April 27,2008 Update

Hello All,

This last week has been a whirl wind. I can't believe how fast time goes by.

I have not listed anything on ebay this week.

The Izannah Walker Inspired boy doll is at the ready to paint stage. He will be about 19" tall. His little boots have square toes and are needle sculpted. I can't wait until he gets to the stage where his personality really comes out, which is usually in the painting. I also have another girl and her doll in the making.

I have a beautiful piece of dusty blue homespun material that I will be making his clothes out of.

I still have not got to play in the clay yet. Hopefully this week I will have time for that.

Am going to open my spot up at the Old Primitive Sisters Marketplace by May 1st. So I am trying to get a couple of things done to list on there for sale.

I will be posting photo's mid week of the works in progress. Please check back in and see what's happening.

Meet Aunt Eula and Her Pesky Pet Crows

I finished the black doll and have listed her on ebay. Her name is Aunt Eula and she is a gardener.

Her favorite flowers are sunflowers so I made her a basket full of them. There are 6 sunflowers made of muslin with stems of wire wrapped in cotton floss. She has 2 pesky pet crows that have taken up residence on her hat brim and built a nest there.

At first I had her dressed in a simple cotton dress that was light green with polka dots and a yoke of small pink flowers - but it just didn't have enough personality for this lady. So I found a piece of material in my stash that had crows and sunflowers on it, and made her a new outfit. Then I methodically "ruined it" LOL - I sanded it thin, dyed it with coffee and patched it. It looks and feels like a very old comfortable gardening dress.

The 2 little crows are made of muslin too, I thought about sculpting them or carving them out of wood but decided if the flowers were made of muslin the crows should be too. They turned out really cute.

The Izannah Walker inspired doll was purchased by someone from New York, so she will go live there soon.

I am thinking of making a boy along the same lines as the Izannah Walker inspired girl dolls. I don't see many old fashioned boy dolls being made and I think it would be a fun project. So that is on my list for the near future. I will probably start on him this week. I can see him now in a fancy little boys Victorian outfit with cotton lace looking so proper and well behaved.

I am really itching to sculpt something or someone. It has been months since I sculpted anything. Sometimes I just wanna play in clay. So I am thinking I will start sculpting something this week.

I would like to thank all of those who have recently visited my blog and those who have emailed or left nice compliments on my dolls. THANK YOU so much!

Izannah Walker Inspired Dolls Have Been Listed On ebay

Hello All,

I just listed the 2 Izannah Walker inspired dolls on ebay.
They turned out nice.

I am going to miss them when they sell. You get kind of attached to them after a while.

I didn't do the pleated dresses that I had contemplated before, Instead they are dressed in cotton and homespun, in a style that was popular in the mid 1800's. Both dresses have been trimmed with cotton lace and stained with coffee to make them look old.

I put a lot of work into these 2. I named the bigger one Louisa May and the small one Polly.

I dressed them in split drawers, a camisole that has faux pearl and loop closures and a skirt slip - all these are made of muslin and trimmed with cotton lace.

I gave Louisa May a high brimmed bonnet and Polly a runched bonnet.

I also added faux pearls to Louisa May's boots.

Louisa May also has a over skirt that attaches to the dress with 2 pearl shank buttons.

After I finished making these outfits I found my Godey's Lady Book of Styles, that is where I had seen the picture of the pleated dress, no doubt I will have to make another one of these dolls someday so I can make a dress like that!

I seriously thought of making the pleated dress from memory, then decided against it - so this time I just I found a picture of a dress from the mid 1800's on line to make Louisa May's dress from. I really like the runched sleeves, and the buttons that close with loops instead of button holes.

Time for me to kick back for the evening - Tomorrow I start all over again, LOL. I think I will finish the black doll this week.

The Dolls are Ready To Dress

Due to unforeseen happenings I have had many delays this week in my doll making and artistic adventures.

I have the dolls ready to dress, I had planned on having them finished by now, but hey, life happens!

The one inspired by the Izannah Walker dolls is ready to dress, I have been pondering the style that would suit her best. I have pulled out my fashion books and looked over the styles of the mid to late 1800's but as of yet have not decided on one style. I want her dressed in something not too fancy but stylish and historically correct. Her underclothes will consist of a camisole, petticoat and split drawers.

As you can see in the photo's she is multi-jointed, so that she can be easily posed. Her joints are held together with lightly rusted tin buttons. This body style is not like the original Izannah dolls, in fact very little of her is like a original Izannah Walker doll. She is not a reproduction, she was only inspired by her dolls.

The black doll is a hoot. I like her upward side glancing eyes it makes her look at though she has been up too some kind of mischief or that she is just thankful for all that she has. She has old grandma style slipper shoes with big flowers on the toes.
I am not decided but am leaning towards giving her black mohair hair with a bandanna to tie it up with. At this point she still seems like a gardener to me. I think I will dress her in light green, and maybe, a muslin apron of some sort. We'll see how she turns out.

Thank you all for checking in.