Last Saturday morning Baby Girl presented me with a beautiful picture of a "Blue Princess." I have been thinking about making dolls out of some of Baby Girl's drawings for awhile, so when I saw the Blue Princess I knew I needed to stop thinking about it and get to work!
Two weeks ago, as I was preparing a slide show for the drawing class I am teaching, I came across costume designs Picasso did for Stravinsky's ballet Pulcinella...yes, I have tendencies for distraction. Having been a costume designer once upon a time, and having worked in the costume shop once upon the time, I amused myself with thinking about how it would be to translate Picasso's designs into reality. This project brought me back to those musings. I had so much fun translating Baby Girl's drawing into a 3-dimensional doll. (Perhaps this is part of her Blue Period.) It is quite freeing to create something that is not symmetrical, that has movement and a life of its own. I love the way the Blue Princess took form. Most importantly, Baby Girl loves her Blue Princess doll. She has slept with her every night since Valentine's Day. I am excited to try this process with some of her earlier drawings.
I've been sick and about the only thing I've been creating is lots and lots of SNOT. However my illness doesn't stop the wee ones and their creative spirit. So when Bouncing Boy asked if he could make costumes for his thumbs, I agreed to help. Turns out a popular pastime of second grade boys is thumb wrestling. He wanted to make costumes for his wrestlers. I can't even begin to tell you on how many different levels I love this, so it will have to be enough to say....I LOVE this.
Bouncing Boy made little paper patterns by tracing around his thumbs. I helped pin the patterns on to the felt. He cut out the felt. I taught him how to thread the needle using a needle threader, which he thought was great fun. I showed him how to tie knots at the end of the thread and we made up a little story to go along with the knot tying. He sewed around the edges all by himself and I tied the final knots for him. He was sooo very pleased with himself and his thumb costumes! Now he has me thinking, I think we should make some costumes for his costumes...little masks, maybe a cape, perhaps a hat....
