Indigo Girl Dolls, Geisha Tags, and Alice & the Hare Dolls

Somehow I am computer-deprived. I can't post to my blog from work and our home computer has been moved to my husband's office, so I have to sneak onto my daughter's computer when she isn't looking.

I have an Indigo themed small art trade for June. I puttered for hours with hand needle felting, stitching, painting tyvek and designing various indigo patterns in photoshop. After all that, I came up empty and uninspired. So, I went to my default happy place--paper dolls. I used designs that were inspired by tiles on the wall of my favorite coffee place and translated it into the clothing, printing on extravorganza for the skirts and on cardstock for the limbs.

The Geisha themed tags were for the June Roses on my Table trade. I went to my favorite printed teabag technique with sheer lace and gold accents.

The Alice dolls are also for a Roses on my Table trade. Alice has a kind of Zetti meets RunDMC feel and the hare is just crazy with the fish hat.

I am currently working on Santos Cage Dolls this weekend, which is a new theme for me. It is reminiscent of the Day of the Dead and Frida Kahlo and I am very intrigued by it.

Geisha-Inspired Paper Dolls from Recycled Teabags

I am still enamored of the technique I have been puttering with for a few weeks--printing hand carved and commercial stamps on recycled tea bags and coffee filters to create a faux lace effect. Here is the latest thing I have made with them: geisha-inspired paper dolls.

I belong to an art trade group called Roses on my Table where we trade all kinds of mixed media artwork and share ideas and techniques. I was drawing a blank on this month's theme--geisha-inspired dolls--which had to contain some kind of piece relating to tea, probably to honor the tea ceremony. So, it was a double challenge for me. I like weird faces and 60s inspired clothing, so this was a bit out of my realm.

I used a face from a self-portrait an artist friend did and combined it with a geisha image in photoshop. I researched geisha clothing, and made my own template for the body and arms. The pieces are put together with tiny brads so that the head, arms, shoes and hands are moveable.

This time for my faux lace, I tried a pink screen printing paint on the teabags. I didn't think I liked it as much as the white on beige, but it worked out pretty well for the doll clothing. I added a touch of a white paisley for accent to soften the pink, and used a gluestick to adhere the printed teabags to cardstock. The trim/accent is my own fabric, available on spoonflower under edzellinni. The floral sash and shoes is the same design as my blog header at the top of the page. The hands are made from teabags glued to fabric and carefully cut out, and the purple shoes are from a kava tea wrapper.http://rosesonmytable.ning.com/