Cool-Aberration 2009 - Sani's Journal

Back to Cool-Aberration 2009. Finished my pages for Shimasani's journal.

First I did a page depicting her two-spiritedness. I thought I was gonna have to trash this page, but I managed to save it and I really like it now. I decorated the page using watercolor crayons and it was too bright and bold. So I coated it with a glaze of sierra tan acrylic paint mixed with polyacrylic sealer. Well, then it was too uniform and dark. So I decided, what the hell, it's ruined so I might as well play with it. So I took a paring knife and started scraping and chipping off the glaze coat. In the process, I took off some of the watercolor and even scraped down to raw paper in spots. This resulted in it looking old and faded and chipped and I love it. Then I added the male and female symbols (paper cutouts) and the text and it was done.


Page 1 folds open to reveal the totem spread. Just kindof a collage of Shimasani's various totems that'll help her in wisely choosing her shamanic tools.


And the last page.


Oh, and don't forget that Yvonne requested a 1" x 1" pic of me for her artist page. Here's mine.

Cool-Aberration 2009 - Sani

When Sani came to me, she had a full polymer clay head. I wanted to make an elaborate headdress for her, but first I had to figure out how to attach it. I needed a layer of fabric and stuffing on her skull so I could sew all the headdress embellishments on. So, I got my dremel drill out, took a deep breath, and drilled 5 holes into her clay skull. Now, that was nerve wracking. Thankfully, all worked out well and I was able to attach a lightly stuffed fabric "patch" to her skull with glue-reinforced carpet tacks. Then I sewed on a kindof standy-uppy collar around the perimeter so the embellishments would frame her face. Next I sewed on tufts of multi-colored silk fibers unravelled from some cool woven upholstery fabric I had. And also some beige/tan silk fibers from another woven home decor fabric. Then on to the doodads - buttons, beads, bones, shells, a shark tooth, a peace sign, a spiral from an old earring, gourd seeds, brass rings, paper beads, etc. Oh, and a long braid of horse hair that I looped on each side of her face so that the tassel ends stick up at the top.

And here she is all decked out in her shamanic ceremonial headdress.

I wanted to include feathers in the headdress, but they're so easily damaged with handling, and Sani will be visiting 7 more artists before she's done. So I prepared some feathers (from my chickens) that can be added later (to her headdress or wherever), which I'll send along in the fragments envelope Yvonne included in Sani's journal.


I just love working on these collaborative dolls. Now to get busy on my pages for Sani's journal.

Cool-Aberration 2009 - Sani

Okay, so Sani is really Shimasani and is anatomically female. But she's actually a two-spirit, possessing the characteristic traits of both the male and female genders. She's been in training for many years to be the Shaman of her tribe. As Shaman, she'll guide her people in attaining the inner peace that is the only true path to world peace.
As custom demands, the final step in her shamanic training is to go out into the world alone and naked to assemble her shamanic costume and ceremonial tools. Her stay in NC is the first stop on her journey.
Before she could begin her transformation, Shimasani needed assistance from the bat spirit. The bat is the totem of initiation and rebirth and guides the Shaman initiate in correctly choosing her other tools. This is her bat spirit stick made from the vertebrae of the fox (the totem of cunning, wisdom and swift decisions) and the wood of the Mimosa tree (rapid growth).


Sani's major totem is the Peace Dove. I made her a basket woven of colorful fibers to carry her dove in. The dove was one of those chintzy red velvet-like Christmas decorations of yore that I altered. She rests inside the basket on a horse and dog hair liner taken from a real bird nest I found in my yard.





Obviously from all the pics, I'm quite taken with my wee basket. Looks like I need to make a similar one for myself.

Coming soon - Sani's shamanic headdress!

Cool-Aberration 2009 - Sani

When Sani arrived at my house, I recognized the features and skin tone as that of an American Indian. Not to mention that Sani is a masculine navajo name meaning "the old one". The first thing I did was paint his face, and lo & behold, turns out Sani is a she! Her real name is Shimasani (feminine "the old one") and Sani is her nickname.


More developments soon.

Cool-Aberration 2009 - Sani

I've started work on Sani, my first doll of the 2009 Art Doll Cool-Aberration project. Here, again, is what she looked like when she arrived in NC.

I'm not ready to show pics of my contributions yet, but soon.

Wanted you to see all of Yvonne's beautiful journal that will accompany Sani on her journey and will be worked in by each artist. Yvonne made a very cool fabric cover for her journal seen here.

The next pic shows the first page in the journal - a record of what Sani looked like when she left home.

Next is Yvonne's starting entry with the quote she chose to get us started on Sani.

Yvonne also included a page for pics of all the artists in the project. Very cool idea. (And the pics are only 1" x 1", so how bad can I manage to look in such a tiny image?)

Another great idea of Yvonne's was to include an envelope in which she sent 8 tiny charms - one for each of us. We're to choose a charm and then leave a little memento trinket or doodad (what Yvonne calls fragments) in the envelope for Yvonne. (This is actually what gave me the idea to send a tiny doll for each artist in Bravura's vase.)


The blank white pages are, of course, for the rest of us to journal on as Sani visits us - a record of her adventure.