When the spirit moves you...

Well, as you can see here, I had another spirit visitation yesterday -- which is to say, I got the urge to make another spirit doll. This one started out as a leaf, but somehow she seemed to need arms -- into which I put wire, thinking that would be the only way to keep them uplifted -- and then she wanted beads... So interesting to watch this play out!

I began by making the face, determined to make it more realistic than the face of the previous doll. I've not really done this before, and my only tools were a pencil, its eraser, and my fingernails: I definitely have a renewed respect for all the sculptors of the world! But eventually she seemed to sort of stabilize, and so I fired her up.

So then I tried to photograph her in the dying afternoon light -- which meant I couldn't quite get the colors right, though I tried lots of different settings and placements. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm a better dollmaker than a photographer! But then, indoor light was never my strong point...

I had intended that she would have both her arms up, sort of dancing and triumphant (she seems to think she should be called Aphrodite, spirit of growth and change) but when I accidentally moved one of her arms to adjust a strand of hair I realized she had lots of different possible positions.What I didn't realize -- until I looked at the photos this morning -- is that she almost becomes different people in those different positions. Which tells you a lot about the importance of body language, eh? But I love that her mood can change depending on what we need her to be.

And what I love even more is that in that second position, when she looks like she's cradling a child, she bears a very strong resemblance to the image that came to me after my mother died -- the first time I was able to see God as female. I remember I was on Shaw Island at the time, and I had this sense of being tenderly cradled in the arms of a giant native woman.

So there you go: another surprising synchronicity. May your day be full of gifts, and may you feel cradled in the arms of the Divine.