All things celestial

I don't sew (yet anyway), so I depend on a few artists for my doll forms. I have purchased most of my forms from Monica Magness. I consider myself lucky to have found her at the very beginning of my beading journey. She regularly lists ready made forms in her EBay and Etsy stores.

Ronda Kivett is another artist that makes beautiful forms as well as faces. And last, but certainly not least is Carol Strand-Siebers. All of these women are easy to work with, are very accommodating and create high quality merchandise. If you're looking for forms or faces, their websites are a good place to start.

Now with 'all things celestial', let's start with angels. I normally completely bead the surface of my dolls, however sometimes I acquire a form that is too beautiful to completely cover, my first and second angels were perfect examples of that. Both of these forms and faces were created by Monica, they are 5" tall and far more beautiful than my camera can capture.


The blue angel remains in my collection... unfortunately, minus it's face. I have a cat that has a taste for polymer clay and whenever I leave a doll unattended I risk losing a face. When I found this poor angel with what was left of her face in pieces, I reacted as any sane well adjusted woman would do - I cried. I couldn't get mad at the cat. Who could get mad at a face like this?

Fortunately, this angel has a pretty cute backside and hair that I think is fondle worthy.

The next angel completed is another form by Monica, similar to the first one, but in different colors. I gifted this angel to an acquaintance

Sometime later, there was a celestial challenge announced on one of the online groups to which I belong. I thought it would be nice to work on a star form. I had been given a cloth star shaped ornament by a friend and I thought it would make the perfect beading surface, that is until I actually started beading on it. It's big (about 7" from top point to bottom point) and it's really soft, making the beading challenging. I was determined though to get it beaded just as it was given to me.

I managed to get the star beaded well within the time frame given for the challenge and decided to bead up a celestial goddess as well. This form is by Monica and the face by Linsart. I was hesitant in using black beads and I've never been a huge fan of yellow gold, but I was extremely pleased with how this doll turned out. She remains one of my favorites and one I don't think I can give up anytime soon.

Last Christmas I contacted Monica and requested some tiny forms to bead up for Christmas ornaments. She came through with some wonderful little forms, first is a little angel - about 3 1/2 inches tall, with a face by Ronda Kivett. This angel made it's way to decorate a tree in Louisiana.

Next up was this tiny star (3") for a friend in California. The face on this one was created by Diane in Australia - a fellow beader in one of my online groups.