March 2012 meeting

Another great meeting, with 16 people in attendance and lots of pretty dolls to see.  We also found out about an art show possibility in June, so stay tuned for more info to come on that.  Now on to show and tell!

Ann R. wins the 'Most Stuff Accomplished this Month' prize, with not one, not two, but three finished dolls to share.  Ann has made several of Gail Wilson's dolls in the past, and they are all just perfect.  This one is a little pioneer girl.

Gail Wilson 9" Basic Doll wearing the 'Going West' outfit. 

Check out the closeup of her button bonnet.  This is an historic style, but a hard one to find much info about.  I did find a pattern modeled from an adult's antique bonnet, and a cute new baby version, too.  As they say, everything old is new again!

Next, also Ann R.'s doll, is Kewpie, fully dressed in feedsack fabric.  See the January meeting for the 'naked' picture of this Kewpie doll in progress, with pattern info.

Finally, we had lots of finished Chun Woo dolls from our Leslie Molen class a few weekends ago.  We got them mostly done in class, but now they have pearl earrings and lovely purses hanging from the ribbon sashes at their waists.

Ann R.

Julie W.

Nita B.

Julie G.

Erin

Martha 

our Leslie Molen class dolls

So we just finished our weekend workshop with Leslie Molen, making her Chun Woo doll.  We had a ball, and as you can see, the dolls are all nearly finished!

Well, almost finished, except for the naked one!  But doesn't she have lovely proportions?  And look at the movement and subtle variety in the poses.  All these dolls are standing alone -- close to the wall but not leaning against it.

Leslie's dolls are the 3rd and 4th ones in the picture below.  I think it says a lot about her pattern and how well it went together that you cannot tell hers from ours right away.  Not to mention, how successfully she taught the techniques.

We spent one entire day just on the heads - needle-sculpting, making a cloth overlay, painting our own (teeny-tiny!) eyes, and then insetting the eyes into the head and coloring the face.

Our second day was assembling the dolls and dressing them.  The pre-work really paid off, and they just need minor finishing touches to be completely done.

Thank you, Leslie, for a wonderful doll-making weekend!