I’ve had a doll living in my head for a long time – a year? two years? Longer? I’m not even sure. I tried once before to create a pattern so I could make the doll, to get it out of my head and into my hands, but my attempts failed miserably and I put it aside.
The other day I couldn’t leave it aside any longer, and I tried again to draft a pattern to make the doll I imagine. But do you know how sometimes your imagination leaves out details? It gives you more of a fuzzy feeling than a concrete idea. That’s where I am. I’ve tried a couple of different things, and I can’t quite get the image of the doll into my hands. My pile of discarded prototypes is growing and my bits of fabric and stuffing for samples is quickly shrinking, and I still don’t have the look I’m trying to achieve. I do all this knowing that even after I get the look of the doll just right, I’ll have to do the whole thing again for doll clothes.
I thought about giving it up again for a time, but I’m not quite there yet. I have a few more things to try, but first I need to head out to pick up some more supplies.
This dollmaking – it’s rather addictive and is pretty good at stretching my skills, but skill stretching is important for growth, though I do admit that at the end of the day yesterday I was very grateful to pick up my knitting and work on something that came easy to my hands and let my brain have a rest.
Are you doing anything to stretch? What are you making that might be a little outside your comfort zone?