Chanelle's Healing Dolls
The Challenge is a Doll
From Deep within your heart. We're sending little trims and things To help you make a start. Tell us a story if you like Show us your inner soul There's tales out there we need to hear Let it all unfold One Millennium has past Another one we face Our pioneers helped shape our lives To create a better race. Salt of the Earth we are As we look into the Future Dance and be a soul maker As our spirit within we Nurture. Author unknown. |
Chanelle calls making her healing dolls her sanity and prefers to call them “meaning dolls.” She lives in a small coastal country town in Australia. She has been making and designing dolls for four years. These healing dolls, Abuse and New Life. began with a cloth doll challenge called Millennium Madness. This was the Australian Doll Retreat ran by Doll-a-Rama. The challenge began with each participant receiving the poem and fabric to use on her doll.
Chanelle made two dolls, one that focused on the pain, the other on the growth beyond the pain. Her first doll is called ABUSE. She was inspired by the poem and the fabric she received from a doll challenge. The blue and purple fabric reminded her of a big bruise. She made a doll that has a blue, bruised body, her legs are wrapped with blue fabric and she has blue hair. The doll is kneeling, pulling at her hair, with an open mouth like she was screaming, and beads for tears streaming down her face. She has a happy face, beaded mask lying at her knees. Her story tells of how when she took away the mask and clothes (things that hide her true self), this is how she felt – bruised, screaming and wanting to pull her hair out. She says, “I didn't want to make just another doll, a doll that people would say - isn't that pretty and sit it up on the shelf. I wanted a doll that made a statement, I wanted to make a doll that told a story, a doll that meant something, that spoke to someone, as if to say - I know how you feel, because I've felt like that too. I wanted a doll that spoke out and didn't hold the secrets. I want people to know a small part of the effect that abuse had on people- whether it was sexual, physical or emotional abuse.” |
"I learned through making the doll that, I could speak through my dolls without saying any words, I could express myself. I’ve met others who have had similar experiences and lived through them. It has been my experience that many doctors put people on medication, instead of letting them deal with there feelings. Many people are scared to express what they are feeling, because they were worried what other people would think of them, or that they wouldn’t be able to stay in control."
"This doll did cause a bit of a "ruckus”. People said "how could you make such a hideous doll" and "fancy making such a morbid doll". I know the person who had the most problem with it was still dealing with her past hurts. When I sent the doll to the exhibition, I expected it to come back in tatters, it didn’t. I didn't win any awards, but I did get a letter from elinor peace bailey saying how much she admired my work and its message."
Chanelle’s second doll, NEW LIFE, was inspired from the poem as well and fabric in shades of green and olive. This doll is about her healing process. She wrapped her with vines and flowers. She has a mirror for a face and holds a clay face in her hands. She has a ball of different emotions. This doll represents moving through the healing process and carrying on with living your life.
Chanelle says, “With the NEW LIFE doll, I wanted to give hope, and not just leave it as a tale of woe, or this is what you will feel like forever with the Abuse Doll.”
But with the rain to wash away and rejuvenate, the shoots of greenery start to grow. Life starts again. I wanted people to know you can get through this and start to live again. The doll became a symbol for Chanelle, a reminder that when things get me her down, life can start again.
“A person said to me once,” she says, “when bad things happen to you - you can get bitter or you can get better.” “You can learn something and apply it to your life or you can be always miserable wondering Why me?! I choose the Why not me!”
“There are four faces on the ball, with beads as a vine baked into the clay, You choose the face you want to wear. Not saying that we should always be happy or always were the mask of contentment, but there are many faces to reflect, of different emotion, at different times in our lives.”
“Most of the crafts that I have done in life, never spoke to me.”, she says. This was a different, wonderful experience for Chanelle, to make something, that can speak without words. “I hope to show my dolls to other young girls and women who gone through abuse.”
This doll can stand as a symbol of the experience and acknow-
ledgement there is new life beyond it. “I showed the abuse doll to a young girl who said, "I know how that doll feels". I want to show her the New Life doll, and hope that she will understand that through healing, she can also know how this doll feels too.”
"This doll did cause a bit of a "ruckus”. People said "how could you make such a hideous doll" and "fancy making such a morbid doll". I know the person who had the most problem with it was still dealing with her past hurts. When I sent the doll to the exhibition, I expected it to come back in tatters, it didn’t. I didn't win any awards, but I did get a letter from elinor peace bailey saying how much she admired my work and its message."
Chanelle’s second doll, NEW LIFE, was inspired from the poem as well and fabric in shades of green and olive. This doll is about her healing process. She wrapped her with vines and flowers. She has a mirror for a face and holds a clay face in her hands. She has a ball of different emotions. This doll represents moving through the healing process and carrying on with living your life.
Chanelle says, “With the NEW LIFE doll, I wanted to give hope, and not just leave it as a tale of woe, or this is what you will feel like forever with the Abuse Doll.”
But with the rain to wash away and rejuvenate, the shoots of greenery start to grow. Life starts again. I wanted people to know you can get through this and start to live again. The doll became a symbol for Chanelle, a reminder that when things get me her down, life can start again.
“A person said to me once,” she says, “when bad things happen to you - you can get bitter or you can get better.” “You can learn something and apply it to your life or you can be always miserable wondering Why me?! I choose the Why not me!”
“There are four faces on the ball, with beads as a vine baked into the clay, You choose the face you want to wear. Not saying that we should always be happy or always were the mask of contentment, but there are many faces to reflect, of different emotion, at different times in our lives.”
“Most of the crafts that I have done in life, never spoke to me.”, she says. This was a different, wonderful experience for Chanelle, to make something, that can speak without words. “I hope to show my dolls to other young girls and women who gone through abuse.”
This doll can stand as a symbol of the experience and acknow-
ledgement there is new life beyond it. “I showed the abuse doll to a young girl who said, "I know how that doll feels". I want to show her the New Life doll, and hope that she will understand that through healing, she can also know how this doll feels too.”