Saturday, April 4, 2009

Paper Dolls Just for the Fun of It






On the First Thursday of each month, some of my friends meet in my Nest with the soul purpose of "making art" and having FUN! And, we certainly do have lots of FUN.

Each month, we choose something neat to do. One month it was abstract painting, one month it was Inchies, another month it was journal pages and this month, it was paperdolls. We don't kid ourselves....this stuff is very loosely translated when we say "art." But, what we are serious about is the therapeutic value of what we are doing, plus the sheer enjoyment we have of getting together and trying to make art. I think we do pretty well, considering how much talking and laughing we do. What we do accomplish, I think, is to get each other really enthused about what we individually want to do when we are alone in our respective studios. It's a fun group, anxious to try things together we might not tackle alone. And, when we leave each time...we feel good. That's important.

We didn't start out with any grand ideas of making THE paperdoll of all time. We knew we were "playing" paper dolls. And, just in case our "paper doll wells" went dry, I bought some cute little balsa wood dolls for kids, which we could paint. You'll see some of them mixed in here. We just thought they were too cute not to "color" and play with.

The first photo is of the dolls Brenda made. She was really determined to make several dolls. The smallest one is a "self-portrait." Our friend, Jim, sent us all a small paperdoll body upon which he had placed photocopies of each of our heads. Kind of weird, but funny. We were to dress them, which we did.

My sister-in-law's paper doll is in progress in the next photo. She is new to our group and I believe she is having a great time. Of course, one of the things she is learning is that her sister-in-law is more odd than she ever believed. Sandy is really talented and not having ever made a paper doll before didn't stop her...this one is just beautiful. We enjoy seeing her get excited too.

Bibi is cutting out her doll in the next photo...this one is articulated....and dainty. Bibi always makes tiny little things just perfectly.

Another photo of Sandy's doll. I love her feet!!!

The last photo needs some explaining. The doll on the back row, left is the one I made. Next are two dolls made by our friend Jim, who didn't come to the meeting, but loaned two of his paperdolls to "show." As I've said before, Jim is our resident "over-achiever" so even though he couldn't be here...he felt obligated to send paperdolls. His are really nice and dressed "to the nines" as only a doll made by Jim could be. The next doll is me, but made by Brenda. On the first row is a small "me" made by my friend, Jean, isn't this one a hoot? The smallest one is "me" again...and made by me also. (These are kind of freaky if you ask me!!!!)

So, some paperdolls just for FUN. Great FUN. With a great group. You never know what we will do and neither do we, but, therapy....boy, have we got lots of that!!! Take care til next time! Pat

6 comments:

Tales From My Empty Nest said...

I used to love to play with paperdolls. I loved my Mom's McCall's magazines each month, because I loved the Betsy McCall paper dolls that were in there. You all outdid yourselves with your paperdolls. Beautiful!!!
Love & blessings from NC!

Unknown said...

So cute! Love the paperdolls! Your art gathering with friends sounds like a ball! :)

BrenWall61@gmail.com said...

Thanks for talking about Art Day. What fun and I hope it inspires your blog readers to have their own fun days. Our days just get better and better - maybe not more talent, but definitely better.
Love ya
Brenda

Gayle said...

I wish I could move to Arkansas and make paper dolls at The Nest! :-)

Unknown said...

Hi Pat, ohh I used to love playing with paper dolls, they were a treat for me when I was ill.
Great news, your delightful little book arrived at the weekend. It is so lovely and the quotes are really wonderful. Thank you so very much.
Rosie xx

Thearica said...

Paper dolls bring back wonderful childhood memories. My 1st cousin and I would spend the weekend with our grandparents and sleep in the front room. We would play paper dolls until granddaddy would come and knock on our doll to say lights out. We would giggle and pretend to go to sleep. When we knew he was safe in the back of the house we would whisper and continue playing. I think he knew we did this because he would always come in early and grab our toes from the foot of the bed and say "Get up sleepy heads" :)

A Bit of Heaven

A Bit of Heaven
An original designed wall quilt with my vision of heaven on earth.