CHRIS' COMMENTS: Featured Artist

It is my pleasure to introduce Milena Hernandez (known as Milly) and her new shop http://www.foreverdolls.etsy.com/ that she recently opened on Etsy .

Milly moved to Riverview, Florida 14 years ago from Cuba and had been working as a design assistant for 10 years when she had been in an accident and found herself housebound for a while. Not wanting to sit idle she started making dolls for her friends, who later suggested she sell them. That is how "Forever Dolls" was created.

Each and every one of Milly's dolls is very special to her. They have personalities with names to match. In Millie's own words: "I do love every aspect of the creative life, I'm inspired by beautiful colors, nature and sunshine. I want my art to be fun and bring smiles to people, I always try to use a lot of color in my dolls."

This adorable lady in pink is a Primitive Folkart doll and named after the famous ballet, "Coppelia". She is made of osnaburg muslin fabric and hand painted. Her facial features and hair have been hand sculpted and glitter has been added to her eyelids to give her a dramatic look.

"IBEYI" is what is called an Orisha Doll which means African Goddess.

According to Milly the Ibeyi or divine twins are the darling children of Santeria. They are said to be bringers of great prosperity and will maintain the good things in life, family, wealth, possession and position. It is said that if someone has the Orisha Ibeyi their house is protected.

This lovely dark haired beauty is "Carmen", a flamenco dancer and traditional Spanish doll. She is also a one-of-a-kind, like all of Milly's dolls and stands 20" tall. Look at her fabulous costume, right down to the bead necklace.

Milly's dolls are absolutely wonderful and you can tell she takes great pride in each and every creation. She says "I'm a very blessed person that I can work in what I like such as crafts and dolls and make a little living from that and at the same time satisfy my creative soul. Usually it takes me 3 to 4 days to create a doll as it depends if the muse came to visit me."

As always when I do a feature on an artist I like to have a peek at where the creative process unfolds. This is Milly's guest bedroom/craft room that she uses to make these fantastic Forever Dolls.