Paula Walton’s doll-making notes
The dolls are all nestled together around a roaring fire. They are so glad that you came to join them tonight! This is the very last part of our all day celebration of Izannah Walker’s 197th birthday. If you missed the first two parts of our party you will want to scroll down or click here for part one and here for part two.
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Welcome to the birthday picnic that the dolls and I are hosting! This is part two of our day long celebration. If you missed trying Ismay’s legendary cinnamon toast and getting a chance to meet the dolls, you’ll want to click here to get caught up!
Later tonight (7 p.m. Eastern time) the dolls are having a sleep over and they hope you will come back to tuck them in bed! In between all of my Izannah Doll Making Class members will want to drop into the class site at 2 p.m. Eastern time for a few treats!
Now that breakfast is over and the dishes are all washed, it’s time to bake the birthday pies! All of the older dolls decided that pies would be a much better birthday desert after the unfortunate incident with Izzybelle and the icing the last time they baked a cake!!!
Isabeau is willing to share her pie crust recipe with you:
Mrs. Wolter’s No-fail Pie Crust
1 cup Crisco
3 cups flour
2 eeggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vinegar
4 -5 tablespoons cold water
1 teaspoon salt
Ina a large mixing bowl, cut Crisco into four with a pastry blender until small size peas form. Add eggs, vinegar, water and slat & mix with a fork until blended and dough forms a large ball, or use floured hands to mix dough. Makes three crusts.
Finally all the cooking is done and it’s time to go out to the picnic!
We hope you enjoyed the picnic! You can click on any of the smaller photos to enlarge them. Put on your coziest pj’s and come back tonight at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time for the doll’s slumber party 🙂
Izzybelle loved the excitement of the convention and getting to meet new friends!
These are some of Izzybelle’s favorite dolls that were on display in the competitive exhibits and special exhibits at the convention.
A very, very nice convention attendee brought two of Izzybelle’s cousins, a pair of post patent Izannah Walker dolls, down to meet Izzybelle and the rest of my dolls. It was amazing to get to see them in person!
Izzybelle and I had a fantastic time at the UFDC convention. We did have to say good bye to some of Izzybelle’s sisters, who found new homes, which made Izzy B. sad. However she brightened right up when she found out that Ismay was coming home with us to join our family ❤ ❤ ❤
It’s getting late and Izzybelle is up way past her bedtime, so she will have to tell you all about her adventures in Fredricksberg tomorrow!
You can see a fun video of the Artist’s Showcase at the convention that Turn of the Century Antiques posted on facebook by clicking here.
More photos of the convention can be seen on the UFDC’s facebook page.
*** 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.
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
Last week I added one more member to my Izannah Walker family. She came to me from Edyth O’Neill, a long time antique dealer and doll collector, who is renowned for her amazing hooked rug designs and folk art portraits and paintings. How could I resist bringing this small Texan back to New England, since it is a journey that I have made myself, with a few stops along the way. I was born in Amarillo, Texas, up in the panhandle of the state, quite a distance from Edyth’s home in Fredricksburg, and spent a lot of time during my childhood visiting relatives throughout Texas. Now this tiny kindred spirit and I are both snugly ensconced in an 18th century house, a mere 106 miles from Izannah Walker’s home in Central Falls, Rhode Island.
Edyth named this doll Patience. I have always had a special fondness for virtue names, so much so that I named one of our family cats Patience. She was part of our family for 16 years, all through my sons childhoods, and is something of a family legend. It’s turning out to be a bit confusing to have a second Patience in the house. We may need to fall back on family tradition and call her by her middle name instead, as my mother and her siblings were known, or her initials like my father and uncle. No matter what her name is, her sisters and I are over joyed to have her here.
I will need to spend some time making her a wardrobe, but in the mean time all of her sisters are happy to share theirs. They spent an hour this morning going through their trunks to see what they had that would fit her.
I’ve just posted more photographs from the day of the Early American Life photo shoot at our home last December. Several of the photos show my antique Izannah Walker dolls and my reproductions as well. Click here to see the photos at Paula Walton’s 18th Century Home Journal.
Earlier this week I purchased a small, humble, pre-patent Izannah Walker doll from Nancy Stronczek of American Beauty Dolls and Vintage Costume Jewelry. Coincidentally Nancy and I were both selling dolls at the Jenny Lind Doll Show last Sunday, but Nancy didn’t bring this Izannah to the show. I had no idea that we had even been in the same ball room for eight hours until Nancy pointed it out to me. Which just proves that I really was working and not shopping! A lovely display of vintage jewelery did catch my eye on my one quick circuit of the room and I’m pretty sure that if this tiny Izannah had been there, my internal Izannah radar would have guided me to her.
Coincidences aside, I am just happy to have found her at all, and our near meeting in Southbury will simply add one more footnote to the long story of this little doll’s life. As you can see she has been quite an adventuresome girl. Somewhere along the line she lost her arms and legs and had them replaced with Martha Chase limbs. Nancy speculates that this was done at the Martha Chase factory, as they offered “doll hospital” services there. For the past 35-40 years she has been packed away with a group of other dolls to keep her company. It is very probable that this doll has stayed in New England for her entire lifetime.
I just had to buy this doll. I felt like she was asking me to bring her home and take care of her. She needed someone who could look past all of her faults and sincerely love her just for what she is, without wishing she was something better or more beautiful. Seventeen years ago I saw another very bedraggled Izannah Walker doll for sale in Brimfield, MA. Most of her paint was gone, she was ripped, torn and grimy and I didn’t care a bit about any of that. My husband Brian was appalled! He simply could not believe that I would even consider paying $395.00 for a doll in that condition (I simply can’t believe she cost so little!). He talked me out of buying that doll, the very first Izannah I had ever seen in person, which I have regretted ever since. In the intervening years times have changed. Yesterday, when he first saw this little doll, he told me “I think you did good”. He is now more in tune with all things Izannah, whether he wants to be or not 🙂 , and the condition and price of this doll did not faze him in the least!
On Friday I spent a wonderful day at the home of Peggy Flavin, who is a very talented doll maker and good friend. I got to know Peggy last year when she attended my Izannah retreat and from the very first moment we met I felt like I had known her forever!
Visiting Peggy was such a treat and definitely one of the highlights of my year. This was the perfect season to drive up to Cape Ann, as the leaves are just starting to show their true glory. Autumn deepened the further north I went. However even a fall drive through New England can not compare to the joys of visiting a true kindred spirit. Not only does Peggy make and collect dolls, but she lives in a beautiful 18th century home. Every bit of her house is filled with wonderful treasures, remarkable details, and love.
An added pleasure of my visit to Peggy, was getting to meet and spend time with Edyth O’Neil, extraordinary rug hooker, antique dealer and doll collector. The three of us spent all afternoon talking about dolls, dolls and yet more dolls! Listening to Edyth brought back memories of my mother, aunts and grandmothers, as they all shared her soft Texas drawl and expressions. In the evening we had supper at the remarkably cozy pub that Peggy and her husband Dennis own. Both the food and the company were amazing.
On Saturday morning we were all up early, so that Peggy and Edyth could attend a meeting of the Doll Collectors of America and I could head to Sturbridge to pick up some of my furniture that Angel House has been reupholstering.
I had a splendid visit to Gloucester and can’t thank Peggy and Dennis enough for making me feel so welcome!
** Peggy and Edyth both have wonderful blogs. Peggy is just getting hers set up. What she has so far is excellent. Edyth’s blog is long standing and always an interesting read!
The girls and I are on our way to visit one of our favorite people, doll maker Peggy Flavin. We are looking forward to a fun day of dolls, antiques and old houses with Peggy and Edyth O’Neil!
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.
Izannah Walker Journal 