I have always loved wooden dolls. You probably already knew that, right? Anyway, Swiss Woodens are some of my favorites. I had a small one a few years ago, who turned out to be a twin to one a friend had. She eventually adopted her from me. So that was that and as much as I admired them, I never planned to get another.
Until I saw this face.........
Isn't she gorgeous!?! I tried to resist for as long as I could. She is perfect, except for one, not-so-small detail....she is missing her arms. Her price was really good, considering. And even though she was not a complete doll, I finally hit that buy-it-now button and soon she was home.
She seemed to whisper her name to me even before I made the decision to get her. Martine... Martine... Martine. I even dreamed about her! I love that she has lighter hair and blue eyes. Her carved hair is amazing! Her face so sweet. Those missing arms have become less important. But I made her some arms out of cloth to suffice until maybe one day we find some wooden arms for her, or have some carved for her. I think she is happy just to have arms again, even if they are not wood and very plain.
Her legs are jointed at the knee. I'm sure her arms were jointed at the elbows back when she had arms. We will never know how long Martine has been missing her original arms. I have to wonder why her arms were not saved? Misplaced, perhaps? She is 11.25 inches tall. This is the first larger child doll I have
ever seen in person. I love the smaller size dolls like this, but I
like her size too.
Here are a couple of pics showing more of her wonderful carved hair. You can see that her head is darker than the rest of her body. It was exposed to light and has darkened a bit, but the rest of her was protected by her clothing.
I'm still going through my doll clothes to see if I have some things that she can wear. Her original clothes are a little threadbare. The purple floral modern dress fits the 13" Effner Little Darling dolls. I was surprised that she could wear it. The dress in the photo above is an antique feedsack dress. These photos turned out awful, but I was in a hurry and the sunlight was not cooperating.
The pinafore is part of a Kish outfit for 12 inch dolls. It fits her well, but the dress that came with the pinafore has too tight elastic in the arms. The pinafore is a little longer than I'd like it to be, so I am considering hemming it a little to show a bit more of the pretty feedsack fabric. It has a row of lace at the bottom too, so I will have to remove it as well. Shoes are something else to think about in the near future.
Just because........another photo of her beautiful face and hair. I am completely smitten with her.
In other news, my granddaughter broke her leg this past Sunday. She was playing on a slip & slide. As you can imagine, she is in a lot of pain and not having much fun. We should know this Monday afternoon if she will have to have surgery or not. We are praying not. She has been through so much already, but know this could have been much worse. Please join me in praying for her complete healing and less pain. Thank you in advance!
I hope you all are well. Blessings to you!
6 comments:
Prayed for your grand-daughter.
Doll is about perfect! :)
Thank you, Aunt Lou! :o)
I like your new wooden doll--she has such a sweet face. I especially like how you have given her "temporary" arms. I think they look quite nice, and I'd be interested in seeing how you attached them to her wooden body. It's hard to tell from the photos, but did you paint them? If not, you could gesso and paint them to look more like wood, and then it would be hard to tell that they're not wood unless you felt them!
Thank you, Angela! I made the arms out of a white cotton fabric, and then I stuffed and painted them. Then I used a heavy, strong thread and a tiny button on each upper arm to run through the drilled arm hole a couple of times. Hubby held it all tight for me so I could tie a knot between the arm and the body, where the end would not show. So they are just basically string-jointed and the button just covers the holes where the needle went through. The buttons are not necessary,but look better than holes. LOL! Trying to get the right color is hard because the wood parts have oxidized differently. In person, the cloth arms look okay, but with the camera flash, you can tell just how different they all look. :o)
How clever! Personally, I think she looks very dear with her cloth arms. If you never find/make wooden arms, I think she still looks great!
Thanks Angela! :o)
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