Art Dolls by Du Buh Du Designs

~ Dia de Bloglandia ~ In honor of el Dia de los Muertos

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Welcome to my Day of the Dead post for the Dia de Bloglandia online celebration! Every November 1st (Día de los Angelitos) and 2nd (El Dia de los Muertos) families in Mexico (and other Latin American countries) honor their deceased relatives and friends by welcoming their spirits  back and bestowing gifts , food and other offerings to them as a symbol of their love. Last year I chose to honor my son's relatives from both sides of our family and this year I have chosen to create a visual tribute to all of those who have lost a mother or sister. The dolls I made are that of three living sisters who are preparing for and anticipating the arrival of the spirits of their mother and that of their recently deceased eldest sister (the bride) to their home ..a long awaited reunion with those they love and miss ~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

Special Thanks to my husband Mark for, yet again building ,another last minute structure for me, in this case a Casa for my dolls :) (Poetry above c.. Julie Sopetran)

 

Be sure to visit the hosts of Dia de Bloglandia, Stephanie and Suzanne for a list of those who are participating :)  As you know the shrine auction benefitting the Oaxaca Streetchildren Grassroots Organization has been extended and it will take place the first week in March 2010. Some participating in today's Day of the Dead online celebration have already included their cigar box shrines. For more information see Rebecca's blog ~I will be posting my contribution sometime eary next year.

Thank you for stopping by!

Art Dolls Only Challenge: The Four Elements

"Brighid, the Wind's Bride" is wearing a veil of paper dragonflies and a dress made of embossed decorative paper embellished with paper dragonflies, butterflies, leaves and blossoms 

 

Welcome! As part of the Art Doll Elements Challenge, I chose to create "Brighid the Wind's bride" representing the element of air . I decided to make her the object of affection of the wind, as if the wind were an "entity" itself, unseen but whose presence could be felt as it wraps around her.

Brighid's body is made of polymer clay and her wavy bobbed hair is made of dark brown mohair. Her dress is made entirely of an embossed decorative paper (sewn and glued on) with off white and cream colored blossoms, butterflies, leaves and dragonflies adorning her dress. Her veil of dragonflies and bouquet are made from water color paper and are embellished with tiny swarovski crystals and silver dipped head pins. I added the tiniest bit of ultra fine crystal glitter to each of the dragonflies wings her veil (unfortunately you can't really see it in the photos). I still have plans to add onto her dress and when she is finished she will be making her way into a shadow box /alter piece for display purposes :)

 

 
Mixed media Art Doll~ Image Image © Christine Alvarado, 2009
 

 

 

In my sky at twilight you  are like a cloud
and your form and color are the way I love them.
 You are  mine, mine, woman with sweet lips
and in your life my infinite dreams live..

~R.Tagore
 

 

 

 

 
Floral bouquet with two streams of cascading butterflies


 Mixed media Art Doll~ Image Image © Christine Alvarado, 2009

 

"Brighid, the Wind's Bride" Art Doll, 2009

 

~Mad Hatter Tea Party, 2009~

 

 

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The new Du Buh Du ladies were quite excited to receive an invitation to the second annual Mad Hatter Tea Party. Rumors have been swirling around that last year's party was a blast and so the seven headed on down to Arizona to join in on the the event hosted by Miss Vanessa.
 Last year as you may recall, a few Du Buh Du ladies took a rather fanciful balloon ride there but after hearing that Miss Violet fell out and broke her neck the new ladies  decided to take a safer mode of transportation (closer to the ground) in the form of a Caravan. Here's just a snippet of their journey...

 

Miniature Gypsy Wagon

 

 

 

 

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 Doll and Gypsy Wagon



Rushing to get to the party in time~Hope to see you there!


 To "mingle" and meet other guests, head on over to Vanessa's place. List of participants are on the right hand column of her blog , A Fanciful Twist!



Special Thanks to my husband Mark for building the gypsy wagon/caravan dollhouse (everything was created start to finish within two+ weeks). Happy Birthday and Anniversary to you!

 

~ Giveaway~

 

In celebration of my 150th post (a few weeks back ) and the Mad Hatter 

Tea Party I am having a giveaway! I will pick one winner via the random number generator and that person will get to choose one of the seven dolls posted here to take home with them (each doll comes with a small handmade wire lantern by the way). Just leave a doll name suggestion, music , book or movie suggestion or a simple hello and where you are from. I will pick a winner on Thursday July 2nd ~if for some reason you can't leave a comment just email me at [email protected] and I will add your comment :)
The next few weeks will be busy for us as we're heading out of town followed by family visits here, but I will try and have a small shop update with the remaining dolls in the next two weeks. I will post that info here or you can join my mailing list to hear first when that will occur (info in right hand column).  

 

Click here for shop update images

Click here for post about inspiration for the  Caravan/Wagon Dollhouse..