TODAY: The Day of Babacino and TOY!

Little Update on the making of the boy doll, for Gabriel.
For now I shall just post my FB notes from this morning and later today, and then of course, some pictures!

Early Early this morning:
"Gabriels boy doll is all sewn up now, finally.with my hands.Next I need to make the hair. This boydoll has a very big head and he is a bit awkward at the moment. We shall have to pay him some resourceful attention and I think he will be just fine for a first doll! I wonder what he will be called and what his favourite colour will be!"

Later - A lot of people seemed to like my pictures of Gabriel's doll and so I wrote a little update before doing the evening pictures, and here is what I wrote:  [normally I dont like to go on and on and on on FB about myself! but as this is about Gabriel, then it is a little different and also its about the start of my doll creating journey, I hope!!]

Thank you everyone! This morning Gabriel's beAdy little eye straight away at 5.30 am, saw his doll sitting next to my chocolate stash, out of toddlers arms reach.. and started getting very excited indeed, demanding to have it instantyl!. AT first I thought he had suddenly understood the concept of choclate, and was saying like ; no, not for babies! and then I realised it was the doll!! i gave it to him and he wouldnt let it go and he was huggng it all day, I didnt know what to call it, because I didnt want to say 'dolly' for a boy, it sounded wierd, so I said something like 'toy;', which is not a word Gabriel knows, and he suddenly learned it and all day he's been asking for 'toy'! And 'toy' already has ball point drawing on him and banana. So his name is 'Toy' !! and I cant believe Gabriel loves him so much, he is made in such a funny way! it is a curious type of magic, this making with your hands with love! I will post some pics. Tadaaaaa!! TOY TOY TOY TOY!!!

Tonight, after the day, and Babacino tucked up in his little bed having his last school night, because tomorow is his last day at Noahs Ark Nursery!!
Gabriel has now officially met and befriended 'TOY' 
I hope they will allow me to make TOY's hair and clothes, otherwise TOY will be so full of banana and ball point pen colouring in that we might not recognise him any more and he might be like Pinoccio, when he's all covered in flour and about to be fried in a frying pan like a big fish! Then luckily the dog Alidoro bares his fangs and barks at the fisherman and Pinocchio is freed!! FREE TOY! FREE TOY!

And now as promised, some pictures!!  [see below]

But actually, before getting to the pictures " as promised!"  -   I just want to say something else, about Pinocchio. Maurizio recently re-introduced me to this wonderful classic childrens story. I never knew this, but the way it was written was that it was a series of seperate little stories or episodes about Pinicchio, that later got all put together to make up the book as we know it today. Pinocchio is much much more than about a little puppet who has a nose that grows long when he fibs, its an incredibbly rich story full of layers of meaning, talking both to children and adults [sort of like our classic English Winnie the Pooh AA Milne books]. The meaning and symbols continue to be interperated to this day, keeping the story alive topical and vital.
I shall update this again when it is not midnight sort of time. becuase its a really cool story. Each character in a way is a part of Pinocchio, so the cricket is like his subconscious, the fairy is like the good mother in him. [Geppetto the wood carver who made Pinocchio is in fact a single dad looking after Pinocchio]. I really like this about Pinochio: His clothes are made of flowered paper, his shoes are made of wood and his hat is made of bread !!

I am sure Maurizio must have written a blog about Pinocchio, as he is an avid avid fan and collecter of Pinoccho books, I shall ask him so that I can put the link here and you can google translate it or read it if you an speak Italian!! I am sure he will have explained all the good bits, or if he hasnt done one yet, I shall ask him to!!

Next on the TOY agenda, is the hair. Hair on Waldorf Dolls is usually made from Carbunkle!!!! [I have started, that's the important thing] 

An attempt to 'hide' TOY so that he could be protected from banana, ball point pen, philidelphia cheese spread and of course snot, at least until he has hair and some clothes! but it didnt work... TOY had to be returned to Babacino 'subito' !

3 Weeks and 1 Day left of Work!... and Gabriel's Boy Doll

Thursday night very late the 5th of Feb: This is a bookmarker kind of a blog post, which I will finish or do something more meaninful to, soon, but its important ,sometimes to just start somewhere! Thats what Mauri says, ;'Its important to start somewhere!'  [the next day, I have sort of finished it now... but I'll leave the start from yesterday because I like it and its part of the journey]

This is about Gabriel's doll, mostly, and some joined on things along the way. Gabriel's doll IS actually happening, in it's own way, in its own time, just like how children grow!

Mostly I shall just let the pictures speak for themselves, but perhaps a little bit of a story might explain what might look somewhat confusing or strange, especially if you were to imagine making a doll, never having made one before or knowing whats involved. [just like me right now!]

First, I made the little jersey, because I know (sort of) how to knit, in a basic way, say no more! So I made the jersey for some confidence in starting, and because I love colours and the jersey was made of lots of stripey colours! I used wool that I already had, I like using the same materials in different contexts and then reminiscing and marvelling over how they landed up being used in such different worlds, sometimes more different than I would ever imagine. It is a type of magic, I think!!
Maybe its a bit like a child who comes into the world all brand new but with a tapestry of all sorts of sparkly 'pieces' [as Gabriel refers to most things he likes!] that make them especially them!

I also wanted to make the jersey so that as soon as the doll was made, it would be warm.
Gabriel has learned how to know if he's cold, and he brings me his jersey to put on him. If he wants to go out, he puts on his little south african beeny, even though, when we are out and about he is very cheeky and takes it off and won't wear it!
Little people are very clever in reading grownups!

The jersey I think, is a bit small, but its ok, I can make another one and use this one for a different doll in the future and it's kind of a practice jersey too because I need to learn how to neatly change colours. Wool is rather different to paint!. and of course, jerseys never go to waste in big families!

Then, I cut out and sewed the legs and arms, by hand. I think I used way too many stitches,which is why it took an extra long time, But I liked the idea of lots of very strong stitches because it felt as if the doll would feel very joined together, I hope!. Then I put all the wool into the arms legs and tummy, The wool is lovely, its raw sheep wool, and I hope that will make it automatically warm and comforting in lots of ways for a litle person, who still needs LOTs of hugs and comfort for as long as possible. Oh the tummy is sort of joined to the legs.
Then I made the head which is quite a process and quite difficult, like theorems in maths! - at first at least. The head was not very good at all.  In the end I started again and made a new head, You can see both.
Tonight I finished the face of the new head, and tomorrow I'll start joining all the pieces together, I hope! and the tummy definitely needs more wool!


At the same time, we are packing up our London home and posting it off to Sicily in phases, We've already sent 27 boxes, which so far are mostly books. and we have more to send, but luckily not tooo much, because I have moved enough times in my life to learn how to not accumulate too much,
Except perhaps for paint and crayons and drawing books and beads and bits of string and curious things for making.

I am loving the idea of dolls and I wish I was faster and I wish I could learn to make them really beautifully reallly quickly. But I know that it's a process and takes time, and I know that the gold is in relishing the process where ever it may take you.

I trust in my hands implicitly. Luckily too, unlike in real life, when it comes to my art, I don't worry too much what people think of it, I just do it. It feels a strange contradition in me, in that I often care so much what people think, even though I try my best not to, obiously and logically!  But when it comes to my creations, even though they come from inside my soul, somewhere and are part of me and potentially quite exposing, I don't have that same self consciousness and doubt. It's an enigma, because  I do feel surprisingly attached to  these strange little creatures [of all types made by my hands] most of the time, I think perhaps I also feel more grounded in those images no matter how non-conventional or 'nice' or 'pretty' they usually are not!  I shall try not to think about it too much and just carry on being happy that my hands and my soul are making things!

But this time there is a tiny difference, in that part of me would love to make beautiful dolls like on Etsy,  That are just cute and adorable and enticing.
But that is not for me to choose, I shall let my hands decide and see what they make and love them any way. The way we as society should CHOOSE and DECIDE to love ALL children no matter how they are made or where they come from or anything else that makes them unique.

Back to Gabriels boy dolll!!
So far, here is what we have, in pictures.
and some pictures of the little man himself.

The next day: I have fixed up the writing a little bit, and I still have more to say, !!! about playing and dolls and children! But I will save that for the next one and after my hands have done some more making.

Also I want to say that I have found a wonderful book about creative play for children. Obviously making these dolls is making me even more interrested in play!
I will try to write a review of the book.
It is:   'Childrens Creative Play; by Karin Neuschutz

With my doll kit, I got a special very long needle which is for things like embroidering the face where you have to stick the needle right through the head. It came wrapped in this lovely bit of colouring in done by a child and it had 'very good' in red on it. I thought what a lovely bit of recycling and thank you to the little artist who's art work has made it all the way to the home of Gabriel!

This shows the 2 heads, both without the skin, but you can see the difference. the new one is still not perfect at all, but it is much better!

You can see that he tummy needs more wool!

I think next time I will do better with the eyse, they are a little loose, but they're ok. I was thinking of making brown eyes like Gabriel's but for some reason I made blue. Dont argue with the hands!