Doll Therapy: 1-2
Doll Therapy
One
I got my first doll, Raggedy Ann, for Christmas, before I had turned a year old, so I do not know life without dolls. I still have her, and she is as comforting as ever. Raggedy Ann was created for comfort. Attics hold lost treasures and hidden sentiment. She might have been forgotten and left for the mice if it wasn't raining, and Marcella Gruelle was not rummaging through her grandmother's old trunk. Made by his grandmother, for his mother, Raggedy Ann, was created by Johnny Gruelle. She was Marcella's favorite doll, and Marcella died from a vaccine while still a girl. The original still exists, but she has become a world wide phenomenon, like Jesus, as Raggedy Ann is a potent symbol of love. The original was handmade, of course, of rags, but Raggedy's love is so powerful that even the factory ones keep a glimmer. The first reproductions had real candy hearts, but children were sucking them out.
The first dolls that I made were flowers. My mother called the Dandelions, peed the beds, and I would cut their hair. Dandelions are nutritious: the leaves are good for the liver, and the milk is good for the eyes and skin. If you bake the roots, you can grind them into a tea that will help with sleep and dreams. My Aunt Millie would bend the petals back on The Rose of Sharon and twirl them, so they will always be ballerina flowers to me. I used milk pods as parakeets, too.
When I was nine, I had read the books: Miss Happiness and Miss Flower and Little Plum, by Rumer Godden. They are about Japanese dolls and wonderfully illustrated. I was inspired, but did not have any Japanese dolls, besides the paper, Origami, one, I had learned to make for a Girl Scout badge. My sash was loaded. So, I made my first real doll. She might have been better if I hadn't used a terry cloth wash cloth, but that is what I had. Her kimono was better, and she had yarn hair, and an embroidered face. But, she opened up an entire cultural world to me, as I got a pen pal in Japan, who I wrote to until I was a sophomore in college. I still look for her. She was born two days after me, had pet squirrels, and joined The Air Force. She would send me pictures from field trips to Mount Fuji. When I was eleven, she sent me a pottery doll bell, and she hangs in my kitchen window, today. She called me her beautiful American sister and had the most glorious handwriting I have ever seen. She folded her letters in animal shapes and made me a tiny beaded crab pin. I also read the Japanese fairy tales, like the boy in the peach stone. Since, I have been able to pick up antiques here and there, and even a Japanese doll house, which was really a lamp, that I'd gotten at a bamboo import store.
When I make a doll, it is always infused with love and magic, but you do not have to sculpt or sew, and there are lots of dolls that anybody can make, besides paper dolls, and you could write an encyclopedia on paper dolls, alone, that is how much fun they can be. You do not have to be an artist, you can use photographs of people you know. If you only have heads, you can be very creative with fancy paper and patterns, maybe even using little sentiments, such as ticket stubs, hair, buttons, scraps... You can make them sets from pictures. You can make them paper book houses to keep them neat, so they are ideal for the minimalist, who hates clutter. You can even make tiny dollhouses out of mint tins and put magnets on the backs of your dolls. These work best with whole body photos, but you can make it work with just heads and fancy paper too. You can laminate your dolls with mailing tape, just watch out for the bubbles.
Dolls have always been a part of love magic and love magic is a powerful thing. If you use it to impose your will upon another, like Angelique did to Barnabas in DARK SHADOWS, with not one, but two dolls, it will surely backfire. The writers for DARK SHADOWS were brilliant. The gypsies use poppets for love magic. They are also used in Voo-Doo, it's true, but avoid that Spanish Moss, as it has microscopic mites that bite, and is said to be cursed, due to a Spanish girl, who was scalped, and her beauiful hair strung in a tree. As the moss spread, it wiped out The Natives. That is how the story goes. But, it may be more than a story. It may be biological. Suppose The Spaniards brought the spores over in their capes, on their shoes... Some common ingredients to use in love dolls would be: rose petals, pink salt, jasmine rice, cinnamon, dried orange rind, Cardamom, red Geranium, dried tomato, Rosemary, rose quartz, Carnelian, Garnet, Ruby, and, of course, Diamond. Love dolls can be cotton or silk poppets, they can have the lover's hair or clothes. They can be wax, or elaborate, but what is most important is secrecy, will, and intent. You can make tiny dolls of your lover and yourself, out of pipe cleaners and beads, with hair, and personal items, along with a few stitches or fabric glue, tie them together three times with a red ribbon, and put them away in a special box, that you can fix with lace or ribbon trimming. You can make this for somebody for an anniversary, using photographs or other sentimental items. It is a very magical and thoughtful gift, and the possibilities are endless.
Two
Some dolls, and maybe people too, are only made to be looked at, but, the ones, you can play with, are the most fun. I had all kinds of dolls to play with as a kid, but my friends and I seemed to play with Barbie the most. I only had one Ken, Malibu, who had somehow lost his legs, so we pushed him around in a Barbie chair and said he had been a POW in Nam. I had Shawn Cassidy, too, but for some reason, Shawn did not mess with Barbie, much. Later, somebody had gotten my brother Western Ken and the sportscar, much to my father's dismay, but this made things a lot more fun. As bad as Ken was, and he was a cowboy, my Barbies were always worse. I had a giant black Barbie, too, she had two toned hair and was nearly as big as I was. I can remember getting her, as there was the blonde, in pink, and the black one, in blue. My mother wondered why I wanted the black one, but agreed, she was prettier. The other dolls that we played with the most, besides Raggedy Ann, of course, were Glamor Gals and Sea Wees. Glamor Gals were a lot of fun, as they were tiny: dollhouse size. My next door neighbor had the Glamor Gals cruise ship, and this was back when we never missed The Love Boat. I believe the ship's Captain was the one, and only, Glamor Guy. I know, I had a lot of the gals, as my city case was loaded, but I did not have any boys. That did not matter, but I am one step ahead of myself, as my mother and I built a three story house for my gals using: cardboard boxes, left-over house paint, glue, carpet remnants, wallpaper remnants, catalogs, and magazines. My brother's G.I. Joes and A. Team men were just the right size for the gals, and he had the A. Team van, too. One day, I came home from school to find mouse droppings in the house, the gals disrobed, and violated. They had pins sticking in their heads: some in their faces. I screamed and cried and beat my brother. He set the A. Team van on fire, too. I must say, he was a fun playmate, as he always had a lot of gay G.I. Joes. They always seemed to be into bondage, but never at war. But, my brother is younger than I am, and the dolls that we probably played the most with were the peg people. He had the garage, and we had a lot of fun with those. You can get naked pegs for next to nothing, and paint them, or decompage them, to look like the people you know. This can be a lot of fun for all ages, and they make for great stocking and Easter basket stuffers. Perhaps we have the most fun with the things we have to use our imaginations with the most. I still have my Sea Wees, though. They are mermaids you play with in the bath. They used to have lily pad sponge rafts.
Dolls can be learning tools in more ways than we can imagine. I used to teach English, and I had several different projects which involved puppets. These were group projects, so the students had to work together. They were so much fun and so successful, that I did them again and again. I believe the first one was Medea. Each group had to write a script, make the puppets and props, and present their version of the play to the rest of the class. The shop boys had made us a swanky, real-for-sure, puppet theater, straight away, and we covered it with marble contact paper, my old homemade velvet curtains, that no longer fit my windows, and fancy trimming. Inside was a goat hair rug, and the students signed it in markers. That famous Medusa head painting? They used that for Medea's head. I still have their script for that, and Cannery Row, as they bound them, and they are so nice. We also had productions of MacBeth and Dracula. It helps the students, especially the ones that only learn by doing: that is, they do not recall information well from books, learn the plots and characters. It is a great study aid for tests and could work just as well with history. We made all sorts of puppets, but there are all kinds of finger puppets that you can make. If you are not crafty, you can use photographs. There are obvious finger puppets that you can make an easy stage for, but you can also tape toothpicks on the back, or cut out two holes in the bottom for legs.
I found myself sick and shut-in with my dolls. At the same time, my best friend, across the state, was even sicker. My boyfriend had gotten me a video camera, which I did not use much. I found myself producing doll soap operas: just to make us laugh. Laughter is the best medicine. I found myself making spoofs of my favorite television shows and movies. I have Scully, Mulder, Bewitched, I made W. the Principal of Monster High. One of these days I might take my Joker out of the box. Not likely to sell him.
