![\"DSCN4174.JPG\"](\"https:\/\/mimikirchner.com\/blog\/archives\/DSCN4174.JPG\")
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I finished Agnes today. She is named after the heroine in Wilkie Collins’ book, “The Haunted Hotel”. I was listening to it on tape when I was making her. She is inspired by American folk art portraits, and dressed from about 1860’s. Since my goal in the doll-making seems to be always use what I’ve already got in the house, I did pretty well with her. The only material I needed to search for outside of my stash, was for the socks. I could have used something I already had, but I really wanted the stripes. I went to Salvation Army and bought about 5 different striped t-shirts. I did some testing with over-dyeing and ended up using a med brown to get what I wanted… perfect!<\/p>\n
I made her shoes using an idea I got from Lois. I painted some light canvas with gesso and then a few layers of black acrylic paint. I cut out the shoes from that fabric. It is a great weight and texture- I could use that idea a lot. The shoe design is based on the ones the children were wearing in a book I looked at of photos by Lewis Carroll.<\/p>\n
The dress and hair is based on the Folk Art paintings I looked at.<\/p>\n
2 great books- Dressed For The Photographer by Joan Severa
\nand American Folk Portraits – from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center- this book is out of print but I got mine at half.com .<\/p>\n
I don’t think I ever would have attempted to make such a big doll (33″) if I hadn’t made Judi Ward’s<\/a> “Emma Rose” pattern. It gave me the confidence to try it, and I learned from some of the mistakes I made doing that doll. When you make a bigger doll, you need to use a fabric with more body or substance, otherwise when you stuff it, it sort of turns to mush- it won’t hold it’s shape. I made this doll’s body out of cotton duck (from Joanns fabric)- I don’t really know why this is different from canvas, it looks pretty much the same. It worked well and was great to paint on. I will probably try it with some smaller dolls, although I love working with the Southern Belle.<\/p>\n I posted photos of her on my gallery here<\/a> . I need to get a good face shot though…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I finished Agnes today. She is named after the heroine in Wilkie Collins’ book, “The Haunted Hotel”. I was listening to it on tape when I was making her. She is inspired by American folk art portraits, and dressed from … Continue reading