Customer Reviews

Soul Mate Dolls

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I did not know what to expect when I ordered Soul Mate Dolls by Noren Crone-Findlay. After it's arrival I became totally intrigued. First of all, Noreen is so in tune with nature that she thanks the trees for the paper on which the book is printed. Each chapter is a story in itself. In the Basic Flat Soul Mate Doll chapter, learn not only how to cut and use the templates provided, but also how to weave on a simple loom made with ordinary household materials, how to draw a face without being intimidated and how to make your own wooden knitting needles!Chapter Two is The Power Story. Enter the realm of creativty and unleash your inner spirit. Read the delightful story of Mollie Whuppie, delight in Soul Mate doll chairs in the shape of animals and flowers, make a pocket doll and her pouch or crochet a tiny hat.Chapter Three delves into dreams, journals and doodling. Here you can make a bendable doll out of chenille stems or wire, knit an Ancient Dancer or soar and dance with cardstock dolls. I especially liked how Noreen gives you permission to be child-like in the creative approach.Chapter Four is emotion where our emotions can be recognized and immortalized.Both happy and sad feelings are explored through these dolls. Even a very simple tassel doll can be given to someone just as a thank you. You can construct a little kitty yarn dolly for the cat person in your life.Chapter Five is Magic mixed with Whimsey. How about a mermaid , a fairy or an elf. The Magical Children can be easily personalized with a tiny photo of your child's face.In Chapter Six, we find ourseleves developing a relationship with the Wise Old Person within us. How about carving a head from an avocado pit or making a paper kimono? Soul Mate Dolls is mind expanding, funny and mystical.Noreen Crone-Findlay gives us the tools to use our hands to reach into our hearts and souls.

Soul Mates Dolls is emphatically not just for doll makers. It can be read and enjoyed on two levels: that of a skillfully written and beautifully illustrated doll making book (the instructions are clear and easy to understand)and a jumping off place for a voyage of self discovery via doll making. There were several dolls that leapt off the page and into my heart; I want them as companions in my life! Soul Mate Dolls is written with humour, wisdom and clarity. It is a joy to travel with this book and I recommend it enthusiastically. It will expand your heart...

The book is charming, with lots of ideas for creating one-of-a-kind dolls. DEFINITELY not your usual Raggedy-Annes or floppy nonentities. If I were leading a women's retreat, either for my church or for a women's group, then I would want to use this book to help others exercise their hands and their souls at the same time. For me, harried mom of a toddler, who makes her dolls on the run, while coping with wind, toads large dogs and spraying hoses, however, the book did not offer much. Buy it if you have the time and inclination to do a lot more thinking than sewing.

I was not impressed with this book on either a spiritual or artistic level. The spiritual exercises were obvious and thin, and the dolls themselves didn't do much for me. I didn't learn much from this book. Perhaps my expectations were too high because I was hoping for something similar to Cassandra Light's _Way of the Doll_. I did think that some of the exercises and dolls would be useful for a class or group where you didn't want to go into too much detail on either the dollmaking or spiritual exercises. In particular, some of the paper dolls techniques were nice and would be easy to do for people without a strong craft background. A beginner to crafts or spiritual exercises might get more from this than I did.

This book has a very creative approach to dolls, and shows different mediums and there possible use in dollmaking.

I had high hopes for this book, but instead of inspiring my OWN creativity and soul journey, I found the book filled with patterns and detailed instructions for making the AUTHOR'S soul dolls. It just ain't the same unless they're your own! I appreciated the paper doll pattern and fabric clothing, but I don't knit or own a sewing machine, so I was left just admiring the author's talents. Very detailed instructions - 14 steps to make a tassel doll, for example, with pipe-cleaner type hands - but the pages of numbered steps were rather numbing. I was also annoyed that every doll had "Soul Mate" in its name: Pocket Soul Mate Dolls, Skater Soul Mate Doll, Forgiveness Fairy Soul Mate Doll. (Name reinforcement can go too far.) Although it didn't work for me, this could be a great book for someone already comfortable with sewing, knitting, and weaving doll clothes. And I did enjoy some of the author's other art-therapy techniques, such as starting a Coloring Pages journal and using big fat crayons to "take a holiday from words."

I received this book just before the holidays hoping to make a doll as a gift for a friend in need. However... now I am so inspired, that I am going to do a group therapy session with this book for several women and let them make their own dolls according to whatever needs they have. This will be fun, the book is easy to understand even for the most challenged "crafty" person!

This is not a book on how to make plush dolls; this is a book on how to make jointed paperdolls. The ideas for embellishment are OK, but all in all I was dissapointed. I was looking for a more creative stuffed doll book.

Some of the patterns were very nice, however, if you're looking for paper doll patterns or for pleasant looking faces. Many of the patterns, with a little adjustment, can be made into a plush doll. The book did have a very nice weaving technique, though.

Also, the 'spiritual excersizes' leave a lot to be desired. To me, they seemed to be how a non-Wicca person sees Wicca. Too much emphasis was placed on the dolls and the person creating them for healing purposes.
This is one book any library won't weep without.