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.
It is a bitterly cold snowy day here in Connecticut! Far too cold to try to keep my studio warm enough to work in. Instead I am seated in my parlor, hand stitching tiny red shoes. My parlor is a cozy place to be on a winters day, while a frigid wind teases at the two-century old window frames and blows tiny gusts of icy cold air into the room to remind me why I am glad to be indoors.
Making little shoes is a delicate, slow project, just right for this time of year. I am making two pairs of red shoes, each a bit different, for two very loved a cossetted dolls. They should be finished in time for the dolls to wear them for Valentine’s Day.
Here in New England 2014 has begun with a clean slate of swirling white snow. Today’s high temperature was 9 degrees, which made it a challenge to keep the studio stove stoked with enough wood. You know that winter has the world firmly in it’s grasp when the kerosine in your oil lamp turns to ice!
I received my advance copy of Prims Winter 2014 issue right before Christmas. Today I finally found a few moments to sit down with a small friend and look over my article, while we shared a cup of tea and a slice of the wonderful nut roll that Mary sent me for Christmas.
You can read all about my portrait face New England rag dolls when this latest issue of Prims goes on sale January 1st. The dolls featured in the article are ones that I made for my Izannah Walker doll making class. They are variations on the class patterns, that allow class members to create additional types of cloth dolls. All told I made five different variations of my patterns for my students. Two of the dolls with painted cloth faces appear in the magazine. The patterns are free for class members and instructions for making the dolls are posted on the class site.
Work in progress. An early photo of one of the dolls shown in my Prims article.Another view of a doll from my Prims article.This is my second doll shown in Prims Winter 2014 issue.Another flat face variation made using my Izannah class patterns.Two more flat face portrait dolls that I made to inspire my students.Mary’s sweet yeast dough with a luscious nut filling is an indulgent treat. Mary’s grandmother taught her to bake the heirloom family recipe .
In a panic for a perfect last minute present? Now you can put a gift certificate for one of my dolls or an extra doll dress under your tree!
If you need a wonderful last minute gift for a very special doll lover in your life, I have gift certificates available for custom made Izannah Walker dolls and for custom made Izannah doll dresses too! Call or email me to order – 860-355-5709 or paula@asweetremembrance.com. I can still email the certificate to you for you to print and wrap before Christmas.
My gift certificates feature images of antique paper dolls that have been altered. Illustrations of my Izannah Walker reproduction dolls now replace the original paper doll heads.
I’d like to introduce you to Hope a very special doll that I have been making for Susan. Hope is the last doll that I’m shipping out before Christmas this year. She is a quiet, demure girl with auburn wisps of hair that frame her sweet face. Susan chose a dark brown print fabric with a madder stripe for her dress, that compliments her hair and complexion. She has bare feet, with hand stitched toes, tall stockings made from a vintage lady’s sock and red leather shoes with pinked edges and silk ribbon ties.
With just a few days left before Christmas, I thought you all might like to see photos of Marilyn’s Christmas doll (don’t worry, I’m not spoiling the surprise, she knows all about the doll and planned it so that she would have her before Christmas). 🙂
I was planning to mail this doll to Marilyn on Tuesday, but a heavy snowstorm got in the way and delayed her departure by a day, giving her one last chance to romp in the snow before heading west to her sunny new home. The post office has done a wonderful job of transporting her, and at last check she has reached Arizona and should be arriving at her new home very soon!
12/21 – Update: Good news! Marilyn’s doll arrived at her new home safe and sound. She is settling in nicely on her new settee and making friends with a very sympathetic teddy bear from Maine. They are busy chatting about their travels from New England to the great southwest and making plans for the best Christmas ever! Thankfully this doll turned out to be everything Marilyn was hoping she would be. Something I always worry about when my dolls leave the studio to venture out in the world 🙂
Staying warm in front of the fire…Look Ma, no arms! 🙂
Should we place these by the door for St Nicholas?Sharing the joys of the season!
My mom and dad on their wedding day. My mother was 18-1/2 when this photo was taken.
Today would have been my mother’s 84th birthday. Happy Birthday Mom!
My mother’s Shirley Temple doll is wearing a celluloid pin I bought because it reminds me of my mom.
I have always loved dolls, and as far as I can tell my mother did too, although I don’t think that she had an abundance of dolls when she was growing up. As a child of the depression, born just 10 months prior to the stock market crash of 1929, she had a somewhat stark childhood. I have the Shirley Temple doll that was the last doll she received as a child and the only one she kept. Later in life my mom began collecting dolls. She had one large bisque doll, quite a few composition dolls and a whole armful of vintage dolls in international costumes. She even bought a fair number of hard plastic dolls.
I’ve owned this doll since I was five.
When I was five, Mom bought me a composition doll at Goodwill for a quarter. She was my very first vintage doll! I was only allowed to play with her in the house, because my mother was afraid I would drop her on the concrete driveway or sidewalk and break her. I still have that doll, who survived my childhood and remained unbroken until my husband stepped on her and cracked one of her legs. If I was especially good I was permitted to play with Mom’s Shirley Temple!
My mom is the one in the yellow dress. I’m standing in front of her. This was the only year in my whole life that I had short hair!
The dolls that I love best are older than my mother’s favorites. I rather think that she wouldn’t have liked the antique painted cloth dolls that have captured my heart and I’m positive that she didn’t share my passion for early wooden dolls. But in the best motherly tradition, she was happy to go with me to doll shops and was excited for me when I bought my first true antique dolls.
I don’t have much time these days to work on doll projects of my own, but one of the things I have wanted to do for several years is to make a pair of reproduction 18th century wooden dolls. I’m hoping that 2014 is the year I get to make this dream come true. I plan to name one of the dolls after my mother and make her wig from some of my mom’s hair that she cut off when I was a baby (she got tired of me pulling on her long hair ). The second doll will be smaller and her wig will be made with my hair that I’ve cut and saved (doll makers don’t throw anything away). Working on the dolls will be a nice way to spend time remembering my mother and all of the things we liked to do together and a keepsake that reflects our shared passion for dolls and memories of long ago childhoods.
Meet Verity Annabelle Mary. She is just starting out on her long journey to her new home in Canada. She is so excited that she will get to give her new mother a big birthday hug and be able to celebrate Christmas with all of her sisters!
I overheard her whispering to Isabeau and Zanna that she is hoping for a big cup of hot cocoa when she arrives home, to help her warm up…
Izannah Walker Journal 