The Comfort Dolls are done, and gone off to New Zealand for distribution. I would like to think that someone in one of our major (Australian) cities would have picked this up and run with it. Alas it was not to be.

My studio has been allowed to fall into a state of chaos. There is no other word for it. It's not dirty, just very untidy. I am not disciplined enough to put things away as soon as I have finished with it, so benchtops are absolutely covered with bits and pieces. I also accumulate rather more stash than I have storage capacity for. I guess this is a familiar lament to everyone, and I am very lucky to have a dedicated studio, yada, yada. Anyway I have been trying desperately over the past week to tidy up some - and I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Given that I can only work for at the most a couple of hours a day, you can understand why it is taking so long.

Next week hopefully will see me back at real work. I have just started a piece based on an image I saw on TV of the Canning Stock Route, but further work on it will be my reward for finishing the tidying operation.

COMFORT DOLLS

A few weeks ago, I saw that someone - I believe it was Pat Winter - had begun a project in which people would make small textile dolls to be given to women in refuges and shelters. As it is usually the children who are thought of first in such situations, I was immediately inspired to make some dolls.

This one is 'Candy' and she is a Dotee Doll - thanks to Dot for designing such and expressive and easy to make little creature. I used some bright pink fleece, like you use for sweatshirts, felted the dark red heart and surrounded it with some interesting fibres. I used some long thin triangular offcuts of the fleece plus some more interesting fibres for her hair and white felt for her face which I embroidered and painted. Candy is finished with a couple of bead dangles instead of legs. I hope the recipient gets some comfort from her. I know I would have been over the moon had I even known that I wasn't the only one in this position, much less that I had sympathetic and empathetic sisters all over the world.

This one is Fauna - for some reason I felt compelled to give these little creatures names. She is based on a little Bendi doll. I painted her all over with peach/pink acrylic paint and followed up with a light sponging with gold paint. The skirt fabric I found in our local store (the one and only) and thought it was perfect if not quite the colour I had in mind. Nevermind, its prettiness won. When I got home I discovered that where it had been cut the stitching that holds it all together was coming undone and that several of the ribbons were hanging loose. Not to worry, I fixed the stitching so no more unravelling would happen and used some of the shed ribbon for her bodice. Making hair was problematic, but rose petals from joggles.com solved the problem and she started to look like a woodland maiden. An Artchix face charm seemed to me to reinforce that women tend to put a mask on and cover up the unhappiness and violence in their lives and it looked better than the original face. A couple of fabric flowers 'gussied' her up a tad, and now I think she looks good.

The third doll is based on a pattern I have for a 'DamnIt Doll'. The originals of these were made rather crudely, without faces, hair or any other embellishments. The idea of them is summed up thus:

When your day has started wrong
And things go from bad to worse
Here is a Damn-it doll
To help lift the curse.

Take it gently by the leg
And find a place to slam it,
And as you knock the stuffing out
Shout damn it! Damn it!! DAMN IT!!!

I wouldn't actually recommend doing that with this one, but at least the sentiment is there. 'Lavender' is a soft little doll, made from four complementary pieces of fabric joined together diagonally. The back is plain. She has a purple glass heart - sparkling and beautiful but fragile too. You will also notice that her face - made of air-dry clay - has wrinkles and chips. These are deliberate, no-one has a perfect face!

There will undoubtedly be some more of these creatures emerging from my 'house', and I really hope that the recipients like them, and that they understand that a great deal of love and sympathy comes with them.