A holiday ornament of my dog/ Un ornement arbre de Noël de mon chien
31 Dec 2011 1 Comment
in doll decor, Uncategorized Tags: lévrier, ornement en feutre, whippet
This year, I decided to make a representation of my whippet, Jojo, as a gift for my husband. What I mean by representation is stuffed animal ornament.
It actually was harder than I thought it would be. Two templates were necessary because Jojo had to be running. Jojo is always running. because he is a whippet That is what whippets do to show they are happy. They run.
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Cette année, j’ai décidé de faire un ornement en feutre pour représenter mon chien. J’ai fait cela comme cadeau pour mon mari.
Notre chien est un whippet, ce qui veut dire un lévrier, mais plus petit. Les whippets aiment courir, meme que les lévriers. Il fallait que mon poupée-whippet semble en train de courir. Pour cela, J;ai coupé deux modèles en papier pour ses deux côtés. 
Do dolls need names? Les poupées, ont elles besoin des noms?
24 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in About, doll philosophy, history, Uncategorized Tags: poupées primitives, PRIMS
This past weekend, my son and I went to Barnes and Nobles’ bookstore where I found a wondrous magazine, PRIMS. It is a magazine devoted to art inspired by a bygone era. While I do not make “primitive” dolls (I like them an awful lot, however), my dolls do reflect my love of history and natural textiles.
Ce weekend, je suis allée à Barnes and Nobles, une librairie, où j’ai trouvé un nouveau magazine appelé PRIMS qui se consacre en partie à des poupées essentiellement inspirées par le passé et par des éléments primitifs. Traduction: Pas de plastique. Il y a plus que des poupées, mais j’y ai trouvé pas mal de poupées. Et bien que je ne fais pas (pas encore, au moins)le type de poupées que les collectionneurs appellent << primitifs>>, mes poupées me donnent ue moyen d’exprimer ma grande fascination pour l’histoire.
Most artists featured in this magazine write their own essays. Most of them seem to give their dolls names. I am not sure I believe dolls should have names even though sometimes I give dolls names just to keep them straight in my head. The reason I do not believe in giving dolls names is dolls speak to people, who may find a different name (or even definition) suitable to the doll in question than the one the artist has proposed.
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This doll, finished quite some while ago, doesn’t have a name. Lady of the Faire? Lady of Leisure? Or nameless? Let me know what you think.
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Cette poupée n’a pas de nom. J’ai pensé a la nommer Dame de La Foire ou Dame de Loisir. Qu’en pensez-vous?
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Baronne Sandra Belling
18 Sep 2011 2 Comments
in middle eastern dolls, Uncategorized
As I was hunting for Middle Eastern and Indian dolls, just to see what is out there, I came across this pair created by Baronne Sandra Belling circa the 1930’s into the 1950’s. The seller says these dolls come with labels sewn onto their original clothing from their original owner which read “Bedouin Man 1940, etc. (The problem with the seller’s wording is that I could not really make out why there was a second name.)
Baronne Belling was a Russian noblewoman who was exiled to Syria after the Russian Revolution. She began teaching Syrian women to create dolls representing their culture.
The pair is on sale for just under a thousand dollars. A steal, in my opinion. Go find them on ebay!
I like Sir Cedric Goodheads!
22 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
I found Lynda Jasper-Vogels’ dolls on Etsy where they are marketed under the name Sir Cedric Goodheads. The artist was born in Monterey, California and ended up moving to New Mexico where she began working independently.
Working for the Santa Fe Opera as a carpenter and prop maker seemed to be a real trigger in the emergence of these dolls, which seem so very medieval/Renaissance. Too bad most of this work was before I came back to the USA because apparently Jasper-Vogel marketed the dolls at Renaissance and Dicken’s Fairs.
Later, she writes, the dolls “were commissioned for visual display, movies, interior design and department stores windows. Some were created for the pure pleasure of artistic exploration. They have been shown in museums and galleries throughout the world “
Now Jasper-Vogels has decided to market a few of these pieces she still retains, many of them first edition. I am very much in love with them! You can search for her Sir Cedric Goodheads at Etsy.
Why an artist becomes discouraged
16 Aug 2011 1 Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: Calvert School, discouragement, doll repair, Jumeau dolls
A Jumeau Doll
When I started making dolls the second time around–having made a few in high school–it was because I was discouraged/forbidden to write.
There was a doll repair course advertised at the back of Victoria magazine which came by subscription all the way to Saudi Arabia. After signing up for the course (don’t remember the name of the school) the lessons started to arrive–much like the lessons that came from Calbert School situated in Baltimore, Maryland, by which I schooled my elder son from first grade halfway through seventh. That is another story having nothing to do with dolls, but it does offer a parallel example that one can gain a lot through long distance schooling.
The idea was for me to learn how to do something besides writing whereby I could gain money when I returned to the USA.
I liked the courses but immediately wanted to make rather than repair dolls. Antiques were still big business in those days and it may have seemed foolhardy to turn my nose up at doll repair. Someone I knew bought nothing but the head of an antique Jumeau, I think it was, for 60,000 dollars–or maybe she sold it for that much. I forget.
Anyway, I jumped into doll making. Though a lot of the faces I made, particularly on the cloth dolls, were relatively happy, most of the faces, especially on the sculpted dolls, looked sad or at the very least, haunted. Restrained.
No surprise. That was the way I felt. Those dolls, even the ones that are sold, still appeal to me tremendously. But they do not appeal to everyone. They do not appeal to friends who know how to be happy.
Sometimes a friend, with the best of intentions, may say something to me about my dolls looking odd or alien because they are not happy or because their heads are slender, or whatever.
It takes me a good long while, sadly, to rebound from such observations, even made by people I cherish. I know that artists all have different visions. When I leaf through doll magazines myself, there are usually precious few dolls I would like to have–save my own. I know I love my dolls, but I have to forget the criticism before I can keep on making them.
I’ll bet a huge number of artsy people are sensitive that way. Criticism removes a good deal of joy. We stop doing–and even writing–about our passions.
French Fashion doll
The Hunt for Early Dolls goes to Russia / Poupées Médiévales de la Russie
19 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
in history, Uncategorized Tags: Jean Baptiste Greuze, medieval doll clothes, State Hermitage Museum
Among the more than three million works of art and artefacts of world culture offered on display at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, pictured at top, there is solid proof of incredibly detailed doll clothing made in the 8th or 9th centuries–thus going back to the deep dark Middle Ages.
For some reason, I find this thrilling. (Look at the water pouch. Is that not cool? The details on the jacket are so splendid. It looks like male clothing!) Click on the pictures to enlarge them.
Il y a plus de trois millions d’œuvres d’art au Musée de l’Ermitage à Saint-Pétersbourg; et parmi elles, on peut trouver evidence de poupées fabriquées (ou au moins, des vêtements de poupée) qui datent du 8e au 9e siècles!.
Cliquez sur les photos pour les agrandir.
Girl with a doll by Jean Baptiste Greuze, 1724-1805
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