Raggedies Multiply!

It's late, so this will be short, but just wanted to post a new picture of the rapidly multiplying Raggedies. The small one, which is one in on the far right has a wooden head and her hair is sewn onto a toe of a nylon stocking, and then the "wig" is glued to her wooden head, The rest of her is cloth, similar to the others. I've got tiny ones in the works, too, but managed to leave them at my son and daughter-in-law's house when we visited last week. That will teach me to not check the room before we leave!!! I should know better at my age!!!

Raggedy Progress

Here are the ones that are just about done, clothes and all. While out garage-sale-ing today, I cut out and sewed three pair of the smaller bloomers--DH drove, of course. The FiberFest is the second weekend in October, and so I need to work hard if I'm going to have a good selection of my wares to sell.

Finishing What I Started---several years ago

Well, I have to get some items ready for the Fiber Fair which is happening the first weekend in October. I decided that I should be "orderly" about this and perhaps finish some things that I had partly done already. These little Raggedies came to mind, ones I didn't finish for the Tokeland sale about three years ago. The nice thing about dolls is that you can leave them and when you come back, they're right where you left them. And I'd had the rather unusual idea (for me, that is) of putting all of these Raggedies together in one place, so finding them was a cinch--this is not my usally MO, but I was glad I acted like an organized person, for a change. I've been working on them and will continue to work on them until they are all finished and dressed. Making the same thing over and over is also not my usual way of operating, but these little girls (and guy) deserve to be finished and perhaps under someone's Christmas tree. And besides, I REALLY like Raggedy Anns and never seem to tire of looking at them. I DO want to make some tiny ones, too. We'll see if I run out of time before I run out of ideas. That's what IS usual for me.

New Sturdy Future Hitty House

I bought this sturdy little cabinet for five dollars at a rummage sale last Saturday. I think it is what is known as a "pie safe" but I'm not sure. Please correct me, if I'm wrong. Anyway, it has two shelves, as you can see in the rather fuzzy picture, and so this will be a rather compact house for the Hittys. Right now, though, I only have one of the two Hittys I've finished (the second, Beatrix, residing with my mom) so the house should be plenty big enough for a single Hitty and even a few of her sisters when I finish them. (I have so much going on right now that I haven't carved on them much at all lately.)

Anyway, I have ditched the foamcore board house I was making, as I found it lacking in sturdiness and artistic appeal. I like old things, so this "pie safe" suits me fine, and I will try to get to work on it soon.

I haven't decided if I will cut a hole in the first floor ceiling and build a stairway or not, but I am thinking I will. My dad made me a four room dollhouse when I was a child and I was always bothered by the fact that it had no stairway, so I'm thinking I'd be bothered if this house did not have one, either. Still, it will be a challenge to figure out the number of stairs, width of step, etc. But I'm fairly good at math, and I'll search online for help. I'll probably make one of cardboard first, to make sure everything works, and THEN cut one from wood. I think I'll look online for slats of basswood, or perhaps I could use tongue depressors; I'm confident I'll find a way. I belong to HittyGirls and I'm sure some of them have built stairways in their Hitty houses.

More Info about Tuck Comb Dolls

According to my online research, "Tuck Comb dolls," are classed, along with other "peg woodens, or pennywoods" as Grodner Tal Peg Wooden Dolls, but they are in a special subclass because of their superior workmanship: carved wooden hair combs, fancy earrings, and lovely feminine shapes. They were produced in the Grodner Tal (Valley) in what was Bavaria but became part of Germany during WW II.

Like other pennywoods, these dolls were made in the nineteenth century, 1800 to 1850, and the paint on them contains lead. I'm not yet sure if they were always sold without clothing as the less-detailed pennywoods were.

"These are often referred to as "German" Tuck combs, probably because they were sold via the German Nuremberg Toy Market...." (Lotz Doll Pages) They are also sometimes incorrectly referred to as "Dutch dolls" from the word "Deustch" (ie. "German").

Their fancy hair comb was sometimes removed so they could wear hats or other headwear. The James Orem doll I bought (see previous post) is about 11 1/2" tall, the same size as my other pegwooden "Jane," who was given to me by a friend who owned two of these dolls (below). In exchange for making clothes for her undamaged doll, my friend gave me the damaged ("disabled," she said) pegwooden who was missing a lower leg. I made a new lower leg for her, and then she looked good as new.

I named my first pegwooden doll "Jane" because in Beatrix Potter's Tale of Two Bad Mice the pegwooden in the dollhouse is named Jane. It is weird that in all the times I read this book to my daughter Connie, I paid little attention to that doll. AFTER I received the pegwooden from my friend, I happened to purchase the book for my granddaughter and in reading it to her, noticed the pegwooden in the dollhouse.

Pegwoodens were made in every size from 1" to 17", but the ones most commonly for sale on Ebay are 11 1/2" and Jane is that sized, too. If you search "pegwooden" on my blog, you will see more pictures of the two dolls as I made clothes for them and repaired the one given me.

Tuck Comb Doll from James Orem

This is a wooden doll, carved by James Orem. He is retiring from making dolls as he has neuropathy; it will be a loss for doll lovers and collectors, as he makes very lovely dolls. I am lucky to have two of his dolls, the latest pictured above. She will get an outfit sometime in the future, and I have not yet named her. I am trying to think of the female version of "James" as that would be appropriate, I think.

This is a "tuck comb" doll (called that because of the hairdo), and I can identity one on sight but really don't know a lot about them. They were made of wood, with the shape of a Queen Anne doll (small waist). I saw one just recently in the Rosemarie Whyle Doll Museum in Bellvue, WA. Sadly, the museum is closing the end of February, 2012, so if you are planning a trip to the Seattle area between now and then, please do stop in and see the dolls there. They are wonderful, especially if you are interested in historical dolls.

My Somewhat Lackadasial Salute to the 2011 NFL Season

I'm not much of a football fan. I hate it when football boots the national evening news on my favorite network. That said, some of my progeny are diehard Seahawks fans, and so this is for them, although they don't read my blog, I'm SURE.