Paper Dolls

Fantastic Flat Paperdolls is a creative group that I participate in. The themes vary according to the season of the year.

This particular month was "costumes". While most participants dreamed of Marie Antoinette and her lusty gatherings..I was quite content to get right down creative with the traditional Geisha.

I had some geometric origami paper that I loved and a small piece of stretchy gold cord in my 'Fluffy Bag" . Good start , I thought.

The basic form of the doll is easy .. It's like tracing the shape of a wine bottle for the shoulders and following it all the way down. Then I trace a circle, the size of a bottle cap for the head, glue it onto a paper post for the neck and reshape the face.

Creating the face is always a challenge for me, so I got out my historical Japanese art books... There were so many interesting faces and eye shapes... I chose a less than perfect face, because , when I look at the people in Japan, I do not see perfection. There is a real individual characterization in the various facial features and positioning of the eyes here in Japan. So, this paperdoll looks very similiar to an authenic Geisha beauty from the past.

I tried to incorperate some of the traditional body embellishments in the hair styling which I made from rolled black paper. While she is not perfect... She is an experiment in the beginning styles of a Japanese PaperDolls ..ZaaArt way. Her name is Ming Lee.