Being able to spend my brain time taking a deep dive into these dolls over the last stretch has saved my sanity. Spend 5 minutes listening to the news? Remedy by spending 15 hours on anatomical details and mournful faces.

Sigh.

Breathe.

Breathe deeply.

Breathe deeply again.

Here is a peek at Magdalena, Anatomica.

Magdalena is 17 inches tall. Her organs are spilling out of her, because I needed them to be. A few months ago I found a copy of a collection of Gustav Doré’s masterful illustrations from 1887it had experienced some extensive water damage, (therefore it was affordable and I didn’t need to feel guilty about repurposing some of the plates). Hence, Magdalena’s torso has some really lovely, yet harrowing stories to tell. Her lovely auburn hair is dyed alpaca wool.

I’ve also been spending time creating Agáta Anatomica. She was created with wire, wood, and clay. Her organs have been sculpted and stitched with linens and salvaged fabrics, creating three dimensional bronchial passageways, arteries and veins. Her hair is dyed Burgundy alpaca wool. Spending time doing freeform handstitchery is really the perfect form of meditation for me. She is about 17 inches high.

Lastly, mother Sarah and baby Jemima came to me and needed to be made and held. They were discovered in the darkest part of my brain, laying peacefully in the shaded forest, near the stream. No one knows what happened, not even the little noted hemmed into her dress gives us a clue. We only know that they now lay peacefully in a coffin, together.

Sarah’s dress is stitched from some really lovely Latvian linen, and Jemima is gently wrapped in a small piece of lace, rescued from a trunk of my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Burkhardt’s, old clothing. I luckily found a tiny errant piece of a tattered old bonnet. They lie in a coffin I made from salvaged wood. They hang from a small nail inside, but can also taken out.

All of these dolls will be available for purchase through Morbid Anatomy Museum on Tuesday, January 26th at 12 pm, EST.

Thank you my friends.

x jana x

in the cold dark winter

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