Temperance...

My latest little cloth and clay doll isn't a cowgirl.  Or a pretty little Native American doll.  She harks back to a time when a young lady wore lace and lots of it.  I am not sure about the age of the laces used in her unders, but the lace which trims her dress made of homespun is vintage.  Her hair is sculpted or molded from paste and cotton floss and held back on one side with a bit of satin ribbon.  She stands about 13 1/2 inches tall, but prefers to sit and sew on her cross-stitched sampler.  She has been of good temperance each day of her long journey, being quite patient with me, so in keeping with my alphabet challenge, her name had to start with the letter T...thus Temperance.

Sacagawea...

My version of Sacagawea, the woman who guided Lewis and Clark's exploration of the American West, is dressed in the fashion of the old Skookum dolls, the first of which were designed by Mary McAboy of Missoula, Mt. and patented in 1914.  Early doll heads were made of dried apples, and blankets were wrapped around wooden frames.  Later dolls were made from composition and had mohair wigs.  Skookums do not have arms (this doll does) - they are wrapped with blankets and have the suggestion of arms.  Skookum dolls were popular as tourist dolls in the west from the early 1920s until the 1960s.


(Thanks to my friend Sarah who sent me the Pendelton wool fabric from which Sacagawea's blanket is made.)

"Happy Christmas to all..."

Raphael, A Father Christmas Doll...

 

 

 

 

A New Doll Cabinet...

Some people trade cars every year...I trade curio cabinets.  Last September I bought a small curio cabinet in which I could display the little western dolls I have been making.  I knew it didn't fit our rustic western style, but, at the time, it was the best I could find.  The biggest disappointment, however, was that there was only one small door, about six inches wide, in one side of the cabinet.  Arranging the dolls was, to say the least, quite a challenge.

A few days ago, when I just happened to be in town with some time on my hands, I went into the furniture store to take a look around.  When, "what to my wondering eyes should appear," but a beautiful mission-styled curio cabinet with a sliding front door.  Well, after a bit of going this way and that, the furniture guy and I finally made a deal that was satisfactory to us both, and the new cabinet was mine.  It is somewhat wider than the "old" one, so I will have space to be more creative, perhaps to mix in other western collectibles.  I am working on two other dolls for this collection...not sure where they will fit in.  However, when I look at the dolls locked in the cabinet, I can't help but think of The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks; just hope all of these little guys don't decide to come to life.........

From the Sewing Room...

The dolls and I are holed up, this rainy day, inside the sewing room, they hard at play, and I hard at work.  (Making dolls is work, isn't it?)  Quiet Rain and Oakley, though from two different worlds, have become best of friends.   One boy has been teaching the other rain dance chants...keep up the good work boys!

The Rain Dance...

We have danced into the night and rain has finally come!  We are thankful!