Here She Bee !!!

Queen Emi (pronounced E-Me). A Japanese name meaning beautiful and blessed. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder….This was a very fun class with Linda Hollerich. If you aren’t sure about sculpting with clay, Linda’s projects will put you at ease because of her relaxed way of teaching.

I had a lot of fun making Emi. I had her body done, but it was so much black and yellow stripe, that I had to tone it down. I decided on a contrasting colour in the yellow, it leans slightly toward orange, but it worked out. I designed these low rider pants (don’t I wish I had legs that went on forever like that and a cute little waistline), but I digress. Then I designed this shrug and a hood. The whole look is completed by the minimal use of shiny fibres that outline her hood and shrug, a black metallic ribbon around her waist, wrists and ankles, as well a charm belt and her necklace and a few paper roses carefully placed.

When it came time to get her ready for the base, it was not a happy moment. After all the costuming changes and alterations that she waited through so patiently, I then had to impale the poor thing with a dowel. It wasn’t a pleasant thing to do to her, but a necessary evil. Poor Emi…..

For the base, I did my signature technique of covering the wood with two colours of felt. The green compliments to the tones of the yellows, black draws in the ball she is landing on. The flowers are hard to describe, I’m not sure exactly what they are made from, but I believe they are something like a shaved balsa wood, the look completed with trims around both layers of wood.

When I balanced her foot on the ball I added a little touch of glue, thinking that probably won’t hold, but lets try it. So I did, and I was right. I took Emi to the shop and when I was moving her, her toe came loose. I zipped home, grabbed some more paper flowers, the glue, and went back and fastened the flowers around her foot. It will be a more secure hold for her foot, her other foot is raised up slightly behind her. The picture is an optical illusion that makes the ball look crooked, but it’s not. It’s the foot that is slightly bent to the side.

My friend Janet bought a new display cabinet for her tea shop, she’s been revamping her store and giving it a facelift. This cabinet has 6 cubby holes that are back lit. She has been kind enough to dedicate the top 3 cubbies to me for my dolls. each one will hold at 3 dolls comfortably. I was so flattered that she would do that for me. It’s actually been a good thing for both of us, as people come in to see the dolls, they end up buying tea or other tea related products. It’s a symbiotic relationship. We all need a cheerleader in life, she is mine. ;o)