Paula Walton’s doll-making notes
I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, surrounded by family, friends, and the things you hold dear 
The little cloth dolls and I are back to work.
You can find us here:
www.asweetremembrance.com/…/izannah-walker…/
www.instagram.com/asweetremembrance/
Twixmas! Isn’t that a grand word? I read it the other day and thought that it was an incredibly apt way to describe these days in between Christmas and New Year’s Day.
The dolls and I had been planning a particularly special post for Christmas, but unfortunately we woke on December 24th to incredibly low temperatures and ice! The ice was actually on the inside of the studio windows!!! It was that cold! So regretfully our lovely Christmas greeting has been postponed until next Christmas…. Instead we are wishing you a happy, joyous, peaceful, wonderful Twixmas and sharing images of the infant pincushions that I made for my article in the December 2022 issue of Early American Life! https://www.ealonline.com/subscriptions/single_issue.php?id=2212
STUDIO HAPPENINGS ~
I realize that new releases of my reproduction Izannah Walker dolls have been few and far between lately. I have somehow fallen back into an unexpected spate of writing commitments. I used to write magazine articles rather frequently, but haven’t written any for a few years until recently. I’m currently in the midst of writing a fascinating two part article about a very special doll that I think you will love! The other exciting thing here in my studios is that I am part way through a rather challenging doll restoration. With all of these interesting projects happening at once, there hasn’t been much time left over to make dolls, but that will certainly change in the coming months, and I will get back to creating some very special reproduction Izzys. ❤
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I hope you enjoy looking through these images of my reproduction infant pincushion designs ❤ If you would like to try making some for yourself, directions and patterns are included in my Early American Life article Welcome Little Stranger.
Merry Twixmas!
Sunday, Saint Nicholas Eve
Dear Diary,
Today, once again, holiday preparations have been underway in the doll’s house. I can hear all of the sweet Izannah sisters chattering gaily, rushing around their house preparing everything just so on this 5th day of December. The dolls are clearly just as excited about this Christmas as they were about each of their very first ones, now more than a century and a half ago… This afternoon they cleaned and tidied their kitchen, adding boxwood sprigs to the mantle over the hearth. As dusk began to fall, they lit two candles on their Advent wreath, which they made using clippings from the garden and a great deal of madder dyed ribbon. Afterwards they carefully lined up their shoes by the fireplace so that Saint Nicholas could fill them with treats when he comes to call in the middle of the night…
Meanwhile, as the dolls have been keeping themselves well occupied, I have been steadily working away. Yesterday I painted deeper shades of color on the six new little doll sisters that I am slowly bringing to life. The poor dears are now in their “ugly duckling” phase, where I fear only a mother could love them. So gawky and awkward looking, with their inner beauty hidden away by translucent coats of streaky, uneven looking paint! It is a time for courage, and faith that everything will be alright in the end.
After all six were painted, I very quietly tip-toed out the door (so that I wouldn’t wake the napping little cloth girls) and walked through the farmyard to the sewing studio. I spent all the rest of Saturday sewing arm, after arm, after arm!
Today I was back to painting, and am happy to say that all of the new dolls are looking somewhat better with the addition of another coat of paint! They still need many more very then coats of their “flesh” tones before I will be able to start painting their features and hair, but such care is well worth the time involved.
I dared not step away from the doll’s house today, as I knew the sisters would be lighting candles! I hope to be able to trim and turn all of the many arms this evening, and perhaps I will even be able to stay awake long enough to begin stuffing and stitching a few fingers! Though I should try not to stay up too late, as the dolls will no doubt be up exceedingly early in the morning to see what Saint Nicholas has left them!
Until tomorrow dear diary…
It’s been a very busy Saturday here in the doll’s house. All the little cloth girls were up very early, excitedly chattering away about who they needed to take a May Basket to, what to put in the baskets, and most importantly ~ how to keep from being seen after they left the basket on the doorstep and knocked on the door!
First things first… Tilly Lamb, Sarah Alice and Izzybelle volunteered to arrange the flowers and fill the May Baskets. Little Izzybelle even offered to tuck in extra Happy May Day “wishes” from her big jar of dandelion wishes ❤
Some of the other girls decided to go out for a walk around the gardens and the farm to enjoy the bright sunny morning. On their walk they discovered quite a bit of new growth popping it’s heads up everywhere they looked! How exciting!!! Naturally when they saw that the seeds they had sown in the field last autumn were finally growing they knew that they would need to spend some time tending the field today too.
After their farm chores were finished, Charlcie, Tilly Lamb, Zanna, Isabeau, Ismay, Sarah Alice, and Izzybelle loaded their wheelbarrow with May Baskets and called to the dogs, so that they could finally go deliver the baskets to their dearest friends and neighbors.
At the end of the day the tired but happy little Izzys came back home to have the warm cozy supper that Eliza Jane, Isane, and Hannah stayed home to prepare…
Wishing you all a very Happy May Day, from the studios at Paula Walton’s A Sweet Remembrance ❤
The dolls and I have been busily snipping paper to make a few special love tokens for Valentine’s Day! Most were inspired by hand drawn 19th century paper dolls. I’ve always found little pencil or ink drawn antique paper dolls to be quite endearing ❤ Tiny cut out drawings, made to amuse a child, treasured and saved… precious bits of ephemera.
Visit my Valentine Pop-Up Shop Open Saturday, Februray 8th at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time at https://asweetremembrance.com/2020/02/08/valentine-pop-up-shop/ .
A small Pop~Up Shop to celebrate the New Year! Tomorrow, January 1st, here on http://www.izannahwalker.com at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. I will be posting some of my newly completed reproduction Izannah Walker dolls and a handful of antique dolls too!
My Izannah family and I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas! We’ve had a long, lovely Christmas celebration here in our snug old house. I hope your day has also been filled with Peace, Love, & Joy ❤
As a bedtime story tonight I am telling the little cloth girls the tale of how they all came to live here in this very old farmhouse in a small New England town…
… it all began Once Upon a Time, as all the very best stories do… Before I knew a single thing about this very old house, or this small little town…
The very first thing that happens in this story is a photograph, and in this photograph was a doll… What kind of doll you ask? That’s a very good question, and one I could not answer! So I searched and I searched, and I read about dolls… until at last I discovered the name of the woman who made the doll a long, long time ago. Can you guess who that was? I think you can… you no doubt know how the rest of the story goes too! So we’ll simply say that we wish you great happiness on this Christmas night ❤ ❤ ❤
Izannah Walker Journal 