Gullah Island Sisters

WORK IN PROGRESS

This is my current work in progress. I haven't done this doll design in several months and I forgot how much I love creating this style.

She will get more jewelry and her head will be wrapped in the beautiful blue fabric shown below.

I think her little blouse should be shortened so that her skirt will hang better. It was almost half the length of the skirt which makes it look a little "bunchy". She will be one of my faceless dolls which are my most popular dolls. I think it's because they become more decorative and more of an art piece.

Michael

This is Michael he is the third of four of my new large dolls. He stands about 33" tall and he id Verlene's dance partner.

Grandma Reisa

I've been working on something different for the last few weeks. I've been making 22" dolls for a few years now and I decided that I wanted to make something different to display at a show I did yesterday. I enlarged my basic patterns so that I was able to make dolls that were 30 to 34 inches tall.

Grandma Reisa is the first of my large dolls.

Cousin Ida Mae

I found a box of cards that someone gave me a few years ago. The series of cards was called 'Brown Sugar Babies'. 

The cards were a collection of vintage photographs of babies and children from about the late 1800's to the early 1900's all dressed in their Sunday best. 

The photos influenced some old fashioned doll designs that I wanted to do of little girls in lace dresses. 

I introduced Martha Sue a few months ago and I finally finished her cousin Ida Mae. She is all dressed in blue lace and satin ribbons.

She's wearing lace trimmed socks and matching blue shoes and She has her favorite stuffed animal toy with her to keep her company.

Miranda

Miranda with her flaming red hair and soft green eyes is dressed for a hot summer weekend of shopping in the Hamptons.

Don't let her sexy demeanor fool you though. She is one of Manhattan's top corporate attorneys.

One of her favorite things to do besides shopping is hanging out with her three best friends. The four of them have been seen at the best parties and the most popular clubs.

They never have to wait in line to get in because they always wear the latest fashions.

Martha Sue

Martha Sue is five years old and she lives with her grandmother in Baltimore. She was born in 1918 and is growing up during the "Roaring 20's".

In the summer she loves to help her grandmother in the garden where the grow corn, tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries and other fruits and vegetables.

Every year her grandmother makes jam, jelly, and relish to sell at the fair.

Martha is wearing her favorite Sunday dress and shoes. Her grandmother made her dress and her pretty pink ribbons, butterfly barrette and her little brown bunny were presents from her favorite aunt and uncle.

Twelve Yards of Muslin: Projects: Projects 2, 3, 4, and 5

Here are the next finished projects out of my twelve yards of muslin. I was watching this wonderful program on TV, one of the stories they were featuring was about a doll artist. Of course, that caught my attention.

She had been laid off from here job for several months and started out making jewelry that her husband took to work to sell for a little extra income. I'm not sure how she made the transition from jewelry to doll making but she said that when she made her first two dolls they sold immediately.

I was so intrigued by her dolls' simplicity yet they were so detailed in portraying African cultural dress. She used small imported masks called African passport masks for the dolls faces. I wanted to make my own version of these dolls. I knew that I would have to be pretty resourceful in re-creating the dolls faces since I don't have access to the passport masks that she used.

I gathered the materials and the tools I needed. I had almost everything I needed already in my craft and art stash. I started out with a few rough sketches of what I wanted to create. My next step was to make an armature frame to build the doll on.

I always smile at myself when I pull out the power tools and hardware to make an art or soft art project. This project required my drill, wire cutters, 14 gage wire, pliers and wood glue.

I also got a chance to use up a lot of my leftover quilt batting scraps. I never throw anything away.

Here's where the muslin comes in. I used lots of 1" by 36" strips.

I wrapped the armature with the batting first and then the muslin strips. I got this little mummy like doll body ready to be costumed.

I love the way the wire frame makes the arms able to be posed in a variety of gestures.

My favorite part of any doll making project is the costuming. I guess it's because it takes me back to my theater roots. For this project I used burlap, (very itchy to work with) cowrie shells, African textiles, feathers, found objects and broken jewelry. I used enamel paint on fabric to paint the faces to substitute for the masks. This was a great project for my creative spirit because I could let my imagination run free. I came up with so many design ideas and these are the four I decided to make. They are the leaders of an African village.

"The Chief"

"The Elder"

"The Griot" (storyteller )

"The Merchant"

They are available for adoption at the Brickhouse Gallery in Sacramento. Can't wait to make more!