Pinky and Sissy Dainty Little dolls

Here are two  about 17 to 18 inch dolls I am making. These smaller daintier dolls will have bare feet that are made separate from the leg and then sewed together. I have made some like this in the past, I think that a one piece leg and foot is stronger, but apparently Izannah made legs this way, so I will too. Paula Walton based her pattern on her antique dolls, so I am following her patterns this time around. They will also have the daintier hands with a slightly different finger pattern, that gives them longer fingers. These smaller dolls are fun to do and a delightful size standing on a table or sitting down. You see a big difference in these two dolls. Pinky has had a mold made of her, so that she can be reproduced, but Sissy has not, and will not be reproduced again. Pinky has a older look, where as Sissy is not a new doll, but does not have the wear and tear and as much age, she is more pristine and fresh. It is hard to choose sometimes, between the older or newer looking dolls, but the ageing and painting process is similar, but different. the newer looking doll has had more base coats of oil paint before a mild distressing, but little Pinky has had little base painting, before distressing and then heavier paint added on in key places on her face and shoulders. Both dolls will be dressed in aged cotton fabric, no bonnets this time, and hopefully , some shoes and socks. these feet are really tiny, so I will have my work cut out for me. In the past I never made shoes for the barefoot dolls, and especially in this size, but it would be nice to have them. I will put Sissy's pictures up here first, then Pinky's.  I wanted to add that later on this year, I am going to try to get a video camera, and hopefully be able to demonstrate some of these painting techniques.  I can tell you how I painted these dolls, but showing you would be a better learning tool and much easier to understand and follow. I don't get to travel and go places much any more, so I will try to demonstrate a few things I learned for any one who is interested. I have learned a lot from other people's tutorials, so I will try to share as well.

Hespariah and Sofronia - Dolly Demands.

This note is to Martha from me and Sofronia. I am the really beautiful one on the right. My sister doll is very nice too, but only just pleasing. We are just being made, in our early beginnings really, so it might be good to get a few things out in the open, and establish some ground rules before going to far. Most of the time, us dolls don't get much say in what happens to us, we just have to sit or stand around and wait for Martha's pleasure, and watch as she broods over what to do, what kind of arms and legs we need, how worthy are we to get a dress out of her ( holy ) antique material, not to mention, if we get any shoes and socks or not. I know this letter sounds very critical of Martha, who ( bless her poor old soul ) does try her best, but we don't want to see the usual deciding on what will happen to us, and then, she just starts that old brain up and decides to make a big change right in the middle of things. We also want her to pay attention when making us ( you know ), put our heads on straight, how hard can that be, get the feet the same size, maybe double check a few things before zooming past the basics, maybe ask that Mr. Bobby sometimes if everything is looking good and correct. We want good dresses, and not the usual ones she makes, new ones in a new style, and we also want to have it made out of her precious old fabric that sits in the place of honor over there on the special shelf. I think Martha can make a pair of leather shoes for us, it might tax her brain to the limit, but I don't think it's over the top to make this request. We don't have to have bonnets, in fact, we rather like the idea of  having our hair styles be seen. One of us is being made as a gift for Martha's sister, who she loves dearly, so I know when Martha reads this letter from us, she will do her best and try to behave and comply with all our wishes. We feel better now that things are all sorted out and we will be blooming out just as we hoped. Thanks

 Martha ( in advance ) for your work and loving us, and understanding our dolly needs.

Making Izannah Dolls and trying to get those Darn Curls

I'm posting a little new 17 to 18" doll I am working on. I have made two of these, they are not the same, one has a little longer head shape, and will be more primitive. The head on this doll is short. The forehead is short. I usually don't slip up and do that, but  (  Oh No )  Goofed up a little, anyway, no problem, as she is pretty and can carry it off I think. I have had several folks let me know that they would like to have a smaller doll. Room is scarce with most people and so smaller is better. I embarked on a mission to make some smaller dolls, which right now include 2 of the about 18" dolls and 3 of the 11 1/2 inch dolls. Today I put the 2nd coat of oil paint on this doll. I was trying to make a little more pristine doll, without so much distressing. I believe she will turn out that way, with a heavier paint job. Debbie Barlow, a fellow doll maker put on a picture of a antique Izannah from a museum up,

 and I was leaning in that direction with the eye placement and shape, and the mouth. I failed to capture the doll, but did get some of the same eye shape and the mouth is good to me. The reason I put her up here is about the curls. Curls for me and most everybody, from what I have seen, is hard to do. I ask myself if I made pretty curls, is that enough, because on the antique dolls, not all of their curls are pretty, I think because the people painting the dolls back then were not all great painters and couldn't make the curls either. The answer is ( if you are making a doll that is not a reproduction, I mean trying to copy the doll exactly ) I think making pretty curls is acceptable, even if they are not like Izannah made them, but I think I am finally finding a way to make them more like her family did back a long time ago. the side curls on this doll are more accurate to me ( thinner, but more simple and more like hers.) The back curls on this doll are not like Izannah made hers, but I like them, so I will leave these alone. When you paint your curls, you have to paint wet on wet. Paint your skin, where ever the neck and forehead hair and curls will go. Mix your dark hair paint. Mix a small amount of skin color, a touch of brown and a touch of burnt umber, just enough to be darker than the skin and put this paint where you want the curls. Now you can get a liner brush for the side curls and ever so lightly pull your dark paint into the other color. Very gently and not to many strokes. The neck curls are pulled with a bristle brush directly onto the skin. Out of Room again, HaHa. The End.

Considering Mona Lisa

  I don't know how long ago it was I started making this doll named  Mona Lisa, but she has certainly gone through many changes and become a world traveler too. I guess I had her about a year before finally finishing her and putting up up for sale on ebay. To me, she was beautiful then, and had a pretty blue reproduction civil war fabric dress and bonnet,  fine underclothes too. The very sweet lady who bought her, happened to look at my blog after she bought Mona Lisa and saw another doll that she would rather have, so I agreed to exchange her, as I wanted the lady to be happy with the dolls she got from me, and so she is, very happy and satisfied with her two dolls she bought from me. Well, after Mona Lisa got home, from England where she had traveled to, I began to think about her. There was nothing wrong with her in any way. She left her clothes in England and so came back to me at a starting point. When someone sends a doll back to you ( for what ever reason ) I thought maybe I could make some improvements, and so took her apart, I discarded her legs and arms, re-made her body suit, because I also gave her a face-lift, not really changing her features, but adding some distressing and some ageing. I felt I could at this point make a better pair of hands and I decided to also re-make her booted feet, in a broader foot, stitching the ankles and the soles. Beautiful then, and now, ( to me ) she is almost ready to go back out into the world again. I made her a fine white dress, which is still not quite finished, a chemise slip and pantyloons and of course she has painted boots. the fabric for her outfit is vintage small circle dotted swiss, which I love, but I began to think again ( maybe a antique dress would be just the thing). Earlier last year, I splurged and bought two pieces of yardage of antique Calico fabric.  ( Super Super Expensive ), but super super pretty. The red is just glorious, a deeper red I don't think can be found. The cloth is so saturated with deep red color it is just wonderful. The lady at Antique Textiles said I wouldn't be disappointed and she was right. Even my husband was amazed at how pretty this cloth is. the blue is beautiful too. So, I am considering the antique dress for her. I love this doll and letting her go will be harder for me this time, but I wanted to give her something special. Here she is with the colors to help make the decision, which one of them do you like the best?

Living dolls

Last weekend, I had my little grand nieces to come spend the night with me. There are actually 4 children, but only the two girls came this time, the older girl is Olivia Gabrialle ( Gabby )  who is 14 and the smaller is Kaelynn who is 8. Both girls are as sweet as can be, but it was super cold and they,  ( I think ) like a lot of children , refuse to wear socks and good shoes, no matter how cold it gets and  layers of clothes, like we older people do. I was worried about them being cold as, they have central heat at home, but we have heaters throughout the house. I did my best to keep it comfortable for them. Their mama was  surely going to have something to say about all the junk food we had. Hamburgers, chips, donuts, chocolate milk and pizza. Normally I would have cooked a good meal for them, but it was terribly cold, so we were bundled up in front of the TV or back in the paint room working. These kids live about a 30 to 40 minute drive away from us, so we can see them a lot more now. Be kind to us when looking at the pictures, nobody was concerned about their looks, and we looked pretty bad, especially me. Have you ever seen High school musical or Daddy Day care, well I have now, as that is the two movies Kaelynn picked out at the flea market we went to, and we watched all of these that night. Enough singing and dancing for a long time. Haha. They painted two of the rag dolls I had made the next day and kaelynn rummaged in the dolls clothes box until she found them a dress apiece and two hats. They also decided to paint the rabbit and cat pin keep dolls.  I sure did enjoy them and I believe they had fun. We went to McDonalds for supper and had Mcchicken Sandwiches, chicken nuggets, hamburgers, fries. I know. TERRIBLE, but I don't get them very often and took them where they wanted to go. this summer when they com

e back, we will do better, and they can swim at the beach all day, and watch as many high school musicals as they want to. I guess I better start saving up for our next shopping trip, as everything Kaelynn sees at the flea market is   CUTE.  Kids are great and just being with them and seeing how their minds work at this age is wonderful. Bless their little hearts. We just love them to pieces.

Mae Mae

While the weather has been so bad, I have been spending time trying to finish up a few dolls that I have been working on, and this one is Mae Mae. She is 20" or a tad taller. She isn't a beauty, but so sweet. I bought some fabric on ebay a couple of months ago. Some vintage white cotton. One fabric has large circles and one has small circles, they are dotted swiss circles. It is very pretty. I like white a lot and it looks good on this doll. I put a dress like this on Mona Lisa too, but Mona Lisa has a little bit of a sad story and I will tell you about it later. I made another pair of ( Martha shoes ) for Mae Mae and I think they are really cute. Well, not much to tell this time, except I am glad to have finished this little doll and I am happily working on my Maida doll challenge making the Alabama babies and working on some about 17" dolls, as I see people would like to have some of those. Keep warm and keep busy making beautiful dolls

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The Painted Head Rag Doll

For a long time, probably all my life, that I have thought about dolls, I have liked the rag dolls. When I never knew who made them, and gave no thought that they were worth lots of money, are that there were all kinds of different rag dolls, they always drew my attention, nothing about that has changed. For about a year now, I have lightly ventured out into making some rag dolls. First I have tried the primitive ones with the stitched faces, with simple arms and legs. These are still a favorite, but I decided, because the dolls were of such interest to me to go farther into how to make them and how to make painted ones as well. If a person wanted to,  they could devote an entire doll making career in just these dolls alone, as the variety is so great, and so challenging. One person that comes to mind is Norma Schneeman who excels in the primitive cloth dolls or rag dolls. To me, she has a special ( very special ) gift of being able to give the quaint, old, primitive quality to her dolls that isn't often found and what is wonderful about her is her long period of creativity in which her dolls have never lost their quality or that special sweetness that she is able to give them. I have made a picture of my first painted head rag doll ( besides the pin keep dolls ). Is this road any easier to go down and learn to make the true old looking painted faces that great rag dolls of the past have. No, I don't think it is any easier, and will require many years of going back and forth to achieve, but worth it. This doll I am showing you could be considered a spoon head doll or pancake head doll, as she had no gusset in her head to widen it out. In my haste to get started, I zoomed past that part, and so she will not be all that she could have been, if I had used my brain and some patience getting started,

but that is the way of things. Lesson learned. Making rag dolls,  what will I make? What will they wear? Will my brain last long enough for me to try to make these great dolls? I hope so.

Little Primitive Myrtle Mae Junior

  Little Myrtle Mae Junior is the last small 11 1/2" doll that I have right now. Usually we do them in groups, and all her little sisters are gone down to Louisiana to stay with Cynthia Orgeron, who will find them a home. Cynthia and I met about 2 1/2 years ago at my one and only doll show I have ever been to. She is a doll appraiser and a doll maker as well. She works mostly in the smaller bisque dolls. Cynthia has a big old beautiful house that she displays and sells dolls from for many different people, as well as her own dolls.  Little Myrtle Mae got left behind this time. Izannah Walker did not make any dolls that are this small ( 11 1/2" tall ) that I know of, so I have  up to this point only made them plain stitched fingers without the applied thumb, in all other ways, they are made exactly like the bigger dolls. To my knowledge, 15 inches is about the smallest dolls that Izannah made. We love the teeny tiny's  about  ( 7 or 8 inches tall ) and plan on making more this year. In fairness to Myrtle, who is named after her bigger sister, the original Myr

tle Mae who is about 22 " tall and who this little doll favors, I  am putting some of her pictures here.  Not all of the dolls are stunning, or beautiful, but have other attributes, such as sweetness, or a really primitive quaint quality that is charming, and I think little Myrtle falls into this category.