month of softies: a room of one's own

I lost track of participating in Loobylu's A Month of Softies there for a while. But I'm back again for March's theme...in a round about way anyway.

I submitted my little tree fairy mixed media collage.



When I started out making this piece I didn't have a particular room (or any room for that matter) in mind, really. Only that I needed to start using all of these doll blanks I'd sewn too many months ago. Once it was finished I decided it would be perfect for our downstairs guest bedroom. The room is currently in a state of flux...it's been fully furnished since we bought this house three and a half years ago and it has some wall art. I finally decided on a paint color and now all that's left is to paint the room and hang this little gal up and we'll be good to go. In that room anyway. Plenty more to go before we'll actually be finished. Slow and steady wins the race, right?

About the piece: For the doll, I started out with a doll blank I had laying around. After I stuffed it, I used watered down acrylic paint for the skin color and then straight from the tube acrylics to paint everything else. The hair is some wool/mohair mix that I knotted up and then needle felted to her head. The dress is some vintage calico I found on ebay and the wings are paper and mesh screening. I used various machined and handmade, vintage and everyday papers for the collaged background. After the papers were attached I sewed along the most of the edges with my sewing machine and some black thread. If you haven't yet tried sewing paper, you should give a whirl, it's a little bit addicting.