I'm a butterfly

In the past few months, I have been staying home, as ordered, and working on my dolls. Heading up to my studio has been such a joy, it helps balance out the disruption of most of the rest of my life. I am the kind of person who spends a lot of quality time having coffee with friends, and having this social contact removed has been very hard.

I use the time freed up to look at dolls online. My interest has been caught by Tudor dolls (thanks, Tudor Tailor), primitive cloth dolls ( thanks ofclothandhand), more Izannah Walker research (thanks everyone, you know who you are) and all the Waldorf doll posts on the Facebook MakeAlongGroup hosted by Astrid of Little Doll House and Fabs from Fig and Me. Of course, I am inspired to make some of these kinds of dolls. So far, the Tudor doll is waiting for me to take up my Fimo again and sculpt heads and arms and feet. I have made Tudor dolls in the past, so the costume is not a problem. What I have discovered is that for me, it is more appealing to imagine my dolls being played with, by large or small people, than to create a static doll in one pose. Were Tudor dolls mostly stump dolls? It is hard to tell from the paintings I have seen on Pinterest. A bit of research informs me that surviving dolls were indeed stumps dolls. I am still thinking about the kind of doll I would like to make.

Cruising around Pinterest, my fancy has been caught by the primitive rag dolls that are so popular with collectors, especially in the U.S. The thought of a simple doll that doesn't take as long to make as my other dolls really appealed to me, so I turned my attention to designing a basic doll, that might have a very easy costume. Here is my first effort.

Her dress is made from some vintage fabric that I rescued from the trash and her apron is part of a linen handkerchief. Her hair is dolly mohair from my Waldorf doll stash. She went together very quickly, and that made me happy.

Here is my second prim doll.

Her nose took longer and her hair took two hours, as it is couched. That method is not in favour! Her wardrobe was much more complex. She has a chemise and petticoat made from vintage material. Her dress is thrifted fabric, pieced, and has six separate parts, all designed for her. I learned a lot about how to make a slow doll. My next doll will be simpler, I hope.

I also purchased a doll pattern from Deanna Hogan. It took a long time to put her together because the six coats of messy mixture on her head sucked away my creative enthusiasm and she got overlooked while I flitted from unfinished doll to unfinished doll. She is done now.

In my next post, I plan to show you some more of what I have been working on.