Mannequin Queen

A very special girl is the inspiration behind this piece. It was through her that I found myself in a Sue Ryder Charity shop in Ramsbottom last week. By chance, I came across these wonderful 4" high mannequins at the extremely tempting price of only £1.99 each. The altered artist in me knew I had to have them. And now I am the proud owner of three of these little beauties. Well the designer in me knows I have to do these things in triplet :). Having absolutely zero patience, I began on the first one straight away which is the resulting 'Queen' doll above.

I began by sanding and painting the whole doll in black gesso before adding three layers of purple cosmic shimmer paint. When dry, I dappled perfect pearls over it. I then stamped a swirly design onto violet coloured patterned paper and heat embossed a darker purple onto it. I ran this sheet through my cuttlebug with a die template several times until I had enough pieces to string together to make the skirt.

I attached this to the mannequin with ribbon and tied some black fibres around it. I added the word 'Queen' and glued two feathers to the back. I melted UTEE over a jigsaw piece and laid a pattern stamp over it. When cooled, I added more perfect pearls and three gems, then stuck the whole piece to the skirt. Finally I added a jump ring round the neck area.

From glum to glam in several easy moves. Now to think of a couple more ideas for the other two. Watch this space as they say.