After several days of sketching, doodling and thinking, I decided to create a jointed wooden manikin as my essence doll. I have always admired and wanted to own an "artist's manikin". I thought it would be cool to have a manikin, pose it in some hard to comprehend position, and draw a lifelike human for all to admire! When I finally bought a manikin, I found that it wasn't really all that poseable. Try as I might, I couldn't get a single realistic pose with the thing. So, this has actually been my quest for a very long time, I just didn't know it! My main objective was to end up with a doll that is jointed similar to that of a human being.

Historically, ballerinas are impossibly thin, lightweight nimble little dynamos. What if a girl who was not so tiny became a ballerina? My doll, Anya, is such a girl. Why is it that we are all automatically stereotyped so that certain roles are filled only by people with certain body types or personalities? That's profiling! In the world of art, anything is possible. Anya is a dancer, and she has excellent control of her body. She knows what it can and cannot do, and she can usually coax it into almost any dance move. This ballerina needs a tutu, some ballerina shoes, other operatic accoutrements and perhaps some makeup...and hair! Maybe even some jewelry. She needs to look pretty so she can feel good about herself.

When I began my doll, my intent was to create a fully jointed classic ballerina, with a sexy Slavic name…Natasha. I found, however that in trying to make the hip joints out of materials I had on hand, she was going to have to become a 'sturdier girl', and the name "Anya" (which is a Russian name, meaning "grace") seemed to fit much better. I had already carved her legs, and could not make her hips as narrow as I had envisioned. Pressed for time, I made adjustments and forged ahead. I've found that my projects tend to become more interesting when everything does not work as planned, so I plan loosely. I have always been told that a true craftsman can hide his mistakes. I think that is true only if you don't tell anyone you made a mistake. No matter how much planning goes into a project, unforeseen situations force changes. 'Adapt and move on', I always say. So, Anya adapted.

Anya was designed from scratch, made of basswood, and loosely based on a compilation of people, no one person in particular. I made some sketches with basic proportions taken from a classic anatomy book. As noted above, when I carved the legs, and added the hip joints, I found that I could keep my height proportions pretty much to plan, but I would have to make some changes to the width. (sorry ladies…I know most of you probably wouldn't want to add width to your own bodies, but in this case I had no other choice.) This little exercise has given me insight on just how difficult it must be to maintain that figure…I can't even do it with a doll I designed myself!

I have always been interested in the joints of the human body, and wanted my doll to have working joints that mimicked human movement as closely as I could, but at the same time keep them simple. However, I think it will take more than the construction of one doll for me to achieve the type of movement I am looking for. I have an increasing respect for God, and His awesome engineering abilities. Time constraints what they are, I am not completely satisfied with Anya's range of flexibility and I feel I've failed miserably in my quest.