GARDEN ICON DOLL

Emboldened by posting my landscape quilt a few hours ago, I've posted a picture of my Garden Icon Doll - another project from the Transformative Doll-Making class I took online with Pamela Hastings last summer. It was my first stuffed doll - handsewn, as I have not yet broken the ice with my new sewing machine (well, it was new when I bought it at least a year ago...). When I made this doll last year, I was starting to reclaim a long-neglected garden in my back yard. The previous owner of my house had planted it, and years ago I tried to bring it to life with the help of my dear friend John.

Despite John's best efforts and encouragement, I was unsuccessful in becoming a gardener, and gave up. For years, he would drive by my house and lament the state of my backyard. After John died tragically on January 17, 2007, I made a commitment to myself to bring the garden back to life. As part of that commitment I created my Garden Icon.

Blood, sweat, and tears is not an exaggeration of how hard it was to revive my garden. But many pounds of clay and innumerable rocks, bricks and stones later, this summer my garden is healthy, and bursting into bloom.

At the bottom of the Garden Icon doll I have tied a small stone from my garden, representing the hard work I did, and the obstacles that are always in our way as we break new ground, literally or figuratively. Tiny pieces of twig woven into my doll's hair represent growth ( which is sometimes interrupted) and the interspersed beads symbolize the new flowers I planted...red, hot pink, purple...colors I am actually starting to see this summer among the green. I chose the fabric for its leaf/garden motif. The face is a transparency on which I printed a beautiful old-fashioned woman's face I found in some copyright-free images I have.

My Garden Icon now resides on my mantel in a beautiful terra cotta pot that John's wife Esther, also my dear friend, gave me for this purpose.