Its been a very long time since I stepped out into the realm of fantasy and the surreal, and I've missed it terribly. While sometimes its good to shake things up and try something new, I think we always return to the things that make us happiest. Inspire us. Give us feelings of belonging, if only to ourselves, and contentment.
Since last summer I was captivated by dolls from doll conventions, and the challenge of dressing them. Peggy Sue, Grace Marie Fitzpatrick, and finally Dolly Dingle. And, I enjoyed myself. And, I'll possibly sew for Grace again if the inspiration hits, but the creating of fantasy and storybook dolls is my heartbeat. It makes my senses come alive, and takes me to places out of the ordinary. It gives me a place and time to express myself, to dream a little, to write a story of my own that may not have been told yet. Its something I do for me.
Sometime in January, I was on Pinterest browsing art images. Michael Cheval has always been a favorite, but when I saw this image (I may have been looking under "mermaids"), I knew instantly that I needed to bring this enchanting young puppeteer and her marionettes to life. Two things captured my imagination most, and those were her hat and the funny little blue bubble doll at the front of the parade.
While studying this painting, title unknown to me, I noticed the underwater set and the ghost ship in the distance. The puppeteer was like buried pirate's
treasure. Her bodice glittering like gold doubloons, he blue skirt like gentle waves, and the incredibly charming puppets strung from a marionette tri-board, a chest of toys. She's a master at song, dance and story. She belongs to an Italian troupe of performers and I named her Paloma. She is modern and historical, she is mystical, she is timeless.
It took me awhile to get her started, but first I must thank Betsy for the extraordinary Christmas gift of this Maggie Iacono doll. Betsy has many Iaconos, and often wants just the clothing from seconds. And, lucky me, this beautiful doll, in the body size I love, arrived last December. I instantly knew I do something magical with her, like Tara Tree-tops, and was just waiting for the right idea to come along. Then Michael Cheval's painting danced across my screen.
Italy, being part of Greek culture before becoming the Roman Empire, was really the birthplace of the marionette. Marionette performances were not just for children, however. They were morality plays for the mostly illiterate masses. Politically themed satires would also be portrayed in marionette performances, throwing insults or lewd behavior by marionettes was easier to take from a doll if delivered by a human. For example, Punch and Judy.
In Sicily, romantic poems were performed in traditional puppet theaters with hand-made marionettes of wood, an art form call L'Opera dei Pupi (Opera of the Puppets). Both puppetry and L' Opera, and the Sicilian tradition of Cantastori (singers of tales) are rooted in the troubadour tradition in Sicily during the reign of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, in the first half of the 13th century. Still today, you can see this form of puppetry in the puppet theaters of Palermo.
The surname, Paloma, is derived from the Italian word "palombo", which means a "ring dove" or "palombella", which means "wood pigeon". May I introduce to you, my little dove, The Puppeteer, Paloma.
It was a tricky start with Paloma since finding a wig for her was going to be difficult. I ordered a long, wavy red wig from China, and what arrived was not as pictured, and in the trash it went. After several failed attempts at wig buying, I found an old Lawton doll with red braids, and tried removing the wig and taking the braids down. A lucky success. I think at some point I would like to have the wig dyed a deeper red, it is human hair, then re-braided and finally smoothed long again.
I thought I'd try what I considered the most difficult thing first, and found a complimentary blue lambskin leather, to match her silk skirt, to make her gauntlets from. Since 16" Iaconos have lovely fingers and hands, fingered gloves seemed appropriate. No mitts for this girl. My sharp little John James needles stitched hundreds of tiny blanket stitches to sew these fingered gloves for Paloma. Leather, except the very thinnest, is tough to sew through, so I used my needle nose pliers to pull the needle through each stitch. Accomplishing these gloves felt good.
In the painting, I noticed light pink slippers or shoes of some kind on the feet tucked beneath her bottom. I like boots. Booties. They lend a certain medieval feel to a costume. Paloma needed comfortable, yet sturdy shoes for the multiple performances she would give. The booties are tied in back with a thin strip of the same light pink lambskin. I like working with lambskin. Its smooth and has a buttery, soft feel to it. After these two accessories were made, I started on her costume.
I used a very lightweight silk to make the skirt and the ruffles that fall from her arm bands. As an artist deciphering a painting, I would almost say that the original costuming was white, and given to blue hues due to the nature of lighting and the set. But, since this doll will stand on a shelf with others, I chose blue for the cloth. That was my interpretation at any rate. She also needed color to stand out as brightly as the puppets she performs with.
The second complication was finding a leather for her armor. Yes, this is how I interpreted her bustier and arm bands. This would not be stretch costuming material, but something with weight and shimmer. The only thing close was gold metallic snakeskin leather. The first batch I bought was way too thick. Disappointed, I tried again and searched long and hard until I found a .06 weight from which I could sew. Interesting. This leather is stamped for the snake skin effect. I think a sheen of metallic is applied to the leather, then stamped with heavy presses to cut into the top layer. I learned all of this while waiting for it to be made, since I thought I was buying ready made.
I edge stitched the pieces of the arm bands and the bustier because even as thin as the leather is, folding it or making pleats added too much bulk for a small doll Leather was also required, since the hat would be made of the same. Both pieces are closed with Velcro.
I had a lot of fun making this hat. I am referring to it as a cornette. Its very similar in shape to the winged hats the nuns in France wore. The other shapes added to it make it surreal. Not to mention the baubles! Much went into creating this cornette for Paloma. It is comprised of two patterns of the hat. Once the bottom pieces were cut, cloth wires were glued to the edges, then the top piece was fitted on. It was made in two sections. The top
wings, and the crown with flaps. It has a pointed center over the brow and somewhat resembles the chain mail that knights wore under their helmets. Once again, in reference to armor. It feels so long ago that I made this hat since the puppets took so much time, but two things stand out now, one a difficulty, the other a solution.
I had to make the dangling baubles, and chose to hang them from chain. There are nine baubles on each side. Studying the painting, it was difficult to figure out exactly how they hung and at what intervals and lengths. I finally concluded that there would be two in back. Affixing them was maddening at best, but was done prior to adding the top layer of leather. I used my fringe glue to affix each chain end over the edge wire, then used a great deal of glue to set the leather top piece on and crossed my fingers. What you have is a sturdy little cornette helmet. The last items to add were gold ball halves interspersed around the top of the crown.
Let's backtrack a bit. The
third thing I made after her boots was the little princess. This is what I'm calling the bubble dolly. I love her. She's such a surprise and so unusual, that the story I give her is that the other two marionettes were made by a master puppeteer, and Paloma made this one herself just for fun.
The little princess is made rather like a little sea ghostie. I needle felted her ball head and wrapped that in silk separately. There was no way to get the look with one round of cloth covering the ball, tied at the neck like a sheet ghost. I tried. Add to that, lace was included at the skirt's hem, and the look would not have been right with lace stitched onto a circle. So her skirt is a length of silk, separate, then cinched to the neck. She has a pipe cleaner stem stick body beneath. Her gold neck circlet is gold leather over needle felted wool, and her tiny gold crown is a finding or jewelry charm. I had to order her eyes from China to get the right size and color.
The little princess took three tries to do, even though she looks like a simple puppet. Getting the scale, and size right for these puppets wasn't easy either, and made more difficult when needle felting since its hard to determine the outcome.
The second doll is Lucy. Its just a name that came to me. She's a funny little lady with a very long, pointy nose and she's the puppeteer of little princess. She was entirely needle felted before I dressed her in cloth. I love her simple black shoes that seem to have no connection to her otherwise Renaissance costume. Tall pointy hat. Ruff. Really, just a mixture of styles in history. The wide red cuffs are pleated silk. The skirt and top are cotton and the ruff is cotton grosgrain ribbon. Her hat was made from metallic gold scrapbooking paper and red silk ribbon. A small gold-brown tassel tops the tip.
A lot of work goes into needle felting, but add in costuming and you're making a whole doll. Check it out. This ambitious little
project consists of four dolls. I'd like to add that much work went into the hands of the two larger puppets. Each has five wire and needle felted fingers. What a task!
And, now we come to the most colorful puppet of them all. The jester. This fellow just makes me happy to look at him. One of the most difficult things about making him was judging his size. I was continually measuring each puppet to the next according to the painting, and yet with needle felting, its a guess how big, or small, each will turn
out. Little princess was estimated in size to a Paloma sitting on her feet. The Iacono will not pose this way and had to be posed standing, especially to hold the marionette board. I even think Lucy was scaled correctly, but the jester turned out a little larger that I would have liked. There. I said it. I try to justify all this by saying a doll's dimensions are unlikely to be those of a human, but I try.
The jester is about 6 1/4" to the top of his head, but the wild hat and dangling, long pointed boots give him extra inches. He is the puppeteer of Lucy.
After mapping out and doing most of his face, and equally pointy, though more human nose, I began with his legs or stockings, then needle felted his boots. All under things. His hat had to be studied deeply under the mag lamp and was a puzzle to create. It is a puzzle. Like a jockey's hat with color blocks and chin strap, yet three tails sprouting from the top. These were made up with wire armature so that I could bend and curve them. I proceeded to the face
coloring after the hat. I tried something new and used watercolor pencils to color his features. Wool sits too thickly and doesn't blend when pinking checks. Lucy's pink cheeks were needle felted, but it just wasn't going to work with the jester.
He has a collar, or hint of an under tunic beneath his harlequin print tunic. White ruffled cuffs were needle felted to the edges of his long, "pushed up" sleeves. As if there weren't enough challenges with this project, I had to needle felt his costume. I had no idea what to do, or how to accomplish it. When this happens, I try different things. The only solution I could come up with was needle felting wool into cloth, and cutting out the tiny diamonds, placing the pattern then needle felting that all together. It was insane. I don't think this was as successful as I'd hoped, and knew the complications before I even began. When you cut wool like this with scissors, you have a sharp edge that refuses to felt to other pieces. You need fuzzy edges. Regardless I did what I could and tried my best not to lose the integrity of each diamond. It was impossible.
The fact that I finished him with any success is a tribute to my great patience and drive.
Finally, I had to make the tri-board. At first I made it too long and realized this after I began stringing the puppets to it. A quick redo on the main end board by shortening it, helped a great deal. Stringing the dolls took two days. Seriously. This was agonizing compared to hanging the baubles on the cornette. But, I just take breaks, think about it, come back to it, try again.
I used jewelry thread for the stringing. And, discovered that tying the strings to the board first helped a great deal. Also in the final stages, I hung the whole piece from a wire hanger pegged on with clips. This way they all hung and I could judge better the length of the strings. The board had to be made as one to pose with Paloma standing and presenting it. So it is not an exact replica of the painting, but inspired. As anything I do is.
By far, this was the most ambitious project I have ever taken on. Or was Gay Event? Well, I guess its the most ambitious project I've taken on in a very long time! I hope you'll find the lovely Paloma and her marionettes intriguing and delightful to look at. Now I need to find a place to display her. An equally difficult task. I feel good though. I accomplished what I set out to do, and that was do something wonderful with my Christmas doll.
I have an Alice project on the table next with a new artist inspiring me, with more needle felting to come. Can't do an Alice without characters from the book! I can't express enough how freeing its been to learn needle felting. Any little doll or toy that I want to make to accessorize a doll, can be accomplished through this craft. This is why I picked up the craft.
In two of the photos below, I attempted to show the details of the marionette board itself.
I hope you have a marvelous month in May. The earth is singing right now!
Love,
Melissa
