Christmas Izannah Tableau

I just listed this doll on ebay , item 120062981743. I sculpted this Izannah Walker doll this summer. I was looking for something today and found this sled in a cupboard. Its amazing how much doll stuff I have tucked away.... pretty sad! Anyway I think she would look wonderful underneath a tree.

Annabelle Doll Club

I thought I would write about my fascination of dolls that inspired Tasha Tudor 's art work and stories. Tasha's stories

"A Doll's Christmas " and "A is for Annabelle" are some of my most treasured childhood stories and I enjoyed re-reading them to my own children when they were young. As is well known, Tasha Tudor is an ardent doll lover , doll collector and doll artist. The drawings in "A is for ..." were based on her Jumeau French Fashion doll Melissa as is shown in the third picture. This is an alphabet book where each letter describes a lovely doll accessory. If you dont have this book, I think you should make a point of taking a look at it at your earliest convenience!

I know doll clubs have been re-creating Annabelle, the star of her book " A is for.." since the book was published, but I wanted to re-create her in a medium that the non-porcelain doll artist could enjoy. So I found a tiny 9 inches tall EJ Jumeau mold ( Jean Pardina molds) and made one up in papermache and painted in oils. Picture 4 and 5 is my first Annabelle. She now lives with my friend Janice, but I was very encouraged with the results and shared pictures with my friends on the Take Peace Tasha Tudor Yahoo Group and of course they wanted to join the fun too... So now there are about 16 of us across the US and Canada making Annabelle and scouring EBAY looking for accessories. I hope to post pictures of our treasures off and on. Progress on her clothing and accessories have been slow, but very satisfying.

BTW, I will have additional kits for Annabelle in January. Make sure to send me an email if you have any interest at bonameechi@yahoo.com.

Little Dolls

I have enjoyed creating a little doll inspired by the "Little House" books for a friend's daughter. These were my all time favorite stories as a girl, and I still enjoy these stories as an adult. As I started to work on these, by imagination when a little wild, and the clothing I sewed looks a little more 'Dickenson' then Home on the Prairie. Nevertheless, I am pleased with them and feel my sewing skills are starting to improve a little. Sewing clothing for 5 inch dolls is a bit of challenge. Its seemed my entire fabric stash had prints that were too large and I found out that red is a difficult color to match. I still have quite a bit of handwork left on the clothing, and would like to paint a box for the 'spare' doll to put her clothing in.. Santa might need an extra gift!

Laura doll in procelain

I know its been a while since my last post, but I have been busy trying to finish some of the unfinished dolls. Its actually embarassing how many there are (LOL). This doll I am quite excited about. This is the same sculpt as the papermache doll I posted about last time , only this dear was casted in porcelain and painted in a more traditional way . It took forever to prepare her greenware and to smooth her. I did alot of cleaning and smoothing before I even softfired her head This doll has some soft indentations and suble un-evenness in comparison to a doll made from a commercial mold ( after all the sculpt has not been refined yet), but I actually like the end result - I think it adds more realism to her face. After all most of us don't have completely smooth faces. I apologize for the funny picture of a head in a crock, but I hope to repost a picture once she is finished.

For some technical details - I painted her following Dianna Effner's painting techniques taught in her Doll Dreamers Guild, including china painted eyes ( not glass) in the colors of seafoam and brown. I am very proud of her and am busy getting the rest of her body parts finished so she can become a doll.

Kristen's Dollmaking Blog

I thought today I would start working on recording some of my dollmaking exploits in an effort to focus and improve my dollmaking skills. The picture is of a doll, Laura, that I would like to finish soon. She is currently an amputee, but I have her arms and legs sewn, gessoed, and ready to be painted. I think its time she gets finished and dressed properly as a doll. I have decided not to paint on her head any more, except perhaps to do some more shading in her hair.

This is the sculpted I did at Dianna Effners seminar and I have two heads in papermache and two in porcelain I am working on. This is the first to be painted, and it was fun getting to know her face.