Peace Offering

This is a tree topper angel I made.

Her skin is olive-tan cotton bottomweight fabric, her torso and over-skirt of navy panne velvet (which seriously doesn't work with art dolls because it stretches out of shape). The torso was inserted and sewn into the cut-open top of a cardboard craft cone, then I used white tulle to make a sort of crinoline over the cone. Everything else was built upon that.

Her white robe is made of polyester satin lined with a soft mystical blue flannel, and the trim is of white faux fur.

Her underskirt is made with the same blue flannel with silver trim sewn to the hem. The same trim is used on the v-neckline of her underdress, and on the cuffs near the wrists.

Her cap is made from the blue flannel and faux fur, and sewn to her head, which has black Tibetan mohair needle-felted to her head in various places.

The face was drawn on with disappearing ink. Then the eyelids, pupils, and eyebrows were traced with black pigma micron pen; the nose, philtrum, irises, and center line of the lip were done with light brown pigma micron; and the lips with red. The shadows and colors on the face were drawn on in watercolor pencil and smudged with a Q-tip. The white areas are painted on with white acrylics. Everything on the face was then sprayed with workable artist fixative to keep it in place. I then fashioned glasses out of silver-colored jewelry wire.

In her bendable hands, she holds a calm white dove as a peace offering. The dove sits in a “nest” of white ribbon dripping down toward the angel’s feet. The ends of each ribbon are sewn with small silver sleigh bells. The point on the v-neck, the closed part of the robe, and the center of her cap are also sewn with silver bells.

The wings were difficult: First, I found clipart of angel wings online from Google, then I enlarged them to the size I wanted and printed it on cardstock. I traced the wings onto white foam-core poster board and cut out the shape with a swiss army knife (couldn’t find an X-acto in the house). After much mulling over how to cover them up, I elected to use to the cardstock pattern to trace the shape onto plain white flannel, then fitted them over the foam-core board. I then inserted the cardstock images into the wings to trace over the lines simulating feathers with silver glitter glue. I did them on both sides, then sewed the open ends closed over the board.

The wings have a rectangular “stabilizer” of the same white poster-board glued to the side of the wings attached to her back. The stabilizer and bottom wingtips are Velcroed onto the angel’s back, with the hair covering the stabilizer.

After it was all finished I spritzed the entire doll with silver spray glitter.

I started this project in the middle of August, put it down for a month, then spent the last 3 weeks, finishing it up. I’ve definitely learned the value of patience while doing this, and have become faster at threading a needle (as this is all sewn by hand because I’m bad at using the machine, and ours broke anyway), and it is a kind of meditative activity that allows me to concentrate on just one thing while I also listen to music.

This angel is not for sale, as it is a gift for someone in my family.

Enjoy viewing.