The time is here. These two are ready to finally flee the coup but first, proper introductions and a little story.

Embroidery on doll collar, Jonna’s spring clothes by Fig and Me.

Before we get ahead of ourselves…this post is extremely photo heavy…and word heavy. Go make yourself a good cup of tea, grab a cold beer or whatever beverage of choice, because we are about to dive into the magical world that is Jonna and that is doll making. I will go and pour myself a delicious latte. Be right back.

Jonna is a natural fiber art doll made by fig&me. She is articulated but has no wire armature inside.

I will perhaps start with the truth. I lost all heart while making this beautiful girl. Initially, I had designed her and expected her to arrive for the December fetes, but as usual, I ran out of time. Decided to take a two week break instead.

I have been following some sort of pattern and that is that I get an itch to design a “new” doll, every few years, and it always happens in January. Well, I started with her in January, though the ideas behind her were a bit older.

I usually let thoughts on doll improvements simmer for quite a while before I gather enough courage to actually try them on my dolls.

With Jonna, as in the previous post, I wanted to do some more experiments on doll movement without the need for an armature. The experiments were a success and I am extremely happy with the way she moves and how she feels in your hands.

Jonna, an articulated natural fiber art doll by fig and me.

Somewhere along the line, in between starting to sew for her and once she had her hair and all that, I just became a puddle of human pain. Every single day I was desperate to work on her, burning with energy to make things for her, but there was a wall.

I am not sure what the problem was. Sure, there were so many doubts. I even thought that though I thought the movement was sweet, I was perhaps trying too hard. I can’t even tell you the things that went through my head. Horrid negative talk of the worst, worst kind.

Telling myself all sorts of nasty things…that prevented me from working on her. Though I wanted to, though I had the time and energy…there was a negative boundary I could not cross. It started to weigh on me.

Jonna of the Winter. natural fiber art doll by fig&me.

When I feel like that, I can’t work on the dolls. Not to say that I only work on my dolls when happy thoughts are in my head…I think they go hand in hand. When I work on my dolls I am truly happy. They make me happy.

But sometimes, if I am in a rotten sort of mood, I just can’t bring myself to work with that energy passing through me. I go for a walk and 99% of the time that helps.

Nature heals me and allows me to breathe into those thoughts, acknowledge their presence and know that I will get back to work. So the anguish perishes…but these thoughts, this boundary will not go away.

Cashmere doll shoes, for Jonna. Art dolls by fig and me.

I have been doing this for so long that luckily for me I have experience with these sort of walls. I have seen them come and go…which gives me strength to know that no matter how thick the current one looks, how heavy it feels, it will also dissipate.

Sometimes I try to force myself out of this weird funk. I start by not letting those negative thoughts creep on me. I read my previous blogs, read some of my own stories, look at photos of dolls I have made before and that ALWAYS gives me courage to keep working.

It is such a funny thing. You would think that after so many years on these rodeos I would be immune to the dips, but if anything I only know how to handle them. They still come, I still feel insecure and so sad. Like I will never make another doll. They still hit me out of nowhere.

Natural fiber art doll by fig and me. Jonna of the Winter.

Little doll shoes, made of cashmere and wool felt. Art dolls by fig and me.

When they finally lift am I ever glad! Is it a special kind of tea? an exercise? what the heck do I do to get out of them? Walking helps. Journaling my negativity out helps. Looking at photos and words of past work is what helps me the most, the secret weapon, if the first two didn’t deal with it effectively.

I am writing all this because I know so many of you are dollmakers too. For those who do not make dolls and just happen to come here to look at Jonna, it’s important that you know how emotional and spiritual dollmaking is for me (and for many others).

It’s a sort of joy ride. With beautiful highs, of elation, completion, success. But it is also fraught with tremendous emotional expense.One starts exercising the creative muscles with needle and thread and those walls just follow like doom. Thought you should be aware.

Now that we have gotten that out of the chest, let’s get to meet her Royal Highness!

Jonna of the Winter. Natural fiber art doll by Fig and me.

If the amount of photos I took doesn’t give it away, let me tell you: I am deeply in love with her. It wasn’t her fault that I went through one of these foggy bits while I was making her. If anything, that is her gift to me.

Jonna is indeed a royal, of the house of Fig & Me. Most royal house in the land, wouldn’t you agree? It doesn’t matter that in this land there are no other royal houses, or that it is all made up, because to Jonna it all sounds perfectly alright.

She is as goody as she is needy. She is demanding and sometimes quite horrendous. But then again, most of my dolls are a bit of trouble. Nothing new under the sun.

I named her Jonna and she added the last bit: “Jonna of the Winter”. I told her we probably wouldn’t get to go outside, with these frigid temperatures the camera refuses to play ball, but she says it doesn’t matter. She will be Jonna of the Winter because that is her name.

I love it when my dolls choose long names. Tatjana Buttonloop, Hettie Grey, Louna Tumbleweed…I guess Jonna of the Winter is a member of the tribe. All four of them total crackpots.

Now that formalities have been observed, let’s discuss her clothes. Jonna has three outfits. No! She doesn’t wear them all at the same time!

Let’s start with the pink one. Made of handkerchief linen and with some fancy pin tucks. Then we decided it needed a little more “oomph”. Jonna loves that word by the way. It makes her giggle.

Said oomph (doll giggles) was achieved with some embroidery. The collar was the chosen victim and to our own surprise, it came out alright! We have never embroidered such a tiny collar.

If you could have seen me sewing the collar…I was all pins and needles. Literally. We added a wooden bow button because why not?

Jonna of the Winter. Natural fiber art doll by Fig and Me. Wearing her beautiful spring linen dress.

Her wool pointy hat is very reminiscent of Le Fig (a knitting hat pattern by yours truly). Obviously Le Fig is ginormeous compared to Jonna, she could fit her entire lovely self inside that hat. But hers fits her alright (and is made in the same way as Le Fig).

We didn’t want to make ties for it, so Jonna went rummaging in the tin box full of ribbons and she picked this tiny silk one. I think it looks perfect Jonna!

I sewed a pair of long underpants in cotton with wool ribbing (elastic on waist) and the coziest boots in the land. They are made with boiled nubby lambswool. Slightly felted. They have leather ties, aren’t they cute?

I have to agree with you: I had way too much fun making all her clothes. Thank goodness for walls that allow us to dive back into doll making with a vengeance!

Jonna of the Winter. Natural fiber art doll by Fig and Me. Wearing her wool pointy hat with a wool felt bead.

AND…as if this wasn’t enough…we go ahead and add a wool felt bead to the hat. My husband is utterly disgusted with me and refuses to give any opinion anymore on doll clothing. He is sick and tired of being shoved doll clothes in the face as soon as he walks through the door. Then obviously when I am left to my own devices we never know what mischief we may happen upon.

A true labour hazard.

Then she had the audacity to ask for a teddy bear. First I tried to convince her that having a bear her own size would be so miraculous, how wonderful! But no, she did not bite.

Then I said, maybe even a larger one? Wouldn’t it be so nice to be able to snuggle atop a furry bear? Nope. She didn’t buy my teddy bear advances. She used her hands and said “this big”. Heart on the floor…cheese and crackers, that’s a tiny bear! I said.

She named him Bjorn.

Of course.

Jonna of the Winter and her teddy bear Bjorn. Natural fiber art doll by Fig and Me.

Jonna had to help Bjorn to learn to walk. He was born so quickly that he didn’t had time to catch up. But after a few encouraging words from Jonna (and a couple of adjustments to his thread joints…ehem) he was able to move his legs and arms and not only walk, but run towards the welcoming arms of his best friend.

I didn’t anticipate Jonna wanting a bear, but now that she has Bjorn I can’t even imagine how I didn’t think this from the very beginning. Jonna just looks so happy with Bjorn and he is growing into a more confident bear by the minute.

You might not know this but Bjorn, at the moment, is very shy. I do expect him to get a little more adventurous as he starts seeing all the shenanigans that Jonna gets up to.

It’s only a matter of time before he is truly and utterly corrupted.

Miniature teddy bears are not for the faint of heart. I already knew this and pretty much like natural childbirth, I forgot. Then my naive and forgetful self grabbed a piece of suitable teddy bear material and needles in hand proceeded to hand-sew the entire bear.

Boy oh boy! turning those little legs and arms! I almost stepped on him…on purpose. I was so scared the seams were going to crack that I almost told myself: if the seams are split open I call it quits and I make Jonna a pretend teddy bear.

But guess what? Hand-sewn seams are really very strong I guess, because I cajoled and pushed and pulled and twisted and nothing. I had to continue the teddy bear adventure. So we proceeded to stuff with glass beads and off-cuts of cashmere. Eyes and nose embroidered. Limbs jointed. Ready for hugs I said.

“Not without his bunny bonnet!” retorted a horrid child.

What? A bunny bonnet? for the bear? Do you think I’m made out of butter? No backbone to defend myself?

Exhibit A:

Let this be a lesson to you boys and girls:What Jonna wants, Jonna gets.

So now what? Well I guess it is fine time to find them a mother. A caring human who can be entrusted with such a pair. Someone loving, maker of soups and tucker of beds. Someone with warm kisses and gentle hands. A true mother, who can take them under her wing and show them the big world.

If you are interested in purchasing this set of natural art toys you can enter your name in the e-form that follows. They are being sold together, of course, as there is no heart out there that can separate them.

Jonna (with her amazing wardrobe) and Bjorn (with his lonesome bonnet) are being sold for $1550 USD plus postage. They travel from Canada with insurance and tracking number. We will welcome all interested mothers to submit the form, for a period of 3 days and we will close the form on Monday February 17th at noon EST, at which point we will draw a name at random and proceed to invoice them via Paypal (only form of payment, invoice due upon receipt). Shipping quotes vary by country, approximately $50 USD.

Our main request is that only people personally interested in buying Jonna and Bjorn enter their details in this form, and not enter on behalf of someone else. Thank you.

-ENTRY FORM HAS BEEN DELETED. JONNA HAS FOUND A LOVING FAMILY. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR OPENING THE DOORS OF YOUR HOME TO HER AND BJORN.

But hey! We are not even remotely finished. I did tell you Jonna had a beautiful wardrobe, right? And I haven’t even given you her “stats”. So here we go.

Jonna is a natural fiber art doll, made of wool and european doll tricot. Her entire body has been needle felted and then covered in cotton. Her limbs have a lot of movement due to inner shenanigans. She can bend her arms and legs, stand when propped, and her head moves up and down and to all sides.

Her inner torso is weighted with dollmaking glass beads for added “oomph”. Giggle.

Jonna’s eyes are embroidered and her freckles hand-painted. Her hair is very long camel weft, hand-sewn to a mohair cap done in crochet and also sewn to her head.

Jonna has the body proportions of an almost 10 year old and she is 13” tall.

She comes with the pink outfit described and I guess we could call this her Spring outfit. It is a very roomy dress, fit for a party or a nice walk.

But she also comes with another outfit, a white and grey dress. The dress has long sleeves and is made of repurposed jersey and cashmere. It has an extremely ample skirt and closes at back with sewn-in snaps.

She wears this with thigh-high socks made of stripy red jersey and her fabulous cashmere maryjanes. The shoes have wool felt soles and handmade roses that pose as buttons. A strike of genius at the umpteen hour.

Jonna, being a child of my own heart, is a lover of hats. So all her outfits have a matching chapeau. This ensemble comes with a handknit cabled bonnet (made with sock weight yarn). I used my favourite japanese chart book to knit her bonnet. Simple twisted but lovely and warm cables.

Bjorn’s hat is made of cashmere lining and angora outer, with a bit of pink on the ears for good measure. It closes with a handmade button loop and a silly button.

Jonna and Bjorn and all their wee clothes are entirely handmade by me.

She does have one more outfit, la pièce de résistance: a beautiful red cabled dress, with a handmade bonnet and matching capelet. But we thought (with due concern) that we were pushing it today (with 30+ photos) so we will bring you more photos over the weekend.

Temperatures are meant to go up so that means we will brave the great outdoors for one last photo shoot and hurrah! of Jonna of the Winter and Bjorn the Bear. For now, we leave you in good hands.

If you are one of the families entering for them, we send blessings and many thanks. Your support keeps us going, through thick and thin, walls and what not. We will be back with more pics of the dynamic duo.

Much love,
Fabs and the Gang