Raven Steals The Sun
by Martha Boers

I faced a dilemma. My club, Creative Doll Artists - Not Just Another Doll Club had issued a Puppetry Challenge. The Canadian Doll Artist’s Association was having a Mythology Challenge as well. With not enough free time to do two figures, I decided to combine the Challenges into one. But what to make?

I have always loved Native Art - the Woodlands style of the Ojibwa, the pottery of the Southwest, the carvings of the Inuit , but most of all the bold graphic designs of the Northwest Coast. There are totem poles, and wonderful wooden masks, bentwood boxes, and carved ceremonial objects. Most surfaces were painted with the red and black stylized figures of creatures, both real and supernatural.

Winter was a time for the Northwest Coast People to hold elaborate ceremonies. It was the time to re-enact old myths and legends. Complicated masks and costumes were used, along with elaborate scenery, and the occasional puppets.

I decided to make a cloth doll, a Storyteller. Proportioned as a traditional “Welcome Figure”, he would be a collage of the various authentic West Coast styles. He would be my interpretation of a West Coast Shaman presenting the legend “Raven Steals The Sun”. Each part of his regalia would represent part of the story.

The Raven puppet is the main character in the story, which takes place long, long ago, before there was light in the world. The front pendant on the figure, and the leather dance apron both depict the Old Chief who owns the bentwood cedar box in which the sun, moon, and stars are kept. The sides of the box depict Raven and the Chief’s Daughter, who goes to fetch water. Raven transforms himself into a spruce needle, which falls into the water. The daughter swallows it, becomes pregnant, and soon gives birth to an obnoxious baby boy, who grows at a phenomenal rate. The boy (Raven) screams all day long to play with the contents of the box. Finally, the Chief relents “Just this once”. As soon as the box is opened, Raven transforms back to his natural form, grabs the Sun with his beak, and flies up through the smoke hole, high into the sky, placing the Sun there to shed light on the whole world.

At the Canadian Doll Artists Association Conference in May 2004, my figure, Raven Steals the Sun won the Rosette for Best Mythology Challenge Doll.

The doll itself is cloth. A pattern was drawn for the head, cut out of beige swimsuit lining, sewn and stuffed, then soft sculptured. Hands were cut from a 100% cotton fabric in the very same colour. I didn’t want the hands to stretch, so I used cotton. Pipe cleaners were bent in half and inserted into all the fingers. A wire armature was made, and the head and hands attached. The body was then built up with strips of polyester quilt batting, and covered with a stretchy fabric “skin”. Ears and black mohair complete the head. His face was painted with acrylics in a design taken from an ancient Sun mask. Tatoos were drawn on his hands using a fine point permanent marker.

When dressing a doll, I always start at the bottom, working from the skin outward. I had been searching through pictures of Native dancers in full regalia, to see what they wore underneath. One colour photo hinted at something blue - denim maybe? So, I made a shirt and pants of a denim like fabric.

Footwear was next. Traditionally, West Coast people would have gone barefoot, since leather would not last long in their wet environment. However, this was my interpretation, and didn't have to be totally authentic. So, off I went to the local automotive store for some leather chamois, from which I fashioned moccasins and the dance apron. Designs were painted on with red and black acrylic paint. Small shells were glued onto the fringe of the dance apron. Looking at a photo of a dancer dressed as a Thunderbird, I noticed the painted wooden slats used as leggings. These I created from popsicle sticks, cut to length, then painted in a “feather” design. The anklets holding the leggings on, would have been made of shredded cedar bark, but I had no desire to go strip the bark off my little ornamental cedar trees. I opted for sisal rope instead, hoping it would create the look I was after. The sisal rope was very difficult to work with, so for the rest of the “shredded cedar” trim on my figure, I used natural raffia instead.

The Traditional Button Blanket which depicts Raven flying skyward with the Sun in his beak, was made from black fabric, with a red felt border and Raven appliqué. I found a few tiny “pearl buttons” but would need hundreds, so decided that I would have to make them myself. I had read an article recently about making buttons from Fimo, so decided to give it a try. I used equal parts of Translucent, and Pearlescent Sculpey III, mixing them somewhat to create a “pearl” look. Two sizes of plastic straws were used to cut the buttons from the rolled out Sculpey. The process proved a bit more challenging than the article had indicated, but after some “trial and error”, I soon developed a system, and spent two days mass producing buttons. After sewing on all the buttons, the blanket was lined to give a neater appearance , and a red fringe was added. The fringe is not traditional to this particular style blanket, but I have seen it used on more modern “Art Blankets”.

It was time for the headdress. I chose to do a combination of a carved hat, a chief's headdress with ermine tails, and a traditional spruce root hat. I liked the traditional spruce root hat, but had no idea as to how to go about recreating one. One day, while looking through some wallpaper sample books, I found some heavily embossed, woven textured wallpaper that had the right look and scale. So I made a hat shape from light cardboard, and covered both in and outside surfaces with the textured wallpaper. Braided jute finished the edge. The finished hat depicts Raven about to steal the sun. The Raven head, and Sun Mask were sculpted with Paperclay onto stiff cardboard forms, then painted with acrylics. The Sun Mask which the figure holds, was made the same way.

The basic cedar box was made by my husband , who makes the bases and many of the wooden props for my dolls. The Sun and Moon faces on the front and back of the box, were sculpted of Paperclay onto a cardboard disc, then glued to the box. It was quite a challenge to paint all the tiny details on the box. The Sun design was taken from an ancient Sun mask, and the Moon design was taken from the same Sun mask as the figure’s face. Sun and Moon designs are traditionally quite similar, except the Sun has “rays” whereas the Moon does not.

Finally, the Raven puppet. He was meant to be a “working marionette”, with his body parts loosely attached together with wire loops. The wire armature with loops was created first. Then the body shapes were built up with foil and cardboard. Paperclay was applied and smoothed to create the final shape.. Here again, painting such a small three dimensional object proved quite challenging. All his parts were already loosely attached, and they would tend to flop all over the place, playing havoc with the wet paint. After adding a shredded raffia collar, and some strings, the Raven was complete!

I was very happy with the final result!