Sunday Afternoon Doll Making

Mary Elizabeth, formerly painted with acrylics as a brown eyed brunette, has been transformed into an oil painted blond with blue eyes.  I took an oil painting class called "20 Oil Painting Techniques."  It has opened up a whole new world for me.  I learned very simple things, such as how to clean brushes and how to dispose of oil paint waste.  I needed this information to get brave enough to use oils on a regular basis.  Now I can't stop!  I am obsessed with the look of oils.

Vintage rick rack lines the top of her body covering.

I think Mary Elizabeth likes being a blond.

I sculpted her toes from paper clay.

Mary Elizabeth

My experiment doll, Permelia, also got a makeover in oils.  I am interested to see what the final effect will be.  Under the oils, she has an acrylic crackle paint layer.  I oil painted right over the cracks.  I was happy that I could still see some of the crackles.

There is a small, bored rat terrier on the stairs.  I have been ignoring her all morning because I have been doll making.  She is ready for me to put my paints and sewing machine away.

11 inch doll with cloth layered head construction - painted in oils

Work in progress

 2 Blond dolls

Edyth has been inspiring me with her excitement about Queen Anne dolls.  I sculpted this head from paper clay onto a torso that she designed.  

I embedded some paperweight, glass eyes into the paper clay.

So far, she has a single outer layer of oils and one undercoat of burnt umber acrylic.

Collaborative Rag Doll Project

Here are Matilda and Rosie.  I sewed the dolls and painted them.  My mother made the clothes.  My brother's grandchildren were the inspiration for these little dolls.  The real Matilda and Rosie (ages 5 and 2) love pink and purple!

Matilda and Rosie

Matilda

Rosie

Matilda and Rosie

This little doll was made from the same pattern as Rosie and Matilda.  Again, I made and painted the doll.  My mom made the gorgeous clothes.  The inspiration for this doll is my cousin's three-year-old, Amelia Lynn.  

The doll has bluebonnet themed clothing to remind us of our Central Texas bluebonnets that grow every spring.  This doll's name is Lottie Bea.

Lottie Bea's curls

Matilda, Rosie and Lottie Bea with her bonnet

This is Elvessie.  Mom made her in 2010.   She has a yarn wig that is sewn right into her fabric head.  In 2010, Mom and her friends got together at Mom's house and made a bunch of these dolls for their grandchildren, with my mother's excellent tutelage.  They were sent all over the country!  What a wonderful memory for those ladies.  Most of those little girls are nearly grown by now.  I'm glad that Mom saved Elvessie.

The pattern for Rosie, Matilda, Lottie Bea, and Elvessa is from this book.  It's cheap and available.  It's a great pattern!

Sweet little pantaloons.

All four dollies.

My inspirations: L to R, clockwise - Rosie, Matilda, and Amelia

Kentucky is filled with history.

My parents were born in Kentucky. We have Kentucky ancestry on every single line, with each line going back to the 18th or early 19th centuries, when Kentucky was a very young state.  As a child, I visited relatives there every summer.  Those are some of the best memories in my life.  I still enjoy going to back to Kentucky, and I appreciate it on a different level now.  There are so many historic homes and buildings there - you can point your camera in almost any direction and capture one.  Here are a few.

Antebellum town home in downtown Lexington, Kentucky.

Hunt-Morgan House, Lexington, Kentucky - home of John Hunt Morgan's mother.  This beautiful Federal house was built in 1814.  In the early 20th century, it was converted to an apartment building with tiny little rooms.  In the 1960's, it served as student housing for a nearby college.  It was in danger of being demolished, but was saved and restored to its original era by people who cared.  I'm glad that they cared!  It is now a museum.  The tour was super interesting.

Newport, Kentucky - old, abandoned house with graffiti.  It looks like the Munster's house to me.  There are old buildings like this everywhere in Newport.  It is a small town, just south of the Ohio River and very close to Cincinnati, Ohio.

Long Lick Baptist Church in Scott County, Kentucky - WAY out in the country.  Under the large part, there are probably remains of the original log church that was built in the 1850's.  My great grandmother and her family attended this church when she was a little girl.

Antebellum mansion in the middle of rural Kentucky.  It looks so strange sitting out there all alone.  I wonder what stories it could tell.

Barn for a tobacco farm in the beautiful bluegrass region of Kentucky.

The older property fences for farms in the Lexington area are made of the native limestone.

The Waveland Mansion was the home of a slave-owning hemp farmer outside of Lexington, Kentucky in the 1840's.  Hemp was used for ropes in shipping and bags for cotton.  The subsequent generation, post Civil War, bred race horses.  There was once a race track right next to this mansion.  It's called Waverly because the blowing hemp looked like waves in the wind.

These were the slave quarters for the house slaves on Waverly Plantation.  The field slaves lived in much harsher, rougher quarters.  Currently, the University of Kentucky history department is researching exactly what happened to the slaves from this plantation after the Civil War.  They have been able to track down several people, which is very hard to do because there is a very sparse paper trail for African American people.  It's fascinating and exciting research.

Waverly field with a little play cabin.

This is hemp!

Irenea, her quilt, and her antique doll

Irenea has a head made of cloth layers and a flexible armature sewn into her body.

She is painted with acrylics.

She wanted slippers instead of boots.

She is wearing a worn, vintage doll apron.

Irenea loves her little antique china head doll.

Her doll has a lovely, old flower print for her cloth body.

Irenea's grandmother, my mom, made her a small quilt, based on an antique quilt that I recently bought at an antique store.  I love the browns and reds together.  I think Mom did a wonderful job.

My mom's beautiful little creation.  She based both the pattern and the colors on the antique quilt that I bought. 

Doll quilt back.

Poured concrete house in Seguin, Texas. 1856

Seguin was once known as Concrete City because there were over 100 concrete poured homes there.  The Sebastopol House was the first one in Seguin, built in 1856.  The roof is concave, for collecting rain water and cooling.  You just never know what you're going to find in a little Texas town.

Inspiration photos for painting

I will paint you when I get home, Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center of Texas.

Thursday Morning at the Texas Coast, I want to take you home with me.