Happy Birthday, Izannah Walker!

Izannah Walker, born in Rhode Island in 1817, began making her dolls in the 1840's.  They are believed to be the first commercial dolls made in America.  They are made of pressed cloth, using several different dies which gave each doll a unique character.  The patent under her name was not filed until 1873, and the dolls after the patent have a different painting style.

They are beautiful dolls, stylized yet lifelike.  A group I belong to online is celebrating Izannah's birthday, and several ladies have made beautiful doll creations to celebrate Izannah's birthday.  I decided to do a drawing, trying to achieve some likeness of the doll -- it is harder to do than it looks -- that face is very simple but kind of defies being reproduced with drawing or sculpting.  I tried to get as many of the features in this drawing as possible, the childish nose, full but small lips, stylized neck, feathery eyebrows, etc.... so this is my interpretation using pencil and watercolor pencil.

             Happy Birthday to Izannah Walker!

An Old/New Doll Travels Back East

This doll, I that completed on commission, went to its new owner last month.  She is 17 and 3/4 inches; I was aiming for 18 inches, but 17 and 3/4 is good enough for jazz.

The new owner had requested an Izannah-style doll in a Springlike dress.

After making her dress, I discovered a little aging trick.  The fabric was orginally a teal blue with lighter blue fleur de lis pattern.  I put it in a glass bowl of bleach and water to age it, and the blue background completely left, leaving a greenish-tinged white background, and luckily, also the fleur de lis pattern.  I laundered it twice to get the bleach out and soften it up, and then brushed some tea on the seams and edges of the sleeves.  Then the dress looked - old! 

I made her a bonnet from vintage eyelet and made a fabric flower for it, and she was all set...

I should mention I did the bleaching outside.  

She was a pleasure to make.

Thanks for reading, and have a good day. 

"On A Little Chair Dolls" - Commissions

Welcome to my blog about my dollmaking enterprise as  "On A Little Chair Dolls."  

I love making dolls, and I accept commissions, for making a doll in the style of my "Boy" and "Phoebe" dolls.  They are Izannah Walker style folk dolls.

I also make Googly dolls, on request.


Please click on "Gallery of Dolls" tab above, to see "Boy" and "Phoebe," and also a few Googly dolls.


I put a lot of care into every doll, and each one takes several months to complete. 


For inquiries about having a doll made for you, please email me at Tiredself1@gmail.com.

My Tam O' Shanter Boy is done

After many weeks of work, I finished an Izannah-Walker-inspired boy doll.  He wears a tam o' shanter and a little plaid suit.  He has high socks, and leather boots with buttons... those boots took a lot of finger-power to hand-sew.  I planned his clothing to be a Christmas holidays outfit.  I began work back in October.

I made his face from a mold I did of my own sculpt, of Esmeralda.  I changed the face so much, it was almost like re-sculpting the whole face.   As soon as he was dressed, I put him outside to look at the flowers.  

 

After these pictures were taken, I antiqued his arms, headplate and shirt... and his hat.  Here is the result:  

A Boy's Form and Clothes

I have been working back and forth on a larger head, for weeks.   Putting on clay, sanding off clay.  It's kind of like revising a story.  You have fun adding extra verbiage, and then you spend the next session taking most of it out. 

I worked out a pattern, using paper towel

and then palette paper, for the body. 

He will have short arms, and somewhat short legs.

Now it is

almost time to transfer all the paper towel patterns

to palette paper 

and then cut the body out of muslin fabric. 

For his clothing I thought it would be dated to the 1890s, with shorts, suit jacket, and a little hat.  I also want to use some plaid fabric.   Looking at some images online, the suit below from 1890 seems to be for an older boy.  It has all the elements I want, but looks pretty formal maybe due to that lower neckline to the suit.

 The 1890 outfits above are also rather complicated to sew.  I also doubt that plaid would be the right fabric choice.

 So I sketched my own take on a boy's suit with a medium-high collar, in plaid, with either plaid or plain pants.  And some hat styles and accessories that could go with it.
So I guess it's coming along, this boy doll.  

Esmeralda's Ready to...Rest!

 I just finished Esmeralda, who is largest Izannah-Walker inspired doll I have made, at 31 inches.
 I hand-sculpted her in Paperclay, and left a bit of the clay unsanded on the surface of her face to make her look a little aged and "pitted."  I had a choice of fabrics of course, but chose this one and I think it looks nice and fresh.  Her pantaloons and long chemise/slip I handmade in light muslin with very old eyelet trim.  She wears a garden hat I made of very old lace curtains that a friend had given me.  The removable lace collar is also vintage. 

She just looks so...... placid.  Or, willing to sit and listen to you, on the sofa.

 I had fun painting her curls.   I just used burnt sienna, ochre and burnt umber. 

Dixie Redmond at Maida group said she reminded her of Tillie the doll in "The Story of My Dolls," a fanciful book about antique dolls, which was published in the Thirties.  What a compliment....

   I have been so inspired by Dixie.  Without her tutelage I would not have learned to make vintage-inspired dolls.

I want to give her some tea!    

Springy or Feeling Springlike?

When I get a doll even partly made, I start draping fabrics on it.  The painting on the face isn't done yet, but I peek with fabric to see what might "suit" them.  Strange that a doll can be unfinished and have the clothing help decide what they will be.

Esmeralda, the 29 inch doll, I have narrowed down to two options.  She could be Springlike, wearing a modern-colored floral cotton - it goes with either hat or bonnet -  

Or should she be.....   feeling Springlike, deciding to put on her hat, and fancy fichu, over her ordinary dress, and going out?

Maybe she's older, if she's feeling like Spring in spite of her usual mode of dress.

Forms and Shapes

I made a pattern for the larger doll, and at first she had broader shoulders.  I dropped and narrowed her shoulders a little, and this makes her look a little more relaxed. 

She's going to be just over 29 inches. 

I sculpted her head first.  Her head is a little narrower up top

than the very roundest Izannah Walker baby-head shape.  

But, a round babylike head would be odd at this point.  She just all came together as this figure, after some adjustment of her limb length.  

I hope she will have the unknown-age look which the Izannah Walkers tend to have.

Larger doll head

Working on sculpting a new head!  I sculpted her over a ball of taped newspaper with a dowel up the middle. 

She's coming along.