Mab

I was working on a few things over winter but it's always the things you aren't supposed to be doing that end up the most fun....like making fortune teller dolls. I made Lilith a while ago and planned three sisters for her ; Mab is the one that appeared this year. She receives her messages via a bonnet-like wig of pins (I've always admired people that wear tin foil hats to keep the aliens out).

Her clothes are styled on the court dress of the 18thC. with a pin theme throughout. The overdress is of fine taffeta brocade scraps all pinned together with old brass lace pins and embroidered with a crossed-pin motif. The panniered skirt has a line from Yeats' 'stolen child' (Mab is queen of the faeries) pricked out across the front inspired by the old waxed paper prickings for bobbin lace.( I'm thinking of putting a light inside) .The hem is tabbed like those adds you find on notice boards but the 'takeaway' is more profound !!!

In her purse( she wants money for her work) is an odd assortment of objects, I found a wasps nest, pearl necklace and some beeswax when I looked. There is a note book on the front which continues the Yeats poem.

A sneeky look whilst dressing revealed her underpinnings, she's made from an old kid leather evening glove and her fortune ruff fans out from the button opening of the glove.

A little detail of her bodice, held together with pins....all period correct .

She will be available for telling your fortune soon.