Blog

Greetings to all my lovely doll friends... It's mid May and finally our weather here on Vancouver Island, has turned warmer and Sunny... well... it is overcast and rainy today... after all we are in a West Coast Rainforest here. :)

My goal for the Spring and Summer is always to get a lot of pouring done while there is less humidity in the air, for the whole coming year, however this year is different for me...

I am unable to do any pouring and this means no new heads for you and no new heads for me to work with for creating finished French Bebe dolls... I can only finish up what is already at the finished porcealain stage, with perhaps just the costume to complete.

I am going to try to finish the final layers of paint on the heads I have here that are half painted, but I have not attempted that since early February so I will have to see how it goes.

The injury to soft-tissue and tendons in my right hand and arm has not healed at all and I have done no pouring, greenware cleaning, sanding scrubing or painting since early in February....

I have done everything my Doctor recommended for this problem with no real result and now I am just beginning with a new treatement with lazer, and wearing a splint part time... I pray that this will stimulate the healing... I need to work not only for an income, but for the joy and mental health it brings me...

This is the time of year when I can have all the windows and doors open for the ventilation that is essential for when I work with gold paint, the only paint I use that gives off toxic fumes, so I go out when the kiln is firing gold.

Dolls are not all that I have made in porcelain. Over the years, I had more than twenty different Angels molds that were for Christmas decorations, jewellry or figurines, as well as some half dolls, and many of the lady dolls and other small items have gold paint on them. I have many of them made and ready to add the gold that is done in the final firing, so I really want to get those done this year... Some of them were poured ten years ago.

Yes, I have literally two hundred partly made dolls here and some were started fifteen years ago... then I just never finished them for one reason or another... Now is the time, when I cannot lift a mold to do any pouring, that I am looking to finish up these old projects... No matter what I do, It is very painful for me to use my hand, yet I must work on something, I am not the kind of person who can just sit around doing nothing productive. Creating is my life...

Many of the dolls that are partly made are modern dolls, babies and children, Antique reproduction lady dolls with molded hair, painted eyes, etc. I have Santa and his three elves from Kay McKee to finish and many of the Paul C. Jackson incredible dolls like Eve, Pru Pickles, Saphire, Tanzey and Odele... Jane Zidjunas little girls like Kallie, Elise, Georgia, Noel and May... all the sweetest little girls one could imagine.

I have Suzi and Puyi made and with costumes nearly finished ten years ago, yet they stand unfinished... Yes, I have plenty to go on with even if I don't pour for the next two years or more, but are these dolls anyone is interested in buying?

For the past ten years the French Bebe has been what my focus was on pretty much full time... making heads for sale and finished dolls for sale. I don't want to think this is the end of me making more new dolls, but right now, I just don't know...

At this point in time I wish so much I had an assistant to do the pouring for me and someone here to help with the costuming of all the dolls that I am unable to buy costumes for... Mary Lambeth's dressmaker, Shelby, will not make dresses without having one model of the doll in front of her, so it is impossible for me to get most of the dolls dressed by her. We live in different Countries so sending dolls back and forth is simply not practical, though I had new doll bodies sent to her recently, so there will be more new dolls as I am able to get the ones I have here dressed, photographed and listed.

I have dozens of finished small dolls to get dressed up, so I may have to try my hand at sewing again myself...something I have done very little of since closing my Teaching Studio nine years ago.... this means no porcelain work is done when I am sewing. At this point though, I am unable to sew either, as just cutting the cloth is more than my hand can do... Even this typing I am doing now is agony for me, but I felt it was time for an update for you all.

Please keep me in your prayers for a full recovery from this debilitating injury...

Many Blessings to everyone...

Emily