(re-post; part of the series)
I have been on quite a journey this morning. When I began to make Day 3 doll I did not expect the extent of this. I knew I wanted to make a universal doll – and for weeks I have been considering just what this would mean – a doll with ethnic dress, and, if so, from how many countries; the plainest and simplest of dolls to represent the globe, and, if so, how to indicate the representation without having to explain (or at least explain minimally); perhaps collect dolls from many countries who look like they had traveled long and far and turn them into one symbolic one…..
Then a map came to mind. Yes!!! I wanted to make a doll from a map. A large map. I was at a garage sale given by a teacher and she had ooodles of school supplies but no map. No large pliable map that would have rolled down in front of a classroom. Darn. But if such a thing had been there it would have been a) a collectible with a collectible asking price b) likely already sold to the first person at the garage sale which was not me but I would have been told about it c) even if I were the first person the map would have to have been very ratty and very cheap for me to even consider cutting it up into a doll – and even then it would have been a hard decision. A week or so ago this presented:
It is old but not a collectible (at least those people ahead of me at the sale did not think so.) It is paper but I thought it would work just fine.
You can see the original dollar price; I paid a quarter.
It is a map of Canada but it includes the world.
I hadn't expected that – I did not unfold it at the sale – and found this feature quite chummy and very Canadian. If it had only contained Canada there would have been a "Sorry" somewhere on the map and an explanation.
I've been thinking on how to make a doll with it.
This morning I got it out and started.
Now I did make notes as I went along and planned to give a detailed account of what I did and what I thought and what I felt.
I changed my mind. Much of a muchness and, as I said, it was quite a journey: memories were evoked of ancestors and places visited and friends from countries I have not visited and food I love from countries I have and have not visited and place names and shapes of countries and colours of countries and how living in certain countries has influenced my life and ….. you know exactly what I mean.
Also I had planned to stitch the map doll onto a piece of foamy blanket as backing and then maybe pad it a bit but I must have put the foamy blanket in the bag with other 'stuff' and taken it to the neighbourhood FREE place. Which turned out just fine (as always) because the paper map would have been too stiff to stitch and I had just come across the roll of corrugated lightweight cardboard at a sale last weekend and it worked for what I wanted.
Here it is. Day 3 doll. Respectfully submitted.