My name is Paula Walton. I’m a working craftsperson. I’ve been self-employed since 1986, when I started selling the items that I make under the name A Sweet Remembrance. Among other things, I am a doll maker, a dressmaker that specializes in reproduction women’s and children’s clothing, maker of spun cotton ornaments and holiday figures, and a freelance designer. Upon occasion I write magazine articles and am a Craftsperson in Residence. I teach and do demonstrations quite frequently, plus I was previously the director and curator of a small museum in Connecticut.
Today the dolls and I have had to bid farewell to Cindy’s doll. The girls were all sad to see her go, especially her older sister Isabeau…
” Did you remember to pack everything? Have you got your red dress… and both of your shoes?”“Is this box comfy enough? It’s going to be a long trip!”“What do you suppose it’s like in Minnesota?” “I’ve heard that it gets very cold there, so promise me you will wrap up well & keep warm.”“I’m going to miss you!” “Me too!” “Promise you’ll write?” “Everyday, I promise!”“I love you!”
Even though Isabeau found it hard to say good-bye she knows in her heart that her younger sister is going to a good home where she will be loved, especially after I let her read the letter that I just received.
“Dear Paula,
The best surprises are those that unfold gradually. The process of making “Cindy’s Doll” has been all I imagined and hoped for when I first called you last November. Once I’d set things in motion I watched with much satisfaction as Cindy studied her choices, showed them to (our daughters) and me, and after due consideration, settled on one or another.
When “Cindy’s Doll” is actually here in hand she will become part of a loving family. I will be sure to let you know when Cindy has chosen her name. We’ve had several discussions of names, but need to hold her and know her to find out which name is really hers.
To you I extend my compliments on your skill and creativity. To take an almost forgotten art and bring it back to life as you have, mainly by just “figuring it out” with hand and eye and inner motivation is a gift, and I thank you for sharing it with us.
We are so excited to meet our doll, to have her join our family, to give her a name, and to cherish her.” …
What more could a loving big sister or a doll maker ask for… ❤ ❤ ❤
I’m happy to say that Cindy’s doll is finished! I had a couple of little issues to over come yesterday, like finding out that I did not have enough black silk ribbon to lace both of her shoes – then having the black dye I was warming up explode all over the inside of my microwave!!!, & unexpected rain yesterday afternoon and this morning which made it impossible to take more photos. Such is the life of a doll maker 🙂
For the past few months I’ve been working on an excessively romantic project. From time to time I receive very sweet calls from husbands who want to do something special for their wives. Before Christmas I was contacted by a very thoughtful gentleman in the midwest who wanted to give his wife a custom made doll. He wanted her to be able choose exactly how she wanted the doll to look, so with a little plotting and planning we decided that he should present her with a gift certificate for Christmas that would allow her to plan a special reproduction Izannah Walker doll. Our original scheme called for the doll to be ready in February in time for his wife’s birthday, but during the planning stages after the New Year, Cindy the recipient of our joint endeavor, told me that there was no hurry. So she and I took our time sorting out all of the details for her doll and coming up with a very complete design plan. I loved that fact that this doll has been a family affair, with Cindy’s daughters helping her choose the fabrics and styles for her doll’s dresses.
This doll is an excellent example of what my dolls look like when you request that they look “new”.
This project is now coming to a close, as I finish the last touches on Cindy’s Christmas doll. Tomorrow I will be sewing yards of black velvet ribbons onto her second dress and fashioning her leather shoes. Cindy asked that I make her doll look almost new, with just a few hints of age, as the doll will have years ahead of her to age gracefully on her own.
I think that Cindy an her daughters choose a wonderful dress style for this doll. The split, lace trimmed sleeves look very striking made from this red striped fabric.
It was such a nice afternoon that I couldn’t resist taking a few photos of Cindy’s doll to remember her by, since she will soon be leaving here on her journey to her new forever home…
The bright, late afternoon sunlight was behaving quite rambunctiously while I was taking these photos, so this young lady’s sister loaned her a bonnet to protect her fair complexion.
The girls and I are getting ready to take to the road on a trek to the UFDC convention in San Antonio.
There are busy times ahead! I have been invited to exhibit at the Doll Artist’s Showcase, on July 19th, at the United Federation of Doll Clubs convention in San Antonio, TX. The Doll Artist’s Showcase is new to the convention this year and is being held in the sales rooms during Public Day. Wild days and nights are in my future for the next few months as I prepare for the convention. I’ll be taking along as many dolls as I can make between now and then, plus I’ll have fabric sample books with me and I’ll be taking orders for custom made dolls.
Both of the dolls I’ve been working on from my latest mold are finished and ready to find new homes. This is a long post with many photos, so scroll down to see them all. You can enlarge any of the photographs by clicking on them. If you are interested in buying either doll they are both posted for sale on my website Paula Walton’s A Sweet Remembrance – Plain & Fancy Hand Wrought Goods, or you may email me at paula@asweetremembrance.com or telephone 860-355-5709.
Isa #1 has been SOLD. Thank you so much for coming to see her.
Isane 2 has been SOLD.
The original Isane, or Isa for short. The name Isane has a German origin and means “strong willed”. I bought this antique Izannah Walker doll from Edyth O’Neil, a charming strong willed woman, who lives in an area of Texas that was settled by German immigrants, so the name just seemed to fit her. Edyth called this doll Patience, but that was the name of one of our family cats, so a rechristening was in order.
ISA #1 – SOLDSOLD
The paint on this doll’s face has the aged, worn look that you will sometimes see on the paint of certain papier-mache, wooden and cloth dolls. The base skin paint is intact and smooth, but the the paint on the lips, cheeks and hair has rubbed away from a lifetime of play, and dust and dirt have collected in the depressions and corners of her features. No doubt left over from her adventurous days of making mud pies. I was trying for a very refined look of age on this doll. I know for certain that the original Isa had very little paint remaining on her face before one of her recent owners covered her with brand new paint (prior to when Edyth – then I bought her) . I wanted to acknowledge her worn and rubbed off paint. I also decided to use the Izannah owned by the Worthington Historical Society* as my inspiration for what her paint could have looked like when it was intact. When I combined those two themes, this is what I got!
SOLD
SOLD
NOW SOLD -Isa #1 is wearing a plum and white print dress made from antique cotton. The dress has full gathered sleeves, and double, graduated, growth tucks. It fastens in the back with a drawstring at the neck and an antique plum colored milk glass button at the waist. Her underwear consists of matching split pantalettes, a long chemise and a petticoat, all with scalloped hems. The tops of her black painted boots are also scalloped. Tiny delicate tatting edges the neckline and sleeves of her chemise. To protect her fair complexion from the sun, while she is picking strawberries in the garden, Isa is wearing a sunbonnet made from a piece of antique plum colored fabric that has never been washed. I decided to not to clean the fabric so that it would retain the original sizing, which adds stiffness to the bonnet. Her hair is painted in ringlets, two in front of each ear and five along the back of her hairline. SOLD
SOLD
SOLD
SOLD
Isa #1 looks ever so much nicer in person. Her delicate coloring and very old looking paint do not show up all that well in photographs. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about her. She is $1350.00, which includes her bonnet and free, fully insured, postage within the United States. She may be placed on lay-away, or she is ready for immediate shipment. ISA #1 HAS FOUND A WONDERFUL NEW HOME. IF YOU WOULD LIKE A SIMILAR DOLL, YOU MAY PLACE AN ORDER FOR ONE. ALL ANTIQUE FABRICS ARE ONE OF A KIND.
ISA # 2 SOLD
SOLD Isane #2 is a very sweet girl with the look of a younger child. Izannah Walker’s dolls were usually painted with very pale, almost white, skin or with a warmer flesh colored paint. I decided to paint this doll with the darker coloring. I left tiny, subtle bits of her stockinette visible on her face. The weave of the stockinette can only be seen upon close inspection and I love the way it looks. Being able to see the weave of the fabric reinforces the fact that this is an all cloth doll and it is one of the details I love seeing on some of Izannah Walker’s original dolls. You will see areas of worn and rubbed paint, as well as subtle variations in the paint color that denote places where the oil from tiny hands would have touched her during her imaginary past life. This version of Isa has short wispy hair around her face, with a close cropped fringe at the nape of her neck.
She is dressed in a wonderful thin olive brown and Prussian blue cotton print dress. The dress has one growth tuck in the skirt, and two tucks in its sort frilled sleeves. Antique cotton tape forms a drawstring at the neck of the dress and the waist is closed with a mid-19th century, blue painted, milk glass button. Her chemise and pantalettes are made from antique lace trimmed linen and her petticoat was fashioned from an unworn baby’s flannel petticoat with embroidered, scalloped edges. I had been looking through scores of images of antique Izannah Walker dolls prior to painting Isa #2 and some of those photographs showed dolls wearing blue shoes. I took a bit of license and used the inspiration of those blue leather shoes when choosing the color for Isa’s painted boots! Isa #2’s bonnet is made from a wonderful antique brown and white print cotton fabric. I’m making the bonnet optional on this doll because I have many other brown dress fabrics that it would also look great with. Around her wrist is a tiny chain that keeps her sewing scissors near, so that she can always find them when she needs to snip a thread. She is priced at $1250.00 and you may add the bonnet for an extra $100.00. Free, insured shipping to any U.S. address is included and of course she can be placed on lay-away if you need to. Feel free to contact me with any questions you have about this doll. You may purchase her by calling 860-355-5709, emailing paula@asweetremembrance.com; or fastest and easiest of all, by clicking here and going through the automatic checkout on my website.
Isa #2 is really much better looking in the flesh… or should that be cloth??? 🙂
A Few Additional Notes
Before anyone asks again, no I don’t have a bonnet pattern for sale. 🙂 I cut both of these bonnets free hand. The plum colored bonnet comes purely from my imagination, aided by years of collecting antique bonnets and looking at even more examples in photos, at antique shows and shops, and in museum exhibits. The brown bonnet is based on a tiny antique doll’s bonnet that I purchased last year. When making bonnets I take into account the amount of antique fabric I have available, then hold the material up to the doll and start snipping away with my scissors!
Why all of the petticoat scallops? It’s been cold and snowy here in Connecticut, which has made me long for red flannel petticoats. A week or two ago I brought out my favorite example, which has a scalloped flounce around the bottom, and that along with the contents of my antique white linens bin inspired the scallops on the girl’s underthings.
*If you would like to read more about the exquisite Izannah Walker doll in the collection of the Worthington Historical Society I suggest you peruse the article about the museum in the February 2013 issue of Antique Doll Collector magazine.
*** a late night addition to this post. It’s 11:00 p.m. and I’m quitting for today. One doll is finished and the other one is waiting for her arms to dry. Last photo of the night, with more to follow in the daylight!
Here is a quick glimpse of two dolls that I have been working on for the past month. I’m so pleased with the way they are turning out that I just had to share a few photos with you before I go out to my studio for the day. Both of them are made from a mold of the Izannah Walker doll I bought in November.
The original Izannah is on the right. She was recently repainted by a previous owner – so this is not her original paint. My reproduction is on the left.Another view of the girls as they sat with me this morning over tea.The second doll I’m working on from the same mold.One last photo…
Now back to work so that I can get these girls completed!
Please feel free to contact me if you would like more information about either of these dolls. paula@asweetremembrance.com or 860-355-5709
Big thank yous to both Alice Tessier and Laurie Gaboardi for the very nice article and lovely photos of our home and my studio that appear in the current issue of the Litchfield County Times magazine section.
If you’ve read the article and find a few things printed in it confusing, don’t worry, it isn’t your memory playing tricks on you! Take the article with a grain of salt & don’t believe everything you read. 🙂 No, I didn’t change my name, nor did I suddenly split into triplets, Paula, Pamela, & Paul! Early American Life did not suddenly scrub my name off of 25 of their Directories of the Top Traditional Craftsmen in America (I’ve been juried into the EAL directory 29 times, not 4). You cannot see photos of our home on Early American Life’s website, Facebook page or Twitter Account. You can see them on one of my blogs, Paula Walton’s 18th Century Home Journal. In spite of these errors and a few more wrong facts and misquotes, it is still an engaging write-up. If you would like to read the article and see the accompanying photos, follow this link.
Instead of following the yellow brick road, I followed the freshly cleared path, to…and fro…
Yesterday brought another snowstorm to my corner of New England, making it a good day to spend in my studio while small white flakes drifted furiously down from the leaden sky.
The foot of new fallen snow, on top of the snow from the last storm, obscures some of our second floor windows.
I love being able to look out my windows and watch the snow while I work. It’s very peaceful and makes me think about the other women who have lived in our house. I wonder whether they enjoyed sewing and doing needlework on similar snowy days….
Izannah Walker Journal 