Paula Walton’s doll-making notes
More photos of Evelyne’s doll now that her dress is dry 🙂 These are much better photos that those I took yesterday at sunset. I almost deleted yesterday’s photographs, but I decided to keep the first post up so that you can see what a difference better lighting makes.
Evelyne’s doll is finished and ready to travel. She’ll be leaving here soon on her journey to Belgium.
This is Evelyne’s doll. I just finished her this afternoon. I put the final few stitches in her blue homespun check dress, sewed on it’s antique glass buttons, and popped the dress into a basin of wash water. At the moment it is hanging out on my clothesline to dry.
Today Savannah has been busy packing her trunk. She will soon be immigrating to Canada to live with her big sister.
In February I finished a custom reproduction Izannah Walker doll for a very fascinating lady named Maxine. Maxine had seen my ads in Antique Doll Collector magazine and called me last August to discuss the possibility of ordering one of my Izannahs. We chatted several times, and by the end of the month Maxine had decided exactly how she wanted her doll to look. Maxine chose to place the doll on lay-away and requested a February 2013 completion date. During the months while I was working on Maxine’s doll she would call me to check on my progress and also to talk about dolls. She told me many interesting stories about her collection, dolls that she had bought and sold and people she knew in the doll world.
My favorite conversation with Maxine was the one where she reminisced about a friend of hers who had been the dress maker for the dolls in Maxine’s collection. She told me about meeting the woman, becoming friends with her, and about some of the amazing dresses she had created for Maxine’s doll’s. The most inspiring part of this story is that the last doll’s dress that Maxine had commissioned from her friend had been completed just a few weeks before the women’s death at “almost 100” years of age. Maxine assured me that the last dress was just as beautiful and well made as the very first dress she had ever ordered. I’d like to think that in the future someone will be able to say the same about me.
On Friday afternoon I received a call from Maxine’s daughter. She told me that Maxine had passed away, very softly and gently on Wednesday and that she was calling to tell me how much her mother had loved the doll I made for her. I was overwhelmed that this woman would take the time, in the midst of her grief, to call and thank me for providing her mother with such pleasure. It was an extraordinary kindness and a very singular experience…
I often buy antique items to use as research materials. I find that having an original item to study is so much better than having to rely on photographs, paintings and sketches. Last weekend I found a single black lace-up child’s boot in a style that will immediately be recognizable to anyone who is familiar with Izannah Walker’s dolls. Izannah painted very accurate representations of common children’s footwear that was worn in her time. The black lace-up boot shown here dates from the 1840-1850’s, although I am sure that this style of shoe was passed down to younger children and continued to be worn into the 1860’s.
Izannah’s dolls kept up with current fashions, and when scallop top, side button boots became part of children’s attire, she painted this later style of footwear on some of her dolls. When considering the age of an Izannah Walker doll, you can take the style of their painted boots into account. I would not consider this to be a fool proof method of dating the dolls, because young children’s styles often lag behind those of older children and adults, Izannah’s dolls have a tendency to retain the look of the 1840’s – 1850’s no matter when they were made, and then there is the issue of the rarer bare footed dolls…  However when looked upon as a supporting bit of evidence along with the rest of the doll’s history and clues to be found in her construction and clothing, painted boot styles can be quite helpful.
Another type of painted boots that can be found on Izannah Walker dolls are the tall black leather boots with red tops that she used on her rare boy dolls. I don’t own an example of those boots to show you, but if you follow this link to the Wisconsin Historical Society Children’s Shoe Collection you will be able to see the boy’s boots, as well as additional dated examples of lace-up and scallop boots.
Sharing a bit of red, white and blue for Flag Day…
I had a whirlwind week last week. So much so that I’m still not caught up and only getting around to posting this now 🙂 Last Monday I had the chance to visit with Rainie Crawford, she is a wonderful artist and doll maker, who designed an entire line of cloth doll and teddy bear patterns. You may remember seeing her ads for mail order patterns in many women’s magazines over the years. My friend Joy and I spent an entire day with Rainie. She gave us a tour of all of her collections and we had a lovely time talking about doll and bear making, among many other topics. The day just flew past. I took lots of photos of Rainie’s collections and dolls which I will be sharing in a later post. Rainie is going to be selling her prototype dolls. They are all of the models used in her magazine ads. She has not worked out all of the details just yet, but if you would be interested in adding an original Rainie Crawford prototype cloth doll to your collection, you may contact me at paula@asweetremembrance.com and I will gladly put you in touch with Rainie.
On Friday, a group of friends and I braved the rain to go to the Country Living Fair in Rhinebeck, NY. We had a fun, but very wet, day and came back home with a head full of ideas and bag full of treasures. I have been wanting to go to a Country Living Fair for several years, but hadn’t been willing to drive to Ohio to attend.
The rain finally cleared enough on Saturday for me to go to an antique show in Harwinton, CT, which is held at the local fair grounds. That meant I was traipsing around poultry and livestock buildings two days in a row 🙂 I’ve been going to the Harwinton show, which was previously held at the polo grounds in Farmington,CT, for twenty years. Unfortunately the show is much smaller than it was in it’s heyday. The show has been plagued with bad weather for quite a few years, which may have kept some dealers away. Even though there was less to see, I did enjoy looking at the offerings presented by some great long time antique dealers, and managed to unearth a few wonderful bits of doll clothing and accessories.
On Sunday morning it was back to the Elephant’s Trunk Flea Market for my weekly antique fabric hunt. I shop all summer long, searching for enough antique fabrics to tide me over through the lean shopping months of winter. At times I feel like a busy squirrel, frantically burying seeds in every possible nook and cranny.  Needless to say, my studio is now piled high with stacks of tattered quilts, bits of lace, well worn linens and the surviving remnants of once beautiful antique garments. All of them waiting for me to gently take them apart, wash and air them, then fold them safely away and store them on the shelves in my studio, where they will wait until I bring them back to life as part of my dollmaking.
I promise to share photos of some of my best finds in upcoming posts. Until then I wish you all luck with your own summer treasure hunts!
I’m very pleased to announce that I have been juried into the Early American Life Directory of Traditional American Crafts for the 29th time! This year you will find me listed in the Toys & Dolls category of the directory.  “Thank you!” Early American Life staff and directory judges!
It was a very sad occasion last night when my faithful, ailing little laptop finally succumbed to the ravages of old age and died, somewhat peacefully. After a lengthy autopsy, my two IT authorities have declared that my laptop is in no danger of becoming a zombie and returning from the dead. I’ve ordered a new laptop that will be arriving late next week. In the mean time it will take me longer to answer emails and reply to comments, as I am having to beg, borrow and steal online time from some fiercely protective computer lovers who are almost constantly connected to their keyboards. If you should need to reach me with immediate questions about a purchase or class, please call me at 860-355-5709 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern Daylight Saving Time.
We returned last night from the most successful buying trip we’ve had at Brimfield, MA ( a town wide flea market/antique show comprised of 21 independent venue/field owners)  in years. In two days we were able to shop all of the fields, plus a great multi-dealer shop, go
to The Seraph and Angel House Designs to look for a new sofa and visit with our oldest son.
I found some wonderful fabrics and trims that I will be turning into clothing for my Izannahs in the upcoming months. During the warmer months of the year I spend several hours each week searching through estate sales, tag sales, flea markets and antique shops for the fabrics that I use to make my dolls, augmented by a few longer buying trips, in the hopes that I can stock pile enough antique textiles to last me through the winter.
This year the weather was much better on Friday and Saturday than the day we went last May. 
Even if I hadn’t bought a single item, the trip would have been worthwhile because of all the interesting things I got to see and the inspiration that they provided!
Some of our best purchases were the three full hides of glove leather (that I will be turning into many, many doll shoes) and three antique canning jars – all for $10 total. Then there were our great $1 buys, a grain painted side chair from the first quarter of the 19th century for me, a vintage Pepsi bottle for my husband, and three T-shirts for my son. My best fabric deal was undoubtedly when I scored a full bolt of very fine antique cotton sheeting, which is destined to become chemises, pantalettes and petticoats.  Since I was furniture shopping for myself, it was only fair that I did the same for my dolls. I bought some very nice doll size chairs and dressers, that I will be listing for sale in the future… and of course I did find just a few purple things for my house, seven transferware plates and a cache pot for the kitchen and an early lindsey-woolsey coverlet for our bedroom 🙂
Izannah Walker Journal 