My friend Lyn Belisle who lives in San Antonio gives workshops on how to make Spirit Dolls using her Spirit Faces she makes. http://www.lynbelisle.com/workshops/spiritmalasignup.pdf I have some of Lyn's Spirit Faces and I have used a couple of them in necklaces that I created. Lyn is giving a new workshop of which I would love to attend, but since San Antonio is a 3 hour drive from Dallas, I decided to try making a Spirit Doll on my own. My sister Cindy and I made Apple Head Dolls back in the early 80's so I thought I could make the Spirit Doll like one of the Apple Head Dolls. I had some annealed steel wire that I bent into a very rough person's figure shape. Then, I tied some polyester fiberfill onto the wire. I have a drawer full of pieces of material, so I used a cotton purple calico piece for the long skirt (to hide the polyester fiberfill tied to the legs of my wire figure) and a piece of purple checked material for a blouse. I tied the Spirit Face onto the wire, as Lyn puts holes in her faces so that was easy to do. I have another drawer full of yarn -- I love to do many crafts! -- so I chose some black eyelash yarn for the hair. I needed to cover up some fiberfill and the hair and I found a piece of lace in my drawer with the material. Of course I have a huge supply of old junk jewelry that friends have given to me, so I chose this rhinestone piece to hold the lace in place. And of course, my Spirit Doll HAD to have a piece of jewelry on! I wanted my Spirit Doll to tell something about me so I found some miniature items at a dollhouse store. My Spirit Doll is holding a chain with a pan of cookies, a camera, a passport, a basket of yarn, beads, scissors, etc., a cookbook, a mystery book and a Marshall Fields shopping bag. The Spirit Doll embodies the energy of what you want to bring into your life. My Spirit Doll is holding representations of things I enjoy doing. Not everything, but most of them. I enjoy being with my friends and family and corresponding with them and I don't have representations of them. If I find a way to represent this, I will add them to my Spirit Doll. I'm hoping that my Spirit Doll will forever give me the energy to be able to do all of these wonderful things I enjoy doing.
