Heartfelt Dolls
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    • I Am A Dollmaker: crafter's statement
    • Beware when you honor an artist
    • Heartfelt Dolls: Fool's Errand or Heroine's Journey
    • Doll making as a spiritual journey
    • Igniting creativity with Heartfelt dolls
    • Heartfelt doll-making: a healing experience
    • Heartfelt Dolls: the memory keepers
    • Heartfelt Dolls on life and death
    • Heartfelt Dolls: aesthetic meditation
    • Heartfelt Dolls: using textile crafts in contemporary art
    • Heartfelt Dolls: seeking a definition
    • Heartfelt Dolls: A Political Voice?
    • Heartfelt Dolls: Face On/Face Off
    • Heartfelt Dolls jammin' with JAMTV
    • Heartfelt Dolls @The Open Studios Project Blog
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  • Dolls
    • Heartfelt Dolls: companions for the journey
    • The Quotidian Doll: an introduction >
      • The Quotidian Doll Blog: introducing a Heartfelt-doll-a-day
    • Diaspora: the 101 dolls project
    • Heartfelt Dolls willing to leave home (for sale) >
      • Matariki
      • Through A Glass Darkly
      • Stitch Yourself a Boyfriend
      • Pink Walkers
      • Steampunk Dolls
      • Selfies
      • The Heroine's Journey
      • An English Country Garden
      • Hobo Chic
      • The Fisherman
      • I Shall Wear Purple
      • Enraged Woman Riding a Black and White Dog Writing Wrongs
      • Salute to the Sun
      • Old Woman in a Shoe
      • Soul Sisters
      • The Smiles Project
      • BFF
      • Blue Belles
      • Shades of Gray
      • Angels with attitude
      • Angels of gold
      • Angels
      • 'Ladies a plate'
      • Cosy up with a bit of skirt
      • Ice Palace
      • Troupe de verde
      • Animal Antics
      • Male dolls
      • Carnivale: stiltwalking dolls
      • Calendar Girls
      • Dammit dolls
      • Oh Cliche
      • Heartfelt Graffiti
      • Double Trouble
      • Lilliputians
      • Kiwi Icons
      • Faeries
    • Heartfelt Fundraisers >
      • Volunteer Fire Fighters
      • Memory keepers
      • Shades of Gray >
        • Shades of Gray Duets
        • Shades of Gray Men
      • Calendar Girls
      • Pink Walkers
      • Bandanna Chic
      • Selfies
    • Heartfelt Companions: sharing my journey with you >
      • One-of-a-kind heartfelt dolls >
        • Julie Has Flown North For The Summer
        • Hot Flash!
        • Whoops!
        • Medusa
        • The Bag Lady
        • Purple people eater
        • Social Climber
        • Place
        • Fertility Fairy
        • Smile
        • Blue Baths Belle
        • An Artist's Book
        • Pink Lady
        • Beloved
      • Heartfelt dolls in a series >
        • The Rainbow Connection
        • What's in a cup?
        • The Apple
        • Hi-Cut Internet Dolls
        • Godde Dolls
        • Shrines
        • The Rites of Autumn
        • Bibliophile
        • Seeing the world through different eyes
        • Akuba: encouraging change
        • It takes a village
        • Umbrella and Umbrage
        • A cautionary tale ...
    • Heartfelt Process, Heartfelt Transformation >
      • Matron Saints
      • Creative Guardians
      • The Nest
      • Freeing the caged heart: the poets and the dollmaker
      • The Unemployment Blues
      • The Bare Necessities
      • The Heroine's Journey
      • The Alchemy of Change
      • Sticks and stones
      • Stitch yourself a boyfriend
      • Inner Child
      • Salute to the Sun
      • Bindings
      • Euphrosyne: reclaiming joy >
        • Freeing the caged heart: poetry to lift your spirits
        • The Smiles Project
        • Dancing Feet
        • Irrepressible
        • Greening: a lenten journey
        • Wild Women Like to Dance
        • I Am Woman
        • Harakeke flowers
        • Circle of friends, vessel of hope
        • Dance
        • Spirit seekers, spirit guides
      • The Great Divide: one woman's experience of divorce >
        • Numb
        • Bound
        • Burlap and lace
        • Naked
        • Reclaim
        • Bitch
        • The Devil on my back
        • Burdened
        • God alone is enough
        • Simple heart
        • Broken dreams
        • Will the real me please stand up?
        • The Classifieds
        • Sing-a-song
        • Dark nights >
          • You are dying ...
          • Beast of burden
          • Wounded healer, broken heart
          • A moment of conversion
          • Unbuilding
          • Peace
          • Transform me
          • A clean heart
          • Unwrapped
          • Doormat
          • The weight of expectation
          • Promise
          • A new me
          • The fabric of my life
          • Struggle
          • Hanging
        • Dance me To The End of Love
      • Black Dog: one woman's experience with depression >
        • The Anti-depressants
        • Some days
        • What I wish you knew about depression
    • Heartfeltfelt Emotion >
      • Gold Angels: coping with tragedy
      • Emotions: a challenge
      • Lamentation
      • Heartfelt Anger >
        • Anger Management with Dammit Dolls
        • Dammit!
    • Heartfelt Celebration! >
      • I Shall Wear Purple!
      • Birthday dolls
      • Birthday cards
      • Julie's 21st
      • Celebrate my femininity!
      • Troupe de verde
    • Heartfelt Graffiti
    • Heartfelt Care >
      • Ageing >
        • I Shall Wear Purple
        • The Seven Ages Of Woman
      • For the children
      • Living with dementia
      • Say 'NO' to family violence >
        • You don't have to take it like I did
        • Are you the one?
      • Heartfelt Conservation >
        • Seduced By The Wild
        • Feathers Over Hamurana
        • Birds
      • Living with cancer
      • Breast Cancer Awareness >
        • Hello Dollies: an article
        • Pink Walkers
        • Primal scream
        • Flat Out
        • Paradox
        • Just Checkin'
        • I Love you, Mum
        • Mammogram Slam
        • Friends for the journey
        • Hair Today
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        • Deconstruct Reconstruct
        • Sewphie the stitcher
        • Nana and Gran
        • Procrastinating Polly
        • Colour blind
        • BRAve New World
        • Unzipped
        • Lord, to whom shall we go?
        • Knitting Nellie
        • The nay-sayers
        • Vessels of hope
        • Dancing Woman Labyrinth
        • Breast Labyrinth
    • Time Capsule series
  • Heartfelt Creativity
    • Heartfelt Fun
    • Heartfelt Comfort >
      • Girl Reclining on a Sofa
      • Cotton-soft boas
      • Wild Women Like to Hang About
    • Heartfelt Stitch >
      • Mother's Little Helper
      • Needlewomen
      • Old Woman in a Shoe
      • Delight in a cup
      • Heartfelt Companion
    • Heartfelt Wrapping >
      • Colour Blind
      • Spirit dolls
      • Bound
      • Aspects of Self
      • Wrapping as an art form
      • Wild Women Like To Dance
    • Heartfelt vestis >
      • What a wonderful world!
      • A thanksgiving vest
      • Dalmatics
      • In Praise
    • Labyrinth >
      • Shell labyrinth
      • Breast Labyrinth
      • Labyrinth scroll
      • Stitched labyrinth
      • Dancing Woman Labyrinth
      • Hopi labyrinth
      • Bead labyrinth
      • Journey
    • ANZAC: a tribute >
      • ANZAC Quilt
      • Rawene Boys
      • ANZAC jacket
  • Heartfelt prayer
    • Heartfelt crocheted rosaries
    • Heartfelt Retreat >
      • An Advent Retreat in Daily Life
      • Our daily medicine: a 28 day reflection on living and dying
      • Hidden in Plain View: a retreat in daily life
      • 24 hours: a retreat reflecting on the passion of Jesus
      • Stations of the light
    • Heartfelt waiting: reflections on the season of Advent >
      • Matron Saints of Un-named Women
      • Advent is a vessel
      • Advent is a pilgrimage
      • Advent remembers we are all related.
      • Advent is creative
      • Advent is a ritualised experience
      • Advent is expectant
      • Advent names God
      • Advent is a door
      • Advent: a sacred space
    • Stations of the Cross >
      • Christchurch Stations of the Cross
      • 24 Hours
      • Stations with haiku
      • John Badcock "Stations of the Cross"
    • Heartfelt Season: reflecting on the season of Lent >
      • A Lenten Walk
      • Lenten Prayer Flags
    • Heartfelt Hallelujah: reflections on the season of Easter >
      • Voices on the Via Lucis
    • Prayers from the Ark >
      • The Mouse
      • The Spider
      • The Dog
      • The Elephant
      • The Lizard
      • The Lamb
      • The Peacock
      • The Giraffe
      • The Toad
      • The Parrot
      • The Mother Hen
      • The Goldfish
      • The Cat
      • The Lion
    • Heartfelt Belief
    • Heartfelt Reflection >
      • These Parables Blow Me Apart!
      • A Single Thread
      • Every moment is gift
      • Harvest Wheat
      • Stepping out in faith
      • Harvest Heart
      • Dream catcher
      • The Sewing Basket
    • Sacred Story >
      • The Road to Emmaus
      • The Loaves and the Fishes
    • Listening To Winter
    • Genesis
    • Heartfelt Writing >
      • Joy on a String
      • Changing Landscapes
      • Rites of Passage
      • Sowing and Reaping
      • Hidden In Plain View
      • An Emmaus Journey
      • God and Dog
      • Dear Julie
      • An Intentional Walk
      • The Widow's Might
      • Does God Exist?
      • The Sewing Basket
      • Advent: A Sacred Space
      • A Secular Liturgy
      • Your Call
      • Dance me To The End Of Love
  • "100 day" projects
  • Prayer flag project
    • Blessings on the wind: a year of blessings >
      • April blessings
      • March blessings
      • February blessings
      • January blessings
      • December blessings
      • November blessings
      • October blessings
      • September blessings
      • August blessings
      • July blessings
      • June blessings
      • May Blessings
      • April Blessings
      • March Blessings
    • Prayer flag blog
  • Gratitude Flowers

DOLL MAKING AS A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
"Hands to work, heart to God."

Picture
Standing beside The Dancing Woman Labyrinth, designed by Lisa Moriarty Gidlow, constructed by Liz Pearce, with permission. For me the labyrinth is a metaphor for our spiritual journey.

AN INVITATION

At 52, I encountered a major change in my life.
Slowly, I honoured the call to become a doll maker.
Whenever I was amongst fabric artists or immersed in my doll making,
I found I was energized, excited, joyful.
I wondered if this was an invitation to share the intimacy and persistence of divine love
through my dolls.
For me, doll making is contemplative.
My attention is focused.
I am surrounded by possibilities.
I immerse myself ... and a new doll is birthed.
With each stage of this process, God's love enfolds me.
With each stitch, I feel more closely stitched to the divine.
Doll making becomes a wordless communion with God.

DOLLS AS STORYTELLERS

Each doll I create tells a story.
Sometimes it is in the pattern interpretation,
or fabric choice,
or an embellishment.
Other times their story is embedded in a larger story,
of courage, or hope or recovery.
Each doll has a story about an encounter with LOVE.

THE DOLL MAKER

I am a maker of dolls,
or perhaps more accurately,
representations, reflections, explorations, musings,
using the human form as a springboard.
Sometimes pretty. Sometimes not.
Sometimes finished. Sometimes not.
Sometimes original. Sometimes not.
Never perfect.
Nearly always made in a group or series.

DOLL MAKING IS A TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE

Picture
LOOK GOOD. FEEL GOOD.
For me, doll making is a transformative experience,
a healing experience,
an anti-depressant.
It is more about process,
reflection,
meditation
and attentiveness
to myself, my whanau, my community,
than about a final product.
We are all a much loved and cherished work in progress.

DOLL MAKING AS PRAYER

Picture
57: FREE MY CAGED HEART, A DOLL MADE ON MY 57TH BIRTHDAY
Doll making for me is a
delightful,
life-giving,
soul-nurturing
thought-provoking blend
of
journaling,
art therapy,
expressive therapy, self-care
and prayer.
It is an act of thanksgiving,
of gratitude,
of supplication,
of praise.

DOLL MAKING IS A PROCESS

Picture
MY PORTABLE WORK STATION FOR THE ANTI-DEPRESSANTS
Sometimes a doll demands to be started AND finished.
Sometimes the design process,
the note-making,
the resourcing
satisfies the need to create.
But this in itself is a creative process.
I am not called to be all things to all people.
I am not created to be perfect or pedantic.
I am invited to love and to allow myself to be loved,
unconditionally,
imperfections and all.

DOLLS AS SACRAMENT

My dolls are usually an outward sign
of a hidden,
silent,
unknown,
unrevealed
inward journey.
They are an encounter.
They are sacrament -
a visible sign of an invisible grace.

DOLLS TO EVOKE A RESPONSE

I make dolls to evoke a response,
to make a statement,
to inform,
to empathize.
Throughout time,
art and sculpture and oratory
have been used to turn our eyes and our hearts to reform injustices.

SURPRISED BY JOY

I make dolls for their own sake,
for play,
for the pure joy of creating.
God is a creative God,
a playful God,
a God of joy.
We are an Easter people: people of joy.
Let's express it.

I REMEMBER

I make dolls to remember those alive and dead,
who I want to keep alive in my heart,
a photo in doll form.
Perhaps I am following in a long tradition of memorializing people and events:
stained glass windows, statues, holy cards,
religious art, iconography, vestments,
architecture, grottoes, story.
We are all one people in one precious world.
Let's remember.

DOLL MAKING AS AN EXPRESSION OF GRIEF

Picture
GOLD ANGEL MADE TO EXPRESS MY GRIEF AT THE MASSACRE AT SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.
I make dolls to express grief.
When we know we are loved,
with a heartfelt, profound, unconditional love,
we can deal with the tragic experiences of life.
Grief can overwhelm us,
bury us in anger and fear,
sabotage our relationships, our hopes, our calling.
But if we hold onto the rituals and words of our faith traditions,
using them to provide a scaffolding as we grieve and heal;
and honour our spirituality and our relationship with the divine,
we can overcome.

DOLL MAKING AS CELEBRATION

Picture
GREENING: A LENTEN JOURNEY OF GROWTH
I make dolls to celebrate change.
Our lives are filled with change -
from youth to aged;
from wellness to ill-health and back again;
from dependence to independence;
from single to partnered to single again;
from birth through growth to death.
It is important to mark the passages of time -
ritualise, record, celebrate, affirm.

SHOWING COMPASSION THROUGH DOLL MAKING

I use my doll making to support the most vulnerable;
to speak for those too afraid;
to reveal the compassionate heart of God.

THEN YOUR LIGHT WILL SHINE LIKE THE DAWN

How do I greet the dawn?
How do I open myself to receive
the graces and blessings of each new day?
Do I have an attitude of gratitude?

DOLL MAKING IS A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY

In all of these,
I find doll making is a spiritual journey,
an encounter with the divine,
a personal transformation,
a manifestation of God's healing grace,
an expression of the compassionate heart of God.

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