Celeste: A Soft Doll

I thought I's show another of my early soft sculpture dolls.  This doll's name is Celeste.  She is a soft doll with a soft sculptured and painted face.  The limbs are jointed at the shoulders and hips by the button and thread method.  I painted her eyes and cheeks with acrylic paints. Due to the button joints, this doll is made for an older child that will not be pulling things apart or putting things in her mouth.

The cheeks are painted as round circles in a manner that reminds me of the Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy dolls I had as a child.  I loved those dolls with their simple faces. They were among my favorite toys.

The jointed limbs are sewn through the body of the doll using a long doll maker's needle.  Many people just use a heavy duty thread, but I think dental floss works better.  Dental floss is very strong.  That reminds me of something I read years ago in a magazine.  I think the magazine was Reader's Digest.  It was one of those little articles that they would put at the end of a story if they needed something to fill the page.  The story was that a floss making company found that Alaska purchased more dental floss than anywhere else in the country.  The company sent someone up to Alaska to find out why such a large amount of dental floss was used there because it might be useful in increasing sales in the rest of the country.  They were surprised at the answer, because it had nothing to do with the dental part of things.  The Alaskans were using it to repair their gear, boots, and clothing because the thread was very strong, waterproof, and inexpensive compared to other threads.  So, given that type of use, I decided that it would be an ideal for using on a doll.  It could stand some rough usage.  I felt that it could take some twisting and turning in case a young child ever accidentally got hold of it.

This brings to mind something I would like to say to people who are considering taking up doll making.  When you make a doll for someone, you need to consider how that doll will be used.  Toy dolls are different from Art dolls.  When you make a doll for a young child, the face should be embroidered on, not painted or have button eyes, noses, joints, or decorations.  Buttons can come off.  Young children should only have dolls with joints created with thread alone rather than the button joints used on this doll.  Also, some of the paints could have toxic components.  In theory, there are laws requiring that paints used on toys be free from toxins.  However, as we learned a couple of years ago, imported toys were testing positive for lead and cadmium.  People making dolls at home need to be aware of the potential for toxicity in paints.  Read the ASTM rating on the paints you are using.  Make sure that you are using paints that are safe for toys.

Regular readers know I have been going through a major plumbing problem, so I'll give an update on that situation.  I now have another large trench jack hammered through the concrete slab to reach the pipes of the washing machine this time.   The trench is about twelve feet long.  It goes under the wall and into the room which the slab was previously jack hammered up and the concrete repaired. We will be pouring the concrete to repair the new trench this weekend.  Unfortunately, it will further delay getting the work done in the master bedroom because we have to wait a minimum of 28 days before we can put flooring down on top of the concrete.  However, we are busy working on the other rooms affected, so at least we have something to do other than stare at the mess.  By the time we finish, the entire downstairs, with the exception of the bathroom,
will have been painted and had new flooring put down.  It was not the project we planned to be working on this spring.

At least we are starting to get a grip on the situation.  Now we will mostly be working on weekends.  I'm going to get back into my studio this week no matter what.   I just need to get back to a routine.  Until this happened, I was in my studio working the first thing every morning during the week.  That routine was totally thrown out the window due to the plumbing problem.