Mini Me

For my April BJP, I wanted to make a miniature doll of myself -- and I was scared to death. I eliminated every other option you could think of...using a pre-made miniature doll...asking a doll artist to make me one...not having a doll at all...but the mini dolls I found weren't right, to buy one was too expensive...and my piece needed to have me in it...


I'm not a doll maker. I'm not a soft-sculpturist. I've always admired the work of others but I feared that mine would turn out looking like the amateur that I am. The bottom line...I didn't want to ruin the overall effect of my journal project by having a doll that looked terrible.

So there you have it, I was facing the big monster, FEAR OF FAILURE, and I was almost bested by him...

Until I thought, "That is exactly the defeatist attitude that keeps all of us from trying new things. And I'm always telling Jack not to be afraid to do something just because he thinks he may not be good at it." So, I decided I better "walk the talk".

And...after two days of fidgeting and fixing and re-doing...I DID IT!! So I wanted to share it with all of you in case any of you have this same fear I did...

I started out with pipe cleaners and bent them to make a head, two arms and two legs. I then took a felt bead and cut it into an oval shape and speared it onto the "head" pipe cleaner. I then needlefelted natural-colored wool roving around the pipe cleaners...

One mistake I made...I thought it wouldn't matter what color the pipe cleaner was because it would be covered, right? Wrong. It would have been much easier if I had been working with a pipe cleaner color the same as my roving...One lesson learned.


I continued to stretch and wrap the roving all around the arms and legs and then, yes, I needle-felted the roving to all the little appendages while Jack had fencing practice. You should have seen the looks on the faces of the men that were there as I kept sticking a little naked doll with a needle! Priceless! Mom by day, voodoo princess by night, mon!

Last night, I added hair in two layers -- one row of threads across the back of her head and then a second group placed on top of her head along my part line and stitching into place.

Now she looks like she's been cast out of The Garden and desparately in need of clothes. Oh yeah, and her face. I was scared to death to stitch her eyes and mouth but, after fiddling with it a bit, I think it's passable. Shhh..she's supposed to be sleeping.

So here is sleeping, naked Mini Me waiting to get dressed...


So, I made her some clothes...


And now here she is, with clothes on, beat dancing in my studio! But still sleeping...shhh...



And here she is, desparately needing a hair cut and giving you a hint for tomorrow's post.


For she is playing a starring role in my April BJP, which is all finished now and I will post about that tomorrow. TTFN.