Taking Stock
In November 2023 I went to my local St. Vinnie’s (Charity/Thrift) Dig & Save.
Dig: The items you buy are in huge un-sorted bins. Wear protective gloves and take your allergy meds
Save: Clothing and linens $1.50usd per lb. Small Misc items $0.60 a lb.
I was hunting for cheap fabric from which to make robes for my Botched Restoration Jesuses.
I haven’t told you folks about my Army of Botched Jebus….
In 2012, in Borja (a small city in northeastern Spain) an elderly woman named Cecilia Giménez was unhappy with how a 1930’s Jesus fresco at her Church had fallen into disrepair. She enjoyed dabbling in paints in her spare time so she took it upon herself to fix the fresco. Why not? She was neither asked to do so nor did she tell anyone of her plans.
She simply took her paints to the church and a photo of what the fresco had looked like a decade earlier to guide her.
Below, from left to right is:
What she aimed for. What she started with. What she left.
And the world called it Monkey Jesus/ Potato Chirst
She may have ruined a painting but the influx of visitors and interest in Borj/ Monkey Christ boosted the local economy and allowed for a variety of upgrades to be made to the church and town overall.
I don’t have time to unpack all the ways Homo Ecce (the fresco) and its restoration serves as a symbol to folks. Suffice to say in 2024 it still brings joy and resonates.
So in December 2021 I took a New York Fire Fighter action figure I had and…
My First Botched Jesus Figure
Bad day? Pick up an Anime figurine from a Hobby Off and…
Friend Ebony sprucing up her goth-home? Make one to fit a tiny picture frame she’s given you.
State of the Jebuses nowadays….which is why I was at Dig & Save getting batter fabric than I would have found at Joann Fabric….
But remember, Dig & Save doesn’t just have clothing and linens…it has MISC. And those wild bins of MISC where where I got my first Rainbow high doll and a few more male-doll Jesus bodies….And had a very cocky man try and flirt with me by passing me fake money he found in the bin with the comment “don’t spend it all in one place”…once he started showing me spa-like head masagers I moved to a different bin.
The Rainbow High doll (my first one) and the thrill of not knowing what I’d find hooked me on Dig & Save. I LOVE a spot of random and the adrenaline of a search.
It was when I brought this doll home, stinky and nasty, I knew I had to slow my roll.
Precious Moments Toto doll
It doesn’t matter that my transformation of this horrid doll was spectacular….I already HAD a backlog of doll supplies and bodies. Even after culling and selling in Japan a stunning amount of pre-transformation doll bodies and items moved with me.
I decided to limit myself to only my stock dolls.
…And then I took some Ambien after a stressful night and ended up buying a BAG OF USED DOLLS for 50$ on Facebook Marketplace.
And THEN decided to limit myself to only my stock dolls.
My 2024 Jan-March three month goal includes a self-challenge to make (from my stock) a doll and three blog posts a week.
But I can’t just want that to happen, I have to set myself up for a smooth creative flow.
In my bullet journal (BuJo) for 2024 I’ve been importing old “to make/idea” doll lists.
I also have photographed my stock.
I’m keeping the photos on my computer and have physically printed them out and glued them into my BuJo so I don’t have to open up boxes to see what I have…and can write notes for future projects next to the photos or cross out dolls as they are used.
I’d already 70% organized and filed my doll patterns…although I lost one box in the move that contained pschedelic maxi dresses and doll clothing sewing books.
I haven’t photographed my doll clothing stash yet but this is what we are working with in this 3 month “nothing comes into the stock box” self-challenge (some dolls in progress not shown)
So onward onto the challenge!
If there are any dolls you’d like to see, or any photos that give you ideas, let me know.
