Sunday, January 25, 2009

Little Green Doll



I just finished another little spirit doll. She doesn't have a name yet, but she looks like spring to me. She is 5.5 inches tall and 3.75 inches from fingertip to fingertip. (Truth in advertising: She has no fingers.) The beads are a mishmash selection of all the yellow-green beads I have. (More truth: most of the yellow-green beads. I have some yellow-green colored beads I didn't use.) I used a leaf charm for her heart because the colors of the beads reminded me of new leaves.

Like the other spirit dolls I made, I beaded the front, whip stitched the back to the front, stuffed it, and edged it with a beaded picot stitch. The hair is a picot stitch with extensions. You can't see it in the photo, but the end bead in each strand (?) of hair is a slightly lighter and yellower color of green.

One of the tricky parts in making these dolls is stuffing them. I've seen (doll not turkey) stuffing forks on the internet, but I don't have one. So I decided to make my own. I placed two bamboo skewers side by side and taped them together with masking tape, starting just below the points--where the sharpening ended. The two skewer points formed the tines on the fork. This worked amazingly well. It was so much easier to push the fiberfill up into the doll's head and arms with my skewer fork than it was with a finger or a chopstick. The tines held the fiberfill until it got into the tight places. Now I know why there is a commercial market for doll stuffing forks.

This is the back of the doll. I stamped on the fabric with Lumiere gold and green paints just to add a little interest. It looks kind of blue-green in the picture, but it really is green leaning toward olive.



She is now hanging on a little ornament stand that I found at JoAnn's. It was half off the already reduced price, or fifty cents. I bought five of them. Only four more dolls to make!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your spirit dolls are really beautiful. Looking forward to seeing the next 4.

pam T said...

Oh Marty, very lovely doll... of course I am biased because green is my color. As for a name? when I see her three words come to mind: verdant, peace, and dreams.
oooo I really need to try making these dolls. I always love to see them, just haven't had the guts to try making one!

Susan Elliott said...

I always enjoy your spirit dolls and this is no exception. I especially like the swirl faces. I think I like them because there is so much emotion that swirls across a person's face and so much going on inside our heads....

Timaree said...

Patricia or Patty! She looks ready for St. Patrick's day and the wearin' o' the green!

She's very pretty and I think I'll have to try making one that isn't stuffed first. It might be easier.

Anonymous said...

I just fell in love with this doll! Sooooo adorable!

Sabine said...

Admirable! Having read your post about the red doll in process and this lovely green one, I finally realise how particular about colour you are. Admirable again!

Sabine