The Annunciation

These were made for preschool Sunday school. I wanted to tell the story of the angel Gabriel's visit to Mary. I'm such a last minute person, I had to use the materials I had on hand. I think I whipped these out in one day.The heads are made of Styrofoam eggs. Maybe they were balls instead of eggs... I can't remember.   I love Styrofoam because I can push it and pinch it into a face.  The "body" is simply a Popsicle stick covered with cloth and pushed into the Styrofoam.

The faces were painted with acrylic paint and the eyes were just googly eyes. Mary's hair is yarn - easy to do because of her veil.
Because I didn't have much colored fabric, I used muslin for the main part of the body and a small piece of blue for her costume.

For Gabriel, I had wanted blonde hair and a white, shining gown. But I only had red doll hair and the most shimmering piece of fabric I had was green.  He looks more like the Ghost of Christmas Present instead of the Herald of Good News, but I think he is pretty special looking. Gabriel's face was painted with a more translucent paint than Mary's. I wanted every part of him to look as if he was filled with light. His wings were tulle stiffened with hot glue. If you click on the picture and then click again, you can see the design made by the hot glue.