Day 52: Hats and Heads

For a while, my mum and I have been planning to a photo shoot where a table is set it items belonging to grandmothers, great-grandmothers, and great-great-grandmothers. The idea arose from my mother's idea to have her nana's hats be arranged on a table as food, such as on plates and on cake stands. Today, we did it. We arranged the table with jewelry, coats, hats, gloves. The photos are quite interesting, and I think some day it would be neat to have something like it arranged in an actual gallery space. 

I also started my second art doll. This one is Marie Antoinette, whom is a historical figure that I have a weird obsession with. I've been wanting to do some 18th century French Aristocracy artwork for a while, and what better place to start than with the penultimate symbol of the era, Marie Antoinette. 

I still need to make her garments and adornments (I'm planning to stitch some tiny feathers and pearls into her hair), but so far I'm really pleased. I returned to my roots of stuffing dolls with spices (I love potpourris. I'm planning to make some for my house, and I have now become interested in maybe attempting to make my own perfumed things. Mostly because the blends of scents that I like do not exist as commercial items. Um... I digress.). This doll is stuffed with orange- and lemon zest, Earl Grey loose tea (to get the smell of bergamot, as well as the other scents involved), and rosemary. I basically researched the scents used by the 18th century French aristocracies and courts, to get a similar scent. I actually really like it, because with the tea, it smells so nice and woodsy. The doll is embroidered with the phrase which is famously attached to Marie Antoinette, yet a phrase that she likely never said. Nonetheless.. famously attached. Finally, she is beheaded (of course). The doll is an abstraction of Marie Antoinette, which is why it's white and pale pink. Though I have to determine what colour to make her dress. Probably pale blue, since that's what she's depicted as wearing, though I want to use brighter and bolder and non-18th century colours. 

I like history. History is interesting.