These two cocky characters are the Innkeeper and his wife, from Les Miserable's. These dolls marked a significant time in my learning about needle-sculpting and colouring faces, not to mention costuming and shoemaking!
It came about because I found a picture of the Innkeepers Wife in one of Suzanna O'Royans books called Fantastic Figures, in 2009 - not long after I began making dolls. I was taken with the pose and the expression, and wondered if I could copy it in cloth. So the head in velour is the one I made, and I got excited, because then I realised I could manipulate velour and make an expressive face!
I was not happy though, because even though as a face, it was quite successful, I wanted it to to be fuller. Then I stumbled across cotton lycra, and wondered if I did the same thing in that fabric, how it would turn out. These are the results of that experiment! Having made that face, I decided to go ahead and make the rest of it. Later, after much nagging from my friend Jeanne, I wrote the pattern.
It took a long time because I was also doing other study, but because Jeanne kept me at it, I took pics of the work in progress for her, so she would know I was still working on it! So it was my perseverance and Jeanne's persistence that kept up my motivation to create something I would have let go by the wayside!
How are you doing in Lockdown? Anything you are persevering or being persistant with? Do you need a friend like I had to nag you?
So grateful for the support of friends!
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