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.