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Moulded face cloth dolls |
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Moulded face dolls are made, as the name suggests, by pressing material
over a hard plastic, porcelain or clay mould of a doll face.
The material might be papier-mâché, or cloth soaked in a glue
solution. It is pressed against the outside of the doll head and
secured there until dry. It
is then removed, trimmed and painted, before it is fixed to the front of
the sewn and stuffed head of the cloth doll.
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| In 1873 Izannah obtained a U.S. patent for making rag
dolls. Her technique was to place several thicknesses of cotton or
other cheap cloth treated with glue or paste so that they will
adhere together and hold the shape impressed on them by the dies.
When these cloth forms are dry, a layer of cotton batting or other
soft filling is carefully laid over them covering the whole or the
head and neck portion only and then in turn covered with an external
layer of stockinette or similar webbing. The latter is then fastened
to the features of the cloth forms by stitches or paste and they are
then placed again in the press. They are tightly pressed together
and secured by sewing pasting or gluing their edges to each other.
Their faces and limbs are painted with oil paints.
Izannah Walker claimed in her patent that her dolls were 'easily kept clean' which she considered an important fact. The doll bodies were made of heavy cream sateen, were firmly stuffed and the joints sewn. Some dolls are barefooted and some have painted boots. Consequently, these dolls also have techniques similar to those for Columbian doll creation. Also Kathe Kruse and Norah Wellings dolls, for example, have moulded faces. |
IZANNAH
WALKER DOLLS
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Other techniques involve paperclay or other clay moulds which are then covered with stockinette material. |
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