I had absolutely no intention of making another Horribella at 8pm last night.
I particularly had no intention of using a single strand of embroidery floss to make tiny corset laces and tying tiny bunny loops with it, because I hate tying the tiny bunny loops. I went out the door for a night walk, and wandered a few blocks to the main shopping plaza.
I “accidentally” stopped in at TKMaxx to check out the Halloween stuff. There wasn’t much Halloween stuff (they get a little because they share inventory with the US TJ Maxx stores) but I saw this display cloche- with the base already painted blue.
I had an instant vision of a Gothic Rococo Horribella.
The last one lives in the library, because she matches the colors in there; I suddenly wanted one for the salon! I bought the cloche and a foot massager for the hubbin and hurried home.
Then I spent the next ten hours working nonstop like a fiend on the new dolly.
Even though I’ve been teaching, drawing, painting, embroidering and writing all month. I was so excited I never even took off my bra when I got home. Normally my front door is an Instant Bra Removal Field.
Making these dollies demands a kind of flow state where I grab things and glue things and melt things without stopping to think.
If I stop to think, I remember I have virtually no training in mixed media or sculpture and never intended to make this kind of art. So I don’t stop.
During the year of packing for the move, I had episodes where I managed my stress by meticulously, dementedly organizing every scrap of craft supplies I own. It was not an efficient use of my time, but it kept me sane. I had a vision of using all this stuff, in Berlin.
That meant when my workshop was finished, all I had to do was pop all the neatly bagged/sorted/labelled supplies into the drawers, and I now know where everything is.
My workshop is a decent imitation of the greatest art & crafts workshop I know, that of my friend Monique Motil.
I’m busting through projects and finally, finally using things I have had for years. Decades.
I used four different scraps of wired pink French ribbon on this dolly, and two of them dated back to the craft projects for my first marriage.
These scraps of ribbon have moved from St. Paul to Hartford to DC to Arlington to Alameda to Albany to Berkeley to North Berkeley to Albany to Oakland to Berlin. They have been in storage three times. I’ve had fifteen apartments, dozens of jobs, and three husbands.
You know what’s fantastic about getting older, being happy and feeling safe?
You can finally say, if not now, when? If not me, who? There will never be a better project to use any of these things on than the one in front of me right now.
Every piece of ribbon from a present I carefully saved, every pair of feet I cut off a plastic monster or pair of wings I cut off a plastic bug- all of this stuff is going in the hopper. I used a satin-covered button from a silk nightshirt I owned in 1992 to make the base of this Horribella’s hat. It took four tries, four little pieces of embroidered stag beetle ribbon used up, to get it to look right.
Don’t care! It’s my weird stuff and my weird lifelong decorator crab shell of crap, I’m gonna use it all!
I used eleven different ribbons/trims, four adhesives, epoxy clay, primer, spray paint, plastic toys, nail flocking powder and parts of three plastic bugs to make her, and I think she is the best Horribella yet. She is truly a Horrible Dolly. I am going to make all the horrible things.
I didn’t just make a new Horribella last night.
I also started a hideous Spider Lady with monster feet. She is going to be truly dreadful. I have lots of tutorials to study on my dollmaking Pinboard!
Look for continued unpleasant doll developments this September.
As always, when I make a doll I am deeply indebted to the incredible inspiration of Monique, creator of the incomparably creepy and beautiful Sartorial Creatures.
