Kiss my Hand with a 'Kiss my Ass' Attitude

That's what this queen has. She's my latest creation (and a long time coming, huh?). I'm not a real prolific crafter. :) And my photography skills seem to be gettin' worse instead of better. I HATE taking pics of inanimate objects. Oh well, here she is as best I can do with my limited motivation and even more limited skill in the art of photography.

I was just starting this doll when I read that Art Doll Quarterly magazine's next challenge is Bottle Dolls. So I'll probly mail her off to them as a challenge entry sometime before September. Anyhow, I started with a cruet bottle. I was eyeing it up, thinking the cap would make a good crown, when it came to me that I could also use the bottle as a skirt. From there, of course I started in with the paper mache...



Her crown is filled with tiny dried roses from my garden. Her hair is regular old household string painted, and adorned with decorative tacks.


Her bottle skirt is also filled with my dried rosebuds and petals. I created a bottom ruffle with an upside down glass dish that is painted on the underside and embellished with a string of glass beads.


I did some texturing on her paper mache torso and gave her a collar that resembles leaves or petals. Also a 'clump' of glass beads at her neckline.


Her waist ruffle is paper mache that I molded over the glass dish used as her bottom ruffle, topped off with some tulle home decor trim and a couple dried and shellacked rosebuds.


Small oyster shells made great hands.


The old queen looked kinda lonely, so I made her a fuzzy wool doggy with a tiny macrame and beaded collar, french knot curls on her head and tail, and tiny seashell ears. She's mincing around on a metal 'ribbon' leash.


The queen is about 14 inches tall and her friend, Sir Floof, is only 2 3/4 inches tall. I think I'm gonna title this piece "She Emerged Triumphant From Her Exile (to the Attic)". (Yeah, I know it's long, but I've always loved long titles.) The reference to her attic exile is cos she has a kind of chipped and marred antiquey look to her patina.