........whose goal it is to Get Dolls into Unexpected Places
Continuing the work and message of Elinor Peace Bailey
In thinking about the state of the world and planet I share a bit of wisdom Elinor's thoughts on healing, transformation and dollmaking - Barb Kobe
Healing
by Elinor Peace Bailey
I became aware of a peculiar connection with dolls as I began to teach. I’d experienced the thrill of completing a doll, but it didn’t seem too different from finishing any other work of wit, except I found myself talking to the doll. That would have been more remarkable if I weren’t given to making speeches to myself on occasion.
But, in class I found my students going through real transformations—sharing deeply personal life stories with me. Like the time a lade who was crotchety and opinionated galumphed into my classroom, ranting and raving about dolls being intended for children—she stated flatly that no adult needed a doll. Gradually, as the day progressed, she changed. She held the doll to her. As it came to completion, she said that “no child was going to get this doll”; it was hers. Changes like that one are common. So is open bonding with a doll, and, from time to time, an open admission that the doll is a grieving tool or an expression of rage.
My classes are often filled with nurses, psychologists, and teachers. They need time out to center, to make jokes, to do something silly—or lush and beautiful. Dolls provide the images, becoming the receptacles of their thoughts—their stories.
Elinor Peace Bailey, “Healing,” APWPWD Newsletter, February 1992.
Below is one of Elinor's healing dolls she created inspired by Barb Kobe's book The Healing Doll Way
Purchase your copy at www.healingdollway.com
Elinor's Scapegoat Doll - Anger
Body wrapped in a Scroll
Body wrapped in a Scroll
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