Peg Doll Saints

I have wanted to do this peg doll saint exchange thing for a while.  So I simply organized it this spring.  It was so appropriate too because I went on a glut of learning about various saints over Lent.  It was very inspiring.  

While we look at the saints and see that they lived great lives, they are also possible lives.  People often think, I could never be a saint.  But, the more you learn about the lives of saints you see they were just ordinary people with proper devotion to God, and then one day, by heavenly grace, they had a mission, and the accepted it.  So with proper devotion, maybe someday you too will be in that number. 

I tried to look up online to see if there were any particular method to painting the peg dolls.  There is not.  Just get some craft paint and some fine bristle brushes (0, 3/0, 10/0) and get to painting.  I bought Wal-mart brushes and had no complaints.

 

• I will say that the saints turned out better if you do some planning.  
• Look up Icons of the saints.  I say specifically Icons because Icons have a lot more symbology that can be used to express the saint you are depicting.  
• Draw a little picture of the peg doll to plan out the look and symbols.  
• Then draw it onto the doll. 
• I started with skin and faces.  It's just my thing.  It feels friendly if there is a face.  It's an Icon thing to begin with the eyes--the windows to the soul.
• Then I blocked in the garment and symbol colors one by one.  
• Then I added details.
• Done.

I used the wood color for the skin on my St. Paul. But, the varnish darkened the wood color.  

So for the rest I used paint for the skin.

 I enlisted help, because this guy wanted to spend more time with me this evening.

Help is awesome.

As you will see, there's no perfectionism here.  I figured that these little people are for little people.  I would feel badly if I put all sorts of effort into the dolls, making every detail perfect, only to have little hands destroy them.  So I kept it fast and loose.  This also works because I don't have a lot of time to paint these days. 

Here are my saints that I made for the kids:

St. Paul, the Apostle

(See how dark the wood became after varnish)

Blessed Theotokos

Christos Pantokrator

St. Basil, the Great

St. Bernadette

St. Veronica

(I wish you could see the lovely folds in her veil)

St. Patrick 

(I wish you could see his curly staff on his side in this picture)

St. Peter, the Apostle

And here are the rest we received in our peg doll saint exchange:

The Sacred Heart of Mary

St. Zita

Bl. Mother Teresa

St. John Paul II

St. Francis of Assisi

St. Claire

St. Martin De Porres

St. Pio

St. Therese, the Little Flower

Oh when the saint go marching in!

Oh how I want to be in that number!

Now I'm exhausted just looking at all the saints.

Mno Hiya Lyta!