A Mermaids Party at Inner Diva Alter Ego Dolls

 

Our mermaid doll workshop is coming up soon. It will be Wednesday, June 26th at The Fabric Garden, 2922 Fulton, Sacramento, California. The samples will be available to view at Fabric Garden sometime late tomorrow afternoon or Thursday morning but I will share some of the photos here. You will also be able to pick up a supply list and for students who have already signed up, I will email a list to you tomorrow. See you soon. anyone still interested in taking the mermaid doll workshop can sign up by calling the Fabric Garden at 916-483-2955.


This is Josette, my sleepy little mermaid.

 This is Nadia with fiery red hair and a mischievous smile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

M is for...

M...one of my favorite letters. Hmmm... where should I begin. M of course is for MERMAIDS. Before last year I didn't know much about MERMAIDS except for I would hear my two granddaughters talking about. Little girls love MERMAIDS! Last year I entered a call to artists to create Black MERMAIDS for an exhibit at the City Gallery at Waterfront Park in Charleston, South Carolina. I created two MERMAID dolls

and a MERMAID quilt.

I was overjoyed when all three pieces were accepted for the exhibit and I was able to travel to Charleston for all of the opening events.



M is also for MUD CLOTH and MUSEUM. Being a textile artist I have a love of the beautiful geometric patterns and symbolic prints found in MUD CLOTH designs.

Last summer, I attended an exhibit at a MUSEUM in Oakland, California. A few of my fellow textile artists from Sacramento had quilts and fiber art pieces in the exhibit. I'm very proud to be connected to theses talented artists.







M is also for two of my newest dolls, MARGARET and MAKIBA.

M is also for my dolls MIRANDA, MADELINE, MAIXIU, MARIAH, MARTHA SUE, MEG, MILEY and MARTHA. I guess I really do like the letter M. Good night, see you tomorrow. 

One of My Mermaids has been Adopted!!

I got s call earlier today from the curator at the City Gallery in Charleston. She wanted to tell me that Malika, one of my mermaid dolls has been adopted by someone  who was visiting the gallery. I was so honored just to be a part of this exhibit and now to find out that someone wants to take a piece of my work home is amazing to me.

I just assumed that both dolls and my quilt would be coming home in a couple of weeks. I'm so happy that she will be going to a good home. It's always a little bittersweet for me because I miss my dolls when they are adopted but so happy when someone else loves them too.

Mermaids

Yemaya’s Feast Day Celebration September 7^th, 2012

As part of the three day Opening weekend for Mermaids and Merwomen in Black Folklore: A fiber Arts Exhibiton we invite you to join us,

September 7^th at 6:30  pm Fort Moultrie, Sullivans Island,  South Carolina, for a very special Celebration.

September 7^th is the Feast Day to honor Mermaid goddess Yemaya.

According to Yoruba elders, The Black Mermaid  is the "unseen mother present at every gathering."

 She is omnipresent and omnipotent. Her power is represented in Yoruba teaching  reminding us that "no one is an enemy to water."

       High Chief, High Priest Nathaniel Styles of the Yoruba Kingdom, will introduce and educate us as how to honor and celebrate the Black Mermaid Yemaya.

       You’ll gather in a circle, that represents the eternal cycle of life.

Your heart and feet will turn towards home, and then deeper to our first home, the waters, as the ancient beating of the drums of The god Sango will sound.  Nigerian Prince Aderele will fly in from the Motherland especially for this celebration,the Prince  will call down  Sango The God of Thunder      to beat his Spirit drum, dance His Sacred Dance, and he will perform for us the fire eating ritual  in honor of the Deities as a purification rite.

You will have a once in a life time experience.

      Yemaya invites you to reclaim our feminine strength to take in  universal wisdom of the water goddess.

 Being  whole means to be balanced. “The goddess woman whole in

herself. She speaks to us of a power that is our birthright. And our men are more at peace when they too join the circle of celebration, as all men need to rebalance the masculine and feminine energy as well.

To know ourselves means to know one another.

We are asked to wear white if possible and to bring a financial offering for the Chief High Priest and Prince.

You are also invited to share a meal with us afterwards. Chief High Priest will also take appointments for private sessions.

Mermaids

I finally got my artwork off to the gallery in South Carolina. I finished three pieces, two dolls and a wall hanging. I've already introduced my two mermaid dolls Malika and Adilah. They are on their way to the City Gallery at Waterfront Park in Charleston, South Carolina via their magic coach courtesy of UPS.

The third piece that the gallery accepted is a wall hanging I did called "The Rescue".

I used textile pants by Jacquard to paint the background.

I wanted the sky to be at sunrise when the sun is just emerging from the horizon and the colors are shades of pink and coral and the night sky begins to disappear and the day time sky begins to show itself.

The rocks, the mermaid and her rescue were cut from the pattern that I drew and quilted and appliqued to the background.









I love to use glass beads to add shine and texture to my quilts. I cut out some fish from a piece of fabric that I found and appliqued them with the glass beads.

I used more glass beads on the mermaid's tail and beads and shells around the rocks.

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’m so excited! I found out a little early but my two mermaid dolls were accepted by the jury for the “Mermaids and Merwomen in Black Folklore” exhibit. For me it’s a big deal because I’ve never been part of a national exhibit. 

My mermaids are not traditional. Before I began their design, I imagined the story that they would tell me. Who were they, where did they come from, how did they become mermaids, when did they live what kind of lives did they live. I usually go through this same process with every doll I design. I didn’t want either of my mermaids to be just pretty girls with “fishy” tails that just floated around in the water. I wanted them to have strong characters with a purpose. Once I imagined their characters, the dolls seemed to come easy.  Their “spirits” gave me all of the details about what they should look like. Since the theme of the exhibit is based on Black History, legends and folktales it was easy to give my imagination free reign.

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.