Monday, May 23, 2011

An Edyth/Elaine/Dixie doll - Abigail

When I visited my friend, Edyth O'Neill last summer, she gave me a little face mask that she had painted many years ago.  She had put it aside because it had some small dents in it.  I loved it, so I decided to make the mask into a doll.  Her name is Abigail.  Edyth is a wonderful oil painter.  She has made beautiful portraits of children in old fashioned dress.  And she used to make Izannah dolls, using masks like Abigail's.  She has a beautiful blog: http://edythoneill.blogspot.com/.  Visit it!

I made a custom designed cloth head for Abigail.  Her mask is sewn onto the front of the head.

I used Dixie's IW pattern for the body, enlarged to 175%.  Abby is BIG!  Note the rat terrier, snuggling next to Abigail.

I made Abigail a bonnet with ruffles and lace and sculpted a breastplate and painted her back curls. I only had a face mask to work with, so I decided to embellish Abigail this way. It would have been difficult to match Edyth's hair and skin tone. so I made defined boundaries between the face and the rest of the parts that needed painting.  I soaked the ruffles in Paverpol, to make them VERY stiff.   This was the first time that I had used Paverpol.  It REALLY made them stiff. 

Abigail and Tace, a standard sized Dixie doll.

I love Abigail's sweet face.  Thank you, Edyth and Dixie!

9 comments:

  1. she is beautiful.I love her face.
    very beautiful dress and bonnet.

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  2. You are a smart cookie. And I like the idea that we somehow collaborated on this doll together. ;-) She's wonderful.

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  3. Abigail is awesome! Love the collaboration and that pix of her gazing out the window.

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  4. Your dolls get better and better all the time. Your choice in fabrics are always top notch!

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  5. She is lovely! Before I read about her, I just looked at the pictures and thought to myself that she is really beautiful, but she looked a bit different from your other dolls. No wonder!
    Her bonnet really looks great too.
    Monica

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  6. Love Abigail and love the story that goes with her. Great work Elaine!

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  7. A great group effort, she looks fabulous. Lizzie.

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