Big and Little Pink Matryoshka Cloth Dolls

I've been working on my russian matryoshka style dolls and have made variations on a theme.  To the left the first picture shows the size variation and I think they look well together. The big girl, she is twelve inches tall and is soft to touch, the little girl is eight inches tall and stuffs a little firmer. On the smaller girls I have tried to slim down the profile to again give a little individuality.  The face scaled up well and I have included details of all their faces in this post.  Having varied scale, I varied detailing to the body and tried different way of using the ribbon to delineate the hood fabric.  Two of the doll have a contrasting bird with hand embroidery and one has a heart with hand embroidery. I particularly like the potential for embellishment that these dolls have.  I have also enjoyed using felt as a different texture, its ease of use make it a very satisfying fabric and it lends itself so well to hand embroidery.  I kind of feel I have got something here worth investigating, feedback so far has been very positive and they are a delight to make. I get to use all my favourite elements, buttons, ribbon and very pretty fabrics!  I hope you enjoy them and would love to hear any comments that you have. 

 

Rendezvous Goldsmiths, a really grand day out in Wales.

Ruthin Craft Centre is a little gem nestling in the town of Ruthin in North Wales.  We are lucky it takes us only an hour and half to get there, we always have a pleasant lunch at their tea rooms and over the years we have seen some remarkable exhibitions. The Rendezvous Goldsmiths exhibition is very good.  The exhibition contains work by former students and staff who were all involved with the college from 1975 to 1988, when Audrey Walker was head of department.  The collection of works is as diverse and different as the artists who created them.  If you can get to North Wales it is well worth the effort as there is something for everyone who has an interest in textile art.  The pieces by Audrey Walker herself are stunning and it is good to see some of her drawings as well.  There is some splendid work by the mosaic artist Cleo Mussi and a dazzling piece by Michael Brennand-Wood (see below).  The subtlety of the pieces by James Hunting are really worth seeing, the delicacy of the stitching to suggest human heads is great.  It took us about an hour and half to go round and get a good insight into the exhibition, there is also an interesting ceramic gallery showing Illustrated Ceramics, a collaboration of contemporary illustration work on modern ceramic pieces, which is also very good.  All in all it really is a special collection of work by very talented people who came together at an extraordinary period in Goldsmiths' history. 



 

Diana Mott-Thornton

No Thought Therefore No Fear 2013



 Michael Brennand-Wood

       Dream No8 The Seeker 2013

 

Audrey Walker  Expulsion 2006 

James Hunting

And There Will Your Heart Be Also

Little Blue Cloth Matryoshka

I have been asked to make a series of small cloth Russian dolls for a wedding in February next year and having never made one I thought I would try my hand.  There are lots of lovely examples on the internet and having got some inspiration I set about making my own.  Her face was the most important thing, everything else is just ornament but a doll's face is how she greets the world, you look at her face before anything else.  I wanted a young face and I wanted to use my favourite technique of having painted faces but embroidered eyelashes and brows.  I think I have nailed her eyes, they really work for me but I will play around with her mouth.  Next came the hair, I always like wool tops for the hair and I had several wild attempts at making this work but I am happy that this technique is workable and looks very dapper.  I like the body shape, this is mine and pleasingly plump but I was inpired to make the detailing of the lovely ribbon and felt by several dolls on the internet.  They must be done by one person but I cannot find out who(update, thanks to Miss Misty, the ladies names are Caroline from Zouzou Designs and Denise Ferragamo).  I like the idea of using ribbon and more personalised embroidery alongside the felt making them truly mine.  All in all I am quite pleased with her, she is a little large for my wedding dolls, she stands 8 inches tall but I have had some very promising reactions to her, including offers to buy her so I think I will make more.  I am going to make larger ones as companions and work on my wedding commission to make smaller ones around 5 inches, as well as making ones this size.  I think I would like to include some of my sampler stitched pieces with felt on her tummy that link around her body design. I have also thought about making cat ones, rabbit ones and frog one but we shall see.  I don't get as much time as I would like to play with new design ideas but really enjoy it when I get the opportunity.

Cossinia's Doll

This is Cossinia's doll, she is a jointed ivory doll from the first or second century AD or CE.  The doll is anatomically correct, about twelve inches tall and has a gold necklace, gold bracelets and anklets.  She even has the hairstyle sported by the empress Julia Domina shown in the photograph below. The photograph of the doll was taken by Barbara McManus of the VRoma Project
and having ferreted around I found out a little about Cossinia herself.  Cossinia, the daughter of Lucius, was a Vestal Virgin for sixty six years and was buried at Tivoli, the doll was found in Cossinia's tomb resting against her cheek and her shoulder, a very precious possession. Sadly the doll was removed  from Cossinia's tomb, before being taken to Rome, Cossinia's tomb being resealed. 

Girls coming of age dedicated their dolls to Diana, the goddess most concerned with young girls and their girlhood, or the doll would be dedicated to Venus if the young woman was contemplating marriage.  In Cossinia's case she kept her doll as a sign of her chastity and innocence.  It is said that she could have retired from her calling as Vestal Virgin after thirty years but she earned the love and respect of the people by choosing to stay in office and remain in the seclusion of the order.  I think this doll is just wonderful and would love to have seen her dressed in her Roman finery, the detail is great.  Such a precious object would surely have had silk tunics and stola to finish her off.  It is interesting that she is a fully adult woman and not a baby doll or a little girl.  Other Roman dolls have been found that are made from clay or wood as well as bone and ivory but nearly all seem to be of adult women.  I wonder if dolls for younger girls were made of fabric, softer and less likely to break.  A rag doll made within the confines of the home being fabric would probably not have survived the passage of time but it is interesting to have a glimpse of a treasured doll owned by a woman living so long ago.