I am still working
on my ball jointed French Mignonette inspired doll. This week I worked on her hair, embellished
her dress, made her shoes, and created a chair for her to sit on. Oh what fun I had! I still plan on adding a few more
embellishments or two.
As I promised last
week, I am going to share some interesting tidbits I found out while
researching French Mignonettes before creating this doll.
One interesting
tidbit of information is that the earliest French Mignonettes were made in
France, often had jointed limbs, wigs, and inset eyes. The mignonettes paralleled the current doll
trends and were quite elaborate.
However, the French doll makers were so busy keeping up production of
the larger dolls that after the first year or so they started buying the tiny
bisque dolls from German doll manufacturers.
The dolls were then dressed and completed in France and sold as French
Mignonettes.
In order to share
another interesting bit of information, I will need to give you a little bit of
a back story. As you may already know,
my blog is called Orsini’s Angels, as is also my doll making business. I named it after my grandmother, Dominga Orsini. She moved to New York City during the late
1930’s where she found a job as a seamstress in the garment district. One of my aunts, at a later time, also worked
in the garment district as a pattern maker/designer. My aunt took me to work with her on occasion when
I was a child. I would spend the day
there sketching the models. I can’t
imagine where the love of fashion, fabric, and sewing came from! Anyway, to make a long story short, I found
out in my research that there were several mignonette doll designers in the
early 1900’s that would then have the dolls created in bisque form by German manufacturers. One of these doll artists was named Jeanne
Orsini who lived in New York City during the early 1900’s. Her last doll patent was dated in 1920. All of her dolls were smiling except for
one. I couldn’t find much else about her
during my search or if she is in anyway related to me but found the information
quite intriguing.
Hope you enjoyed
this post and wish you a very creative week.
warm hugs,
Marla
If you are
interested in learning how I use watercolors for skin tone and facial
coloration on cloth needle sculpted dolls I am teaching live classes on this
process. The next class will be
presented at the Quinlan Artist Doll and Teddy Bear Weekend Event. You can find out more about the class and how
to sign up here.
I am also teaching
a live class this summer on the same process at the Thousand Islands Arts
Center in Clayton NY. You can find out
more about the class by downloading their summer class catalog by clicking on this link
Or by
sending an E-mail to Marcia Rogers
You can also give Marcia a call at
315-686-4123 ext. 203
