I DID Finish Him!

I finished my boy and he is now in the one month show at Harbor Art Guild's gallery in Hoquiam, WA. It's an unthemed, unjuried show called "Anything Goes." I wish I'd taken his picture before I took him over there, but I forgot, and then forgot the two more times I've been there since. But I will take a picture of him this week for sure, and when I do, I will add it to this post. He turned out cute, I think. I still want to make him a little hat.

Almost Done with the Little Boy

His legs have a coat of paint on them now and I'm done with him for today; I'll sand lightly and put a second coat of paint on the legs tomorrow. Since his suit will be brown, I decided for tan for the "stockings" and black for the shoes. 

I left the shoes simple for now, at least. I may paint them a little higher tomorrow, so they look like old-fashioned high button shoes. I have two or three pairs of real ones, but they are two big for him.

This is a little blurry, but you can see I signed the back of the doll properly. Too many (meaning almost all) handmade cloth dolls are not signed and leave us to wonder who made them and when, and where. It is a kindness for those who come after us, to leave information on a doll as to its origins.

More Progress on Alabama Baby Boy and a Bit of Doll History

 Many old dolls (I'm assuming they are c.1920-1930, only a somewhat-educated guess) had arms shorter than what would be considered "anatomically correct." Here are two examples (above) of such dolls fom my fairly small collection. When I first saw dolls like this, I thought some unskilled, unknowing person  had replaced the original (correct) arms with arms that were too short. However, as I looked at pictures of many old dolls, and actually acquired a few myself, I saw many with similar short arms, and  realized I'd been wrong -- those arms WERE the originals. The makers were just not overly-concerned with realism, I guess. It just wasn't that important to them, I'm assuming. If it HAD been, they would have made longer arms!!

     However, I couldn't stand those too-short arms on my doll and I haven't observed abbreviated arms on the original Alabama Indestructible Baby Dolls, either. So I guess their originator, Ella Smith, DID care that her dolls had arms that were correctly proportioned to their bodies. I added a piece to each upper arm to lengthen them; earlier I'd also added a (lower) section to his torso, too, as I felt it was too "square" and not proportional to his head.

     Here is my poor boy, stretched out on a pull-out breadboard in our kitchen, with the front of his legs gessoed and drying. He's very patient.

     ( I've "claimed" this breadboard for my own artistic purposes, as I have much of our big old hundred-plus-year-old house. I've been told by one of my offspring that I'm being unfair to my husband, and should give him a room of his own rather than hog 85% of the house for myself, but I have, as yet,  too much stuff (mostly sewing/art supplies) to be able to do that.)

     The next step will be to apply gesso to the back of my boy's legs, and tomorrow, I will lightly sand them and apply a second coat. I also need to paint fingernails on his hands. Then, his arms and legs will receive a spray of clear-coat matte finish and he will be done.

     Then I will need to make some clothes for him, and fairly soon, as he's bound for a show at Six Rivers Gallery in a week or so . I've decided to make him a white shirt, white underwear, and a brown thin-wale corduroy suit. This suit will signify that he has been toilet-trained, as in days of old, boys wore dresses until they were. Recently, I received a picture of my father( born in 1914) at the age of two, and he was, indeed, wearing a dress.



Latest Project--Doll with a Recycled Head

I was heading to the garbage can with this big doll head, thinking even the Salvation Army would NOT want it. And then I had an idea. I'd read about Judi Ward covering heads like this with wool felt, to make a Lenci type doll.  I thought, "Why not cover this head with cotton knit and make another big Alabama Baby type doll.  Here are pics of steps one through four:

 I started without taking a proper "before" pic, so this is the best I could do. It looks even worse with the glue on the eyes, I know. I cut off the eyelashes before I put Elmer's glue on the eyes.

Then I coated the entire front of the head with Elmer's.

The next step is to cover the head, all around, with cotton knit fabric. I usually use an old tee shirt for this but someone had given me some new knit scraps, so this time I used that. You make sure the stretchiest direction of the fabric goes across the face, not down. I brush more glue on the underlying head, as I work my way around it. I stretch gently as I go, and have to cut darts to take up slack as I go. I try to keep the darts to a minimum, but you don't want wrinkles on your doll's head. You can see that when I finish with the face and back of head, there is a "bald spot" on the top.

Step three is to cover the top of the head with a piece of knit fabric. You must work carefully to minimize the gathers around the edge of the patch at the top of the head.  Adding more glue helps.

Here is the top of the head finished.  Alabama Babies can be identified by a round patch on the top of their heads.

Here is the covered head, drying. From the ruler, you can see that this doll will be large.

Tomorrow, when the glue has dried, I will coat the entire head with gesso. I may sand it and then add another layer of gesso, if necessary. After that, I can begin to paint the face/head. That is the part I enjoy most!! I will need to decide if he/she will have painted hair or a wig. Most Alabama Babies have painted hair, but not all of them.  Stay tuned for pictures of the progress on this doll.  

One of Ella Smith's Original Alabama Babies

No two dolls were the same. I want one!!

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It's a Boy! And Black Girl Doll Almost Dressed. And Another Suitcase

Well, once again the doll has its way! It decided it was a boy, not a little girl. That's Ok, I'm going to make him wear a Little Lord Fauntleroy suit!! Or maybe just a corduroy one. His ears are white because I just gessoed them--they are made separately and glued on. Tomorrow, they'll match his skin. I also sanded him some, so his face is rather battered looking. That is temporary; he'll look better soon. I still have to lengthen his torso, too.

This little girl is now dressed. All I need to do is sew snaps on the back of the dress. She'll be going to the gallery on Saturday, when I go to work the morning shift there. Finally!!! I started her in 2008!!!!!!

This is a small metal case I picked up at SA today for a dollar. I was half done covering it with canvas when I realized I had, yet again, forgotten to take a "before" photo of it. So this is the best I can do. Not sure how I will decorate this, or exactly where it is going, or what it is going to hold, but I don't have to decide that right now anyway. It's a nice size; bigger than a standard lunch box but not as big as a cosmetic case, or as heavy either.

Face Started

Worked on the face tonight for almost too long; I was beginning to get REALLY ANNOYED, which is never good. I get frustrated and start messing up things I should have left alone. She has no eyebrows yet and needs more work on the eyes. This is never a quick process for me; I spend a lot of time trying to get it right and doing paint overs. (sigh)  Someday perhaps I'll get so I can do this better and quicker. The face/head is the hardest part for me. I still have not decided whether I will paint the hair or add a wig--I think I'm leaning toward a wig, as I don't think her face is that of a baby's. I think she's a little girl. A friend of mine laughs because I tell her I have to wait for the doll to tell me who//what it is. I'm just not skilled enough to be able to control the outcome, and so I wait and see what I get and I go with that. I don't mind not being in control, as long as I like what I end up with.

Teacup Alabama Baby Gets a Dress

This is one of my "teacup" Alabama baby dolls. She's a cloth doll made from Deanna Hogan's (Blue Heron Dolls) Viola Ruth pattern, decreased to 50%. She's about 8" tall and was made almost two years ago; all this time, she's been naked and waiting, patiently, for some clothes. I like to make dolls but don't like to make clothes for them!!

However, I sewed this dress for this little doll last night, all by hand even though I collect old sewing machines. Sewing doll clothes by hand takes me back to when I did that as a child; I find it relaxing, whereas sewing small clothes on a sewing machine is NOT relaxing for me.