Key Points
- Artist and mentor Minette Riordan introduces The Lantern Bearer—a paper doll archetype symbolizing wisdom, clarity, and inner light. By crafting her with collage papers and simple stitching, women can explore creativity as a pathway to self-trust and guidance.
- The practice pairs art-making with journaling prompts such as “Where in my life do I need more light or clarity right now?” to help midlife creators reconnect with their intuition. Experts in expressive arts emphasize that tactile, symbolic projects can make abstract concepts like self-discovery feel tangible.
- The downloadable worksheet provides a step-by-step guide for building your own Lantern Bearer, making it easy for anyone—even those with no art experience—to engage with this process of creative reflection.
In this episode of The Paper Doll Chronicles, we create The Lantern Bearer — a symbolic guide who shines light on your path and reminds you that wisdom and clarity already live inside you.
✨ The Lantern Bearer is more than just a paper doll—she’s an archetype, a reminder that in times of uncertainty, you carry your own light. By crafting her with your hand-painted collage papers, you’ll create a visual companion who encourages you to trust your inner guidance and step forward with courage.
🕯️In this episode, you will
- Learn how to make a Lantern Bearer paper doll using your collage papers
- Explore her symbolism as a guide and light-bringer for your journey
- Reflect with three journal prompts to connect to your own inner light
3 Journal Prompts to Get to Know Your Lantern Bearer
- Where in my life do I need more light or clarity right now?
- What wisdom already lives inside me that I sometimes forget to trust?
- How can I carry my light more boldly, not only for myself but for others?
Supplies You’ll Need
- Paper doll body or face template
- Collage papers (from last month’s painted papers or your own stash)
- Scissors ✂️
- Glue stick or matte medium
- Needle/Thread
- Pen/markers for details
- Journal + pen for prompts
✨ The Lantern Bearer is your reminder that even in moments of doubt, you already hold the lantern. Let’s create her together and see what she has to reveal.
Transcript
Video title: The Lantern Bearer | DIY Paper Doll Guide for Wisdom & Clarity | Slow-Stitching | Collage
Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/live/XpSqWe55Pxs
Video language: English (auto-generated)
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[0:01] : Good morning, my creative friends, and welcome. I'm a little sleepy this morning. This is uh and I haven't done
[0:08] : much talking yet, so I realize my voice may sound a little froggy, but it'll
[0:13] : warm up as we go along. If you are brand new to painting in your PJs with Manette, this is how you get me. Rolling
[0:20] : out of bed and into art making is my favorite morning practice. I've been up
[0:26] : for a while, had a couple of cups of coffee, and worked on a large canvas
[0:32] : that I'm creating. And I deeply believe that this is such a powerful way to
[0:39] : connect to ourselves, to our spirit, to what it is that we want more of by
[0:45] : starting our days with the creative. For some people, that's painting, stitching,
[0:50] : writing, could be just about anything. It's my form of meditation. And here on
[0:58] : Painting in Your PJs with Manette, we are all about using art as a powerful tool for self-discovery. And this year,
[1:06] : we've been doing that so far through the making of paper dolls. I committed to a
[1:12] : year of paper dolls with some change ups and some different things in between. I
[1:18] : have some ideas for October and November coming that I'm super excited about. And
[1:23] : before we dive into today's paper doll, which is the lantern bear lantern bearer, and I'll talk more about her in
[1:31] : a minute, I want to share with you about our upcoming I got to rearrange my desk
[1:37] : here about our upcoming mythical makeover experience. These are our most
[1:42] : popular online events. They are always incredibly magical and often include
[1:49] : paper dolls, which is how I got excited and obsessed with making paper dolls.
[1:54] : And it's been really fun to see this explosion. At some point, I'll have to
[2:00] : do a video showing all the different paper dolls that I have made over this
[2:05] : last year. So, our next mythical makeover is coming up the weekend of
[2:11] : October 24:25 and it's called the gathering time. And this particular mythical makeover is
[2:18] : really tapping into the themes of good morning, good morning, Lorraine, tapping into the themes of autumn, the abundance
[2:27] : of the fall harvest, and about reconnecting to our own forgotten gifts.
[2:33] : We are going to be creating this
[2:39] : beautiful painting. I'm trying to get it off my desk called The Orchard of Forgotten Gifts. And look at all this
[2:46] : beautiful abundance. And of course, we will be creating a wonderful paper doll.
[2:54] : This is the gatherer archetype. and super excited to connect with this
[2:59] : beautiful archetype and lots of other fun creative projects along the way. This is a two-day
[3:06] : two and a half hour per day online mini retreat for women in midlife and beyond
[3:14] : who are at that place of going who am I? What's next? And sometimes it's
[3:19] : important to just reconnect to our deep inner wisdom to the deep gifts to the
[3:25] : threads of learnings and experiences from out. So if that sounds interesting
[3:31] : and appealing to you and you love painting and collage, then I encourage you to check out the link in the
[3:37] : description of the video and take a look at our latest mythical makeover
[3:42] : experience. So now let's talk about today. I'm deep into the themes
[3:49] : of harvest and abundance and fall. And fall is such an interesting time because
[3:55] : it's a time where just past that autumn equinox last weekend already the days
[4:02] : are starting to get shorter which makes me kind of sad. But as autumn is this transitional stage as we go into the
[4:08] : dark in the depths of winter and what a perfect time of year to think about
[4:14] : creating our own lantern bearer. How can we create a paper doll? Gather my giant
[4:22] : pile of goodies here that I gathered for this morning. How can we create a
[4:28] : lantern bearer who lights the way not only lights the way forward in our life
[4:34] : but also really lights the way within reconnecting to our inner wisdom. You
[4:41] : will al also see in the description of this video there are some journal
[4:47] : prompts there as well. I also sent those out to those of you that are on the
[4:52] : Paperd Doll Chronicles email list. You got an email about this as well. But
[4:58] : some prompts to think about. And I always like to read these prompts and then come back at the end and actually
[5:05] : do some writing with my doll to really glean the messages that she has for me.
[5:11] : Where in my life do I need more light or clarity right now? Where in my life do I
[5:16] : need more light or clarity right now? What wisdom already lives inside me that
[5:23] : I sometimes forget to trust? And how can I carry my light more
[5:29] : boldly, not only for myself, but for others? How can I carry my light more
[5:35] : boldly, not only for myself, but for others? So, those are the questions that
[5:42] : I'm holding on to lightly as I go about creating this paper doll that I'm
[5:48] : calling the lantern bearer. And in this sort of moment in time when it feels
[5:55] : like the world is a little bit crazy, chaotic, it's more important than ever
[6:04] : that we stay connected to our own inner sense of calm. So, let me change over
[6:11] : here and show you what I've got. So, I'm still working with some of the
[6:17] : handmade papers that I've made over the last last month we made painty papers.
[6:24] : Here I'm painting in your PJs. So, I have some bits and pieces of those. I
[6:30] : have this piece of fabric, but it's not quite the right colors. like this feels this beautiful fall colors, but as I was
[6:37] : flipping through the papers, it's like, oh no, I'm still longing to connect to some of these brighter colors.
[6:45] : And I also found these are Christmas ornament hangers that a friend and I
[6:51] : bought for some doll making that we were doing. And it kind of reminded me of
[6:58] : something that you might hang a lantern on. So somehow this might get attached
[7:05] : to my doll. So I have some different things this morning. So I'm going to put
[7:10] : that one aside. I grabbed some painty fabric from my retreat that I'm just
[7:17] : back from Oregon. I wasn't here last week because I was leading a retreat in Oregon. And on the first night, we had
[7:25] : so much fun painting and dying fabric and rubbing fabric on trees. And so I
[7:32] : have some fun pieces of fabric that feel like they're part of that energetic of
[7:39] : connection, which part of my work in the world is to be that lantern bearer, to
[7:45] : be that light for others, to create opportunities for connection and community. I'm thinking I want her to
[7:51] : have some stability. So I'm going to create her on this tag. And this is from
[7:58] : a Guden Sodren catalog. And I love this
[8:03] : model. She feels there's so much wisdom here. And um I even really love these
[8:10] : colors. Although I'm probably going to cover her up, but I'm going to use her as my paper doll template. Many of you
[8:18] : have received so many faces from me this year. I recommend going and finding a
[8:25] : face or a magazine image and you're looking for that sort of reflection of
[8:33] : your inner wisdom, your inner lantern bearer, that one who lights your way
[8:41] : when things feel a little bit on the dark side.
[8:52] : I'm going to just cut her out here. And I'll cut that bottom off. I really I
[8:59] : love this uh wood door with the horseshoe on it, too. So, that's probably going to get saved for
[9:06] : something else. When I was at the airport traveling home from Oregon,
[9:11] : there was a new Vogue magazine and um I didn't want to carry it home, but uh
[9:17] : Vogue is a great one for finding beautiful figures in all different, you
[9:23] : know, stances and shapes and colors. It's a great one for doll making because
[9:30] : it's very people focused. oldfashioned magazines that you can find
[9:36] : at used bookstores and antique stores. I bought this these inexpensive set of
[9:42] : large tags on Amazon and they all came with the bundled together in wire and it
[9:48] : has been quite the adventure to get them untangled. I also wanted to just take a moment to
[9:54] : catch my breath this morning. Things have been busy, lots of travel,
[10:00] : lots of planning, lots of creating and working. Although
[10:07] : yesterday I so loved creating the samples for the mythical makeover.
[10:13] : And that's smoking. Interesting. Quite a lot of smoke from that uh the wicks
[10:18] : pretty long this morning. This is a beautiful handmade
[10:24] : soy candle with no scent in it. My husband doesn't like things that are
[10:30] : scented. And uh I got these from a local company. I can't remember the the name
[10:35] : right now. Um doio candles, I believe. Look, here's a rolling pin. Isn't that
[10:41] : interesting? I always find the most interesting things floating around on my desk. But it felt important to bring a
[10:47] : little light into our creative practice this morning to just pause even place our hands on
[10:53] : our materials. Just really connect to the light of our inner wisdom
[11:01] : as our source of calm, our source of knowing.
[11:10] : just to remind ourselves of how amazing we truly are and that we
[11:17] : have the power to light our own way and that we have to light our own way first
[11:23] : before we can light the way for others.
[11:31] : And she's just I love her. So beautiful. And this one piece almost felt like a
[11:39] : little bit of a crown or a halo. So, this piece I think is going to go
[11:46] : behind her head here. And I was definitely feeling that desire to perhaps do a little stitching this
[11:52] : morning. So, I brought some embroidery floss and these little bits of fabric as
[11:57] : well. And in true minute style, I'm just going
[12:04] : to go for it. Don't overthink this. You don't need a
[12:10] : lot of planning, right? You just really need to
[12:17] : let the doll speak to you. Let her be your guide on the path.
[12:27] : If you ask her, she will tell you what you want, what or what she wants, what
[12:32] : you need next.
[12:37] : And I love just framing her face like that. Just really even makes her face
[12:42] : pop out even more. I think this might need to get brightened up a little bit.
[12:48] : Maybe a little pop of fluorescent pink in there.
[12:53] : But there's something about these leaves and berries that have that sort of fall
[13:01] : harvest this morning that were kind of pulling me in.
[13:07] : That one's not feeling like it's part of this story. I also found this lovely
[13:14] : piece here of floral fabric. It's one of my favorite bits of fabric that I I don't
[13:22] : even remember where I found it. So, already the color scheme is starting to come together here
[13:34] : and just it's interesting. So, apparently I'm being very drawn to leaves. I think this was a a gel printed
[13:42] : page with some leaves I collected.
[13:47] : So, it definitely feels like some fun combination here of paper
[13:55] : and fabric. Oh, interesting. It feels somehow like
[14:01] : again like these circles are an important part of the story.
[14:09] : This idea of the sort of the light expanding. So, I love I always think these are going to start out small and
[14:16] : they end up just getting really big like this blooming and spreading of the light. So, then also bringing in that
[14:23] : little touch of the blue there.
[14:34] : It does. Maryanne, good morning and welcome.
[14:41] : does look like the earth. I have a a round gel plate that I absolutely love
[14:49] : creating round images.
[14:59] : And this one was also printed with real flowers or maybe artificial flowers, but
[15:05] : actual, you know, flower shapes was how I got that fun imagery on there. And
[15:13] : does she need to be grounded in the earth? Nope. It's like it's spreading out from her here.
[15:20] : And then this felt like definitely part of the fabric of her
[15:28] : dress. So, same same colors and same themes here.
[15:33] : So, let's see. And this has just a little touch of shimmer and sparkle and
[15:41] : gold.
[15:46] : And this was done on a piece of kind of artist weight tissue paper that I
[15:52] : crinkled up and spray painted and stamped on. Um,
[15:59] : so much fun. It looks like maybe some acrylic inks on there. Let's see. I
[16:05] : think I'm wanting that big flower. Lorraine, I so appreciate you. You're
[16:11] : always so good at saying hello and greeting people and helping to make people feel welcome here. I appreciate
[16:18] : you.
[16:24] : So, I'm just tracing her body here and adding another layer
[16:31] : and starting with this catalog image and
[16:37] : then, you know, really making that image my phone.
[16:55] : And some of this might get covered up again, but it feels like this is what I
[17:01] : want planted underneath. I even love these fun bubbles down here.
[17:11] : And let's see. The uh the
[17:19] : paint is very dark right there. Can't quite see my pencil lines.
[17:25] : There we go.
[17:30] : Don't worry if you tear the paper a little bit because it's all gonna get glued and stitched on.
[17:38] : That is a very happy piece.
[17:44] : And I'm also going to cut where her hands are as well.
[17:50] : Kind of bring the neckline back here.
[18:01] : Now it feels very much like she's wearing a beautiful cloak.
[18:15] : So I'm going to come in here and just kind of carefully small scissors would be better.
[18:22] : Carefully trim around her hands and kind of up into her arms so we can have some
[18:29] : movement and some sleeves and see those beautiful
[18:35] : hands.
[18:59] : Trying not to not to get too fussy with it either.
[19:28] : And then I can also lift this up, trace along the edge of her
[19:36] : clothing there.
[19:47] : There's something about sort of, you know, cutting her apart and having parts
[19:52] : be movable that feels a little bit more realistic along the way. I also really
[20:01] : like that her hair is over her shoulder, but I'm not sure that I want to cut that
[20:06] : part out. But we might uh I might paint some of that hair back on again. So now
[20:16] : she feels more like she has a body, right? We have her hands. So I'm going
[20:22] : to glue the this first layer on and then we'll decide where we going to go next.
[20:35] : And I also wanna I want her to fit on the tag, I think, but maybe not. We'll
[20:42] : see. And if so, I might trim the bottom of her up here before I go any further.
[20:51] : And I'm looking at this going, I would wear this beautiful floral blue and pink
[20:58] : dress.
[21:03] : Just come in and
[21:10] : bring a little bit of her shape back here.
[21:24] : It's like she needs some white here. The colors are very vibrant and I don't want
[21:30] : her to completely disappear into all the
[21:35] : the pattern goodness of this either. And I want to maybe see those leaves and
[21:43] : those greens. So, we get a little bit of the sky, a little bit of that earth. Okay. Definitely going to come in with
[21:48] : some paint here, and brighten some parts of this up
[22:07] : and Good morning, Ann. Welcome.
[22:12] : I'm loving sort of piecing these dolls together. I noticed the last few dolls
[22:18] : I've made have really been
[22:23] : in this same vein of just piecing things together, like truly connecting to sort
[22:30] : of the the collage of what does it want to be? Having things feel a little more
[22:37] : layered. I think she might go on here just um just to keep her stable.
[22:47] : And then I also want to think about
[22:53] : if this can kind of stand in for
[22:58] : the lantern with our crystals kind of representing the light here. And I can
[23:04] : kind of stitch that on. So, she's sort of has this also beautiful
[23:11] : swirly lantern that she's carrying. And if she's going to go on this tag,
[23:18] : the background needs some color as well. I can decide that later. All
[23:26] : right. She's coming together so nicely. I always say that and then, you know, it takes me forever to finish them.
[23:36] : definitely feels like she wants a little bit of this texture in here. Mostly because I feel
[23:43] : like Oh my gosh, Maryanne. Uh, what did I
[23:50] : say? So, it was kind of like the metaphor of putting your own oxygen mask
[23:58] : on first that you hear on all of the every time you fly on a airplane. It's
[24:05] : that same idea that we that we that's why it's a good thing
[24:11] : this is recorded. Um, but the what I was thinking of as I was talking was
[24:18] : one of the things I say in a lot of my online programs when I'm teaching is
[24:23] : that you can't give from an empty well. You have to fill your own well first and
[24:28] : learn to give from the overflow. And so it's the same idea here that we have to
[24:34] : be our own lantern bearer and light our own way first and from that light others
[24:41] : can follow. Right? Like the lantern bearer is the front of the line not the back of the line. Right? So, as women,
[24:49] : we tend to be the caregivers and the nurturers, and we're often at the the back of the line, sort of hurting people
[24:55] : along and nurturing them and give, give, give, give, and we come last. But the lantern bearer stands first and lets
[25:03] : their light shine. And as you let your own light shine, it shines out from you
[25:10] : to light the way for others as well. How's that? Is that something similar to what I said before?
[25:19] : Okay. So, I think it's going to be this little piece
[25:25] : here.
[25:32] : And Maryanne, you know, I just kind of make this stuff up as I go, right? like I, you know, I have a an eye an idea of
[25:41] : what I'm gonna talk about, but it's definitely uh completely unscripted.
[25:50] : But I'm glad uh you asked me to repeat it because it made me sort of think a little bit more deeply about what did I
[25:57] : mean by that. Oh, that's what she needed was those pops of yellow. I think that's
[26:02] : what's needed up here, too, or to bring some of those little pops of yellow in.
[26:08] : So, I'm even going to
[26:14] : glue this on. And I'll let that glue dry a little bit. And then I'll probably
[26:20] : feels fun to add some stitching, right? Maybe over just a little texture. Maybe
[26:26] : a few little French knots. Just a little bit.
[26:31] : Maybe even some fun little bit of stitching along here. I'm feeling like I
[26:37] : definitely want to bring some of that hair back,
[26:43] : her beautiful hair, and that also just will make her make her face feel a little more integrated with the rest of
[26:51] : the doll. All right. Does it want this too?
[26:57] : I don't think so. All right. Yeah, definitely. It wants
[27:02] : some stitching. And I love stitching through fabric and through paper. And I
[27:08] : think that's what it's going to need is just some some highlights here. And you could do
[27:13] : that with a gel pen or a paint marker,
[27:19] : right? So you can sort of create
[27:25] : a look of stitching or a handdrawn look of mark making.
[27:45] : If you don't love working with needle and thread, don't. Right. But I could
[27:53] : come in here with just some little crosses
[28:00] : that could be stitches. You could also draw your own stitching
[28:06] : guide. And look how much just that little bit of white starts to make
[28:12] : things pop. So, I think I'm gonna bring that up here.
[28:20] : And I'm going to just pull that hair in. I'll probably
[28:27] : grab maybe a little bit of paint. But this is kind of remembering.
[28:45] : It needs some matte medium over the top before I paint, I think, to make it all
[28:51] : kind of stay put and seal that in. I'm noticing that this was a delusions ink
[28:58] : spray, shimmery ink spray, and that pink is bleeding through the white. It's
[29:03] : giving me some of that texture there, but it's uh it's turning pink. And
[29:10] : sometimes it you just need to add that little bit of on there.
[29:18] : All right, let me get some matte medium down. I'm going to get some paint out. And then I think I'm gonna add a little
[29:25] : paint and a little stitching. Good morning, Anna. Welcome. Welcome.
[29:31] : And do I have a Where's my scraper?
[29:38] : There's another picture of her. I just love her beautiful, wise, soulful face.
[29:46] : That's another version of her.
[29:53] : All right, bear with me. I'm just looking for um something to put the
[29:59] : paint on that's not a brush. I try not to use paint on my
[30:06] : uh matte medium on my There's one on my paint brushes because it definitely gets
[30:11] : them all gunged up. lots of matte medium.
[30:22] : It's just going to give a little more integrity. You can Well, it's all shiny right now,
[30:31] : but I can see where that ink is kind of definitely bleeding through. So, if I'm wanting to paint over that, definitely
[30:37] : going to need this extra layer. I'm not putting matte medium over the fabric.
[30:43] : Not needed. I'm gonna
[30:50] : get it up here on this thin paper. So adding the matte medium makes this is
[30:55] : just you know inexpensive. This looks like even news print right
[31:00] : from gel printing on news print and I want to strengthen that paper so I can
[31:06] : continue to add up some lay layers. Yes, Ann, it's so true. Um, I love the
[31:14] : catalog. Love their clothing. And the catalog is so good for using in collage.
[31:20] : It's a beautiful matte paper. You can see how See how that's the ink
[31:28] : that the matte medium once it hit that ink, it turned that all pink. So when this dries, it might be a little even
[31:35] : more pink. All right. This feels like it needs oh
[31:40] : some white and maybe a little bit of yellow in here.
[31:53] : I think I'm always happiest when my mixed media dolls get all the mixed
[31:59] : media and get such a a fun variety of materials added.
[32:07] : Let's see. Okay. And because matte medium is basically like acrylic paint
[32:14] : without any pigment in it, I can paint right over that matte medium without
[32:20] : needing to wait for that to dry. This down here is
[32:26] : really wet. I might wait for that to dry.
[32:34] : Oh, lovely. I don't have any water over here. I didn't think I was painting this morning. I should know better.
[32:40] : Let's brighten that up. So, I want to bring in that yellow to really represent
[32:46] : the light of the lantern here.
[32:54] : And I'm trying to I might even want just a touch of that yellow here at her collar.
[33:03] : Almost like maybe a little lace around the edge,
[33:10] : but also just notice how putting that one little bit of yellow brightens her
[33:16] : face up again so she doesn't feel like she's
[33:21] : lost in those super bold colors.
[33:27] : Also, by adding just a little bit of yellow in a few different places, we're
[33:33] : creating that consistent flow. Notice right now I have yellow here and yellow here, and your eye doesn't really know
[33:40] : where to go. But if we come in and we just add
[33:48] : a little bit of yellow in a few different spots, then all the
[33:53] : sudden our eye is going to move differently
[33:59] : down the piece. It's a little bit hard to see with the glary wetness of the
[34:04] : paint, but all of a sudden, it's not like there's a top and a bottom. There's a nice flow between Good morning,
[34:11] : Yvonne.
[34:21] : And this uh tissue paper's getting all puffy and buckled, so I'm not wanting to
[34:30] : do too much with it until it dries. But also feeling like she needs Right.
[34:37] : We're just bringing in that lantern light. This is that sort of visual
[34:42] : representation of some of that light moving through. She's very grounded in
[34:49] : the light, but then the light is also very visible at the top.
[34:58] : All right. And put you over there for later.
[35:04] : I'm feeling like I want just a little more white or light on here,
[35:12] : but not too not too much.
[35:30] : Now she's feeling very angelic, like a beautiful
[35:38] : angel of light in some ways with that halo here and
[35:47] : right. So that light is really shining from her, emanating out from her.
[36:03] : Okay, I'm going to see what we can do to
[36:10] : give her some hair. Her hair is kind of a beautiful
[36:17] : blonde and with gray mixed in.
[36:24] : Let's see. two. That's an old dried up one.
[36:36] : No, that one doesn't want to work. Let's try something else.
[36:44] : [Music] May we just mix a little bit of this with our yellow and see what we can get.
[36:55] : There we go. That feels better. I don't even have a spray bottle here.
[37:02] : So, I want to just thin this up a little bit. Matte medium is great for
[37:07] : thinning up your paint, making it move a little bit better. Also creates a little
[37:14] : more it will make it more transparent or translucent.
[37:23] : Okay, I think it needs a little more dark there. That was a little too blonde.
[37:32] : Bring some of those different shades back.
[37:41] : Always thought I wanted long hair and a few times in my life I tried to grow it
[37:47] : out and it just wasn't me. It bugged me. I didn't want to mess with it, but I
[37:53] : have a a secret desire to have long flowing hair,
[37:59] : but it just doesn't work for me. So, I think that's why so many of my dolls have long flowing hair.
[38:08] : So, I will let that dry and then I'll come back with the lights again. So,
[38:13] : I'll bring some of that sort of glowy yellow and white back into
[38:21] : her hair to give it that lovely highlighted look.
[38:33] : And I'm pausing to just look and think, see where I want to go next. Of course,
[38:40] : I smeared yellow on it. I'm sure I have yellow on my hands.
[38:48] : It's feeling like there's too um much of a disconnect here between this pink and
[38:54] : the blue. But I love the pink, but it's like I want it to be perhaps a little more
[39:01] : vibrant pink. And as I added that matte medium, everything that was white down here
[39:07] : became kind of a a bright pink. So maybe we'll come in with a little fluorescent
[39:13] : magic here.
[39:23] : The fun thing about working with fluoresence is they are very transparent
[39:32] : and so they will show whatever is underneath.
[39:40] : what you paint them on. So over the yellow, it turns a little
[39:47] : orange. Over this blue, we might get a little bit of purple showing through
[39:53] : with that blue and that pink layering over. Thank you, Ann. It's what she felt she
[39:58] : needed. We just need to blend those colors so that those circles
[40:05] : didn't feel quite so separate on there.
[40:12] : That feels better. Maybe even a little more white down
[40:18] : here, but not right now. It's funny how this all got really puffy when I
[40:25] : added the matte medium to it. So, good to know about that tissue paper. You just don't
[40:32] : know until you try things.
[40:43] : Definitely feels like she wants just a little bit of a little bit of stitching on there.
[40:56] : It's so true. I never know ahead of time and I'm always just going for it. And uh
[41:03] : you know, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. And I'm okay with that, too.
[41:11] : Sometimes I walk away from it and come back. I usually just let the dolls sit.
[41:17] : Like I'm not teaching today. I won't be here sitting at this spot. So, she will
[41:22] : just sit here and I will walk by throughout the day and uh she'll tell me
[41:28] : exactly what it is that she needs.
[41:33] : All right. Want to brighten up these whites a little bit, I think. Let's see if we've
[41:39] : got a little bit of white. So, I've just got some plain white embroidery floss.
[41:45] : a needle threader, couple of needles. So, this last weekend
[41:53] : I was in Oregon City, Oregon, just outside of Portland, where my friend Andrea
[42:00] : Shabbalu has a beautiful home
[42:07] : and studio space. and my friend Emma Freeman, who's an amazing
[42:15] : lover of slow stitch and a fabulous teacher.
[42:21] : We taught a prayer flag class that was based in the five elements
[42:28] : and it was so magical. But in preparing for that and you know some of my other
[42:35] : personal work, I have just become really addicted to stitching lately.
[42:46] : And I'm thinking in November
[42:52] : I always do some kind of a gratitude
[42:57] : practice and a list of daily promps. I'm thinking we might do a stitched fabric
[43:05] : book and uh with drawing and stitching
[43:10] : some of our doll figures into our gratitude practice. So maybe bringing in
[43:17] : a little more of my love of stitching. And then I'm like, but I love art journaling and I love collage and I love
[43:24] : and I love and I love and I love all the things. So, I'm always looking for those
[43:30] : fun ways to really be able to integrate
[43:36] : all the different things that I love.
[43:41] : So, I'm just going to come in here and just using a very
[43:47] : simple running stitch. Let me see if I can
[43:53] : zoom in a little bit. Bear with me. I'm gonna take a second to focus here.
[43:59] : See, will you focus in on that for me? No, it doesn't want to focus.
[44:05] : That too close. There we go. Maybe that's a little
[44:10] : better. This camera is great for recording, but it can definitely get a little a little
[44:18] : fussy.
[44:23] : So, it's amazing what you can do with just the one simple stitch
[44:32] : in and out. You don't need to know anything about sewing to really fall in
[44:39] : love with how adding a little thread can create
[44:46] : magical texture in your art journals.
[44:51] : your paper dolls. It's so meditative. You can just barely
[45:00] : see that on there, but up close you can see this. And we were talking at the retreat last
[45:07] : week and uh Emma said one of her clients said it's not really a running stitch.
[45:14] : It's more like a slow walking stitch. And that was how the whole retreat felt.
[45:21] : It was just this beautiful I'm gonna move this over this way so I'm not
[45:27] : getting paint here. This beautiful experience of
[45:33] : slow walking stitch out among the beautiful trees of Oregon.
[45:39] : I love Oregon. I love the big trees.
[45:45] : Plus, I got to see my daughter who came, too. She helped Andrea in the kitchen with the hosting and the food
[45:52] : preparation. So, an extra special
[45:57] : time with her is always a treat.
[46:06] : You can start to see that coming together with just that little bit of added texture in there.
[46:13] : I'm not trying to perfectly align it with the leaves or the pattern that's
[46:19] : there.
[46:31] : And sometimes when I am stitching on paper,
[46:36] : when you bring the needle up and you bring it up in the the wrong place, you know, you get some extra little holes in
[46:43] : there. So sometimes I will come in and just pre
[46:48] : punch those holes. If I'm especially if I'm stitching on something thicker, I might use an all. Right. And then I have
[46:56] : this little stitching guide. It makes it easier to stitch through paper. You
[47:04] : don't notice that so much on the fabric, but you definitely notice that when you're working on paper. You can see
[47:12] : kind of see those. It creates pretty big holes in there,
[47:19] : but it helps you be a little more precise and not end up with a whole
[47:25] : bunch of extra holes. And then if you don't mind the holes, you can obviously just go for it, which
[47:31] : is, you know, my normal.
[47:54] : And I love how it just starts to add that little bit of textury magic on
[48:00] : there. And it always feels magic when I slow
[48:06] : down to add this kind of detail to a piece
[48:13] : with either a pen or a needle and thread. There's nothing that says you
[48:19] : have to do this with a needle and thread. So, I'm noticing as I get close to this, you know, these little
[48:27] : lines of white highlights here.
[48:32] : So, I can come in and just pull out some of those highlights. And I use two
[48:38] : pieces of or, you know, two strands of the embroidery floss here
[48:45] : and do a little bit of a outline stitch. just overlap those a little bit. So
[48:52] : again, it's just like if I were coming in with a gel pen and just adding those
[48:58] : extra little pops of white drawing with thread.
[49:06] : I'm also working on samples right now for my next retreat will be next June
[49:13] : with my friend Dena in a little sweet mountain town called Manitou Springs
[49:20] : down near Colorado Springs. And I don't care about the back how
[49:26] : messy it is because it's going to get glued down to my tag here. So you won't
[49:31] : see what's happening in the back.
[49:38] : I could also come in and outline a flower
[49:44] : or maybe we'll add a little French knot here. And Dena and I are hosting what we are
[49:52] : calling the elemental retreat. It will be an exploration of the seasons and the
[49:58] : elements. And we're going to do a handp painted and stitched tapestry that uh
[50:05] : includes botanicals through the seasons. We have so many ideas and I'm having so
[50:11] : much fun creating samples. So, look at that sweet little French knot. Just really adds that little pop of color.
[50:19] : And see, of course, I did drag it right through that paint like I knew I would,
[50:25] : but that's okay.
[50:30] : I'm just going to grab a baby wipe
[50:38] : and you know, so maybe it's just going to have a little bit of that color
[50:44] : added. So now she's feeling a little rainbow like. Okay, her body is finally
[50:50] : drying up a little bit there.
[50:56] : So I could spend a long time here with this part.
[51:02] : I can also come into the paper part of this.
[51:10] : I'm going to run out of thread because that paper's pretty thin. I can just do that running stitch along the
[51:20] : bottom of this piece of fabric here. So, we get this nice white highlight
[51:27] : line here. And you want to make sure your paper is really dry when you do this and not um
[51:34] : wet with paint or with glue because the paper when it's wet is very fragile
[51:42] : and it will tear. So, don't be impatient like I am.
[51:52] : and then maybe the little center of this flower.
[51:57] : So, I'm not starting and stopping the thread. Again, I there's, you know, those of you that love embroidery or
[52:03] : hand stitching, I'm not trying to make this neat on the back because no one's going to see it.
[52:11] : I'm just looking to connect with my inner lantern bearer
[52:19] : here.
[52:32] : I'm not even going to cut that thread. I'm just going to run it underneath there, knowing it's going to all get
[52:38] : glued down. All right, bear with me. Zoom back out again.
[52:50] : Refocus here.
[53:02] : Okay, there we go.
[53:08] : Yeah. So, she's feeling good. But I love this was kind of that happy accident that kind of maybe integrated this a
[53:15] : little bit more. And I'm looking at it going, okay, so it
[53:22] : needs something behind because I don't really want to see that
[53:27] : tag and I want it to be something that really matches what's already there
[53:36] : but doesn't that complements her but doesn't distract from her either. So this
[53:43] : whitish one feels pretty good. I knew there was a reason I pulled that one out.
[53:51] : My giant ooh stick.
[54:03] : When you're working with tags and doing any kind of collage, it's always easiest
[54:10] : to just let your paper hang over the edges of the tag and trim afterwards
[54:17] : rather than trying to cut something ahead of time to fit. Just let it flow
[54:24] : over and then it makes it so much easier.
[54:32] : Oh, that's so fun. Okay, I'm going to turn her over. Even
[54:37] : though some of that yellow paint still feels a little wet,
[54:43] : get glue even on those threads.
[55:02] : Just really put some pressure on there to make sure she's going to stay put.
[55:07] : Again, the the tag is just there to give us some of that stiffness.
[55:15] : All right. Definitely need to come back, add a little white highlight to her
[55:20] : hair, and then I am going to stitch this lantern on. Looks like I
[55:27] : glued her hand down there. How did I do that? I don't know. Come back off of there.
[55:34] : So, I think I'm going to have that get stitched right there under
[55:40] : her hand. So, it looks like she's holding this is holding the space of my lantern, which I really, really love.
[55:50] : And when I stitch that, it's gonna probably pop up a little bit.
[55:55] : I wonder. I might be able to just use some tape on there, too.
[56:04] : Let's see.
[56:11] : Feels like I just want kind of a temporary solution for the moment so that I can get her on there and then I
[56:20] : can figure out. Okay, it's too big to do that.
[56:28] : Okay, stitching it is. So, I'm gonna have to stitch that on.
[56:36] : But I think I want this all to get nice and dry. And I want to add that
[56:44] : little bit of bring some of that white back to her hair.
[56:52] : And you can see I still have some paint over here. So, I will grab a junk
[56:58] : journal and paint up some painty pages.
[57:03] : I won't waste any of this paint. She's going to have a little bit of fun pink in her hair there.
[57:14] : And again, just adding that little bit of paint just continues to, you know,
[57:19] : make her more my own, too. So, don't be afraid to paint right over
[57:26] : the the top of images.
[57:32] : It's like she needs that white hair to really represent that she is definitely
[57:38] : a wise crone.
[57:43] : And I like she's going to sort of blend into the light as if she is one with the light.
[57:52] : Okay, she feels a little more integrated there.
[57:59] : I think she's good for now. Thank you. So yes, I'm feeling really like she came
[58:07] : out not at all like I had imagined and ex
[58:13] : exactly like she was supposed to.
[58:19] : So connecting to that magic of that lantern bearer,
[58:24] : shining our own light brightly,
[58:29] : making sure that we're calm and connected.
[58:35] : And from that place of calm and connection, we can then light the way for others. Thanks everyone for joining
[58:42] : me. So great to be with you all. working on some fun days, some fun ideas for
[58:48] : October. So, watch your email inbox to
[58:54] : see what that is. Going to change things up a little bit,
[59:00] : but uh haven't decided what I want that to look like. But she's coming together. Feels like she still needs a little
[59:07] : little more of this white and light in here, but she's coming together. time to
[59:13] : let her sit, walk away, and then come back later. And don't forget, the magic
[59:18] : always happens when we take the time to reflect on those journaling prompts
[59:24] : after having created our beautiful lantern keeper dolls. As always, thank
[59:30] : you for joining me. Please hit that like button, leave me a comment, let me know what you loved about the video. It helps
[59:37] : other people know this is a video worth watching as we continue to grow this
[59:44] : channel. Your help means the world to me. So, thanks everybody. Thanks for being here live. Thanks for watching the
[59:50] : replay. And I'll see you next week.
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