A circle of female power

I have worked with paper figures for some time. They are fun to work with, do not take that long, and I am quite crazy about all the options there are, to use all kinds of paper and cardboard in the process: magazines, advertisements, postcards, newspapers, books, copies and more.

I saw a similar figure in Pamela Hasting's book; “Paper Doll Inspiration”, where slightly primitive figures were put together and connected. I loved the idea, and felt like doing something similar. I decided to make a chain of my ancestors. In the beginning I wanted them all, but they were thinned out over time. It took a long time to find photos and select paper and photos out for the collage.

In my universe, it often becomes a profound shamanistic approach, and the whole process was sensitive and brought realizations and memories with it. During the process, I felt that I came close to the women I decend from, and the different images and symbols, told me stories about my relationship with them, as well as about the life and the connection we have had together.

I switched out several times, and also painted over a single time.

On the front of the figures, there is a picture of the face of my female relations, smiling and beautiful. It makes me proud to know what amazing women have raised me, loved me, shaped me and who are my heritage and ballast.

On the back there is a childhood picture. It is beautiful to experience both the child and the woman, and feel how they live in me, for better or worse. We were all just little children, and totally innocent from the start. We were just born into a world not designed to express the power and wisdom of women.

A common word that I can feel is for all five of them is; “Survivor”. These are proud, upright, beautiful, intelligent, wise women who survived and who express beauty, wisdom and power.

When I felt the 5 figures were finished, I tied them together. Considered who should hold each other's hands. Also considering whether to add my two daughters and my granddaughter? Decided to wait. This is my background, my DNA, my female allies. Maybe my girls even do this work one day?

When they were bound together, I lit a candle in their midst, and blew sage over them, one by one, along with a little blessing. Felt a longing in the heart. How would it feel to stand with them in a physical circle? To feel the unity and the common power?

My mom is dead and my sister is not talking to my dad's family so it remains a dream and longing. However, it felt powerful and genuine to gather them with light and blessing.

Here they are: 

This is my Mother, Eva: Artist, black sheep of the family, intuitive, loner, spiritual beautyful woman. I never stop missing and longing for her.  

This is anty Mette: fierce like the cold winther snow, clear like crystal, sharp, but loving. When I was little, she took care of me, often with som rough love, but present and with chokolate cake!

Funnt thing to see me and my sisters backside of the dolls, little girls, with grandma in the middle. 

My beautyful sister Heidi: artist, mother, loner, stargazer. I love her, but she is hard to come close to. 

This is me, Ann. Artist, spiritual, loner. The five diamonds came to me in a dream. 

Grandma Gudrun: Storyteller, surviver, strong wise woman. I adore her. 

"The Creative Guardian" paperdoll

 I am taking a  year long healing doll class with Barb Kobe again this year. You can read more about this here

At the beginning at this long healing proces, we are invited to make 3 paper dolls: 

• The Creative Guardian, 
• The Original Inner Creative 
• The Inner Critic

I used Barb´s pattern for this paper doll, and spent a whole afternoon searching for a photo of myself that looked kind and supporting. My printer is almost dead, so the quality of the print was poor. Somehow it printed my face in blue all the time, so I I took a sheet of watercolorpaper and splashed a lot of acrylic ink on it: blue, green and purple colors. 

The paper doll look´s allright, but I struggle with the face. (Inner critic is jumping up and down). It is over decorated. I mean, I can print a new face and glue it on top, but for now I´ll just keep the first one. 

It is a new face. Much more color. And it looks brave. 

Very interesting....

The text is a page from Louise Hay´s calendar: One positive affirmation a day. I kept them, and use them for different purposes, like this. 

The background is just a acrylic painting on a piece of paper that I´m working on. 

You can purchase the Barb Kobe Inner Selfie ebook at this link: Inner Selfie

Loving Kindness paper doll

A paper doll collage. I am working on the Loving Kindness Doll. This was fun to make! 

Medicin Doll

I have started working with making dolls on another level than before. I´m making medicin dolls and are attending a year long course with the wonderful teacher Barb Kobe. It is a wonderful proces.
This is the first doll in a series of 6. She is The Guardian. I haven´t come up with her name yet, but she is a very old, wise woman. She is the protector.
It has been a very special creative proces until now. I don't just make her out of my imagination. I ask myself through intuition, dreams and feelings. I try to work with the inner feeling guiding me in the direction of healing. This is the medicin doll way.

I am working with paperclay. The brand is Creative Paperclay. It is hard to find here in Denmark, so I have to order it from USA. That makes it very expensive, but I really like this clay, so it is worth the money. It hold the details nicely and becomes very hard and durable after curing.



I thought I would show you how I make hands. There are many ways of making hands, and for a long time, I found it very hard and frustrating, because it was difficult to make them identical. They never looked like my drawing. At a puppet workshop, I was tought to make the armature from styrofoam and small pipe cleaners. It is quite easy. At this picture you can see that I have cut out two identical small squares of styrofoam. This is the size of her palms. Then I cut the pipe cleaners in different lenghts. I use my own hand as reference. After this, I glue them into the styrofoam, and let it dry completely.

After it is dried, I take a little portion of the papierclay, and add some water to it in a little bowl. It becomes liquid, and then I paint it on the entire hand. After drying again, I can add small pieces of clay, and use my sculpting tool to smooth and sculpt the hand.

This dolls hands are supposed to be quite big, because they are a part of her symbolisme.

I will make her feets without the styrofoam, They need some weight. Perhaps I will put some lead in them. Don´t know yet.

This is not just an art doll. Itis not supposed to be sculpted entirely with clay. It has another purpose, and therefore I need to change my normal way of making it.

I like to make the body proportions correct. I am a little perfectionistic.
I think I have to throw this habit out the window in this creative proces, because it is not helping me much. Too much thinking is not helping. It is leading me astray.

I was thinking about this for some time. How could I let go of my perfectionisme, and insted try to follow the creative proces? Should I make her with just natural materials like twigs and such? Should I make her as a paperdoll? Would she be an abstract version? Symbolic? Surreal?

I had an inner picture of her, but my feelings kept telling me to go in another direction. My inner picture was an old hag, living deep in the ground, heavy, grey and with dark colored, coarse clothing. This was the doll I wanted to make. But my feelings kept on showing me another version: lighter, happier and much more colorfull. I saw bright blue and yellow with green. Not dark blue and grey.... This version had another feeling than the first one. I had a little difficulties changing my original idea... Do you know what I´m talking about here?
Killing your Darling is very hard, right? I could write a long blog post about that....

Of course I will follow my feelings. That is the sole purpose of my intention of making this medicin doll. Of course I will make her younger, lighter and brighter if my feelings are telling me to.

I decided to make the armature as I had planned, but head, hands and feet will not be anatomical correct. They will be enlarged. Her dress will be big, colorfull and decorated with all the symbols that this doll is trying to show me.

The armature is made with strong steel wire, covered with masking tape. When the feet are done and attached with the head and hands, I will cover the body in batting strips. Then she is ready for clothing. But this is all I have for today. Keep coming back for updates ;-)

Update on the fairytale dolls

 Still working on this project. My paperclay made some cracks, so I had to put some more diluted paperclay on the doll. After that, I sanded them all down, untill det studio was covered in fine white dust ;-)

After sanding the dolls, I changed my mind aabout the wolf´s fur, and covered his whole body in a very string joint compound and made some structure looking like fur. After sanding them again, I painted the base coat using some cheap acryliv paint.

Tip: I have a lot of acrylic paint, and I usually use the cheap quality for priming and basecoats. I like to paint with very expensive paint, so I am not using that for that. 

Tomorrow I will sand the paint again and perhaps give it another layer. Then I´m going to start painting the faces.

I had an idea today. I was thinking about hair and accessories as eg a crown. How to make then stay ontop of the head? I think I want to try to drill a hole in the head, and make wigs that have a stick that fits the hole. Small crowns can also fit in the hole. I must think about how to make that. It really could work, because these dolls are going to be moved, and I don´t want to worry about things falling of the doll. That kinda ruins the magic, don´t you think? 

Now, I´m off to bed. I must get up early tomorrow, because I have an very early appointment with a speech therapist ;-) I need to learn how to breath properly ;-) I´ll tell you more about it later...;-)

Good night! 

The witch sisters Part 1

I´m home alone tonight. Hanging out in the basement studio, having fun with paper clay, watching The Sopranos on HBO (mostly I just listen to the tv) and waiting for my frozen vegetarian pizza to come out of the oven ;-).

Tonight I´m working on a witch bust project. I recently found these nice old wooden thread spools in a gift shop, and I bought them to make the busts. I´m planning on 3 pieces, and right now I am working out the wooden armature. I found this picture from Moonhallow Vintage:

This is the style I´m going for. My dolls never look like the one on the picture, but you get my basic idea. 

I used the wooden thread spoole, flowerstick. white woodglue and some news paper. 

I use the newspaper to stabilize the flowerstick inside the thread spoole. 

A rubber band is also holding the wooden ball in place while the armature is drying.

Dinner-time!!

Starting a new doll

Good evening! I havn´t been around much lately, because I´m not doing much work in the workshop in my basement ;-) I´m studying norse mythology these days ;-). My great interest in shamanism and druism has got a new perspective, and I feel great satisfaction in finding similarities and commmnn grounds. You see, I never really got any good at being a new-age-native-american-wanna-be ;-) But still I am drawn to the earth based pagan belief systems like shamanism. I recently found a lot of information about the ancient nordic shamanic practices like seidr, and this is very interesting for me, because it is much more in my own spiritual dna, so to say.
Here is a link to an article about the subject.

Very well, I wanted to tell you about my new doll. I am sculpting a earth goddess doll. I have been working on the body proportions and her armature, and as always, I am split between making her anatomical correct, or just making the doll using eyesight and intuition.

I started with some drawings, and allready I had problems deciding. I started with the body proportions as used by Andrew Loomis, but she wasn´t right... She was to skinny, to masculine and not very earth goddess like at all.

 I made my own drawing, following the "rules" of body proportions, but she still didn´t look right. I then decided to change her: larger breasts (she is an fertility goddess afterall!!), longer neck, bigger head, hands and feet, and a bit longer torso. I remembered that, I liked my dolls looking like dolls, and not to realistic hahahahah. I seam to get caught up with my desire to create something very correct, but it isn´t really me! It is just my ego wanting to make art that looks like it is made by an grown up, and not a 40 year old childlike soul ;-) One shouldn´t fight ones own style, right?

Here is what I came up with:

My cat Julie is allways following me in the workshop ;-) Isn´t she beautiful?

 Here is my armature finished. It isn´t very complicated, it is just the way Wendy Froud makes it on her tutorial. I never made the armature this way before, so I am excited to learn if it is functional and sturdy. It is made by strong steel wire, covered in masking tape, with tinfoil in the head and torso. She will be covered and sculpted with polymer clay.

This is what I have for tonight. I will be working more with this doll in the days to come, so stay tuned. Remember to get the feeds on your reader!

She is starting to grow on me (Medicin doll part 4)

Link to part 1
Link to part 2
Link to part 3

Good evening! I´m back, after a couple of busy days, filled with family visits, a trip to an annual medieval festival in Horsens (where I bought a slingshot, and I am going to learn how to shoot/throw with it!!), a Sunday in sleepwear and studying. After a couple of years of working in the kindergarden, I am going back to school part time to take a degree in art and aesthetics. It is very fun, but also a bit exhausting. I need to remember to retreat to my studio, just to breath and let my thoughts run free, without having to relate to anyone. This is how I generate energy.

Tonight I´m back to working with my medicin doll: The Guardian. She is really starting to grow on me! It feels like something inside is communicating itself out to me. I have no idea if this doll making process is nothing more than my imagination running freely, making everything up along the way, making me believe a little, that there really are universal benign forces, looking down on me, encouraging me to keep on working with her. And does it really matter?

I have problems with my perfectionism. I tell my self all the time that this is NOT an art doll, but a medicin doll. I don´t know why I keep on remembering myself that there is a difference, because in fact, there are no rules when it comes to dollmaking. I can do what I want. But to me, it feels safer to work in this manner, because the art doll is made for display, but the medicin doll is made from the heart. In order to work with the heart, I try to keep my focus on the doll´s feeling, and not so much how it looks. But it is rather diffecult. I like perfectionism.

I realized that in my last post I made a mistake. I wrote that the human hands are the same size as the distance from the chin to the top of the head, but this is off course wrong. The hands would be to big. I´m sorry about that. It has been too long since I made a doll. The correct size is from the chin to the forehead hairline. See this link

I decided to paint her body a  beautiful dark Prussian Blue. This color symbolizes in my opinion pure femininity and it symbolises feminine power rising. I will paint swirling waves in silver on her body. This will symbolize the waves of creation.

I like her white pale face, but somehow that look also make her a bit distant. I will start the painting process tomorrow evening. Right now I am working with a image of her much like a snow queen. As I am writing this, I am listening to one of my female muses and great heroines in life: Clarissa Pinkola Estés. She is talking about the story: "The Snow Queen" (The Joyous Body). Isn´t that fascinating? Is that synchronicity, or what? My nightly dreams also show different aspects of both my feminin shadow and power.
This process is fascinating. Medicin dolls are fascinating ;-)
Some pics:

The Guardian Medicin Doll (Medicin doll part 2)

Link to part 1

The paperclay was dry tonight, so I was able to start sanding and thereafter fill some of the cracks with diluted gesso. It works just fine on those very tiny cracks.

After sanding her, I started to become unsatisfied with her closed eyes. Her eyelids are too thick! I tried to sand them down a bit, but it didn´t work. I tried two different drimmel tools but neither one worked. I decided to love the eyes anyway. I try to supress my urge to start over and make better eyes....

I am making this doll both a bit primitive and detailed. I want her face and hands to be very detailed, and the rest of her body to be quite primitive. Making something primitive is really hard for me, and I admire those who work intentionally in this way. I always try to make something better and better, an making it primitive feels all wrong, even though I just love the style when others make it!!
A dollartist once said that one should not fight one´s own style, and I think there is much truth in that statement. A big part of the creative journey is to find ones own style, so why fight it?

Very well - my artdoll is not an artdoll, but a MEDICIN doll, so I try to brake all my own rules of perfection, an just go along with my feeling more that my head.

After adding the gesso, I drilled a hole through her wooden body and pulled a rope through the hole. This will be her shoulders and arms. She will stand with her arms hanging down, but I like the mobility in the arms. I also made some breasts with Magic Sculpt. She is partly mother earth, so large breasts will be appropriate ;-) The Magic Sculpt will be rock hard tomorrow.

Well, enough for tonight. Tomorrow I will make her hands, and I will show you how I do that. See you there?

Puppet finally finished!

FINALLY!!!! 

2 years ago, I attended a course in puppetry, at a very famous puppet theatre here in Denmark, called Teater Refleksion. 

Tonight, my puppet is all finished! Can you believe that? After I finished the construktion of the doll, I left it for a very long time....I guess I was a bit scared of finishing it alone, because I was worried that I would destroy my perfect puppet ;-) 

Here are some photos of the process: 

This was my idea. I wanted a puppet, that would look like a little boy. 

The head was sculpted with treemass, and glass eyes.

The torso was carved in balsawood

He is looking soo cute!

Legwork. You wouldn´t believe the amount of work involved with that....

Here he is! I liked him like this too!

Puppets like to hang out with famous people too. This he is with Boxy Georg. 

More photos and poses: 

I call him "Garnet". It is danish for "the yarn", and is a nickname because of his hair ;-)

I will use him in the kindergarden, as a puppet interacting closely with the children. I have this very old antique suitcase, as will be his "home". I can´t wait to start telling stories and playing with him infront of the children. He is very mobile and have so beautiful movements!!!