Doll Makers Medals & Ribbons

After attending the doll makers conference in Columbus, I came home full of excitement and pleasure from the fun, creative experience. When I told the people in my life about the experience, most of them said something like: "Oh, that's nice". I realized that people who don't find meaning from making things don't "get" the excitement of a creative experience such as doll making. I suppose they find their creative sparks in other ways.

I took a class with elinor peace bailey who suggested that I make a decorated doll. After mulling things over I decided to make "decorations" for doll makers and artists. I want to recognize kindred spirits with medals and ribbons. The photo shows my train of thought for designing these medals and ribbons. Once I have developed the designs a bit further I will make name the various ribbons and medals. A short term goal is to develop these small projects into a publishable pattern.

Artistic Figures in Cloth

Despite the awkward name the conference was great fun.  It was the perfect way to blow off steam after a demanding semester.  It is always good to spend time with fun creative people. I'm energized.  

I finally met elinor peace bailey and took a class with her.  I learned a lot and have short term goals to work on during the summer semester.  I am going to make a series of doll maker's medals and ribbons to balance my life.  Hopefully out of this experimentation I will come up with a small pattern to publish.  

Mrs Boyer

Mrs Boyer is the first round robin doll that I have received that I really like. She is going to be the mascot for my doctoral project. I'm looking at how to support frail elderly women maintain their independence with cooking and related activities. I'm particularly interested in the meaning of maintaining independence and safety. I have her sitting on my desk to keep me company as I work my way through the doctoral process.

I've learned that it helps to start the face on these round robin dolls. In this case I sketched in the features with some simple embroidery. Mrs Boyer is named after the mother of a childhood friend who made fabulous raisin cookies. I imagine her as being at that point in life where she does what she wants to do and she doesn't care what other people think.

studio photos

A pin cushion doll



Baby Matron in repose



Monkeys and pigs



epb doll minding the time


My rocking chair

Old Gram Winter

Ruth did a great job photographing Grammy.  It's hard to get the detail on a monochrome doll. Gram's personality shines through on this one.  Gram is dressed in old lace, her face is done with a trapunto technique and her hair is Tibetan lamb's wool.  She has an aluminum armature and can be reposed, even her hands and fingers.  

We took the photographs on a photo stage that I recently built in my studio.  It's the first use of the stage since the electrician was here to wire it for me.  We played a lot with the lighting and in the end we used Ott lights bounced off the stage walls to get this effect.  The drape is a large piece of felt.

Art Doll Photos

Ruth Hendricks came over today to photograph some of my dolls.   It was lot of work and great fun.  Along the way she took some photos of my studio including the wall of dolls above.  I'll upload more doll photos in the next few posts.  Some of the dolls exerted their personality and refused to be photographed in front of a simple drape.  Ruth suggested making note cards or a calendar with my doll photos.  I love the idea but wonder about doing it in this economy.

The doctoral program is demanding but I'm doing OK with keeping up with it and my basic doll making goals.  The doll club has been meeting here once a month and we are preparing to participate in AFIC.  We will be taking a club exhibit with us for display in the gallery.  It should be great fun with good friends.  Its nice to have something like that to look forward to when I'm doing my homework.