Making Painted Flat Head Rag Dolls

Here are some pictures of three Flat Head ( Pancake Head ) painted rag dolls. These are fat, big girls made by a pattern I made up about two years ago. As I said, I put the first coat of paint on these tonight, so they will evolve  a lot before they are finished. They will be sanded, repainted, have some changes made to their features, be grunged, distressed, baked in the oven, Get a finished hair style ( which I will comment on further down ). Doesn't all this sound like lots of fun. HaHa, actually it is. Seeing what these dolls will start out as, and then become,  is very satisfying to me. I never cease to be amazed at what people can make out of a few pieces of cloth, and paint. Along with the flat head dolls, I have made two more Columbian dolls, which have not been painted yet. These will be fun to do, as I know they will not look the same as the one I just made, or like each other. About a week ago I bought a book, The Story Of The Columbian Dolls, how the Adams Sisters saved the Family Farm. There are a lot of interesting things about how the dolls are made and lots of history about the Adams family too.  When I post the new Columbians, I will speak more on this book. It did make me to want to make the 29 inch Columbian doll, which I didn't before. Emma Adams died at 42 years old, and I can only imagine the sorrow her family felt. She was apparently a very sweet, and inventive person, much loved by everybody, and certainly from the dolls she made you can see her generous, calm, sweet spirit. Her fathers eulogy to her was heartbreaking in its description of her character and the love people had for her. Another great thing I have to tell about is the purchase of a very special 27 inch Ella Smith ( Alabama Baby Doll ), which has already taught me a new lesson on hair painting, and I don't even have the doll yet. I noticed when looking at this dolls hair, something new I had never noticed before. After years of studying old cloth dolls, I finally saw how many of the cloth doll heads were painted. I cannot imagine why I have not seen this until now, it just goes to show you, that people don't really see what they are looking at sometimes. We miss what is right be

fore our eyes.  I cannot explain what I mean, but I will use this same hair painting style on these three dolls you see here. I am also happy to have the old rare big example of this doll, as I think she is a very fine example of Ella Smith's work. Lastly, I have been experimenting with dying cloth again. This time on homespun fabric to try to make it look old. There will come a time, you won't be able to get old fabric, or it will simply cost to much, but I still like to try to see what is possible to get nice fabric that has a old worn look that I and I think others love. GoodBye