Happy Dolls

 

Those dolls are from workshop I conducted yesterday in after school program for Children at Risk, in south Tel Aviv, as part of parents-children weekly  group meeting with therapist, I was invited  to conduct my  workshop as part of experiential tool they try to  integrate in those meetings.

 You can see some of the results  in the photos, (the fishes on the background are the PVC table cloth) they are all looks  happy, from the slight of stories I heard about those people life, I couldn't get the same impression.

From my workshop

Some of the dolls from the Dolls orchestra workshop I have conducted at the last three days: 

Little treasures

I have some beautiful little treasures to share today.
They were all made by my cute little students, 6-8 year old, during the last school year.

This little creature is known as a penguin, it was created by one of the sweetest, gifted and enthusiastic student I have ever taught.

One day, with a shy voice, she asked if she can show something to the class, then she took out of her bag this lovely pillow she had created during the weekend.
I asked her with whom did she make it, and she answered she did it by her own, since no one in her family knows how to stitch.

At the last month they have created sock dolls same as I had already taught dozens of times.

The girl who created this doll insisted to create a long curly hair for her doll, just the same she has.
I had no idea how can she make it and then she came up with the idea of cutting fabrics strips in zigzags that look like the curls she has.

This one is quite accessorized as you can see.

and this one has only one sock, the other one had been created till the last minute of the class.

Sock Dolls for Parents and Children

Photos at this post by Mia Greenspan

I have just received these beautiful photos, taken at the Parents & Kids' Sock Doll workshop I conducted last week. The workshop took place at Emily, a beautiful children's bookstore in Tel Aviv.
The greatest challenge for me at this workshop was to make the participating girls (unfortunately, there were no boys) do their own stitching. As it was a Parents & Kids workshop, the girls found it much easier to let their moms do all the hard work. I had to insist that the little ones could and should sew by themselves. At that point, they had to face the fear that the dolls they would create wouldn't be as appealing as the one mom could make.
We settled on a compromise – the girls will give orders to mom, while sewing their own dolls.

The effort really paid off! There was such a lovely bunch of dolls, some of them made by the moms, and some by their 6-year-old girls.
Now, if you happen to live over here and haven't visited this lovely store yet, you should!
The photo below captures just a hint of its unique and cozy atmosphere.

On Sunday, November 29, I will conduct another workshop at Emily. This time I will teach participants how to create these yellow monsters, and we will also create creatures inspired by Maurice Sendak's classic book, Where the Wild Things Are.

Socks dolls getting hearts

Remember my funny conversations with the 6-8 years old about dolls hearts, meanwhile very diligently they were stitching and the dolls are becoming to life.
Last week I managed to shoot some during the class, it is not easy thing to do, there is always someone who needs my assistance, and I always in a hurry to help them all.
I'm glad I managed to catch these ones because I couldn't notice all the details at the short time I've had. In second look I love their dolls even more. Here you can see some of their first works -
cardboard dolls
finger puppets.
Besides seeing the lovely dolls I had another very nice surprise last week-
There is two boys who would never sit quietly, they have no patience to listen to my explanations, and always interrupt me while I am talking and explaining, I always have to find creative solutions so they would let me talk, sometimes I ask them to sit next to me and be my assistance, or to pantomime my explanation while I am talking.
When the other kids get to work I have to explain them in person what I have just taught all the others.
I did it patience-less at the beginning but dedicating this extra few seconds to each of them paid off, I noticed that they are understanding even better then the others.
I just figured out they have some concentration problem but have high level of technical and creative skills, it was really exciting to see their development from week to week, it was not only the development of their skills but also to see them enjoying the needlecraft I am teaching.
Last week the manager of this after-school program told me that both of them asked to take my class twice a week, I was so flattered just hopping it wouldn't be too difficult to get along with two of them together, till now one of them took my Monday class and the other the Wednesday class.


Wish you all lovely weekend.

Cloth dolls workshop

I was teaching three days cloth dolls workshop for 10-12 years old six cute girls, the cutest, most silent girls, and creative girls I have ever taught. It could be so exhausting and frustrating, teaching kids this age, but it was completely different with these ones.
Today was the last day and I am so glad and proud to show you the results.

It is bit weird but most of them never stitched any thing by hands before, so I wanted to let them practice the blanket stitch, while creating something of their own.
These funny heads made by the toe parts of used socks were perfect beginning. After three hours they came up with well done and full of characters theses mini dolls.

Most of the second day was dedicate for sketching, I asked them to use collage techniques, to create their own innovative unique designs.

I wished to see many colorful characters made by creative use of different colorful papers, fabric scraps, crayons, marker pens, old journal, which I spread out all over the studio, but most of them preferred to use only pencil and rubber.

Then I instructed them how to prepare the pattern according to each design.
We used discarded clothes instead of new fabrics.

Today they stitch all over the day, and Walla here are the results:




So cute, don't you think?