A New Peg Wooden

I have added another peg wooden doll to my collection (of two).These dolls were also,  mistakenly, called "Dutch ' dolls," a misunderstanding of "Deutch" dolls, meaning "German" dolls. They were made in Grodner Tal (valley) in Bavaria, which, at times, has been part of Austria and other times part of Germany. They were made in sizes from 1.5" to 17" and I believe that one person painted them all, as they all certainly look "related."  The two dolls I own are both 11.5" tall, and many I've seen for sale are also this size, so I am assuming that perhaps more were made in this size than any other. The dolls were quite crudely made, turned on a lathe,  of wood that reminds me of kindling!  They were always sold without clothing. The paint used contained lead, and, according to an article I have, the woman who painted them used one color a day, so the paint had time to dry overnight.

   I had never seen these dolls before I was shown a couple by a friend, but later, in reading Beatrix Potter's Tale of Two Bad Mice, I noticed one of the doll house dolls was a peg wooden named "Jane." So I named my first pegwooden (below) "Jane," too. She was given to me by my friend, who had two, and she gave me Jane in return for making an outfit for the doll she kept.

  These dolls were often sold in "Penny Stores" in Britain, the equivalent of our "Five and Dimes." Queen Victoria and her governess dressed many of these dolls after characters they saw in plays or operas. I really like these dolls because they are quite simple and  were made to be purchased by "regular"  folks who could not afford the more elaborate china head dolls that were available during the same time period (1850-1900).

Funny Duck!!

Actually, this duck is not left over from Halloween, nor is he traveling incognito. What he IS doing is holding a Hitty Face until it dries (I hope I can get it off easily tomorrow--I didn't put any plastic wrap under the clay like I usually do).  I use PaperClay because I really HATE Sculpey. I don't like having to bake it and I don't like how brittle it becomes, either. I also don't like how hard it is to wash off my hands or how heavy it is. Do you get the idea that I REALLY DON'T LIKE SCULPEY??!!

 I DO, however, LOVE PaperClay. It is light, it air dries, and although it has a tendency to crack, this doesn't matter to me because I always use it under cloth. I am also experimenting with using a face mold lined with knit cloth soaked in gesso and with just a thin layer of paper clay over that--the paper clay will be BEHIND the face when I remove it from the mold. I have used PaperClay behind my last couple Alabama Babies' faces, but I used quite a thick layer of it, and it made the babies' faces heavier than I wanted them to be, although much lighter than the plaster of paris that I first used, or the Sculpey I tried after that. Making dolls is an evolutionary process, which is one reason I like making them so much. There is no end to the things you can try and the places you can go.

Finished Sock Monkey for Hittys

He is sewn from Red Heel Sock scraps. I used satin stitch with red embroidery floss to make his smile. Although Hitty Connie doesn't look very happy, she LOVES her sock monkey.

Show and Tell Site At Doll Collectors

I posted the story of my pegwooden Jane there, and how I came to get her:

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/34665-another-peg-wooden-doll

Other doll makers/collectors  might like to go there and post some pictures, too. It's always interesting to read stories about other peoples' dolls.

If you Agree that Corporations are not People

I don't know what those five justices were thinking!!?? Corporations have free speech?!?!? No. I'm sorry. In MYway of thinking, Corporations can't speak at all. They are business entities that exist mostly on paper.  PEOPLE work in those corporations, but the corporation itself is not a person and does not have the same rights as a person. Corporations are mostly about money, and although some people say, "Money talks." I have never heard mine say anything, and I've never heard a corporation say anything, either.
   If you would like to help Movetoamend repeal this stupid decision, and put corporations back where they belong, as businesses not people, go to movetoamend.org/motion-to-amend and sign the petition.
   I promise I won't bring politics up often on my blog; I only bring this to your attention now because I think it is so important.

My Printed Blog Book

Here is the link for Blog2Print that I used to print a couple years worth of my blog. I LOVE the book that resulted and have vowed to print my blog every couple of years, with each successive volume beginning where the last one left off.
http://blog2print.sharedbook.com/blogworld/printmyblog/index.html?sbt=bfaed9dc7b8eec41f3f59d6676e095c51365973e&utm_source=SharedBook&utm_medium=email&utm_content=21532&utm_campaign=Blog2Print%2BOctober%2BSale%2B10.17-Blog2Print

My Jazzed Up Checkbook Cover

My plastic checkbook cover was beginning to tear at the fold after providing several years of faithful use. DH offered a leather one from a defunct checkbook calculator he once had, which I happily accepted. However, there was a problem: my checkbook now looked EXACTLY like his! That absolutely was ASKING FOR TROUBLE. So I grabbed a bottle of nailpolish I had previously used to embellish my cell phone (for the same reason of identicality-- a word I just coined.) Above you see the result. Like it?  I do!!