Despite all the everything, there will be five new dolls at Spring Min from me.
When I say new dolls I do mean absolutely new porcelain dolls that have gone through all the processes necessary to bring them to life. These are ceramic artefacts that are real heirlooms for your dolls’ house, in that the material they are made of and the traditional way in which they are made, but in miniature, will last for hundreds of years, I do not use dubious new materials or rely on glue, removable paint or anything else transitory. They are new in that each one started out as a sculpture or a collection of articulating sculpted parts that can move together and stand just as you do. Here they all are in one photo, standing on their own. They have not been glued to the floor, they stand because I build the balance in from the start.
From the ruler behind them you can see that these are twenty fourth scale or smaller. Three are dolls to be residents in your dolls’ house and two are to be dolls for your dolls.
Let’s look one by one.
Here is the lad. In real life he would be five feet tall, in 24th scale he is two and a half inches. He is a teenage boy. He is composed of fourteen pieces of porcelain internally jointed. As you can see, he can sit, he can point, he can move his head. How do you see him dressed? Do you see a mediaeval apprentice? Do you see a modern kid with a baseball cap on backwards?
Here is the toddler. This is the most articulated, internally jointed very small doll so far. He (or she) is composed of ten pieces of porcelain, at an inch and a quarter in porcelain, this small person is a toddler in 24th scale, or, if you have suddenly felt a need, a small baby in twelfth scale. He, she, or it can sit, stand and crawl. What era should this toddler live in? Is he a tiny Tudor?
Here is my new lady. I think she is gorgeous, though you may not be able to see it until she is dressed. She can sit, stand, do aerobics, turn her head and is only just under two and a half inches. That makes her a five foot woman, which many women were through history. Her face, which is easiest to see on the doll at the front, was inspired by Leonardo’s Mary, who I met in the Uffizi. She is fourteen pieces of porcelain and has bare feet, so she could live in a bedroom in night attire.
Those are the three new people. Below are the doll’s dolls. I have been making dolls’ dolls for a few years now and they are reasonably faithful to the real historic dolls they miniaturise. Both the dolls this time are recent.
The first is the jointed 1930s doll, which I have been making and shrinking for some time.
This doll is now down to one inch. Although the original was a 1930s doll, if you are not very particular about timing, this type of doll has been known throughout history. It is a simple head/body shape with arms and legs jointed by means of a hole through the body that will admit some form of stringing, whether wire, or, in some areas of the world, rope or string. This doll is one inch tall and looks good as a doll’s doll in twelfth scale and works as a larger doll in 24th scale.
Finally the one piece doll, the Frozen Charlotte. This has been a very long time in the making and is a nightmare to clean prior to firing. One slip of the scalpel, one over enthusiastic rub and it’s a dead doll in the bin. Why on earth would I want to make something as difficult? It is, of course, the historical aspect. There are quite a few of these one piece dolls surviving in museums that were made in large quantities, often by child slave labour, in Victorian factories. In large, because they are only one piece of porcelain and not quite as awful to rub down, they are cheaper to make. In a kiln, a doll of five parts takes up a lot of room. You can get about three one part dolls in the same amount of space. The hair and shoes were china painted, all that remained to make a saleable doll cheaply, was a bit of lace or gathered ribbon and there is the china doll most families could afford to buy from the pedlar’s tray.
She was called Frozen Charlotte because of a Victorian cautionary tale of proud Charlotte, who went for a sleigh ride without her shawl because she wanted everyone to see her pretty dress. Charlotte arrived at the end of the ride frozen solid. I have not been able to find out if the tale came before the doll or was invented to sell the doll, either way if you had said ‘Frozen Charlotte doll’ to any Victorian they would have known what you meant.
I may try to shrink Charlotte a bit further. The originals came in many sizes, quite a few had the legs welded together and the arms outstretched, often they were made of white glazed china. I didn’t weld the legs on my doll so that she would stand up. If I had welded the legs there would be a lot more dolls. I’m my own worst enemy, I really am.
Now it is over to you. I would like to know, if you are going to Spring Min and intend to collect one of these, how you would like a doll to be dressed. Does one of these dolls look like someone you have been looking for? Is this your housekeeper? Is this your Regency lady? Your Renaissance Mary?
There is no obligation if you do ask for a doll to be dressed, if you get to the show and the doll is not what you fancied after all. I ask because, as you can see, these dolls are difficult to make, it’s taken thirty three years, so there are not many of them. I would like to dress the doll you’d like for your house. Of course, because of they way they are made, you can dress and redress them, and so can your descendants. Do not confuse these with polymer clay dolls with the clothes stuck on, or dolls with wire bodies that have to be dressed right down to their wrists. These dolls will look as good as they do in the pictures, in very little clothing. They’ll look great in swimwear, or twenties off-the-shoulder dresses. They are just like you.
I know if you are coming to the show for the first time you’ll want to know how much. My ten part twenty fourth scale dolls are £25 dressed and these amazing fourteen part internally strung, articulated dolls will be £27, which, in a hundred years, will probably be the cost of a sandwich. (Aren’t you glad you’re living now?) I may make dolls with brushable hair, as I do in twelfth scale. These will cost a bit more if I decide to try, because each wig takes a day to make. It won’t be much more, it’s me, all my prices were fossilized, long ago.
To tell me your wishes simply click on the bit below where it says ‘leave a comment’. I will see you at the show. I have made a new box for these dolls to live in and I’ll put a sign on it saying ‘new dolls’ so you won’t have to look at all the one thousand things on the table to find them, though if you want to do so, please do. That is why I am going. Forty years ago, visiting Miniatura, I wanted a doll and could only find a few that all looked the same. I wanted a doll that looked like a doll, not like a person. In my world people were the problem, I thought the dolls’ house should have dolls in it, that looked like dolls and were art and were collectable and could be played with.
So I made them.
See you there.
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