It began with a chat about the Flat Stanley Project. If you don’t know about this project, do take the time to visit the Web site and read about the books, the author, the project and the wonderful story about how it all got started. http://www.flatstanley.com/jeff_brown.html
I downloaded the pattern for Stanley from the Web site, and a few friends and I discussed making a little challenge for ourselves out of it. Not meaning to be critical of the pattern for Stanley, we decided to make a few changes to the original. We wished for a figure with maybe a little more neck and perhaps longer legs to start with. Julia found a pattern in one of Jean Ray Laury’s books on doll making. I took the photocopy of the stuffed doll and made a sketch. Her trunk fit easily into the golden rectangle and the “girls” did too - into smaller versions of the same. (Perhaps giving new meaning to the term “golden” girls.) I found a photo of Modigliani’s painting “Beatrice Hastings in Front of a Door” and borrowed her head, which fit our figure quite nicely. Julia thought that the rectangle gave her a nice 1920’s flair that enhanced her kicking up her heels. We were almost set. But she wasn’t Stanley anymore and we needed a name for Stanley’s female counterpart. Sue started the brainstorming chain with a reference to our gal’s 2-D perspective and the trail culminated with the name Della.
The FlatDella Prospectus went like this:
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1.Replace the face with a photo of your own face.
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2.Dress yourself. Your garment should reflect your own art work so that your FlatDella would be recognizable as your work even if she wasn’t wearing your head.
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3.Use paper, fabric, color pencils, threads, etc., to make your garment.
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4.Embellishment that adds some depth is OK. She doesn’t have to be perfectly flat. It is not necessary to make the back of the garment.
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5.For the premier showing you must exhibit your FlatDella in disguise. Refer to #1. Put a bag over her head and we can judge how we all did with the challenge.
Could we identify each other’s work?
