Ancient Rag Doll and a Grand Day Out

Hello to everyone, I have had a busy few weeks, I am on top of my orders now and getting ready for Christmas.  Both Becca and I needed a day to ourselves so we took advantage of cheap tickets and went to the British Museum in London for the day.  Wonderful to spend the day just wandering from amazing room to amazing room, saw lots of fascinating things but this little doll in the Greek and Roman Life room (Room 69) made me hold my breath.  She is a cloth doll from around 100 to 500 AD and she has survived all this time.  Most fabric decays and falls away but to find a little girl's plaything from so long ago is quite lovely.  She is Egyptian made and is formed from coarse linen and stuffed with papyrus and rags.  There are vestiges of wool still attached, so maybe she had an embroidered face and little blue beads that suggest there was hair ornament.  She survived because she was in a particularly dry place in Egypt, which helps preserve organic materials.  When I looked her up on the website, it explained that dolls were as popular then as now and that childrens' play doll could be made of cloth, wood, bone and fired clay.  But cloth dolls are close to my heart and I was very pleased to find her.

Another toy that caught my eye was this wooden cat with a movable mouth. You pull the string up and down, there are even little bronze teeth!  Again he is Egyptian and can be seen in Room 61.  For anyone like me, a child at heart, along with exhibits of great significance and with heavy meaning there are puppets from all over the world, toy theatres, tiny doll's house furniture and incredible kites of all things.  I can heartily recommend the little cafe in the wonderful atrium, they do a very good cuppa and a nice lemon drizzle cake, not too expensive either. 

Sylvie, a little pink miss.

 This is Sylvie, she is one of my Rhoda dolls and this time I have tried a different outfit for her.  I went for a jeans and tunic and I am quite happy with the result.  The denim fabric is wonderfully soft and comes from the Tilda collection and I got it on sale, even better.  Her pigtails and hat were great challenges.  I made so many plaits until I got two that matched it was quite incredible, you would not believe how hard that was!  Her hat was quite a challenge also, I am not the worlds best crocheter and I wanted it to go to a point but not too much to a point, that took several goes as well.  But, hey I am happy with the result.  Her little leather bag was fun to make and it sits quite well. I am just on with a sister for her before I start a fairy tale project for November.  Hope you are all well and enjoying the autumn colours and darker nights.  I have made pumpkin soup for tea with bacon balmcakes and a rhubarb crumble, it just feels so right. Enjoy the leaves!

A great day out at Ruthin Craft Centre, North Wales

What a lovely day we had, I went primarily to see the work of Julie Arkell, it was a huge collection of her dolls, well over 100. The exhibition is entitled 'Away' or 'ymaith'.  I love her idiosyncratic work, they are so beautifully crafted and this time she has created many original dolls rather than using just found dolls.  Nearly all were embroidered with quirky little comments and many had knitted components or wonderful Welsh hats.  I fell in love with her Welsh crows, in all different sizes, some quite large which is unusual for her.  If you can get to North Wales it is well worth a visit, its a great day out.  I can heartily recommend the cafe, which sources local Welsh foodstuffs and has a really interesting menu.  Not too expensive either.  Also on show in the gallery is an exibition entitled 'Is it wood?' or 'a yw'n bren?' This exhibition was so good, some of the pieces on show were just amazing, artists on show included Peter Archer's glorious vessels, the turned pieces of Eleanor Lakelin and some delightful insect forms by Louise Hibbert.  Rebecca fell in love with the work of Wycliffe Stutchbury which was so very dramatic and imposing.  We are lucky we are just over an hour & a half to Ruthin and make the trip to see most of the exhibitions.  If you can manage to get there do try it, it's really worth.

Thank you to the young man who let me take a picture of the gallery.

Tilly, a rag doll for grown ups.

This is Tilly, she is a tall girl at 16 inches, she is dressed in an old quarter of quilting fabric and has recycled knickers, underskirt and stripy legs.  The dress fabric was a gift from an elderly lady who was shutting down her work room, I think it is from the 1980's but I am not sure. It made a pretty dress anyhow, the collar is from a tiny piece of cotton velvet I had left from a stumpwork piece of peas.  She is holding a little stripy bird and has shell buttons as an embellishment to her dress. This is the last of my stripy shirt fabric, it has been great and so versatile but sadly the rest of David's shirts are ok so I will have to wait. As always she has a hand painted, hand embroidered face and her hair is hand stitched wool tops.  I am loving this colour, its from a range of wool tops by Trimmits, it comes in a tiny bag and is not expensive but has a wonderful range of colours.  This candy pink is my favourite, I just can't get enough of it. It gives the dolls a wonderful warmth to their faces.

Ada and Ida

I would never normally show a customer order because not everyone wants their order on show but this little lady is for my Aunty Eileen and she won't mind.  A few months ago they bought Ida, the name of my grandma and Uncle Stan's mother.  He asked if I would make Ada, Aunty Eileen's mum to sit together with Ida.  This is Ada and she had to have glasses because Mrs Mawdesly always wore glasses her whole life. I wanted to share her with you because I just love the glasses.  After several abortive attemps of my own I asked my awfully clever daughter to help me out.  She just had a quick look at the doll and turned out a wonderful pair of silver glasses made of wire that just fit so well.   They show her eyes off and don't diminish them in any way and they provide such a neat solution, I am very happy and Aunty Eileen loves her.  She is going to sit with Ida in her bedroom. I used a complementary fabric range to the previous doll, using the very pretty Japanese rabbit print but decided to make a different pattern of doll to Ida again so that they complemented each other and didn't match.  I think they look quite good together.

Thora, Twyla and Tessa

Thora

I have been having a play with my patterns and using a mixture of fabrics both new and recycled I have made three new dolls of varying sizes. Thora, the first girl is my old pattern and is wearing an old print with cabbages, I think it was a a Rohan Fabric by the designer Martha Negley. All the girls are wearing this, it was a gift from a friend of my aunt when she was winding down her workroom.  Thora, Twyla and Tessa all have stripy legs thanks to one of David's shirt that gave out this summer and the pink blouses are from Aunty Irene's new summer blouse which she covered with fence paint.  It is a great fabric to work with and I would have liked more. A pyjama top of Becca's made Twyla's and Tessa's knickers and underskirts.  The girls sit well together and are nicely coordinated. Twyla is a very tall girl, she is 50cm and is the tallest girl I have made, when I elongated the pattern, it elongated her head quite considerably and I am not unhappy with the result.  She is stuffed soft and that gives a light cosy feel.  Overall I am quite happy with the long pattern but I am not sure I will make more.  Tessa or ten ton Tessa is an uber tuby maid, I played with the pattern and pulled her wide, she stands 40cm and a good 20cm at the waist.  I like her but I am not sure she will be a good seller but I am happy to make more if she is well liked.  It is interesting to play with patterns and see what you get, I wish I had more time to play but needs must as they say.  I am working on my wedding orders and starting to make a few pieces for Christmas but I need to explore my fairy tale girls and I am thoroughly looking forward to it. I hope everyone is enjoying the season, we are getting some lovely colours but the nights are starting to pull in here.  Best wishes to you all.

Twyla

Tessa

Autumn Birthday Doll Cards

I was asked to make a 21st Birthday Card for a customer to accompany a birthday doll in Autumn colours for an October birthday.  It had to be something doll based and I was a little at a loss to know where to start.  Then I found Julie Nutting's book on couture fashion paper dolls, that led me to her stamps by Prima Marketing and suddenly I have a whole new interest!  I can once more play with paper dolls.  This was an abiding passion of mine as a child, a new paper doll book kept me quiet a long time.  My Grandma Ida used to go into Chorley to an Aladdin's Cave of a Newsagents cum book shop cum card shop called Rigbye's on Eaves Lane.  This card shop was amazing, you had an occasion and they would have a card for it.  I once bought a special birthday card for my cat!  But they had all kinds of old fashioned notions and that included a regular supply of paper doll books.  One I remember was a collections of fifties outfits for a Connie Francis Paper Doll and this was in the seventies!  Why Connie Francis I don't know but it inspired me to revisit her paper doll collection during my City and Guilds, where I was exploring printing and made the papers all into doll outfits.  You could still find the original paper doll online.  Happy, happy days.  However, the stamps by Julie Nutting are just wonderful, there are so many, in so many styles and you really can make them individual.  It is just so much fun and you get to pick lovely papers and play with them. For once it is me who is raiding Becca's stash, rather than the other way round.  She is being very gracious about it and has even had a go at making an old fashioned victorian school boy, with black hair and cut out cat eyes.  I cannot recommend Julie Nutting's books for inspiration and so many pieces inspired by her stamps on Pinterest.   I enjoyed making these cards so much and they fit so well with my dolls that I think I will continue to make them and slowly add to my collection of Julie Nutting stamps.  This is my first foray into card making for anyone other than family and it is a whole new world of colour and pattern, I hope you like them.