Mermaids

My two mermaid dolls are almost on their way to the Waterfront Gallery in Charleston, South Carolina. I also had time to create a beaded, quilted wall hanging that was also accepted. Now, I have to follow the appropriate steps to ship them to the gallery and prepare them for display.

I wanted to create mermaids that were a little different,

I didn't want them to be just pretty girls floating in the water. I have to admit, raising two sons who were very into super heroes and now having to grandsons who are also into "heroes" influenced my creative process for this first doll. I am very inspired by my oldest grandson Paul who is becoming an awesome cartoon animator and is studying media in high school and will soon be off to college. All four of my grandchildren and my nephew Demetrius are creative artists and have been creating beautiful images since they were very young.                  

My first mermaid is Malika. She became a mermaid warrior queen fighting for the survival of her people. Her color palette is coppers and golds and she carries a sword ready to do battle for justice.

I used gold beads, charms and gold braid to create her look and because she is a queen she wears a crown. When I finished her body I couldn't figure out what was missing and it dawned on me that she needed a belly button.

Her "fishy" tail and lower body are painted with Lumiere Metallic textile paints by Jacquard and Scribbles Iridescent textile paints that are layered to get a more complex texture. I used a leopard stencil to get the effect of scales.

 I added gold beads to her tail just to add extra glitz.

She has thick "dreaded" hair with coppery red streaks and a sassy attitude.

Malika is Swahili for queen so it seemed most fitting that that should be her name.








Stayed tuned for pictures of mermaid #2 and a very ambitious wall hanging that I couldn't stop adding to. It was almost addictive.

Mermaids

I finally finished the two dolls for my entry into the "Mermaids and Merwomen in Black Folklore". The dolls were easy compared to writing an Artist's Bio and an Artist's Statement for each entry that was limited to 50 words each. As bloggers, we all know being "brief" is a major challenge in itself. At 50 words we're just getting started but I did it. I read lots of samples of 50 word bios and statements by other artists and realized that they must have felt the same way.

I attacked this task first by just writing everything down that I wanted to say and forgetting the 50 word limit. Then, I read it and decided what was most important that I wanted my readers to know about me and then about each of my entries and then I edited it again. My last edit, I was very grateful for the word counter at the bottom of my Microsoft Word screen. I started cutting out unnecessary words and phrases while still trying to maintain good grammar. I got it down to 50 words exactly for all three documents. The final bio and statements sounded very stilted but I can live with it. I sent bio, statements, application, two entry photos of each and my fee in by "snail mail" today and then again by email as per directions. Now, I wait. I have had so much fun working on this project, it really made my summer.
I will share photos of my two mermaids in a later post.

For mermaid #1 I chose a color palette that was coppers and golds, I was inspired by some of the colors of coy fish. For mermaid #2, I used metallic shades of silver, teal, blue and charcoal for her tail. I used textile paints and layered the colors over each other until I got the texture and the color I wanted, I used an animal print stencil to get a mottled effect.

 I left the "fishy" tail untextured but I layered the paint on black Kona cotton fabric in an ombre effect using metallic teal and metallic navy blue.

Because I used about five different colors and they
were all applied in layers, each color peeks through and looks like fish scales. I love using textile paints and this came out exactly how I envisioned it.

 I clustered clear glass beads on the "fishy tail" so that they would look like bubbles.

Mermaids

I am almost finished with mermaid #1 and am very pleased with the way she turned out. This has challenged me to "think out of the box" and leave my "comfort zone" to create something new and different from me. It has also made me read and consider the legends and folktales about mermaids from Greek mythology's water sprites to the stories about mermaid sitings in all of our oceans, seas, rivers and other bodies of water. I 've looked at dozens of paintings, drawings, animation, costumes, and photographs for inspiration and even considered the advice of a three-year-old 'consultant' who told me "she's 'upposed to have red hair and a fishy tail".


I am posting just a sneak peak at mermaid #1. I will do a full reveal and post the short story I wrote that inspired her after I submit my entry.

This is her "fishy tail" as my consultant called it. I'm still working on the beading and I want to give her real hands with 'fingers'. I have not yet mastered the art of hands with fingers. I have several failed attempts and my son looked at the last set of hands I did and said that my mermaid looked like she had arthritis. Oh well! Back to the drawing board.

Mermaids

My mermaid project is coming along OK. No real pictures to show yet. This is a project that I want to really do well with in hopes of being selected. I am experimenting with fabric paints in different color combinations and trying to come up with a fish tail design that I really like.
Whenever I design any of my dolls I like to make up a story about her that tells me who she is, what her history is and all of the little details that give her a personality. After reading some folktales about mermaids (some of them were a little strange), I went to sleep on it and came up with two stories of my own. Both mermaids will be very different. One will have a heroic legend and the other will be a fantasy figure with all of the glitz and glamour of a fairy tale. Both will represent very strong women.

 The challenge right now is trying to keep up with all of the projects I have started. I hate it when I do that to myself. Recently, someone asked if I could create a kid friendly doll because my dolls are not for children. I decided to use a commercial pattern that is very basic with only a few details. Terese Cato, author of Make Cloth Dolls had a great guideline in her book about making dolls for children. They of course, have to be safe with no wiring that could poke little fingers and no small pieces that could be swallowed. Because the doll will most likely be "loved to death" don't spend a lot of time on sculpted details or fancy costumes. I remember a doll I made for my niece Cindy about 38 years ago. The body, the head, arms and legs were all one piece and she had yarn pig tails. Cindy was about two or three at the time and I wanted her to learn how to button buttons and zip zippers, so the doll had two outfits that she could change. Every time I would visit my niece, the doll never had clothes on, her pig tails were fuzzy and undone and she had a variety of stains on her from peanut butter to ketchup. The wonderful thing about the doll was that she was always in the middle of  what ever was going on in Cindy's life, so I knew she was loved and that she was my little niece's friend. I'm trying to recreate a doll with that same appeal. The pattern I'm using just isn't doing it for me. I cut out two dolls and stuffed and assembled them but they just aren't me. I am committed to finishing them though. Maybe I'll like them better when they're done and maybe a little girl will be happy with one of them.

I'm also in the middle of a group of dolls that are like my "Grandma Kizzie" doll. I love this group of dolls because I'm using colorful batiks and beads and they all have a mystical, fantasy quality about them. I have a weekend off for the first time in a long time and the weather forecast is for HOT weather in the 100's. I don't do well in the heat so it's a good excuse to stay in and finish some of my dolls. I hope I'll have some photo updates for my next post. 



Mermaids

I am excited about my latest challenge. I received an email from a fellow textile artist about a juried show taking place in Charleston, South Carolina. The theme is Black Mermaids and Merwomen in Black Folklore. I have to admit that my only knowledge or experience with mermaids up until now has been what I hear from my granddaughters and from the Disney movie "The Little Mermaid". I read Hans Christians Anderson when I was a child and saw the ballet "Ondine" a long time ago but I never considered it for an art expression. The call is for quilts or quilted wallhangings and cloth dolls that portray the image of Black mermaids. There are legends and folktales about African and Caribbean mermaids during the era of slave trading. They were said to have rescued slaves who were thrown from the slave ships into the sea. I really would like to submit an entry for this art show. The exhibit will be at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park in South Carolina. So, I'm currently in research mode. I am reading and looking at as many images of mermaids that I can find. I will keep you posted on my progress. I am looking forward to this great summer journey.