The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

I am a doll collector. Dolls are a passion of mine. These days, I collect Asian Ball Jointed Dolls (ABJDs or just BJDs). However, I still have a large store of my old fashion dolls. I wasn't satisfied with the figure I had for my patron goddess.

I called her Satarupa until recently, but she has told me that her name is a pair of Chinese ideographs - characters - the first meaning illumination and brightness, the second meaning beauty. In Chinese, this is Ming Mei; in Sino-Japanese Meimi or Myōmi, and in Japanese Akiyoshi. She seems to prefer I add the character for woman at the end, thus Mingmeinü, Meiminyō/Myōminyō, or Akiyoshime. She is a multifaceted deity, who answers to Sarasvati, Kichijōten, Benten, and I recently discovered, Lakshmi.

As she is my patroness, I really wanted a special figure for her on my altar. I dug out one of my old fashion dolls, a 16 inch Tonner Mei Li (this was actually before she revealed what her name was, and I don't think it's a coincidence!) I've been working on her for a while, getting her just right. The clothes were easy. I simply draped her in silk chiffon and pinned it in place. Even styling her hair was easy. I usually have problems getting hair just right, but I didn't really have any problems this time.

The real pain was the jewelry, which I think was because I did it last and had to mess with all the other layers. The necklace is still tricky, because it gets tangled and slips around. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be happy to listen!

I also need some suggestions for a crown. I want her to have a diadem in the shape of a crescent, but I'm not sure how to do that.

Here she is. I love her, and I can't wait to consecrate her. I already presented her, and she was very well received.


IMG_0087 by Redfaery1987, on Flickr

I am a doll collector. Dolls are a passion of mine. These days, I collect Asian Ball Jointed Dolls (ABJDs or just BJDs). However, I still have a large store of my old fashion dolls. I wasn't satisfied with the figure I had for my patron goddess.

 
Very neat! I also collect bjds, but I haven't ventured into any religious representations (nor do I plan to, really). I've seen some really neat ones, though, particularly that Loki doll.

Nice work, and interesting how you've used your passion for doll collecting as an outlet for your spiritual expression.

Maybe it's the hand positions, but she reminds me of a Buddhist Tara.

 
Thanks, I was indeed inspired by Buddhist mudras when I posed her hands like that. I'm not so sure why her face came looking so stern in the picture. It's very soft in real life.

I collect Asian Ball Jointed Dolls currently, but they're more connected with my stories. I plan on blessing them some time soon. I've come to believe more and more that they have some sort of life force in them. I've poured a lot of my energies into them, and I think it's not unreasonable to believe that they've come alive from it.