I figured out what to do with my doll shards.

I decided to try my hand at cotton spun ornaments.  I started with little doll shards like this one:

I bought the shards from a lady who had ordered them in bulk on ebay.  They had been buried in the mud of Thuringia, Germany, behind old doll factories for many, many years.  Most of them are from the turn of the century. Some of them had Thuringian dirt in them - very romantic.  Thuringian dirt.

First, I painted the heads and put some finish on them so that they wouldn't chip.

Then I made wire armatures for the bodies.  Next, I wrapped the armatures with cotton roving, which I got on ebay.   Here's what it looked like at this stage:

I need to work on making the cotton more even.  Oh well.  This was my first attempt.  I'm also going to try different sources for cotton roving, to see if they vary in quality and texture.  After the wrapping, I painted the cotton with thinned acrylic craft paint.  I've also read that you can dye the cotton.  That would probably be very pretty.  Then I glued on the heads with tacky glue and decorated the painted cotton bodies with little bits of fabric, wool roving, crepe paper, buttons, and lace.  Then I sprayed them with glitter spray to make them festive.   They range in size from 2" - 5".  Here are my Thuringian shards, transformed into little holiday children:

If you want to give cotton spun ornaments a try, but you have no idea how to start, Martha Stewart has a couple of tutorials that helped me:
Cotton spun Easter bunny
and
Lucy's ornaments

Also, do image searches for cotton spun ornaments and you'll come up with plenty of photos of adorable ornaments.

I haven't ordered anything from this website yet, but it looks like they have LOTS of spun ornament supplies: Blumchen and Company

Happy Holidays!

Beautifully Old

My two china heads - a good friend sent the heads to me.  They were in need of some love and attention.  Both have broken breastplates, but as you can see, their hearts are full!

Nobody has to know that they aren't perfect under their clothes.  Aren't we all flawed?

Husks and Shards

I spent the day dyeing corn husks for the doll class.  Aren't they pretty?  I can't wait to show the little girls!

My mom and daughter and I went to a doll show last weekend.   I bought a bunch of broken doll heads.  I was thinking of making little doll ornaments for a Christmas tree.  If I start now, I'll have a bunch by the end of the year.  I want to fix the Helen doll.  Her pieces were glued together with some old, weird glue.  It was definitely an old fix.  I need to figure out how to get the remaining glue off of the pieces.  Then I need to find out what kind of glue to use to piece her back together.  She came on a cloth body that looks original.  I'm looking forward to giving her new life.

Sweet little china head and her weird sister

Edyth O'Neill gave me a little broken china head.  She became a real doll this week.  She's very happy.  Her name is Nan.  The dress fabric is from an old quilt top scrap that Edyth found on a scavenging spree.  I still need to give her some boots.

Here's Nan in her birthday suit, with her patched shoulder plate visible.  Her sister is a strange Queen Anne style doll that I'm making.

Here's the shard.

Nan, before restoration.

Rescue of a paper mache boy doll

I found this little blond paper mache boy head at a vintage shop for cheap. With some paper clay to cover holes, a bit of touch-up paint, a new body and a cute outfit, he has turned into a real doll. He has become good friends with his Dixie Workshop pal.

Doll shard and EFA

Valentine Weekend 2010

Here are three crazy lizards for birthday gifts for three little friends, two old doll pantaloons from yesterday's doll show, tiny doll pieces that were scraped from the mud behind a factory in Germany (another doll show find, Mom with some of her dollies, and little doll boots on a doll quilt made from old fabric squares.