Playing with dolls

Luckily, my fairies do okay at Juju sales.  Not GREAT, but enough that I can indulge myself in making more.  I do love crafting a sweet, winged sprite from a dilapidated doll no one wants. Friends have been passing along dollies that their customers haven’t picked up, so that I can play with feathers and lace to recreate the dolls into my winged girls.

This babe in blue has an ocean theme and is decked out in vintage seashell flower jewelry.

I use lots of different kinds of dolls, this pink petal girl was a storybook doll with open and closing eyes. But now, she has a different story.  

This one is porcelain, and is draped in French net lace.  Redoing her mostly meant cutting away her costume and adding lace, feathers, and flowers.  She was basically in good shape.  Some are not and often need major repairs.

 I collect odds and ends of legs and arms too, in case I come across a doll missing pieces.  I don’t try to be a doll doctor and put them back together as they were.  I just use a lot of glue to hold them in place.  Same with the clothing.  I’m not a seamstress, these dresses are fabricated with adhesive.

My very, very favorites are Nancy Anns. I love everything about these and try to save as much of their original look as I can.  This one even still had good hair.  It’s rare that I get to salvage the hairstyle.  Sometimes I can remake the locks by gluing the hair and adding flowers to cover bald spots.  Most often, I just pull it off and glue goats hair or dyed wool fluff over the heads.

This lilac dragonfly fairy has wool roving for hair.

This golden fairy’s hair is made from the goat hair “curly locks”.  Her wings are feathers painted gold and she has gold glitter polka dots on her gown.  I like to add vintage millinery to the back of each to embellish the wings.

Even if I use similar materials, no two turn out the same.  Each has her own, sweet personality.  And love them all.