Day 6 & 7: Merfolk

This is almost definitely be an ongoing thing. Our internet keeps not connecting, or something, which is a pain. This means that every time I want to blog, I can't, and then I lose track of where I am in my daily blogs. So, every now and then I will lump days together, just so that I can get on track. Also, I'm often working on the same thing over the span of days, so it works out in the end. I think... It's probably better than posting several short, hasty, blogs about the same thing.

Here's what I've been working on.

Behold! My work-in-progress mermaid and sailor dolls. I printed lots of the silkscreen parts, so I'll be mixing and matching the parts later on (I really want to make a merman). I started with a silkscreen base for the body parts, scales, faces, details, et cetera, and I am now building with embellishment and details. I'm thinking that I'll make a book to go along with the dolls. A tiny hardcover bound with scale fabric. The story inside will probably be text to do with mermaids and mermaid legends, and how mermaids are actually terrifying. They're beautiful, grotesque, disturbing creatures. I mean, in most of the legends, stories, and fairy tales, mermaids either kill people, or they can't tell the difference between a living person and a dead person. Creepy. While I was sewing sequins and pearls onto the mermaid's tail, I kept thinking about the phrase 'How doth the little crocodile improve its shining tail'. My brain changed this to 'How doth the little mermaid improve its shining tail', and then I started thinking about how many the mermaids kill sailors to smear the blood on their tails to make them more youthful and shining (Elizabeth Bathory style). I'm thinking that I'll write something to do with it. After all, that's me. Create something beautiful, but always with weird and moderately disturbing undertones. 

Back to the formal qualities of the dolls (yes, let's move away from the theme of murderous mermaids). I'm really looking forward to doing the hair on the mermaid. I'm planning to combine thicker natural white wool with bits of pastel-sea-palette-type-coloured embroidery thread, with bits of sequins and beads (to tie into the tail). Also, my Mum gave me a ziplock bag of shells that she picked for me when they were on a beach. They're all quite lovely, and she couldn't have given them to me at a better time. I'm going to attach one or two shells to the hair, around the ears (inspired by these beautiful old illustrations of the mermaids/water nymphs from  Peter Pan). I'm very excited about these dolls. It's also just incredibly nice to change from garments. All the weight I was feeling was... well... heavy. I think that I'll have to make sure that I always find a balance between heavy and light. Otherwise I'll get crushed, and I'd like to hope that no one wants that.