Tatanui - A Manifestation Dolly

Tatanui's inception - beadbacking cut to shape and peyote petals ready to attach.
Plenty of my favorite colors and 24K beads and pearls to play with.

I've written here and here about the Improvisational Bead Embroidery workshop with Robin Atkins that I'm organizing for March. It's filling up and there are only a few spaces left, which is really exciting. I've been focused on attracting students who will learn and enjoy and have as much fun as I'm going to.

At the end of the first night - her tatas look as big
as her head and she gets her name.

 As often happens, I made an intention and start working on it, energized it fully in the beginning, and began to see results. Then life and grief intervened, and my energy and attention took a dip for a while. I couldn't feel enthusiastic about much of anything except crawling into a hole and pulling the edges in after me. I wove prayer nets on the needle, and tried to focus on beauty.

Tatanui's 3rd day - she sits next to a replica "Doll of the Vespi," Russian fertility doll.
She has a 24K ruffle and heavy 24K border.

 So, the question is: How do we persist and keep the vision and intention energized when entropy and daily life start to wear it down? Well, how do we persist in anything? Step by step, meal by meal, 10 minutes at a time on a work project if that's all we can manage, thought by thought, bead by bead.

I persist by making art that consciously symbolizes and energizes my intentions. As I stitch each bead, I say a prayer. I see my intention coming to pass and I feel the emotions that I would feel in that moment. I see it, I savor it, and I save it in memory.

Bodice has been filled in with vintage sequins and pearls,
more gold. Peyote stitch sleeves begun.

I don't have hours every day to do this, so she developed over a period of 10 days. There were a couple of nights I didn't do much except look at her and focus. I created a graphic of the checks I wanted to receive, and kept her on it, near my computer. I also did a number of practical marketing steps, like follow up on email leads, post to Facebook, follow up with a venue. This is important - simply thinking and dreaming does not produce a comfortable, well-organized workshop with great food. And how would any other sort of workshop attract students?

Up in Kokee - the head enlarged and a lovely face by Dottie Hoeschen
added and temporarily bound with string until bezel is complete.

 I like to take my dolls out into nature, to strengthen them. Doc Matt and I went up to the mountains on our Sunday date. He played guitar and I beaded happily and we went home refreshed and energized.

 Tata's front is done. Her tatas no longer look as nui as they did in proportion to the rest of her body. It's the giant head, which could symbolize the power of the imagination. The hot pink vintage sequins have consistently morphed into ovals, possibly from being under a warm lamp, or leaning up against a warm battery back-up. So do the components of our intentions change and modify as we go along.

I can hear you thinking: "Is EVERYTHING symbolic to this woman?" And the short answer is... (wait for it) ... YES. Everything is symbolic when you operate on a symbolic level.

The next night, the 8th night, I finished the back. I kept thinking it needed a tassel or something, but in the end I liked the simplicity and the power of the words. Words are strong, they have power. The words we use to describe our emotions and situations influence our reactions and eventual outcomes. This is easy to demonstrate: Say to yourself "I feel like a huge pile of crap." See how you feel. Say to yourself "I feel lucky! I always have been lucky and I always will be. I get what I want. I win!" See how you feel. Which is more effective?

Tatanui is done! Sitting on her checks and energizing my intentions.

Every day after I played with Tatanui and focused on my intention, I got some return, either new registrants, or checks in the mail. Focused intention brings results! The work doesn't stop when the doll is made - it doesn't stop until you reach your goal.

We are very near that goal - only 4 spots left. This doll was created using 5 basic stitches, all of which you can learn in this workshop. Now is your moment of power to sign up!

Intentional Symbolic Dolls

I was very excited to receive a commission to make an intentional doll last week. It seemed to just come out of the blue... and yet this is something I truly love to do, and would like to do more.

Intentional dolls are very personal, and the details of the person and their intention are always kept confidential, but I can share the picture and the prayer that went with it. Every doll is different. This was a very zippy and sunny doll ~ had the energy of a Mexican Jumping Bean! And so much fun to make. I probably didn't charge enough for the length of time it took.

That's always a question for me... I do healing work by donation only. This is my choice, and it doesn't reflect a judgment on those healers who do charge a set price for their work. I accept the donation gladly and give at least 10% of it away to someone in need.

 

So is an intentional doll healing work? Well, yes. And no. Depends on what your intention is. I charge for these commissioned dolls, but I have also made many of them for free, for healing purposes. I put a lot of my own energy and intention into these dolls, and I am open to receiving energy (compensation) in exchange.

My own intention is to do more of them, and be well-enough compensated that I can do it at least half-time. That is my yellow-brick path with heart, and this is my own doll in process.

She still has strings covering her face! That's not particularly symbolic - they hold the cabochon on while the bezel is beaded, and I don't take them off until the doll is completely done. The original body pattern I modified here was from Spirit Dolls by Robin Atkins, and I probably got that tip about tying the face down from her, too. I've learned so much from her, I can usually attribute any cool thing I know how to do to her. I've made dolls shaped like this since I was a small kid, but this particular shape was from that pattern.

As I'm making this doll, I am holding the firm intention that I will get more commissions and truly grow and leaf out in my ability to focus, create, and manifest for myself and others.

I love the other work I do - social media management and marketing - and will continue to do that half-time. I'm seeing myself sewing on a doll for some happy client every day and joining my loving intentional energy with theirs. My entire life will be 24K. And I will be able to play with 24K Delicas every day! Now that is my ideal life. Social media mornings and intentional afternoons.

IMUA!

Bless Our Happy Big Island Home

Happy Anniversary - 5 years!

Our happy day - September 18, 2005

Five very happy and eventful years... 6 weeks after we were married, there was a big fire next to our house which changed our lives, helped us divest ourselves of a lot of "stuff," and understand what was really important in our lives - to be safe, and to have each other - and the cat, of course!

We moved into a tiny studio - the "teacup" - and learned to live small and snug with a tabletop oven and a hot plate. We had a disturbing absentee landlady and noisy neighbors,  and ended up breaking our lease and moving out 2 months early.

Our next home was Cloud Rest, a sweet and funky 400 square foot cottage in Moloaa, one large room with a hip wall on one side. We lived there for 3-1/2 happy years, next door to our good friends. It was a sweet property, many fruit trees, and really good energy on the land.

Our current home is small, but has many neat features: storage, closets, a full bathroom, a full kitchen with a stove and full-sized refrigerator, a bedroom with walls and a door that closes. The back door does not enter into the bathroom... Plus room for Matt's woodbench - and now the beadio, too.

Tablecloth spread out on king-sized bed and doubled back

We had a lovely morning, celebrating with breakfast at Ono Family Restaurant, scene of our very first date. Then on to Home Depot for potting soil and lacquer. When we came out of the store, we were addressed by a young man who offered to fix our trailing front bumper and buff out one of the most ragged spots and primer it. He had everything he needed to do the job, and did it well. We thought we'd been blessed by a car angel. When I got home and told Abbie and Jack, the roofer, about it, Jack said that there are a couple guys on island who do that, some of them not so honest or good. This one was good and he did a good job on something we hadn't gotten around to fixing for almost 2 years.

I did some potting in the flowerboxes over at school and then came home to play in my beadio. I got the curtains entirely done! It was sweet sewing in the beadio for the first time - making curtains out of a tablecloth we used for our wedding, on our anniversary.

Matt reflects as Peggy sews

Making curtains

It took most of the afternoon, but they were done and hung right after dinner. I'm not sure what the round light spots are - orbs? Or spots on the lens? Not in any other photos. Will have to examine the curtains themselves in the morning to see if there are actually round spots on them.

They make the window a lot softer

It felt very snug, private and peaceful in there with the curtain closed. And then we went down to town and got cake and ice ceam and sweet rolls for breakfast tomorrow morning. What a great day!