. I had purchased several pewter charms with words like faith, harmony, balance, courage, but have decided they would be aesthetically and spiritually superfluous.

It's exciting to see each one so unique, and I'm wondering if this whole experience and resulting eye candy is going to spiral us into an inspiration frenzy! I have been so happy taking this class; for the first time I've felt I was creating something purposeful. I believe it is intention for me that elevated the process from self-indulgent creative play to something more meaningful.

My doll is going to a woman with whom I have little in common beyond the brothers we married 40+ years ago. Her best attributes are the ones I lack most and vice versa. Still we've always been close and admire what each has accomplished over this span of many decades. Not long ago she visited my blog and emailed me about the Comfort Doll Badge (Pat Winter's project of collecting and sending small comfort or friendship dolls to women's shelters around the world http://www.comfortdolls.blogspot.com/ ). She confided that she had been in an abusive relationship prior to her marriage and how she would have loved to have had such doll! I get warm fuzzies just thinking about presenting her with Elephant Lady. She's been appreciative of my handmade gifts before, but with this one the best part is intangible, and I know she'll cherish the intention.

Doll Parade!

They pose, they fly, they float....but, more than that they are powered by the creator's intention and by the healing stones and crystals included. Judith's "Earth Spirit", like all the healing dolls I am showing you, carry the love of the artist.

Here is Judith's story:

This is the very first art doll I've done. I'm a newly retired psychologist and had almost nothing to work with so it took me a long time to gather materials. Thanks to friends ( and Joggles), I've found wonderful materials and inspirations. So, for each step of the way, I've taken more time to acquaint myself with the materials, find sources, and meditate on how to use the materials with integrity--I wanted each item to have meaning. I really had a hard time with the concept of the stones and crystals, but ordered the book, The Illustrated Directory of Healing Crystals and am glad I did. I also began researching the idea of living with intention and found Wayne Dyer's book, The Power of Intention to be especially useful for writing my intentions.

Making this doll has been a growth experience for me--one in which I had to confront old messages about not being talented and one in which the process was almost entirely non-verbal (hard for someone whose career was based on verbal communication.) This has process has been a spiritual journey for me and as Pamela Hastings says, a transformative process.

So now I have one doll done. I used a batik fabric from Joggles, parts of a Stef Francis silk experimental pack, and some natural items from my back yard. Her arms are small branches partially covered with silk rods, her hair is a puff of a wool, alpaca, silk, and mohair blend. Her face was made by an artist near me in Oregon, Cheri Aldrich, and Nature's feathers come from a dear friend, Betsy Roberts who hand dyes them herself (her website should be up in a couple of weeks.) I wanted to make a shawl or robe for Nature, but she would have none of that--said a robe would make it hard to have her wings extended.

I made this for a friend who will be undergoing surgery and will need a bone graft. I included a coyote toe bone to represent the bone graft. I used a small gourd to hold healing stones and a small goddess. The gourd bowl is lined with fur to cushion the stones. Once I had gathered all the materials, I just couldn't get started. Next, I found that my sewing machine needed to go into the shop for repair; it wouldn't sew a stitch. I felt deep frustration. Then I accidentally ran into my friend, who I thought was getting ready for her surgery, and she told me the surgery date had been postponed. Once she told me the new date, the doll came together easily and was done in time. Amazing! The recipient loved the doll and said she could feel the power in it, so I'm pretty psyched about the whole process. A healing doll for her and a healing journey for me.

Robin Krieger's Healing Dolls

Sadly, my Healing Art Doll class through Joggles.com has come to an end, though I will continue posting photos as I receive them from my students.
These last five weeks have been fun, as well as exciting as each went through a transformative process...unplanned. We stretched our minds and hearts beyond our normal mind sets, tuning into our inner wisdom.
I am grateful to have been on this 5 week journey, and especially delighted with the number of students who had never made a doll, nor taken an online class before.





Crystal Joy the Queen of Creativity
In Robin's own words:

This is my Joy doll . She is done in the spirit of creativity again staying with all the elements I kept the color meaning as true as I could . She also has a stone inside of her from my land as I am so very inspired when I am there by all the beauty that is around me . She also will guide me on my never ending journey to find my inner artist . I gave her wild and unruly hair because I believe you need that unruliness to be an artist yet her cape keeps her centered and her fibers keep her grounded .And again flowers for the nature part of me and I always put a butterfly somewheres on my dolls . She wears her as part of her neck jewelry.

Robin shares her process:


Rose Jade

I found her whole process fun to do . I wanted to put all of the elements in to play including the color of the fabrics. Rose Jade is a healing doll , she is for inner peace of mind, body and soul . I wanted her to have been touched by nature so I added the sticks which came from a beach I love to walk on and inside her I place with my statement a stone from our land in central VA which is a place of peacefulness for me . I added a lot of wispy fibers to give the effect of feathers and moss. I haven't gotten my stones ready yet but will after the first of the year .

Healing Doll by Anne Davis

Another beautiful and powerful doll, Anne Davis's "Nature Spirit"
from the Healing Doll class I am teaching through Joggles.com
I think she is fantastic!

Another doll from Anne Davis

Well, I have to admit, this doll came as a total surprise to me, and I would never know that Anne was inspired by my Healing Doll class if she had not told me. :-) I'd call her a doll from the dark side.....kind of the antithesis of light and healing. However, I'm sure there must be a good reason why Anne wished to call her forth.
















Anne writes:

Here is Mysteries.

Mysteries is for my daughter Emily, who is nineteen; she's a quiet, enigmatic person full of odd and interesting thoughts.

Mysteries' face is a mask (or is it?). Her totem crow sits on her right wrist. She holds a quartz crystal for clarity of thought and inspiration. Her colors are the grey of the clouded night sky and the white, red and black of the Triple Goddess, and she has the crescent moon ornamenting her hair. Mysteries is small, only about six inches tall, but she's very powerful.

I kept trying to ornament her black velvet wrap, but she insisted on keeping it plain. Emily dresses plainly in dark colors (she prefers to be inconspicuous), so I shouldn't be surprised. She did allow bead dangles with little silver stars on the points of the ribbon, but that was all.

Wrapped Art Doll Class

Gena Lumbroso of France is presently taking my online Wrapped Art Doll class, and this wonderful doll is
her first one. This is her padded armature on which she has written Reiki symbols. (Gena also took my Healing Art Doll class and knows about the power of Intention.)




















The bottom of the doll is wrapped with Angelina as a source of light. I love Gena's use of color and texture!






















Gena has used organza to provide her doll with both texture and movement. Those are healing stones on
her front. Very nice work, Gena!

Healing Doll: The Sun

This is my new beaded healing doll, full of sunny energy. Orinda Spence and I will be teaching this online class together, beginning April 3rd. The supply list is available now to enrolled students.

Come join us! April 3-28, $30

Sarah Mack's Healing Doll

I had told my students taking the online Healing Dolls class that their dolls would tell them what they wanted, and that if they listened, their dolls would be wonderful. Here is the first finished doll, "Nature Spirit" by Sarah Mack. Sarah
writes:

She certainly did dictate where she was going, and how she intended for me to be her vehicle--I would be the one to allow her travels. I still can’t believe the twists and turns this doll has taken over the last two days. She is not made from the fabric I first cut (it was pink); neither is she wearing the cab I bought for her. Instead, I sculpted her face from paper clay—she now looks surprisingly like the person she will soon reside with. The colors I used are not my ‘usual’ choice of color. I couldn’t believe it when I went outside this morning to recover her stones, and realized that I would have to start from scratch. Consequently, she is in the colors of the environment her stones rested in last evening, as well as the colors of nature the stones and fabric rested upon--Her stones were placed upon a piece of Chinese silk (the silk is in shades of beige and a greenish-cream.)

I was a bit frustrated at first, starting over, and worse; absolutely nothing was what I had planned or purchased for her. She is now wearing scraps of fabrics from her intended’s belongings—all having been worn for/at sweet, loving, and happy moments in her life. Her stones are hanging from the cords of her garment--suggestive of a Ronin. I sewed one stone on her; the remaining is hanging from the branch she carries. The branch is actually Sassafras root—it stays supple forever.

The nest she carries is lined with fur from a wild rabbit that became tame to us last spring—and inside her nest is a piece of turquoise carved in the shape of a turtle. From her branch hangs moonstone and topaz, and from the ties about her waist hangs: tigers eye, malachite, rose quartz, bloodstone, crystal, and a tiny golden nugget. The branch in her headpiece is adorned with 18 kt. gold wire and peridot. Her charms are hearts, celestial--stars and moons. She is also wearing feathers (I gather them while hiking in the Smokies) under her hood, and I also tucked two under the acorn-cap used to adorn the back of her hood. She may be short and stout to some, but she was insistent upon having long legs (I fought that all the way, but now that it is done; she was right she has a long road to travel.)

She is fabulous, isn't she?!

More Dolls from Anne!

Anne is a loyal student and a wonderfully creative doll artist. Here she is sharing a healing doll "Joy"which she made for herself. The photo below is of her Tiger Spirit doll, a kit she purchased from me several years ago. Anne says that she finished Tiger some time ago, but only now photographed him.







Anne writes about her "Joy":

Joy is about 7" tall. This isn't my usual color range; I gravitate towards turquoise and purple, but I fell in love with the little red sun face. That made me think of Southwestern colors, and sunsets and night skies, and she came together from there.

Her healing stones are incorporated into her necklace. She also has a bead of the Earth, because she's a cosmic goddess, her hair is like mine (if mine were blue instead of brown, hee), and she has star and moon charms on her belt tassels, a spiderweb to catch bad dreams, and a tiger (my animal totem) and a brown bat because bats are good luck, night animals, and besides, I like them.

It took me a while to get her velvet sleeves right because she didn't like any of the embellishment I tried, but she didn't want them plain. Shisha mirrors and purple seed beads were what finally worked.

She has a winged heart charm holding her loop for hanging, because she needed wings, and I like winged hearts.

Healing Sun Doll

This stunning doll was created by Barbara St. Jacques, one of the students from my Healing Doll class. The sun emblem
was hand-beaded by Barbara.

Another Healing Doll !

Romona King created this awesome "Nature Spirit".

Romona writes: I tried to do a different thing with her, but each time, I came back to what she ended up with. I think she knew better than I, what was expected. I think she's a result of the book I just started reading last night. It's one that Mai-Liis suggested, Masters of the Living Energy, about the healing powers of the people in the Andes of Peru. Have just barely started it, but once I get used to all the names and places, it'll be easier to read....

So back to the doll. The fabric is a batik which has fern leaves with green, plum and golden tones throughout. Her arms and walking stick are bannana twigs. I wish I had an explanation for those, but they came from a rubber stamp store ages ago and I suppose this is what they were meant to be used for. I have used the hand charms with the spirals in the palms and have them outstretched with the pouch of stones resting on the hands, as though offering them to the intended person. The colours of her robe and headress just simply came together, I tried to do other things but it kept coming back to these colours. There are birds on the headress, one made me think of a bluebird of happiness, the other is a turquoise bird with a malachite bead in the center.

There are a couple of leaf charms attached to a velvet leaf and I've used some gold leafing just here and there. On the tie around her waist is her walking stick and on the ties I have added more charms. One is a rabbit in keeping with the nature theme as with the birds on her headress and the leaf charms, a goddess charm to remind my friend of the goddess she is, and a little girl charm so she never loses sight of her inner child. The stones in the pouch are directed toward helping her with her financial well being Citrine and another malachite bead, along with the gold leafing on the headress. There is an amethyst for balance, and a tigers eye for confidence.

It is a most wonderful class with positive, enthusiastic, and incredibly talented students!

Doll Classes

These two wrapped mermaids are still in progress. I love the movement and personality the artist has given both of her mermaids. Now, the fun part of embellishing! Anne Davis of California made these in my last doll class through Joggles.com. That's the beauty of online classes....They can be done at your leisure, though I hope Anne gets these finished before the next class she has signed up for: Healing Art Dolls (through Joggles.com)! :-)

Even though my Healing Art Dolls class does not begin
until October 17th, I encourage everyone who knows that they definitely want to be part of it to sign up as early as possible. Joggles orders supplies well before the class, and she bases her orders to suppliers on the number of sign-ups. http://www.Joggles.com

By the way, you will make two different healing dolls in the upcoming class, and I think you will find they go quickly and are so much fun to make that you'll want to make several more for personalized Christmas gifts.

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.

Sometimes it's later......

The nature of online classes is such that everyone works at their own pace. Therefore, I get these happy surprises long after a class is finished and I may even have forgotten about it. Then I am so proud of the student's perseverance!

This vibrant Sun Healing Doll is by Sue Kuworski. Makes me happy just looking at her!

More Joy from Anne

One of the most wonderful things about my students is that they they just keep on creating....long after their class in finished.....and sharing their work! Anne made this healing doll for her mother. She writes:

This Joy is about 7" tall. She has a tumbled quartz crystal as her power stone (the central drop on her necklace), because my mom has so many physical challenges and problems I didn't know where to begin. My mom loves to garden, but she can't get out there and work as hard as she used to, so I made a helper for her.

Joy carries her garden with her, and she has lots of garden helpers - a hummingbird, a spider, bees, butterflies and a cat.

Nicely done, Anne, and what a special gift for your Mom.

Announcing a New Doll

This is my Power Doll "Joy". She is named such not only because her arms are spread in joy, but because she gave me so much pleasure to make. Joggles isn't showing her photo, as she
is newly created, but yes, anyone who is taking my Healing Art
doll class October 17 through http://www.Joggles.com will be learning to make her.

Last Chance!

The online class Healing Doll: The Sun begins Friday, April 3rd and continues through the month. Your last chance to sign up is April 5th. After that, the class will be closed.

To register, send a note with PayPal payment of $30 to
MaiLiis@ix.netcom.com no later than April 5th.

Healing Art Doll Class

If you are signed up for this class with Joggles.com, then you received your supply list today.
The first lesson next Wednesday, will cover the details of the supply list so you can make decisions about what you must have, and what you can substitute for. We will also cover the "whys", design elements, and color properties.

If you are under a time crunch and MUST order some of your supplies before the first class, please send me a copy of our receipt from Joggles, and I will try to answer all your questions.

I will be providing instructions for all three dolls. Once you have a good stash of supplies, they get faster and less expensive to make, so be thinking of personalized Christmas giving!

If you are not yet signed up, why not? This will be a fun class, and who would not want a doll with the power to heal? Sorry about sounding like a commercial, but I am sincere in my
enthusiasm!

Another Fabulous Doll Joins the Others

I am grateful to Marcie for allowing me to share her doll as well as her words.





Marcie writes:
This was a brand new experience for me and I have to say that even making dolls for someone else has been healing in itself. This has been a very rough year for my family and I am making dolls for each person according to their needs. I have the first one finished and I got to know her very well. I started out with muted tones and a great deal of simplicity but she was having none of it. We talked a bit and she told me she that her purpose was bigger than I had intended for her and that she was more of a "UNIVERSAL MOTHER" and not so much of a singular entity. I followed her advice and guidance and added metallics paints, celestial charms and shimmering threads. She let me know that she was very pleased with my efforts and mentioned that I might want to move on to the other dolls as family members were in great need.
I have enjoyed this class tremendously and would like to thank you for your sharing spirit and the opportunity to work with you.