Chapter 1 Introduction:

In this issue of “Al-ternative Arts; Links and Inspirations for Art Thera-pists” we will be looking at dolls and puppets or various forms of body-im-age representations and why or how creating them can make us feel better.

While a healthy sense of self contains within it a cohesive sense of body self or body-image, many people are in a situation where their development and ability to form attachments is compromised by abuse and trauma, resulting in a less than healthy, cohesive body self. Within art therapy, however, people are able work on the development of a healthy sense of self by working with representations of body image. They are able to begin to create cohesive representations of themselves and others. Once a more cohesive representation is created, it can reflect back to the creator something deeply satisfying and nourishing. It can provide a kind of healthy mirroring.

A woman I once worked with in New York City said that when she first started creating a human figure in clay, it felt like something magi-cal was happening inside of her. She felt a connection to an unfamiliar or long forgotten part of herself opening up. She said she put everything into this clay figure -- all these feelings that she had lost touch with -- and what she created was a thing of beauty. She said she felt validated

by this beauty. It gave her a deep feeling of self worth, and even self-love. And this, she said, was the goal of her rehabilitation; to learn to cherish and love herself more everyday. She believed that from this everything else would flow. She also said that this experience gave her more confi-dence. Before this she didnʼt think she could do very much, but after this, every time she looked at her clay figure, she could say, “look what I did, maybe I can do other things as well.”

Krueger (1989) states that the body-image representation or projective drawing will be an arbitrary slice from the ongoing process of matura-tion since oneʼs body image evolves during oneʼs life. He felt that in the course of successful therapy one can see clearly the process of maturation and distinctness of body-image, paralleling developmental maturation. Al-though I agree with these observations, that body-image representation can be used as the measure of change I feel we can take this idea a bit further. Experience can show us that it is possible to use body-image representa-tions to move from expressions of fragmentation, suffering, or pain, into kinds of self soothing, integration, reparation, and even feelings of deep inner satisfaction.

Everything that you will find here in these pages has been thoroughly tested for ease, comfort and satisfaction. Every idea or exercise or inspiration has at its heart the rehabilitative or healing goal of learning to cherish, care for, and to love our-selves more every day. Iʼve tried to think of better goals or more academic sound-ing goals than that and I just canʼt, so there it is!

If you are interested in more of the theories of body-image, trauma, and repa-ration, please feel free to look through the suggested reading list at the end of the ʻzine.

So you want to make dolls and puppets? Let’s go...

This is a little section on taking old photos and turning them intopaper puppet people and giving them crowns and funny hats and wings.

You can decorate your artistʼs journals with them. You can give them to your friends. And you can make up stories about them.

Chapter 2 Paper puppet people

PLAY

HAVEFUN!!

Of course you can draw your own facesand give them interesting hats, hair styles and great outfits. The idea is to PLAY and have fun!

What you will need: Scissors, card stock, old magazines, photocopies of old photos, glue stick, embellishments, hole punch; yarn, string, or brads for your puppetʼs joints; and pencils, markers, crayons, even rubber stamps can be fun. You may also want a template. Here is one youuse. Cut it out, trace it on your card stock or construc-tion paper and you are ready to get started.

This template can be adjust-ed, of course. You can make it taller, thin-ner, fatter. You can give it long hair, short hair. You can make it bald, or even give it feathers for hair. Once you have your head, torso, arms and legs cut out you need to make holes where you see the little black spots on this little templateʼs shoul-ders and the top of the legs. (8 holes)

Now you are ready to attach arms and legs to the body of your puppet. Brads are easy to use and you can find decorative versions in scrapbooking stores. Yarn and even long skinny scraps of cloth work really well. Experiment!

Brads

I used a small hole punch and made holes where I joined arms and legs to the body. If you are using cloth or yarn, push the ends though an arm hole and the corresponding hole at the shoulder, tied a square knot (right over left and left over right) and then again at each joint. Of course brads would work as well in these holes.

Transformation & puppets: I found this process of using old photos very lib-erating. I began to look at the memories and photos of childhood in a more playful way than I ever had before. Suddenly these little frozen capsules of time could be a source of fun, less fossilized, there were more possibilities, more kinds of feelings. The feelings of new pos-sibilities, and new ways of looking were probably the most remarkable of all the feelings that emerged.

This particular puppet was rubber stamped on water color paper and water color was added afterwards. The yarn hair came from a scrap-booking collection of embellishing yarns and she has brad joints at knees, elbows, hips and shoulders. I figured more joints would give her more flexibility, metaphorically speaking. (And what more could we ask for than more metaphorical flexibility?)

“It is in playing and only in playing that the indi-vidual child or adult is able to be creative and use the whole personality and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self.” D. W. Winnicott (British pediatrician / psychoanalyst and the quote comes from page. 54 of Playing & Reality)

Hereʼs an encouraging little story for you: I was having such a good time with these little puppets that I gave one along with simple instructions to a friend of mine for her 60th birthday, saying that she might want to try it with her grand-daughter, Avalon. Hereʼs what happened:

“I have to tell you what a hit my ʻLani ̓puppet was... Ava-lon decided she would like to make one. We were in my hotel room and although I had glue and thread and pastels and

scissors we had not brought cardboard or paper from her Dadʼs place. We did have a few boxes and loads of newspaper and a few scraps of wrapping paper so we thought we could cope! Several hours later we had made 8 puppets! (We have added two since then and both of us plan to make more!) Avalon designed each one and coloured hair, clothes, jewellery, etc. for each... She decided they all belonged to one family. She gave each of them person-ality traits and interests as we talked. ...We made an airplane with seats to take the family on a trip—you get the picture. She hardly looked at any other toys or activities all week. We even made bookshelves with tiny books complete with titles of her favourite books. The last day, this time at her Dadʼs, she decided to make more clothes for each character so we used old calendar pictures that were shiny and she used sticky tack so she could take them on and off.” For more information on Paper Puppet People please see www.lanipuppetmaker.com

“Learning to love us more everyday...”

Chapter 3. Cloth Dolls I first became aware of the possibilities of cloth dolls, while working in NYC. Edith Kramer had visited the puppet making group at the center and said, “These puppets are good as far as they go, but they donʼt have feet, or legs. How will they ever be grounded?” Not one to pass up on a challenge, dolls were introduced in the puppet-making group. This be-came a central element in one womanʼs recovery work. She created dolls to represent and to re-parent various aspects of herself. These dolls were made with instant papier-mache heads, hands and feet. The bodies hand drawn on muslin, cut out and sewn. Head hands and feet were glued in place. Yarn was glued on for hair. The clothes were designed to suit each doll. For more of Jennyʼs story, please see Creativity and the dissociative patient (details in suggest-ed reading at the end of this ʻzine).

One thing we discovered about dolls and puppets is that they speak up quite easily, a lot more easily than we can ourselves. For some of us, this can be a really easy way to learn about ourselves. We also learned that childhood memories seem to be more accessible when we work with dolls and puppets. One of the most im-portant things we learned, though, was that dolls and puppets are easier to love and care for than we some-times are. It may have to do with their size, but for what ever the reason we start to feel good about these little creatures and next thing you know we are having good feelings about the artists that made them. We are feeling pretty good about ourselves, seeing ourselves in a new light. Maybe we are learning to love ourselves more every day. So now you are ready to begin your cloth doll adventure. This adventure will include some very inspiring cloth doll art-ists and their stories. I will also include sources for materials and patterns. Some of these patterns are free, some are very inexpensive, and some are e-versions so that you can have them right away. All this should inspire your own doll making ad-venture.

Chapter 4. Hastingshttp://www.pamelahastings.com/

Pamela is a marvelous author, artist, doll maker, human being, and oc-cupational therapist, but her passion is to reveal to us the creativity that we all possess and help us discover our own marvels in the process.

She believes from personal experience as well as teaching experience that the creation of dolls can reveal hidden chapters in our personal stories, can help us find our bearings in order to heal and can sometimes lead us into pristine new territory. Dolls help us understand ourselves and others.

Having been drawn back again and again to doll making, Pamela now

What I like about Pamela Hastings ̓wild art dolls is the freedom she uses in her work. She gives us permission to experiment and try new

materials and methods, which you will see here and in the pictures that follow. Permis-sion to play and experi-ment is very important in learning to love ourselves more every-day.

spends her time making art, writing, teaching, and helping others heal through discovery of their own creativity and possibilities. She be-lieves we each have the opportunity to com-pose the unique story of our life by the way we live every moment. She is building hers (one doll and one class at a time) -- perhaps you will join her. (Check her website for current classes)

Emerging (15” H) A very sculptural piece with an animal skull above a carved face.For more details seewww.pamelahastings.com/pages/newsviews.html

This little guy is called Always More

Not only will you find inspiring doll making on Pamelaʼs website, but you will find lots of op-portunities to develop your own doll making skills. Pamela has patterns for sale (and free, so Iʼve in-cluded one of the free ones here) and she has won-derful, high-energy books on doll making includ-ing PAMELA̓ S PAPER DOLL INSPIRATION BOOK, PAMELA̓ S DESIGNING A DOLL AND

“This Quirky Guy is quick and easy, but can be finished and embellished in all kinds of ways. Use a photo transfer on the face, needle modeling, embroidery or button eyes. The body can be dyed, pieced, stamped or col-laged. Add a 1/8” to 1⁄4” seam allowance and leave the ends of the arms and legs open, also the top of the head. Things can be sticking out of the openings. Join the limbs to the body with buttons, so he can sit or put a hanging loop on the back of the head. The possibilities are endless! “ -Pamela Hastings

Hereʼs the free pattern:Quirky Guyby Pamela Hastings

MAKING FACES BOOK , and her most recent book, DOLL MAKING AS A TRANSFORMA-TIVE PROCESS,

Chapter 5. Barb KobeArt Dolls/Healing Dollshttp://www.barbkobe.com/

Barb Kobe is another inspiring doll maker, who also happens to be an artist, expressive arts coach, group facilitator, and teacher. When her children were young, Barb was trying to teach them about communicating feelings. She created a group of characters called The Endangered Feelings Animals; Angerilla, Crynoceros, Trifearatops and Hap-pypotomus (see above). She used them with her children, and they used them with her. Eventually she created them for school counselors and so-cial workers. She also created some other little soft sculpture dolls called Numbfull and The Fulls (Tearfull, Fearfull, Ragefull and Joyfull) . She discovered that as she made each of these soft sculptures she would be working through her feelings, and allowing the doll to embody them. She began to realize that making art changed her emotional state. She noticed that it was starting to feel as though she were taking her anger out of her

BLUE MOON RIVER WOMAN

body and haveing a conversation with it. When she started sharing her puppets with others they would have long conversations about feelings and she realized that many people were stuffing their feelings and had never learned how to talk about feelings.

Years later, Barb decided that she was tired of making the big puppets. She went to the craft section of a bookstore one night where she found MOTHER PLAYS WITH DOLLS by Elinor Peace Bailey (http://www.epbdolls.com/). She bought it and read it that night. It was filled with information about how doll making could affirm her process, that it could be used to nurture her creative spirit. She wrote a letter to Elinor thanking her for writing the book. Elinor called her several days later and when Barb asked her what she should do about the pup-pets Elinor said, “Honey, if youʼre tired of doing them, stop. Something else will move in.” Soon after that Barb went to a show of art dolls, met the artist and gave herself per-mission to try out this art form. She loved it from the start and has been making art dolls ever since. She is especially interested in art and healing. Most of her dolls focus on her emotional and health issues. “I have discov-ered that my creations speak to many oth-ers. I am nurtured by my doll making,” Barb says.

The Peacekeeper“Hold Space for Peaceful Moments”by Barb Kobe (2002)

“Peacemaker sits in a receptive, lis-tening position holding a possibility basket….What would you put in this basket?She is wrapped and dressed in layers to symbolize the complexity and depth of peacemaking.

The blues, greens and browns symbol-ize the connection of peacemaking to respecting and taking care of the earth.”

HEALING DOLL“Digesting My Life”by Barb Kobe

“I had been hav-ing problems with my digestive tract. This doll was my at-tempt at understand-ing my digestive system and applying symbols of digestion and healing to a doll. I first made the form by positioning curly willow sticks together in a design that represented flow to me. After doing research on the shapes of the organs of the digestive system I recreated these shapes in fabric and sewed them to the doll in the appropriate positions. I then put lines of beads along the energy meridians on the body on the front and on the back. At this point my intuition suggested I put a yellow snake spiraling around the body, I thought this odd, but took it on as a challenge and did so. I later read in one of Jeanne Achtenbergʼs book IMAGERY IN HEAL-ING, that a yellow snake represented womenʼs healing power, after the doll was completed. I entered this doll in an art show - she won Best of Show. I believe that dolls that represent a personal process have universal

appeal. Her creation also helped me to become conscious about what I took into my life and my body and how I was digesting food and informa-tion, eventually the problems healed and were transformed.”

CREATIVITY SHAMANby Barb Kobe “This art dolls stands as a reminder that you are a creative person and whenever you create you are feeding your soul.”

Chapter 6. “A Sparrow’s Song”Doll Artist Kathy L. Henryhttp://www.asparrowssong.com/

I discovered Kathy L. Henryʼs work while look-ing for examples of simple, homemade dolls. I had read an article on “Emergent Dolls” that were made by children with materials at hand out of emotional need, some times an old shoe, some times a piece of wood. I wanted to find examples of such dolls so I started looking on the Google im-age search for these dolls (do you know about Google image search? If not go di-rectly to: http://www.google.

ca/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi&ie=UTF-8). I tried various word prompts: simple dolls, homemade dolls, self-taught artist dolls, and finally primi-tive dolls. I discovered a whole genre of art doll on the internet, people making, collect and selling dolls and patterns. In the process of exploring these primitive art doll images I discovered Kathy L. Henryʼs evocative dolls.

Kathy is captivated by African American history, particularly the shift from slavery and oppression to freedom, and the part that spirituality

plays in African American culture. Kathyʼs life story has followed a very similar path, from chaos and abuse to expressive freedom.

Kathy L. Henry was born to a young mother and a military father. She says her childhood was extremely turbulent. At the age of 3, her mother abandoned her, and Kathy was placed in several homes, none of which she could call her own. Rejection became her reality and her worst fear.

As she grew, her childhood troubles did not go away, rather they seemed to grow stronger, crippling her in her relationships and causing serious bouts of depression. She wondered if she would ever find freedom from these troubles.

Eight years ago, stricken with a bout of suicidal depression, she redis-covered a long lost friend from her childhood. Because this friend knew her during her difficult childhood, and was even her special confidant back then, he was able to walk her through her pain and even though many times it seemed hopeless, he never left her side. She says she feels so grateful to have been blessed with such a wonderful man whom she now calls “my very best friend..... my husband”.

Today Kathy lives in an old farmhouse with a beautiful large family of six girls and two boys where she says she enjoys the most precious things in life, the flowers, the trees, the butterflies, “the warmth of the sun that touches my face everyday,” and of course making dolls.

And now even though she still experiences some bouts of depression, she realizes itʼs never more than she can handle. Now she uses these lows to create, connecting past and present, both in the dolls and in their his-toric context, and in her own life. This is not her therapy, she says, but her way of touching the world around her with her pain, and with her joy.

“My message of Hope comes to you from God in a sparrowʼs song.”

Chapter 7. Self-Taught Artist Sylvia Luna

www.silvermoonstudios.com/

I first read Sylviaʼs story in the premier issue of Cloth, Paper, Scis-sors (a journal for collage and mixed media artists). She signs all her work and her communications “P.S. I love Steve.” Steve was her only child and he died at the age of 20, from a sudden arrhythmia of the heart, known as Sudden Arrhyth-

mia Death Syndrome . Sylvia was 38. Sylvia Lunaʼs story is about reclaiming or re-animating her life through art. The only way that she could survive the sudden loss of her only son was by making art. A unstopable desire to create was born out of Steveʼs death, and reclamation or reanimation of a life was born out of the art. Interestingly, Sylvia prefers to start, not with a blank canvas, but rather pieces and objects that she could “breathe new life into.” She said, “Turning something discarded into a piece of wonderment has always been my true joy. It is seeing objects with new eyes and not expecting anything in the beginning, just being surprised with the end result.” She began attending alternative art retreats across the country and began to learn more about art dolls, jewelry made from found objects, altered books, and assemblage.

She believes, rightly, that her story and her art work can inspire

people by giveng them courage and strength to keep going and to find healing through art as she has. Of this nicho, Our Lady of Art,

Sylvia says: “Our Lady of Art was a piece I made out of sheer spiritual energy, it came to be so quickly, beyond my own expecta-tions. Living in the Ari-zona, the statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe sits on her place of honor in many makeshift shrines in front of homes. It was the image I had of this beautiful woman that inspired my piece. As I was constructing this assemblage as with all my art, I never know where it will take me. As

I began painting the wooden box which would house this religious icon, my paintbrush seemed to take on a life movement of itʼs own, painting in patina toned greens, reds, and oranges. It seemed to me that the faster I worked, the more ideas would form in my mind. The glitter, the candlesticks, the wirework I never imagined would have evolved from the start. When all was finished, I believed this very special Lady embraced my spirit, and allowed me to use her image to represent the healing power which art posseses. As many Christians feel a power of strength when they pray, when I am creating my art, I feel a synchronicity of a healing within my heart and a power of healing others.”

Of the Vamp Dolls Series (this doll and the one on page 20 are members of that series) Sylvia says: “These dolls began as a neces-sity to me. I was hosting a rotation of altered dolls and could not find that perfect doll I was looking for. Thus my sister in law Chris Ortega came to my rescue with a “blank canvas doll” she made and it was ready for me to enhance. Between the two of us, we saw a vision for her, we wanted something very different and something which would portray nothing like our ownselves. We wanted to see a “vamp doll” one which would become a type of alter ego which we do not surface outside of ourselves, but would be fun to bring out in a doll. Thus our Vamp series was born. Chris would construct the doll, I would provide material and the two of us would design her clothes, very theatrical burlesque type of clothes....and bat wings! Chris being the seamstress, would begin with the doll, it would come to me, weʼd de-sign her clothes, sheʼd sew them, the doll would come back to me, and Iʼd paint her body and wings. After they were dressed, Iʼd em-bellish them with found objects, add hand dyeʼd silk ribbon for their hair, and last but not least add their face with a badge maker I have. We named all the dolls after ourselves, and our children. We debuted these dolls at Artfest near Seattle and sold them alll out before the doors opened to the public. This was a very meaningful and satisfy-ing collaborative doll project to the both of us, we learned that be-tween the two of us we could merge our create muses and outdo our-selves beyond our own imaginations!”

I hope you have found Syviaʼs story and art work inspiring and that you visit www.silvermoonstudios.com/ where you will find more of both.

Chapter 8Making your own cloth doll. After browsing through these various web sites, I was more than ready to make my first doll. I ordered a five dollar e-pattern from http://www.dirtycrowinn.com/ and got to work right away. Of course I made chang-es, gave my doll ears, a bit more definition to the mouth, and ar-ticulated toes. The pattern is of the “primitive” genre and Kelle Arvay is very clear and easy to understand. But you could use Pamela Hastings pattern or even make one up of your own.

I used muslin and some good strong upholstery thread for much of this sewing. It is hand sewn, but I hope to be able to replicate this on the sewing ma-chine one day. The face shape was created by cutting out three of these head shapes. Then I took two of the three shapes and sewed circles for eyes, lips, ears and nose with brown. The cool thing here is you make little cuts in the cloth and add stuffing to these parts. Then you sew the third piece on and turn the whole thing inside out and stuff it.

To finish the doll, I used gesso, acrylics and sand paper (once it was dry). The yarn came from an artistʼs co-op: http://www.pluckyfluff.com/.The clothing was from our local Salvation Army, and I embellished her with bracelets, buttons, and shells.

I can see how people might re-ally have fun with this. Iʼm not ready to stop with it yet AND the feet are nice and big so Edith Kramer should ap-prove, my doll is grounded!

Kid art can be translated into a cloth doll pattern very easily. All you need is a childʼs drawing, some muslin, scissors, needle and thread, drawing impliments, some yarn for hair, pipe-cleaner or felt for fingers & toes, and stuffing material (poly-fill) to stuff the doll.

Make sure to leave an opening so you can turn it inside out and stuff.

Finally, once you have all the parts you can sew them togetherusing strong thread. At this point you can also add hair, fingers, and toes.

Kid A

rt

Post Scripts First of all I sure hope you found these links, images, and stories inspiring and / or useful. They are very hopeful stories and I think thatʼs what this ʻzine idea is for, to rekindle hope and fun in the process of art making and to help us to love us more everyday. I hope you will visit these web sites and explore what these artists have to offer. Secondly, this ʻzine idea works best if it is interactive. So if you put any of these ideas into your practice and you find results you would like to share, please feel very encouraged to send in a photo of your work. Electronic works best for me, at lanipuppetmaker@mac.com. Any ques-tions could also be sent here and I will do my best to answer them. If you were looking for directions for hand puppets, there are quite a few on the lanipuppetmaker.com website. I really need to thank Martha Haeseler and Lois Cole for their edito-rial help, and Pamela Hastings, Barb Kobe, Kathy L. Henry, and Sylvia Luna for giving me permission to include their work here. I should also thank Libby Schmanke, Lois Cole, Avalon, and her Nanna for photos of paper puppet people. And of course I need to thank Susan Ainlay Anand for all her hard work behind the scenes, and e-mails that kept me on task. Please do feel free to send photos or stories about anything you do that this e-zine has inspired you to do, for future inspiration. Thanks so much, Lani

For further reading on body image, please see:

Clegg, H. (1984). The reparative motif in child and adult therapy. Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson.Clegg, H. (1995) Reparation; Restoring the damaged self in child and adult psycho-therapy. Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson.Deri, S. (1978). “Transitional phenomena: Vicissitudes of symbolization and cre-ativity”. In Between reality and fantasy, ed. S. Grolnick and L. Barkin, pp. 45-60. Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson.Deri, S. (1984) Symbolization and creativity, New York: International Universities Press.Fenichel, O. (1945). The psychoanalytic theory of neuroses. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.Freud, S. (1923). The ego and the id. (standard ed., vol. 19). London: The Hogarth Press.Gerity, L. (1999) Creativity and the dissociative patient: Puppets, narrative and art in the treatmment of survivors of childhood trauma. London: Jessica Kingsley Pub-lishers.Giovacchini, P. L. (1986). Developmental disorders: The transitional space in men-tal breakdown and creative intergration. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.Krueger, D. (1984) Success and the fear of success in women. New York: The Free Press.Krueger, D. (1988). “Loss and restitution in eating disorder patients”. In D. Diet-rich, & P. Shabad (Eds.), The problem of loss and mourning: New psychoanalytic perspectives. New York: International Universities Press.Krueger, D. (1989). Body self & psychological self; A developmental and clinical integration of disorders of the self. New York: Brunner/Mazel Publishers.Krueger (1989) is of particular interest since he observed that when a baby is held, wrapped, touched, and supported, its boundaries are defined with qualities essential to the developing sense of self. He belived that if there is overstimulation or un-derstimulation, the individual s̓ sense of body self would be distorted in a way that might later result in narcissistic disturbances (p. 6).Mahler, M. (1968). On human symbiosis and the vicissitudes of individuation. Vol. 1. New York: International Universities Press.Mahler, M., Pine, R., and Bergman, A. (1975) The psychological birth of the hu-man infant. New York: Basic Books.

Margulies, A. (1989). The empathic imagination. New York: W. W. Norton & Com-pany.Niederland, W. (1956) “Clinical observations on the ʻlittle man ̓phenomenon”. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 11-381-395. New York: International Uni-versities Press.Niederland, W. (1965) “Narcissistic ego impairment in patients with early physical malformations”. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 20: 518-534. New York: International Universities Press.Niederland, W. (1967) “Clinical aspects of creativity”. American Imago, 24: 6-33.Shengold, L. (1989) Soul murder; The effects of childhood abuse and deprivation. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.Winnicott, D. (1958). Collected pa-pers: Through Pediatrics to Psychoanalysis. London: Tavistock.Winnicott, D. (1965) The maturational processes and the facilitating environment. New York: International Universities Press.Winnicott, D. (1974). Playing and reality. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Winnicott, D. W. (1986). Home is where we start from; Essays by a psychoanalyst. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.