Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Doll Making Journeys

Doll by Barbara Schoenoff

I recently received this beautiful doll created by Barbara Schoenoff.  Don’t you just absolutely love her?  I do!
Doll by Barabara Schoenoff

 
Doll by Barbara Schoenoff
I was really honored that Barbara wanted to exchange a doll with me considering she was one of my first doll making teachers.
 
Doll by Barbara Schoenoff

I met Barbara quite some time ago when I attended a doll making conference in Ottawa Canada.  She taught a class on how to make her doll Delilah which I loved and had to make.
 
Delilah made by Marla L. Niederer from Barabara Schoenoff's class and pattern
In the class Barbara used woven quilting cotton for the doll and used watercolor pencils to add facial details.  I was enthralled and have been using watercolors on my cloth dolls ever since!
Delilah made by Marla L. Niederer from Barbara Schoenoff's class and pattern


Upon our parting from this class she told me that she hoped to see me again as a teacher on the doll making circuit.
Little did I know that the next time we would see each other I would be a teacher at the Artistic Figures in Cloth and Clay conference in Ohio!
 
Marla  and Barbara at Artistic Figures in cloth and Clay
Before I took Barbara’s class I had been making my dolls out of “doe suede” which is a synthetic suede fabric. But in order to use watercolors on cloth you need to use a natural fabric such as cotton.
 
Sleeping Angel by Marla L. Niederer created from "Doe Suede"
So I switched to using woven cotton fabric for my doll making in order to use watercolors on them.  I continued to explore a variety of techniques with my watercolors and started incorporating the use of tube watercolors in my doll making.  This is the doll that I sent Barbara.  
Sleeping Mermaid by Marla L. Niederer created for Barbara

I will be teaching an online class on how to make this mermaid this June on AforArtistic.
 
Sleeping Mermaid by Marla L. Niederer created for Barbara
In all of the classes that I teach, I share my techniques for using watercolors in doll making.  You can check out my current online classes here.
I also just added a free tutorial on using watercolors on cloth dolls for you here.  I hope you enjoy it!

Until Next time……..
warm hugs,
Marla

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