Impermanence
Craft - Apple Head Dolls
Provided by Mari Cameron of Vernon, BC
Dharma Talk
Please have your Sensei give a Dharma talk on "impermanence". The idea is to show the students how the apples are changing and aging to symbolize impermanence.
This project will take two Sundays, at least four weeks apart, for approximately one hour each day.
• medium size apples
• lemon juice (like Real Lemon)
• plastic disposable knives or butter knives- they work just as well as sharp knives on apples
• chopsticks with pointy tip
• something to stick chopsticks into like dense florists’ foam or Styrofoam packing from a TV or other electronic device.
1. Peel the apples.
2. Carve the apples into a face. You can go on the internet and get photos of apple head carving. Make sure you demonstrate “cutting out the nose” Some students literally will cut a hole for the nose instead of leaving a wedge. Some of the students carve ears too which looks good.
3. Once faces are carved spear with a chopstick and soak the heads in the lemon juice for 1 hour.
4. Stand the chopsticks in the foam so the heads can dry.
• old jeans, shirts, etc to cut up to make the clothing for the applehead dolls
• medium gauge wire that can be bent into body shape
• wire cutters
• googly eyes
• craft glue
• fabric scissors
• small straw hats (can be found a craft stores that sell doll making supplies)
• doll hair (again at craft stores) or for a rustic doll, you can use rattan
1. Glue on plastic googly eyes or cloves or appleseeds onto face. Appleheads should be very leathery and dry.
2. Cheeks can be painted with food colouring if rosy cheeks are wanted.
3. Glue doll hair or rattan fiber and/or strawhats on to the head. Let the kids be creative. (pigtails, braids, curly hair, etc)
4. Make a stick figure with wire for the body. Double the wire by making a loop and flatten for the torso and separate loops for the arms and legs. You can use apple pieces for feet and hands if wanted but looks good without them too.
5. Stick the applehead onto the wire body and reinforce with craft glue
6. Wrap the wire body with strips of old clothing or other fabric scraps and duct tape.
7. Now cut out shirts, pants, skirts, tunics, robes, whatever the students want to dress their dolls on
They will need a front and back for each piece of clothing as they will sandwich the wire body with the clothing pieces. Glue the clothing onto the body.
Every Sunday have the students check out how their faces are “aging”.