Hello I am Regina and I will introduce you to the project Dreams and a Heart – a community artwork for peace.
I woke up beginning of 2011 with the idea of making one doll that represents each one of us on Earth. More than an idea it was a deep feeling of ‘ I must do it’! I was absolutely sure that I had finally found my mission in life and the feeling was just amazing! I felt like Noah when he was told to build the Ark or like a fairy tale character who is told to accomplish almost impossible tasks in order to achieve something really precious.
I had never sewed in my life. I bought a little sewing machine, read the instructions and learned how to sew a doll. It was when I began the process of making them that I realised it would take quite a while to reach a target of 7 billion dolls, our number population back then. I played with the number, cut the zeros down to 700 and I had the idea to make communities of dolls for each inhabited continent of the planet. This idea became the first step of the project – to reach five communities of 700 dolls.
The first couple of years I made them slowly on my own but since 2013 I have been making them regularly. It was also in 2013 when I had the courage to invited people to help me and the project became a community project. Firstly I thought I should do it in secret but I realised it would do no harm to ask for help.
We have reached now 8 billion people in the planet so we must keep making them, there is a billion more to go!
Each doll is roughly the same size and colour, the colour of our bones, suggesting that we are all the same regardless of our little differences. They are filled with the stuffing that comes from old pillows which are full of dreams and each one has a heart. After the doll is ready we make a short meditation, with our dolls in our hands, feeling our own breath and heartbeat. I feel that this process makes someone somewhere feels good. Dreams and a Heart can help this suffering world to become happier, healthier and more just.
Every person I talk about the project falls in love with it and most of them help in one way or another: making the entire doll or completing them in the workshops we run in the UK and abroad, giving me their old pillows and also some fabric such as clothes and mainly old sheets. They also helped me to build this website and make films and photos of the process. They offer space to exhibit the dolls and invite the project to attend amazing festivals and events. They help me to correct my English so people can understand that I am not talking about doors but dolls. Since 2016 we have been blessed by the presence of their godmother Ess who is the producer of the project and helps us whenever is possible.
We have created around 3000 dolls so far. There is a page in this website where you can find out how to make dolls in case you want to help us. You can also join the workshops we run in England and/ or invite us to go wherever you are. We have already been to Iceland, Portugal, Brazil, Sweden, Germany, Greece, Scotland and Indonesia. You can email us on [email protected]
I just want to finish up by saying that I am extremely grateful for all contributions I have received so far. I love you all!