In this fun approach to creating your own mixed media spirit dolls, we'll create unique characters that hold our wishes and dreams on the inside and feature unique faces and features on the outside.

I'll teach you how to sculpt your own face and head from clay (although there will also be molds available.) We'll learn a fun and easy process for painting the heads and preparing them for their headdresses and then we'll create easy no-sew bodies. Once the basic pieces of our dolls are complete, the fun really begins as we wrap, dress, and accessorize our spirit dolls with fabric, wire, ribbons, beads, feathers, and more.

In the end, we'll have spirit dolls full of both their makers' hopes and their own unique personalities. You'll have the option to mount your completed doll in a vintage industrial spindle (included in your kit) which you can add into a larger installation later. I'll also share and discuss how I added additional pieces and features into my dolls to create truly individual and meaningful works of art.
 

Materials Fee $15 paid at beginning of class includes:

• Clay for your doll's head
• Skewer and vintage industrial spindle
• Stuffing and sari ribbon to create the body
• Face molds to use in class if desired
• Glazing supplies for the sculpted face
• A selection of textiles and embellishments to share?
• Some paint and extra tools to share
 

Supplies Needed  to bring for Class:

• Scissors (both paper and fabric scissors if you keep them separate)
• A selection of fabric – some at least 6” x 8” to make the body, plus other fabric scraps and pieces as desired to dress and embellish the doll and finished piece.
• Decorative threads, ribbons, lace, etc… to dress the doll and accent the base
• Feathers, beads, crystals, charms, dried flowers – bring a selection of embellishments you want to use in your piece.
• Wire – 24 gauge (I like black or dark metallic annealed wire) and wire cutters
• A few colors of paint for your face. Be sure to have 2-3 dark and 2-3 light colors (opaque or semi-opaque work best.)
• Paintbrushes – I like round bristle brushes (I buy the 12 pack by Loew-Cornell in a variety of sizes) as well as a detail brush for the face (like a size 0 or 2 round.)
• Strong glue – I like to have Tacky Glue or other white glue along with E6000, LocTite Gel Control Ultra, or similar
• If you have fabric and / or embellishments that have special meaning or tie into your wishes and dreams, I encourage you to bring some of those to incorporate into your spirit doll.
Optional Supplies:
• If you have anything specific that you want to use for the base of your doll instead of or in addition to the vintage spindle, you may want to bring that with you.
• Clay tools
• Jewelry tools – I recommend round nose pliers
• Tweezers, hat pin… anything helpful to you in manipulating beads and small pieces