my love for babushka dolls started when i was quite young and a gorgeous little green & orange doll was given to my younger sister. funny how these little obsessions/passions often stem from something you have to love from afar, from something you can look at but not touch, or have for your very own self. *sigh*
nevertheless, i am grown now and can totally babushka-fy my whole house and life if i choose. over the last few years, that is what i have set about doing.
not only that, i have been kokeshi-fying my world too! my love for cute japanese things stems from childhood too when i collected stickers and erasers and dad often brought back really cute things for us when he returned from business trips. my sister and i still love to giggle over cutesy japanese stationery translations whenever we reminisce about the items we've bought from morning glory over the years or in japan itself!
so naturally with 4 little girlies of my own, they are beautiful things to collect & create. i now also have my sister and friends on the case who bought beautiful dolls for amelia & chelsea for their 1st birthdays. and another dear reader friend who delights in the same obsession and has sent me links to various babushka treats... [hello Gab x]
here's the mason collection so far:
of course my girls and i have also been creating babushka's for our art/playroom for a long time so we are totally entrenched in babushka's and now kokeshi's are making an appearance too...
by the way, jeff bought [found by moi of course & said was pointed in the right direction] me this for Christmas... i love it. babushka silver opening pendant and matching earrings by pilgram.
it replaces this one that i bought from sportsgirl during my pregnancy which needs a new chain. all my girls loved it, chelsea was particularly attached to it and it gave her immense comfort during her most recent heart surgery. odd, but she knew it was mine and i wore it ALL the time. i guess it symbolised 'mum' for her.
so lots of dolls for inspiration, not least of all - MY very own 4 little babushka's!
anyway, i have been wanting to get on and finish all the girls bedrooms. all the furniture has been sorted, i just have to get stuff on the walls. georgia has quite a beautiful large print of poppies [georgia poppy of course] in her room already. its just from ikea but i still love it every time i see it. charlotte will be getting a piece for her birthday. its ikea's version of klimt's mother & child. a painting i just adore and it has lots of little daisies [for charlotte daisy...]
so the general plan is to have one large piece and then on another wall, a mixed bag of little pieces, some cross stitch, some framed photos/ art & some little art i have created for them. but there is limited wall space in the twins room so i can't possibly have two large pieces. they can't share art either, it will be from us to them. so this got me thinking of two coordinating art pieces, just a little smaller. i found these brilliant oblong canvases a while back and decided to collage a large babushka for them each, considering chelsea's attachment for my little wooden babushka necklace. it would be a collaged babushka like i do with my girls, with a bit more 'me' and less 'them' in the application ;] - using my pp scraps and Mod Podged napkins etc. not that their babushka's aren't totally beautiful and inspiring!!
anyway, i had grand intentions of getting them done months ago, a gift for their 1st birthdays but it never eventuated. as it turns out it was a blessing, as in late september, a copy of kelly rae roberts 'taking flight' book landed in my hands. well reading her book just felt like 'home'. it just felt like this was the lesson i needed. my whole life has been about lessons. and those trials and tribulations in my life so far has taught me to be patient and trusting [amongst other things]. because of the experiences in my life, i am definitely more patient than i used to be. still learning to trust.
in my journey, i have also learned [and i truly believe] that the world mysteriously conjours up and throws you snippets of 'whatever' which could indeed be the answer/inspiration/confirmation that you need to move forward. to progress forward in life. i cannot count the number of times little things have fallen in my path, or i've turned a page and read words or seen a sign, that has given me the 'piece' to the puzzle i have been trying to piece together.
in my creative pursuits, it often seems to work like that. a head buzzing with a gazillion ideas and unable to make them happen because the the world hadn't yet conjoured up the missing ingredient. i think you get those last few puzzle pieces when you are ready to accept them. and that requires patience and trusting in the process. i'm not talking life changing huge things here, just the little stuff, little clicks that make alot of my work have emotional symbolism. whether its song words i hear when i am struggling to write emotional journaling on a layout or an embellishment i find on my desk that i never noticed before or that never had meaning before, and its EXACTLY what i needed to finish a project.
so when i started looking through kelly rae's beautiful book, not only all the words spoke to me, but the faces did as well. the faces on the babushka's i had been planning to paint were certainly a grey area. i am not a great painter. i probably would have drawn the faces and added highlighting ink afterward or do them digitally, print them out and collage them on. maybe this is why i never really started them? i hadn't really got the whole project finished in my head yet. well kelly rae's beautiful girls have the most adorable faces and it got me thinking about my project in the pipeline. maybe i could paint them on?
i must say, i was also amazed when i looked through the book's beautiful collection of ladies to see the paper scrap collaged backgrounds! that's totally my thing! oh i was in heaven. my collaged babushka's in my head suddenly had wings. collaging the canvas background in my beloved pp scraps, Mod Podged napkins & fabric etc, making childlike girly babushka's, well i can do all that but now, the final piece of my little puzzle.... sweet painted faces. oh how i have dreamt about ideas for millions of babushka designs in my head since..... single ones, pairs, groups, chelsea's babushka holding a mended heart, me and my 4 little babushka dolls... lots of symbolism. i knew however simple and child like they would be, i would love them all.
yep i was ready to take flight!
so a few months ago, when i returned from melbourne, i started teaching myself to paint some faces. unfortunately i am still crap. but that's ok. not going for fine art prize here, just want sweet child like faces. i made a few little canvases [top pic], one for my sister which i gave her for Christmas, one for a special friend [who shares my babushka passion and has two little babushka's of her own] and one for me.
i have since been making a bunch of other babushka things, not just canvases and have a few commercial ideas in the pipeline along with some collages i have been working on. some cafe press too & other things etc... so i feel like i am home and want to creatively throw myself into everything babushka and kokeshi.
hopefully soon i'll have my girls canvases to show which were the original inspiration for this new journey. but they are much bigger projects and i wanted to ensure i had lots of 'trials' under my belt before i started them.
you know, another funny thing landed in my lap just the other day. i have been giving my art/playroom a makeover in the last couple of months [will save pics for another post] and that meant sorting through some 20 years of crap important & inspirational things that will all one day become very useful! well there's still a huge long way to go before the sorting is finished but the furniture and general layout is meeting our current needs and i have my art supplies where i need them...
anyway, a Christmas card sent to my dads work in the last few years, that i had kept because i loved it, fell onto the floor. i nearly chucked it as it fell wrong side up and thought it was just another bought card that i have keep that didn't need. well it wasn't, it was a mixed media piece by rebecca cool, WA artist. it was so beautiful. i decided to research her on the internet and have found a huge and beautiful portfolio. finding this card again, now, after all this time, as i about to embark on immersing myself into a girly mixed media journey... well, there's just another one of those little things. i am ready for it now. that's why i needed to tidy my art room. it was itching to be found.
anyway, that's all for today. my long winded babushka obsession story has brought me to this point. so off i go...
kate
xo
