Saturday, March 29, 2014

Boudoir Dolls

When I visited my grandmother as a small child I remember that she always had a doll seated on top of the console TV and one on her bed.  The dolls were dressed in beautiful costumes with full ruffled skirts.  I was always fascinated with these dolls, and if I recall correctly, they were boudoir dolls.

Boudoir dolls were popular during the 1920’s.   When I started creating dolls I became intrigued with Lenci dolls and fell in love with the Lenci boudoir dolls. There were several different types made but the ones that fascinated me the most were the ones elaborately dressed in romantic court dresses such as those worn by Marie Antoinette.   Out of my love for these dolls I created Mistique and costumed her with all of the ruffles and frills I could imagine worn by a beautiful boudoir doll.
Mistique is a 17” needle-sculpted ball jointed cloth doll inspired by the romantically styled boudoir dolls of the 1920’s that I have always loved.  I will be teaching a workshop on how to create your own Mistique on May 22nd online for A for Artistic.  This work-shop will present a multitude of cloth doll making techniques. You will receive instruction on needle-sculpting a cloth doll head, hands, and feet. The workshop will present techniques on creating hidden ball joints, using watercolors for cloth doll facial coloring, needle-felting an elaborate hairstyle, how to create an elaborate costume, and how to create beautiful doll shoes. All of these techniques will be presented while you are in the process of creating a beautiful heirloom doll!
Hope to see you in class!

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

It Was Another Spring Snow Storm or the Birth of Two Very Silly Bunnies

Last Saturday morning I woke up and took a peek outside my window and was disheartened by witnessing yet another blustery snow storm.  It was the 22nd of March.  Enough with the snow!   It was time for the snow to have long been melted and time for the daffodils to bloom.  I couldn’t quite do anything about the weather outside but I was determined to start making it look a little more like spring inside!  At that thought I felt impelled to pull two bunnies out of my very full bag of unfinished projects to complete on that blustery spring day.  The bunnies were two that I had started two years ago when I had designed and shared the pattern for them with my doll club in Ottawa.  The first bunny was made to show an example to the doll club during the presentation and the second bunny was used for the demonstration of techniques used in the creation of the bunnies.  Somehow life moved on and the bunnies were forgotten and left unfinished until last Saturday.  I had quite a bit of fun completing and dressing the bunnies.  Just looking at them helps it feel more like its spring don’t you think