Monday, May 14, 2007

Dollmaking. . .



When I had my first daughter I remember being very exited for Angelica to play with dolls, since I was such a nut about them as a child. Well, instead Angelica has decided to make all things that creep and crawl her passion and I love her for it. But my second daughter Zita has been much more the type to play with dolls. So finally I got around to making her one. (after all I have that HUGE pile of wool sitting in my living room.) I made this one in the Walforf style of dolls. They sell gorgeous ones on the novanatural website. (www.novanatural.com) for like a bazillion dollars that I have drooled over for years.

Part of the philosophy of waldorf doll making is supposed to be that the doll is handmade and thus the child can feel like it is truly theirs. They are usually stuffed with wool so that they are cuddly soft and retain the warmth of the child's body when held. Thus they feel "alive". They are given minimal faces so that the child can imagine them doing, saying, feeling a wide variety of emotions.

Now my first forray is rather hillarious because i accidentally reversed the head proportions thus ending up with an einstein looking brainy babydoll, rather than a cute chubby cheeked one. Its rather frightening and I laugh whenever I see the poor thing.

Ironically Zita loved it to death and loved watching me make it start to finish. She even wanted to hold it as soon as it was an armless, legless, featurless bald head and torso.

Well perhaps the second time around will be the charm.

7 comments:

Sarah said...

That is SO neat, Anna! I have wanted to make a doll for Grace for a long time, but have never gotten around to it . . .

Anonymous said...

Super cute doll Anna! It is very amusing! What great pictures! Happy mother's day x3!!!

-Clare

Anonymous said...

Anna: I actually tried my hand at doll making, too, years ago. My doll kept having a pointy head. I did the head over and over til I finally had a melt down and threw the darn thing across the room. Daddy saved the day by picking her up and fixing her pointy head. I still can't say she was a masterpiece, but at least she looked more like a human. I made her clothes and everything....but only once! Your first effort looks WAY better.
Love, Mama

Ben Hatke said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anna said...

That is so funny, mama. I could totally see daddy fixing it for you! He is so patient with things like that!

Anonymous said...

That picture of Zita is precious. She looks so happy hugging her doll! :)

-Sherry

Margaret E. Perry said...

teaching your children to be egg heads. props, Anna. ;)