In May of this year Hally Levesque, who is an extraordinary artist and whom I've taken several doll classes from at Artful Gathering, asked me if I wanted to participate in a paper doll swap.
I had never done an online swap before, let alone a paper doll swap. In fact, I had never made a paper art doll before.
As my bucket list contains trying every craft out there in my lifetime, if at all possible, this would provide me with the challenge of creating a paper doll - something I'd never done before. So, I said I'd be thrilled to participate in a paper doll swap.
In order to make it easier for all of us to communicate Hally set-up a private "The Progressive Paper Doll Party" group on Facebook.
The theme for this paper doll swap was "Life is a Cabaret." Here's what Hally said, "The global pandemic has really done a number on us,not to mention the many other things going on in the world. We are probably all looking forward to shedding our cares and woes. So let's take off our masks, kick up our heels and have some fun at The Paper Doll Cabaret."
With cabaret as a theme I knew this was going to be a challenge for me. As mentioned above, I had never created a paper doll before, let alone one of my own designs.
No matter what kind of doll I make they always have an opinion on what they should be and my "paper dollie" decided she was going to be Victorian, no matter what. I had no choice but to accede to her wishes.
So, I thought about what I wanted to do and decided to go with an articulated paper doll with moveable arms, legs, and head. I wanted her to appear to be kicking one leg up under her Victorian costume so she definitely had to be moveable even after her costume was applied. And, I wanted her holding a fan and a sign.
She had to be mainly paper but could include some embellishments so, given how much I love mixed media, I decided she would have several embellishments, paper flowers, a creative embroidery lace & bead embellishment, feathers and fiber.
I decided I wanted my "paper dollie" to be like a show girl with a big, flashy (but not to flashy) Victorian outfit, including an embellished hat, hand held feather fan, and large fan like collar to her outfit.
I also decided to have her holding an embellished sign honoring some of the lyrics of the theme song from the movie "Cabaret."
Given the pandemic and Covid I decided the following words would be appropriate for the times:
What good's permitting
Some prophet of doom
To wipe every smile away.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
Come to the Cabaret!
I already had an idea for my "paper dollie's" face. My biggest weakness when it comes to my dolls are painting and drawing the faces. I can't seem to keep my hands from shaking when I have to paint tiny little details, like the face of a paper doll would be. So, I decided to use a graphic face I had designed years ago for one of the Spoonflower fabric design challenges I had entered.
The challenge revolved around women's sisterhood around the world. The challenge was: "On March 8 people all over the world will be honoring International Women’s Day and we invite our community to join the celebration during this week’s design challenge. From proudly marching with your sisters or showing support for those around you, we challenge you to create a repeating design honoring what sisterhood around the world means to you."
My design was four female heads all with the same facial features (like sisters) but different eye colors and skin colors. The idea was that we're all all from the same mold."
Sisterhood Around The World Challenge -
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I already had the graphic design face in my computer so I would be able to easily re-size it to fit my "paper dollie's" head.
With all those ideas in mind I set about to design the body, moveable head, moveable legs, moveable arms, and the front and back of her costume.
I wasn't sure whether the back of my "paper dollie" should be finished as this was my first swap so I asked the members of the group who had participated in multiple paper doll swaps before what they did. Almost all of them finished the back of their dolls and some added hangers so the doll could hang from the wall.
With that in mind I decided the easiest thing for me to do was add a robe with the large fan collar behind the victorian dress outfit so the back would be finished but nothing would interfere with her moveable legs, arms, and head.
Designing the outfit was a little bit of trial and error for me. I ended up having to re-create several of the pieces a few times until I got it right. Once I had all the pieces sized and workable I put her together.
In order to hold all the pieces of my "paper dollie" in place I had to use a long center brad that I covered with the creative embrodiery lace and bead embellishment. Once she was secure I applied all the finishing touches and then made sure her legs were still moveable. They were so I was pleased with that.
I stood back to take a look at her and decided for my first "paper dollie" she had turned out okay.
So, I texted pictures of her to my sister to get her input and she had a few suggestions which I agreed made a lot of sense. I made the changes and was so happy I had asked her as her changes really made a difference in my paper doll. So, thank goodness for baby sister's....lol
I sent a new picture to my sister to see what she thought. She thought she looked wonderful. Yea!
After all of that I took final pictures of her and then packaged her up to be shipped to my recipient.
I had decided to name her "Fanny" but Hally Levesque was the member of The Progressive Doll Party that I was to send my doll to. Since Hally created The Progressive Doll Party and was to receive pictures and stories of all the dolls swapped I didn't want to give my "dollie" away before the time we were to open all our creations.
Hally is a phenomenal artist and the master of "dollie" stories and she decided to give her a story and a name, Rosalinda (i.e. Rosie), when she posted pictures of her yesterday. I LOVED the name and nickname and thought it suited her better than "Fanny" so Rosalinda she will be.
Hally also gave her a story, which is as follows: "This lady has been dancing up a storm at the Cabaret Club. Decked out in the latest fashion she is a sight to behold as she kicks up her heels on the dance floor. Ms ‘Rosie” is witty and gay and never lacks for a partner! Not to mention that she likes to take a swig of gin now and then just to loosen up the joints. HAHA!"
As mentioned above, I had decided I wanted my "paper dollie" to be like a show girl with a big, flashy (but not to flashy) Victorian outfit, including an embellished hat, hand held feather fan, and large fan like collar to her outfit and the name, Rosalinda, and Hally's story really seemed to fit her so "Rosie" she is and she likes her "gin." ....lol
I hope you like "Rosie."
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