Thursday, April 24, 2008

Girls' weekend:
Sophie and I take a doll-making class

Last weekend while Husband was gone on his dude ski/camp/hot spring trip to Mammoth, Sophie and I took a doll making class at a new studio near us, The Workshop. They have a lovely, inviting space with lots of natural light and offer all sorts of crafty classes. I knew Sophie would love doll making, but I was anticipating it would be something I would endure on her behalf. Surprise! I loved it, and I wasn't half bad at doll making. Who knew?

Much of the afternoon's success is owed to Ellen, our fabulous teacher who would have none of my claims that I am creatively impaired once removed from the kitchen. She patient with and encouraging to both of us.

We started off with pipe cleaners, winding colored embroidery thread around and around to make the limbs.


It's starting to look like a doll, isn't it? Ellen takes a very flexible approach to it all: things don't have to be done a single certain way, and if you mess up, there are lots of ways to fix things. Or you can just leave it as is because, as she pointed out, it's a doll. I like her philosophy.


I was worried though when we got to the next stage: dressing the doll, which Ellen claimed to be the fun part. Not really to someone who can hardly dress herself. But we had oodles of fabric, ribbon, buttons, rickrack (love that stuff) from which to choose, and I think I did alright. I made two: a flower fairy and a woodland fairy.

Sophie wanted to make an entire family and made a good start by producing the girl and the baby. We got to take some materials home so she can finish the dad and the mom. I don't think there is to be a brother. She did really well, following instructions and behaving well for three hours, especially considering it really was an adult class.

Thank you, Ellen, for a wonderful afternoon! We'll be back for more classes soon!

In the meantime, our dolls are happy in their new home and have been playing the garden.





7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. That is unbelievably cool.

Kate said...

How cool! I would love to do a class like that!

Trish said...

I love it! My DD would go nutso for these. How did you get the faces painted on so nicely?! And the clothes? Creative AND artistic.

BTW... when is your sewing class? I got the pincushion I won from the lovely L. this week so I'm starting to think of how I'll put it to use.

Vivian said...

Hello, Hello!
You might want to share with your readers:

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May 1 - 4
$20.00 OFF every pair of Bonanno's
4 ways to order:
On-Line: www.sbsandals.com
Toll Free: 866-313 FEET (3338)
Come into the Stuart Boutique @ 3 SW Osceola St. Downtown Stuart
Pre-Order to beat the crush
(all orders will go in the first day of the sale)

Happy Spring.
Vivian

Cindy said...

Trish: We used standard doll heads from Michael's. But we didn't like the color, so our teacher sanded them and them painted them with a glaze. The features showed through a little, so I could just draw over them. I think the secret is to use colored pencil rather than pen, which looks too harsh, or paint, which would be too difficult.

Vivian: Is it that time of year already?? Yahoo! A Bonanno post coming up soon.

Monica said...

How fun! My daughter would have loved that as well.

hqm said...

That looked like so much fun! My girls woul dhave LOVED that!