Creative Souls Challenge - Tin Doll

I got the idea for this project from Zinnia in South Pasadena. They had these dolls made from old porcelain dolls, tin cans and a variety of other found objects. After seeing the installation I was in a antique shop near by and I picked up the Wilco Polishing Cloth tin and the old puppet with the perfect head. I had the buttons on hand.

The first challenge was got get the head removed from the puppet body. I struggled with this problem for a few weeks as the head was attached with a metal bar running through the shoulders. I started to chip away at the substance holding the metal ring into the head, but this was going to take hours. I finally undressed the puppet to discover the metal bar at the shoulders was being held in place by just a few threads. I went from needing metal working equipment to just scissors.


While detaching the head, I decided that I wanted to reuse the calves of the puppet body. They are small socks filled with small metal pellets which over time have worn through the material.

Now the fun could begin. After several trips to the garage, I had the supplies I needed. Metal wire, an awl and a hammer. I started by punching the holes for the metal loop on the head.


I then needed a way to keep the head in place once the loop was through the lid. The metal bar that had been used on the puppet was too large for the lid. I finally decided on a Safety Pin.

With the head in place, the doll was starting to take shape.

I found a heart from an old key chain. I secured it to the can using wire and a button as a washer on the inside.

Next it was time to create the arms. I planned on using buttons all the way along. From my jewelry box, I borrowed two pendants I no longer wore. One was a hand/flower and the other was a miniature book.

I had planned on using buttons for the legs, also; however, when I went to get a needle and thread from my sewing kit, I had an inspired idea to use the tape measure as the upper part of the legs.

Velcro on the back of the tape allowed me to create a flexible loop that could be threaded through the bottom of the tin.

With the appendages complete, I was ready to continue assembling the doll. Again, I used buttons on the inside as washers.

Completed doll sitting.

Completed doll hanging.

This project took me about an hour and a half to complete once I had all the parts together.

Creative Souls - A New Year, A New Vision

Saturday, January 2, 2010 was the first Creative Souls Art Workshop of the new year at the Heart & Soul Healing Arts Center in Pasadena. We used the time to look at our values and to create a vision board of what we would like our future to be like.

Envisioning is a powerful tool to help propel you to the next step(s) on your life journey, as it allows you to focus on the results rather than the day-to-day activities that tend to bog us down and cause us to lose focus on the end-game.

We spent the morning and early afternoon outside in the beautiful backyard of the center. It was a very relaxing session and each participant not only created a vision for their life, but also a work of art.