Dear Diary

I registered for convention yesterday, and spent a while getting the lay of the land.  And goggling like a country cousin at that monster resort.  I mean, La Quinta is more our style, given the pets and the degree of income we're willing to allocate to a roof and clean sheets.

Still, there I was, huffing from my smart choice of taking the stairs.  The wisdom of this choice is debatable, but maybe by the end of convention, I won't huff so much.  Today will be moving in the Helper Doll, whose name is Ivy Jane Adams.  She's around 15" tall or so, her gown is old cotton and her cap is antique linen.  Old crochet lace on both.
 

I posted photos on FB of these last two...from now on, my online time might be less regular.

These are Pierrot and Billy the Kid. 

I am going to have so much fun this week...learning, teaching, and goggling at dolls.  Thank you, hubby, for talking me into the full monty on this deal.  Love you.

Maybe there's just too much.

Lately I've been wondering why I've leaned more and more toward the old antique dolls and toys--the nostalgia of rag dolls and wooden puppets and such.  I really don't care about Barbies, although I absolutely loved mine when I was a girl.  Surely some of it is due to the calendar ticking off birthdays...47, 48, 49.

But yesterday, as I was wondering through the thrift shop, I went over to the toy area...which in most any thrift store I frequent is HUGE and chock full of almost brand new, fluffy, stuffy, toys.  Not just bears and dolls, of which there are an amazing number, but every imaginable stuffed critter, in every color and size.  Plastic toys line the isles, and in some cases are so numerous the store bags them in lots to clear them out faster.  Look at 90% of them and you'll find "Made in China".

It occurred to me that part of my longing for rag dolls and hand-carved wood stems from this waste, this easy-come-easy-go flood of cheap imported crap.  Don't misunderstand me--I'm grateful that the thrift stores have these things for families who can't afford to buy new.  I bought my share of it as a single mother of three.  But so many of the toys seriously looked brand new!  Never played with?  Really?  Why?  Is it the soul-less nature of the mass-produced toy that makes it so unappealing?  Or is it that our kids literally have so much stuff they can't play with it all?  Out with last year's pile and in with this year's pile?  Or maybe it's this month's pile...

I don't see how me making antique-inspired dolls and fabric animals is going to help, since the market for them is mostly women my age.  I can't stem the tide of imported junk OR help repair decades of increasingly rampant consumerism and qualitative apathy.

Normally I avoid a rant, avoid negative posts, and try to keep things on the high side.  But right now, I think I'm going to go sew a rag doll and imagine one of my grandkids would actually like to have it, play with it, and love it longer than a week.

Works in Progress

I've been working on an idea.  The doll's head is paperclay over an armature, w/ dowel neck and wooden bodies.  The arms and legs are wood dowel, carved, or w/ paperclay hands/feet (or paws, hooves, etc.).  Much like Sydney Cat (sidebar) they will dangle loosely when picked up, will sit unaided but require a stand to, well, stand, and they will have a sort of modern folkart look about them.  That is the aim.  I picture a folk art toy, like the ones made back in the day when kids took care of their toys because new toys were few and far between.  I realize I can't market these as toys, this day in age, but that's the image I have in my head...

Here are a couple of pictures of the work so far...way early in its raw stages.  There are four girls, two boys, and a goofy fellow who will someday wear a bow tie just under his adam's apple.  There are also a cat, bunny, and donkey w/ eyes like the cat girl, but they didn't make it to the photo shoot.  Click twice to zoom, as always.

Lots of sanding, more painting (sooo much more painting), arms and legs made, costumes researched and sewn.  I love my job.

Still more to learn about the face shapes and features of the real antique dolls, I'd love to re-create the effect of the mid-nineteenth century mache head dolls w/ cloth bodies.  That's the next project, ahem, when I finish this one.  :~)