During the "Zombie Apocalypse" (the 2020 pandemic), I decided I wanted to learn more about inspiring women and the contribution they made to our history. I was drawn to start with United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
I began researching her life, and I learned even more impressive things about her other than being on the Supreme Court. According to the documentaries RBG and Ruth: Justice Ginsburg in Her Own Words, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a professor at Rutgers Law School when she and fellow Harvard law graduate Brenda Feigen formed the Women's Rights Project, a division of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) at the request of Aryeh Neier, who was the Executive Director of the ACLU in 1971.
Many of our legal rights as women are thanks to Ginsburg's work as an attorney—long before she took her seat on the Supreme Court. She argued six landmark cases for equal rights and won five of them. Her quiet determination didn't keep her from doing what she did best—arguing for equality in court. Once she was confirmed as a judge, she gave a voice not only to women but to minorities and the LGBTQ+ community as well. It has made her legendary.
What so many people fail to realize is that her work has been beneficial to us in so many ways. She was instrumental in:
representing men who were not granted survivor benefits under Social Security because they were men (the cases set the standards for how sex-based laws are evaluated under the constitution 1970s),
helping women get the right to financial independence, equal benefits (1974),
eliminating job discrimination based on gender or reproductive choices (1978),
military service benefits (1974), and jury duty participation (1979),
requiring that women be admitted to state-funded schools (1996),
speaking out against pay inequality which led to the Equal Pay Act (2009),
revealing unconscious bias as a problem still being dealt with today.
Sworn in as the 107th Justice to the Supreme Court in 1993, Justice Ginsburg felt "no doors should be closed to people who had the talent and will to do the job." She kicked open that door and shattered the glass ceiling—all 5'2" of her—with her words and pen. May her memory be a blessing.
Creating RBG
The first thing I do after researching and choosing a subject is I find an image that captures the woman's spirit. I chose to use Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's official portrait from 2010. I began needle felting her the week of September 7th of 2020. We would lose her the following week.
Next, I gather my supplies. The picture below shows you the before and after. The "before" image shows all the materials I used to bring the miniature RBG to life. Different sized felting needles, with tools to hold multiple needles, armature wire so I can pose each woman, raw wool, and coated wire for fingers and glasses.
I use core wool to shape the body and face and then add skin tone and clothing color over body shape.
Finding the right skin tone and hair color had me going to the wool shops and searching online. Adding eyes and color along with reflection and eyelids. Onto brows and hair.
I took a trip to the Urban Bead Gallery for a collar fitting. Initially, I was going to try to bead RBG's collar during a private class—it is definitely not a good first project to learn how to bead! Kim Boeckman, the talented Bead Weaving Artist, brought the iconic collar to life for me.
The perfect wool for her hair was found at Imagiknit by the ever-helpful Karla.
Meet Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
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