Venus and Israel ( Izannah Walker style black dolls )

From left to right facing the picture  are Venus and Israel. These are an effort to make some dolls that are like the antique black Izannah Walker doll that was once owned by Richard Wright. These dolls are super rare and I have only seen the one from pictures. If any others are out there, they are certainly not being shown and must be owned by private collectors. My dolls are about 20 inches tall and are pressed cloth head dolls, made in the same way as the antique ones are made by pressing fabric and glue into a mold. They have on their under ware so far as I have not decided about the dress fabric. I had picked out a wonderful blue that was slightly purple, but did not have enough to make two dresses, so I will have to go back and re think the fabric. Israel has a longer face than Venus partly because her head was glued together while Israel's head was sewed together. This caused a lot of tugging and pulling trying to get the thread through the head. She also had a slightly misshapen head too. I like the dolls equally and  am not surprised they are a lot different, only sharing the same core features. I imagine there are more antique Izannah Walker black dolls in existence, I just wish they would make some pictures of them. Mor

e pictures will be put up when they are all dressed up.

Three Izannah Walker Style Cloth Dolls for the New Year

Actually Sadica was finished in December 2017, but I am including her here. She is a sweet doll and has a wonderful dress and bonnet made of antique calico fabric. She has shoes that slip on and are only made of faux leather, because I am learning to make shoes, but she is a hard size foot to fit, so these do fit her and look pretty too. Another doll I am showing has not been named yet, but she is another doll from the same mold as Claudia. She looks different, but they usually do. She is about 20 or so inches tall and has bare feet. She has no dress or bonnet as of yet, but I have been holding fabrics up to her and I think the antique Indigo blue and yellow designs is the best for her. She is sweet and probably looks more like the traditional Izannah doll than these other two. Last is my attempt to make the illusive black Izannah Walker doll owned at one time by Richard Wright. You cannot find pictures of any other black dolls made by the Walker family, I say this because it has been said that Jane Walker made the black dolls in the family, but I don't know if anyone really knows. I  am naming this doll Venus because she is so beautiful to me. She has wonderful rust colored hair made of lambskin. She is about 20 inches tall too, although she is not as heavy in the body. Looking at fabric for her is harder because she could wear so many things, but I want her to have a pretty antique Calico dress just the right color. Lots of dolls I made last year did not get put on here, but I will post them here because this is a good place to keep them. Keeping track of the dolls I made and what they looked like shouldn't be a problem, but I just cannot keep up with them to put real pictures in a book. Hope you enjoy seeing these new dolls.