Transformative Healing Dolls: Doll-making as an on-going conversation with creative spirit

This was the title of the doll making workshop that I did this week at the Shambhala Institute's Art Salon this week.

I don't have pictures but I can give you some word pictures. It felt too intimate to take pictures, honestly. This presentation was a way for me to get to know artists in the local community and as a special bonus, to get to know artists who were also meditators. Meditation is an important part of my life and it has been for a long time. Whew! What a gift. And not only that, they asked me to present my work.

As I entered the lovely, small Tantra room, with meditation pillows arranged in a circle, with colorful meditational wall hangings surrounding us, my previous nervousness dissipated and I relaxed.

Here's how I started the presentation:

Tonight I want to share my dolls with you-and I am grateful in advance for the enrichment of my own experience of the dolls that will come from sharing them with you and hearing your observations, thoughts and experiences.

The way I want to structure the evening is to start with the dolls themselves. I am going to focus on a series of four dolls that I made as part of a training with my doll making mentor, Barb Kobe, the Medicine doll series, completed over the past one and a half years. I will also share some other dolls that were made as the series progressed, ending with a new venture into soft sculpture dolls. One caveat: I actually haven’t finished the series. The last doll, the healer, is still in the works. I will share sketches of this doll and some of the smaller models. I think it might be interesting for you to hear about a doll that is still in process.

I want to tell you about the meaning of the dolls for me on a personal and spiritual level. And that breaks down into two parts: first the doll construction: I want to share something about the envisioning of and construction of the dolls, because I feel like the process is just about as important as the final dolls.

Then I want to share a bit of the research I did after the fact on the wider symbolism of the various elements of the dolls. It was interesting to me to see what various symbols that had personal meaning to me, meant to others in different cultures and religions. The overlaps and synchronicities were powerful to experience.

Finally I want to share how the dolls had meaning in my own life, because as, healing and transformational dolls, it might be interesting for you to hear how they did their transformational magic on me. 

I discovered some interesting things during this first part of the presentation which took an hour, including the realization that my doll series is all about the process of change. I learned that the second doll, the scary looking Scapegoat doll, Bruxus, which on one level I saw was about resisting change, had another layer of meaning to it. This reptilian, snake-haired wild woman  is tearing the baby out of her belly, in essence destroying change before it can happen. But when I compared her to archetypal figures I saw that she could also represent the catyclysmic change of a Kali or Durga in Indian mythology. These goddesses were violent and dangerous, yes, but at the same time, they represented the great force of nature that is needed at times to clear out the undergrowth and clutter and reveal a completely new landscape. 

Scary Scapegoat doll, Bruxus, (on one level) about the repetitive cycle of resisting change 

The next doll, Rhea, the, Talisman doll, was about a softer kind of change. She radiates wholeness and love and even though she is stepping out of her grey, outworn skin that no longer serves her, you can see that she still loves and accepts what that part of her once did for her, how it served her. 

Rhea, the talisman doll, shedding her old skin

Then for the second hour of the presentation, I asked the participants to make a doll about some area of their lives, their body or the world at large, that needs healing. I gave them small wood branches, quilt batting and colorful fabric cut into strips and various small items for embellishment. The dolls that they made and their comments about them were extremely moving and powerful. They spoke of deep emotional connection or desire for connection with others in their life and made dolls representing "a wonderful, warm mother who will help me through the next years of transition in my life," or "a doll to honor my mother who needs this right now." They used bright colors, creative embellishments such as bright buttons, tiny unbrellas and animal patterned cloth in complex ways. We saw how dolls can capture a range of feelings, including opposites, in a way that words cannot do. 

The feeling in the room as the participants listened to each other share about their dolls was charged with a deep sense of intimacy and acceptance. What a wonderful experience to be a part of!