The Traveling Doll Project!

I'm stoked.  Why?  Because it's time to mail Wren, my Traveling Doll...

AND it's time for my team mates to mail their dolls around the circle which means I get Jenna's doll very soon.  Can't wait to meet him/her/it--I have no idea who Jenna has made.  That's part of the silly thrill of this whole thing.

For those unfamiliar with it, the Traveling Doll Project is something that
Art Dolls Only has done for several years...and it goes like this:

We divide up into teams.  We each make a basic doll.  The bigger the team, the more unfinished the doll should be, because you want to leave something for each team member to add!  I'm on a small team, since this is my first year and I'm a big chicken.  We have three members, so my doll is basically finished, but naked.  Or, as we say down here in the south...nekkid.

She has underwear, for the sake of modesty, but my team members will add clothes and shoes and whatever else they deem necessary to complete her.  We each guide the development of our doll by passing along a Travel Journal.  In the journal, the doll muses about her travels, her wishes, dreams, avocations, breakfast menu, whatever.  :~)  In the meantime, while mine is visiting first Ohio and then California (kinda makes me jealous), I will be visited by each of theirs, adding and embellishing and taking pictures with the dog.

The end result is a collaboration between artists, each having blessed the doll with her creative talents and spirit.  Have I mentioned I'm stoked about this project?  It's not about making a doll to sell, it's about making a friend who will always remind me of other friends.

The Traveling Doll Project Blog will actually let you follow all the teams' fun, and I'll be sure to give a shout when new updates will be posted.

I'm on the Eager Eagles team, along with Martha and Jenna
...and this is Wren.

Her arms, legs, and trunk are carved of wood.  I used a Dremel for the detail carving.  In this first picture, her shoulder and hips are wire jointed, knees and elbows are string or ribbon jointed.  She didn't like this, and asked me how I'd like it if my lower extremities flopped around backward half the time.

I had to admit I wouldn't like it, and found the solution with the addition of some lace to stabilize those joints.  Kinda looks like she has lacy Ace bandages.  Her face, bust, and pregnant belly are paper clay, and her hair is curly mohair.  I've never used this stuff--at least not in a long, free-flowing style like this.  Not sure I ever will again--holy cow!  But she seems to like it, and I hope the team members will let her keep it down like this.  (Subtle hints were never my forte...)

As to the rest, Wren left clues in her journal about her favorite style of clothes, the lifestyle she leads at home (she's a hippy chick who lives on a homestead with a lot of like-spirited individuals) and something of what she'd like to accomplish on her travels.

I really hope you'll follow along as the dolls make their rounds.  We're having so much fun...it seems a shame not to share it!





(Click pictures to zoom...)